My name is Adolfo Artavia and I have just begun work as the sustainability coordinator at Lapa Rios Ecolodge.  I am a graduate of the EARTH University in Limon and graduated with a degree in agronomy.  I am extremely passionate about sustainability, and equally excited about beginning work with the Carbonera School.

On February 16, the students at the Carbonera School began classes.  Grace, the teacher who has been at the school for the past six years, has returned once again.  On this first day of classes, a total of 10 children attended classes: three children in the 1st grade, one child in the 2nd grade, one child in the 3rd grade, one child in the 4th  grade and four children in the 6th grade.  During this month, the school received five visitors from Lapa Rios Ecolodge, most of whom donated projects for the school.  The Alameda family, for example, donated a number of items for sports and recreation (they also made sure to play with the children as well).  The Ottori family also donated some educational materials, as well as a check for almost $500 that was raised by Steven Ottori´s school.  

On February 26th , we hosted a meeting with the schools´parents to discuss plans for the upcoming year.  We spoke about a number of ways in which we plan to collaborate with the Lapa Rios staff to ensure that education in the Carbonera School improves.  I look forward to working with the Carbonera School and see great projects in its future.

March 2009

In this month, Lapa Rios officially started to teach some of the classes in the Carbonera School.

On Tuesdays, one of the guides (Danilo, Edwin, Ulices or Alberto) teaches Environmental Education. On Thursdays, Marijke use to teach English. That is the same day that the “Carbonera School Tour” is offered at the lodge; because is a very good thing for the kids to practice their second language with native speakers. And on Fridays, Adolfo goes down to teach Physical Education.

On March 8th, the school did their first “Domingo Deportivo” (Soccer Sunday) for the community. Several teams of the Osa Peninsula attended the activity, participated and played some soccer. But the most important thing was that all the neighbors and visitors collaborate to raise some money for the school.  The teams that played that day were from: Agujas, Jiménez, La Balsa, Cañaza, El Ñeque and Carbonera. The families of the kids helped cooking and preparing food. Lapa Rios also supported this activity.

April 2009

The classes taught by Lapa Rios in the Carbonera School continued this month. On April 15th, Elena (Lapa Rios’ Operations Manager) joined us in the Physical Education class. This is one of the kid´s favorite lessons. Actually we were preparing the team for a Scholar Tournament that will be celebrating in May.

On April 21st, the kids came to a Twigs, Pigs and Garbage Tour (Sustainability Tour) at Lapa Rios. They learned a lot and at the same time got lots of fun. The tour started when they prepared their own tortilla. After that we visited the reception, the restaurant and bar and the kitchen. We stopped for a while in Lapa Rios’ small hydroponic project. There, they found out how to grow vegetables with no soil and with limited space. After that, we continued the tour down the gardens, pool, bungalows, the Chanchera (pigs place), and the Ranchito (staff cafeteria).
On April 29th, the Carbonera Shoool children had their dental held by a Puerto Jiménez’s doctor.  Lapa Rios offered its facilities for this purpose. Also, children from Rio Oro School and Piro School came to this important check.