Farewell Fiesta

Jenna and Zach will post their blog entry tomorrow morning before we leave for the Turtle Preserve but while we still had a good internet connection, we wanted to upload these pictures and videos from our farewell fiesta in Santa Maria de Dota. Marilyn, the coordinator from the Collegio of Santa Maria de Dota, organized a great evening for the students and their host families. We all enjoyed dinner, performances and dancing and were able to express our thanks.

Mrs. Bauer and Dr. Prinkey with the Santa Maria de Dota Collegio Coordinator, Marilyn.
Potomac students receiving thank you gifts from the students of Santa Maria de Dota.
We were entertained by students performing traditional dances.
Maggie delivered words of appreciation to our host families and Mauricio kindly translated.

Jenna's video of around town.

A video of the students enjoying themselves dancing with Costa Rican students at the farewell fiesta!

Potomac School students are coming home soon!

Message to Parents:
The group is returning on Sunday evening to Dulles International Airport. Below you will find the return flight information for your convenience.

COPA 4270 San Jose, Costa Rica - Panama City, Panama 3:13PM - 5:30PM
COPA 488 Panama City - Dulles 7:10PM - 12:51AM (July 6th)

Parents are asked to meet their sons and daughters at the airport. Please call the office at 303-679-3412 or e-mail Erin at erin@worldleadershipschool.com with any questions.

Teaching English

This video is from our English class today.

Chloe and Simone help set up webcams in the school's computer labJose poses with the freshly smoothed concrete that makes up one of our new drainage ditchesSome potomac girls work mix as much concrete as possible
Tori and Jenna work on smoothing the final layer of concrete for the sidewalk we've built.

Hola! Today's update is curtesy of Savannah and Grace :)

As we have been approaching the final days of our stay here in Santa Maria de Dota, we have been feeling the pressure to finish all of the numerous projects we have begun. After eight days of hard work, we've finally completed a sidewalk that connects two parts of the schools. We had tons of fun in an English class today reviewing vocab in creative ways such as song like 'the hokey pokey', 'head-shoulders-knees-and-toes' and playing 'simon says'. Also today we made a descions about how we will spend the extra money we raised. Since tomorrow is our last day at the school, we will be (hopefully) finishing tiling sinks and polishing off the extensive drainage systems we started. Everyone here says a huge hello to their families and friends - hope all is well!

much love!

Today we started wrapping up some of our projects at the school. We're putting the final coat of cement on the sidewalk and pouring cement for the drain. Tomorrow we will start tiling the sink. Most likely, everyone will have to mix cement tomorrow because we need about 15 more wheelbarrows-worth in order to complete the sidewalk by the drain. We just finished a tour of a coffee co-op here in Santa Maria, where they showed us the different stages of the coffee-making process. We then were able to see a barrista in the cafeteria make several different types of coffee (latte, mocha fria, espresso, cappuccino). We're having a great time! Stephanie and Jenna are the best leaders ever.

Monday

Hi there! your lovable children again. Yesterday, we continued our normal activities in the school. We worked on building a sidewalk and on fixing the drainage system. Also, some of the tourism industry students here prepared us a restaurant style lunch as their final exam. When the school day ended, after helping in some english classes, we played a little three team round robin soccer tournament in the municipal gym; sadly, only three Potomac School students participated as opposed to the many Costa Rican players. Although the PS team played against some older and better players we held our own and eventually won.

-- by the coolest cats in town, Robert and Mauricio

P.S our particular homestay has been great; there is no shortage of good food and amazing views. We're lucky to have such kind and offering homestay parents.

On Saturday morning all the students arrived at Parque National los Quetzales at 7 A.M. We divided up into two groups, each with two Costa Rican students and hiked a 2 mile trail. While hiking, the gruops stopped to help dig ditches on each side of the trail to help with water drainage and preservation of the trails. One group also helped create stairs in the hills to make hiking through the trail easier. At about 11 A.M., one group arrived at the bus with immense rain following after. The other group, unfortunately was still hiking back in the rain for another 45 minutes. After everybody got back to the bus, we drove back to Santa Maria de Dota and went to our respective houses.

-Stephen and John