Volunteer and Intern Voice: Learning to Lead

Written by various volunteers and interns at GVI Jalova

As part of the Leadership Course offered at Jalova base, activities and talks are lead by short-term interns and thoroughly enjoyed by all! Here are just a few of the latest events that have been planned, organised and lead by our Leadership Course participants:

Over the past month other volunteers and I have been lucky enough to learn from staff members about different animals in the tropical area I am now comfortable calling home.  This past Friday we were lucky enough to hear from a fellow volunteer some interesting facts about chameleons I never knew about.  Enthusiastic would be an understatement when it comes to describing how Elco, our wonderful speaker and breeder of chameleons, feels about the reptile that is known for their ability to change the pigment of their skin based mainly on their mood.  However, that is not the only interesting fact we were able to discover.  For instance I never knew their tongue is usually about two times the size of their body and without it they would likely not survive much longer than a week.  I also did not know the top of their head is shaped in a slanted way so they can drink water from leaflets since they actually do not drink standing water.  On top of that chameleons can add the shortest living reptile to their repertoire as well!  These are only a few facts our speaker touched on considering the discussion went for a little over an hour.  I did not know much about chameleons beforehand, and it is always nice to learn more about the animals that roam our jungles, especially from someone with mountains of knowledge on the subject.

-Peter, 3 month Volunteer

Elco imparting expert knowledge on chameleons to interested staff, interns and volunteers.

On Friday afternoon we all gathered in anticipation for the scavenger hunt that the short-term intern Suzy had prepared for her leadership project.  In two teams we set off in search of clues placed in and around camp, ending up with a re-triangulation on the beach to rescue our team coconuts! Sateesh made this quite a challenge by digging almost too deep for us to be able to use our bare hands. Clues found, it was back to base to complete tasks we had been set, including creating a basket from natural materials, protecting an egg for a great fall and taking snapshots of a primate (our fellow team member) and a turtle on the beach (not necessarily a real one). Ultimately the event culminated in a tiebreaker task; a team egg toss won by Team 2! All in all a very fun afternoon, Suzy is awesome!

-Amy and Katie, 6 month Interns

Staff and interns digging for the final "treasure" during the scavenger hunt.

For the latest leadership activity, Elco had arranged a fishing competition. We prepared our own hand lines with bamboo and hooks and then we were ready to head down to the river mouth, which connects the ocean and the canals and where we normally can see crocodiles splashing around in the water or laying in the sand ready to hunt. We went out of the national park area and down to the water’s edge looking for the perfect spot to catch all the big fish. Everyone get totally wet and we had so much fun!

Unfortunately we didn’t catch any fish, but thank you Elco for this activity, it was really appreciated.

-Jenny, 1 month Volunteer

Volunteer and Intern Voice: Learning to Lead

Volunteer and Intern Voice: My favourite animal sighting at Jalova was....

Written by several volunteers and interns at Jalova

Another month has ended and we have sadly said goodbye to another group of volunteers. As they were leaving we asked them, and those staying on with us, to complete the sentence “My favourite animal sighting at Jalova was….”. Here are their responses:

Kathy, the most perfect Leatherback Turtle. We met on a moonlit night when the air was right, looked into each other’s eyes and we bonded tight. We will meet again one night.

-Max, 6 month Intern

The Grey Four-Eyed Opossum found hiding in a bag in the kitchen, looking dazed and confused until we released it outside.

-Jan, 6 month Intern

Towards the end of a Biological Assessment Survey on the Juana Lopez Trail we thought we might be hearing Macaws. We waited and waited, and finally four Great Green Macaws flew over us. There were no photos but an amazing and rare sighting.

-Annie, 2 month Volunteer

A Leatherback Turtle, I forget her name, but she was working her prehistoric fins as hard as she could to sweep herself back to sea after a successful laying of her eggs in the moonlight.

-Pete, 3 month Volunteer

18 Mississipi Kites on migration taking a break in a tree early one morning on canal bird survey. A surprising find and a beautiful sighting of these graceful birds!

-Julia, 1 month Volunteer

Seeing four Great Green Macaws fly over after not being sure whether we were hearing Macaws or Spider Monkeys. It was amazing to see these marvellous birds fly overhead.

-Katie, 6 month Intern

When I found my first Red-Eyed Treefrog sleeping on a big leaf. It was the cutest frog ever! Finally she woke up and showed her beautiful red amazing eyes

-Jenny, 1 month Intern

The iconic Red-Eyed Treefrog spotted on an evening forest walk near our base.

Seeing all the three monkey species: White-Throated Capuchins, Central American Spider Monkeys and Mantled Howler Monkeys. Since I have a background in primates, this was pretty amazing for me.

-Amy, 6 month Intern

Spotting a flock of Great Green Macaws on my last survey. It was amazing! Seeing them fly over just blew my mind. However, I can’t leave out the fifty-eight Eyelash Palm Pitvipers I’ve seen, including every different colour morph. Jalova is just so beautiful, it’s like my second home!

-Elco, 2 month Volunteer
 

Too difficult to pick! Trying to think of just one favourite sighting at Jalova is so hard. There are so many new animals I have seen here from snakes on base to turtles on the beach. Yet one of the most unexpected was on our way to the Juana Lopez Trail when a Northern Tamandua ran across the path in front of us and up a nearby tree. We had such a great sighting of it as it sped up the tree and I actually managed to get a good picture! One thing I’ve definitely noticed about the animals her at Jalova is that they always appear when you’re least expecting it….

-Suzy, 2 month Volunteer

A Northern Tamandua after it's mad dash back up into the treetops.

Volunteer and Intern Voice: My favourite animal sighting at Jalova was....

Staff Voice - Let's Go Fly A Kite

Written by Nick Herrick - GVI Quepos Programs Manager

Never outside of Mary Poppins have I seen so many kites in one place. There were big kites, small kites, square round and triangular kites, brightly coloured and pale pastel kites, kites with tails and without, kites so high that they don’t even show up on the photos I was taking. One thing all of them had in common was that people were holding them and enjoying them. People who had spent time and effort making them and were now reaping the benefits. As I stood taking in the sheer number and variety in front of me one of the younger boys from the community asked me whether I had a kite. I replied that I didn’t. Did I know how to fly one? Once again I did not. “Why?” was his question. “They are so much fun!” At least that is what I chose to understand as this conversation took place in Spanish and I am a beginner to say the least, but the point seemed clear. Why would you not take the opportunity to do something as simple and wholesomely fun as flying a kite? And what better way to bring a community together than the annual kite festival? 

I would like to thank El Cocal Primary School for a wonderful weekend that helped me to better understand the community I work in. Working in disadvantaged communities can be a wonderful experience but when you only work Monday to Friday you tend to see those communities in a different light. So often it is the substance abuse, the unemployment and the lack of education that are highlighted. It was a delight to see so many people brought together and enjoying themselves as families and as a community, and it was a privilege to be a part of it.

Staff Voice - Let's Go Fly A Kite

Intern Voice: Cleaning up our act

-Written by Max, Jan and Kyle, 6 month interns

In celebration of Earth Day, our GVI team cleaned up a three mile stretch of beach in front of our base at Jalova. Despite Tortuguero being an otherwise pristine national park, a copious amount of rubbish spews forth from the nearby estuary and washes up on the shore. The result is not only unpleasant to look upon, but presents a dangerous obstacle for the wildlife of the park, especially the nesting turtles. In collaboration with the local rangers with their quad-bike and trailer (which were a godsend), we managed to fill 29 bags of trash that weighed over 400lbs in total.

Staff and volunteers were grateful for the help of the rangers and their quadbike.

Plastic bottles comprised most of our haul, but more exotic items included everything from fridges, a car bonnet, to an entire boat! It was an exhausting effort, requiring nearly 60 man-hours of work in sweltering heat. Despite the arduous effort, it was immensely rewarding when we finished to see the difference we had made to the beach. The rubbish will now be taken to Tortuguero town, where it will be sorted and recycled. The beach is now a much cleaner place for the volunteers and staff, the shore birds, and the nesting turtles, both when the mature females come to lay eggs and when their offspring hatch and make their dash back down to the sea.

I hope we can inspire all readers to celebrate Earth Day in their own way. Either conserve on your power usage or go out and clean up your surrounding area. It would mean a lot to the community and do some good for the environment. Happy Earth Day!

Volunteers clearing the beach often used by jaguars (look carefully and see the prints!)

Intern Voice: Cleaning up our act

Intern Voice - Verbs, Nouns and Salsa Dancing

Written by Rhiannan Davies - GVI Quepos Intern

It is widely recognised that language barriers can be the most difficult, frustrating, exasperating, yet incredibly hilarious things to overcome. My first week in Costa Rica has more than confirmed that statement. Some examples? The first time ordering a sandwich here saw the waitress and I debating for half an hour on whether or not I wanted chicken involved. Not being able to express with her clearly that I am a vegetarian, and having chicken in my sandwich would probably spoil the remainder of my day, I relied on the kindness of a conveniently bilingual stranger in the large queue formed behind me to convey the order on my behalf. From then, my first word in Spanish became, “vegetariano”, or; “veh-hee-tah-ree-ah-no”.

The initial visit to Casa Del Sol (the community centre in El Cocal where we volunteer) exhibited similar difficulty for the children. By the end of the day, a male volunteer was being referred to as Jasmine, and he has been subject to ridicule ever since. My advice to volunteers heading to Quepos; if your name is longer than one or two syllables, come up with a simple nickname prior to your arrival.

 

One of the most beautiful aspects of this program is the concept that we are not just teaching the children – they are teaching us in return. The fact that we are playing with and giving attention to them is enough, and as a result they are very patient when it comes to communication and can express their desires through an impressive amount of non-verbals. However, I do understand that I cannot get through my internship here by running around shouting, “vegetariano” at the children. Thus, the twenty hours of Spanish lessons we receive through GVI, along with the admirable patience of teachers Carlos and Runia are beyond helpful. From verbs and nouns, to salsa dancing; the classes both enlighten and involve you in not only the language but the culture as well.

Whilst for now the language barriers seem to remain prosperous, these classes make the wearing down of this metaphoric wall inevitable, and I could not be more eager and excited to get to know the children of El Cocal more than I feel I already do.

Intern Voice - Verbs, Nouns and Salsa Dancing

Volunteer Voice - What we take for granted

Written by Justine Blair – GVI Quepos Community Volunteer

As I look back on the blur that was my first week, I realize life may get better than this, but I have yet to find where. In between the time spent goofing off (educationally of course) with the kids at the community center, afternoons of surfing and lying on the beach, it’s no wonder this first week and a half have gone by so fast. We were a large group to arrive last week, and the incredible heat left us all in puddles of sweat, which I think contributed to the bonding experience. That and laughing at each other’s broken Spanish has been a great aid in making it feel like a second family. The Spanish classes are an incredible help in bettering my communicating skills with the children, as well as being incredibly fun. Our classroom can be anything from a supermarket to an incredibly beautiful viewpoint. The classes itself are often interrupted by dancing sessions with Carlos, the teacher. I am hopeless in that department, so he usually gives up quite quickly, with a disappointed sigh and a shaking head. However, I have become much better at drinking the Costa Rican coffee, which he essentially shoves down my throat. 

As I am writing this, a thunderstorm has started, and rain is pouring down heavily. As I gush about how excited I am to be wearing a sweater for the first time in ages, and my housemates hide under the table for ‘cover’, we all have a thought for the people we see everyday at El Cocal. What for us is an excuse to huddle together and exclaim at the sheer strength of mother nature, is probably an entirely different experience for these kids who do not all have an adequate home to hide from the rain. A reminder that we didn’t come here only for the beach and the cervezas, but to open our eyes to the reality of the lives of people who have so little of what we take for granted. Our tan lines will surely fade, but the memories made everyday will undoubtedly remain.

Volunteer Voice - What we take for granted