Pura Vida, Pumas, and Living in the Mist

Whenever you move somewhere new, you have the incredible opportunity to experience strange and novel things.  This past weekend was the region's first-ever strawberry festival and ADE hosted a dessert-making competition, an eating competition, and a "strawberry war" (think paintball with rotten strawberries as ammunition) to raise money for the school.  It was really cool to see so many people from the community making food, selling trinkets, and having a great time.  The people here have rough, unglamorous lives, but still manage to celebrate living in the moment, express gratitude for all they have, and share themselves fully with others -- an attitude known in Costa Rica as "pura vida."

After my cultural immersion in the festival and my brush with a very beautiful outlook on life, I got to head over to La Paz Waterfall Gardens with some of the other ADE staff and some high school students that are here visiting from Pennsylvania.  The waterfalls were beautiful, but the best part was seeing the animals kept at the gardens - butterflies, frogs, hummingbirds, toucans, monkeys, pumas.  That afternoon, I not only got to hold a toucan, but I also got to touch and pet a puma on the nose.  Well, I found out later that I was only supposed to touch her on the back, but, thankfully, she must have liked the way my hand smelled, because I still have all my fingers.
Along with all the fresh and amazing experiences of living in a new place, though, there is also a lot of confusion and adjustment...and readjustment.  I'd say my morale is reaching a definite low point, in spite of being surrounded by the pura vida perspective and hobnobbing with pumas.  Living in the mist of the cloud forest means living amongst a whole lot of mold and dust, which, for me, translates into allergies and sinus pressure.

Metaphorically speaking, I feel like I'm stuck in the mist as well, trying to figure out what I can even do here, how I can help this organization even a little bit.  It's a bit hard to describe, but it feels like we are trying to create something out of nothing.  Doing anything here requires a huge amount of creativity, ingenuity, and boldness.  My "project" is to help figure out how they can transform their school (which is currently composed of a handful of teachers using a homeschooling curriculum and operating out of a community center) into a more established institution, public or private, next year.  I don't know who to talk to, what's feasible, or even what such a transformation would look like.

I hope I'll be able to figure something out...