I am International Participant for NYA. International participants travel as a group to a foreign country to contribute to a local volunteer initiative, build career skills, increase independence, acquire new knowledge and experiences, and exchange culture with local indigenous populations.
I’ve been in Costa Rica for about 2 and a half weeks. I went to Cirenas for 6 days with my group. While we were in Cirenas we did some activities like permaculture, planting trees, beach cleanup, turtle patrol, hiking and horseback riding. I enjoyed the activities I did in Cirenas, especially the planting trees and horseback riding and we went to the beach a couple times. I did horseback ride for the first time here in Costa Rica, at first, I felt nervous and scared than I felt relaxed and comfortable cause we had 2 leaders that looked out for us (groups), it was so much fun I would like to go horseback riding again someday. I tried new some foods and fruits, I tried fresh coconut and papaya for the first time and the most delicious is fresh pineapple. I also have seen some animals I never saw before such as howling monkey, crabs, hourglass tree frog, huge moth, bat, and gecko. There are so many volunteers in the world that go to Cirenas couple days or weeks to learn new cultures, language, global citizenship and gain new experience. You can also volunteer or work somewhere in the world and there are so many programs that you can try.
My group and I came back to Santa Ana on Monday July 15th right after we got back to Santa Ana, in the evening we went to Walmart to shop a little for ourselves or to family. So far, we’ve started an Agent of Change workshop, Spanish class and done some activities. Agent of Change means a person from inside or outside the organization who helps an organization transform itself by focusing on such as matters as organizational effectiveness, improvement and development. The focus is on the people in the organization and their interactions. I’ve learned a lot about agents of change.
We went to the Canadian Embassy to present about NYA, my territory (Nunavut) culture, language and ourselves. I present about a little bit of my community and I present about 24 hours of darkness and daylight in Nunavut. People enjoyed our presentation and asking questions, there were like 15 people they enjoyed the most was the Inuktitut syllabic and they were amazed. After the Canadian Embassy we did our first Spanish class, the Spanish class is kind of difficult for me but it’s fun to learn. On Saturday July 20, as a group we went to the organic market and souvenir market I bought some few souvenirs to bring home from Costa Rica there’s like so many people at the market and we walked like 12 km. I was tired but I had a great time.
Costa Rica is a little bit similar to back home like people have so much respect to elders and help them that’s what I seen couple times in public.
Costa Rica is a beautiful country, it’s once in a lifetime to see Costa Rica maybe for me but I would love to go back in the future. I’m happy to take this amazing program. I’m learning so much new things such as different culture, language, global citizenship, public speaking (presentation), new skills and gain for experiences. My group leaders are awesome, they help us whenever we need help. Here’s one quote that I like to share with you “we live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open” by Jawaharial Nehru. There’re so many opportunities in the world, if you have your chance to take your opportunity, take it. Thanks to NYA for this opportunity.
