The rest of the week went quickly. Tuesday our numbers at the English lessons increased dramatically to 21. Wed morning a group of us rode bikes to Playa Carillo a picturesque beach 7 kilometers south of Samara. We checked out the bridge at the southern end of the beach where the crocodile lives. But we didn’t see him. He has a name which escapes me at the moment. We swam, bought coconuts from the local woman who sells them for a dollar, and laid out in the sun.
On Thursday ten of us drove to deliver some shoes to "chinampas" a small remote village about ten kilometers from Samara but a world apart. This is where Costa Rica shows its third world card. I was told that many of its people had never been to Samara. The dirt road was treacherous with 500 foot hills with a pitch worthy of a black diamond ski run. The houses are more like shacks with tin roofs, and barbed fences. Someone remarked that most had satellite dishes. Cheap entertainment I told them. But since few had cars, I wondered how they earned money.
Laura , the owner of the school drove the girls from Crear and Claudia. We hired a taxi, a four door pickup and piled everyone else on.
The views at the top of the hills were impressive of the valleys of teak farms and the Pacific in the distance.
When we arrived a crowd was waiting for us at the community center.
We had no plan in place and we were misinformed as to the number of people expected so we didn't have enough shoes for everyone. We placed shoes out by size and let the younger ones choose first trying to fit them individually.
However the moms of the toddlers soon started grabbing shoes which opened the floodgates. We felt helpless.
We aren't sure how we're going to distribute the rest but we know we need to have a better plan in place.
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