When I arrived in the Dominican Republic in 1974 to teach, I was able to get around pretty well with public transportation. To get to school and back, the school provided a van that picked up the teachers each morning. However, after two years, the school decided to leave the transportation to and from school to the teachers. That was a bit of a hassle. A motorcycle seemed the answer. I wished that I could afford to buy a car,…
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In 1974 I moved to the Dominican Republic to teach in a school. However, my presence there was under the guidance of the Free Methodist Church so being a part of the church was an expected part of my responsibilities there. It was in the church that I really encountered much of the cultural challenges that I had in the country. While teaching I worked mostly with American adults. At the church I was with Dominicans. I had much to…
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I went to the Dominican Republic in 1974 to teach. Santiago Christian School (SCS) hired me to teach 5th and 6th grades. The school was an English speaking school that had been started to teach the children of missionaries in the area. However, over time that focus expanded, and the school admitted anyone who wanted instruction in English. It became an international school while maintaining its Christian perspective. The students at the school came from a number of different backgrounds.…
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In 1974 I moved to the Dominican Republic. I lived there for almost four years. The journey began when I graduated from college in 1973. I had a teaching degree but so did a lot of other Baby Boomers. Finding a teaching job was tough. I ended up subbing that first year out of college. What I really wanted to do was teach overseas, but every school I looked at wanted teaching experience which I obviously didn’t have. One day…
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Photo taken in Haiti c. 1976
Costa Rica has been quite the adventure. We zipped over the jungle in Monteverde and rode the rapids in La Fortuna. A night walk was part of the agenda in our glamping site in Sarapiqui. Later we watched a turtle lay eggs in Tortuguero. Now we were headed to our final destination, Puerto Viejo. It was a rainy morning for our hour long boat ride back to the main road from Tortuguero. Because of the rain, they pulled the plastic…
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Having left our glamping site in Sarapiqui, Costa Rica, we headed out on a bus toward our next stop, Tortuguero. Unfortunately an accident on a narrow bridge stopped all traffic. After checking out the situation, our tour guide, Danny, told us we were to get out of our bus and start walking. Carrying all our luggage Danny led us across the bridge. There we saw a line of cars, buses, and vans waiting to cross the bridge from the other…
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It was a wet morning when we left La Fortuna. We got all our luggage in the bus and started the journey to Sarapiqui. On the way, we stopped at Mi Cafecito Coffee Cooperative to have a tour of their small coffee plantation. We had a very kind and knowledgeable guide who walked us through the steps of growing and harvesting coffee. While I expected to taste coffee during the tour, we instead tasted alcohol. Twice. I wasn’t complaining, but…
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It was another rainy morning when we loaded up the bus for our drive to La Fortuna. La Fortuna is known for the Arenal Volcano, hot springs, and other adrenaline activities. It has a bigger town center than Monteverde with ample restaurants, bars, and souvenir shops. La Fortuna also has a central square with a church where locals like to hang out. Our hotel was not directly in the downtown area, but it was only a short walk away. One…
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Last summer, summer of 2021, I had booked a trip to Costa Rica. Everyone I knew that had been to Costa Rica had nothing but wonderful things to say about it. It’s a country full of nature and adventure. However, Covid wasn’t done ruining my travel plans and to much disappointment, the trip was canceled. Now here we are, a year later, and I can finally say I’ve been to Costa Rica! Part of the appeal of the trip was…
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