After my few days back in the Netherlands it was already my last week at the project. It was a nice close-up. I’d bought a flour puzzle and I brought some balloons. We had a fun last day and I hugged them a lot. I never really thought that I liked young kids but as of the first day I was totally crazy about them. They were so cute, especially all with those big brown eyes. I would never do something like this for work but I enjoyed it way more then I imagined.

With the girls I planned something special. During our lessons we’ve practiced 3 conversations which you could have in different shops: clothes shop, drug store and fruit/vegetable market. During the last lesson we did the “shopping-game”. I bought some things of all 3 different shops. The different dialogues we’ve practiced helped them to “buy” the stuff from each other. They could keep the things afterwards. The next day the girls had a trip planned to the beach and asked me to join. We had a nice day at the beach together and afterwards I was a bit sad to leave.

After saying goodbye to everyone in Granada Hannah and I took the boat from Granada to San Carlos (14 hours). This seemed like a cool plan at first but I can’t recommend doing it. Almost everyone at the boat got very nauseous and some people had to throw up. Luckily we managed to sleep most of the trip but we were glad when we arrived. In San Carlos we found out that things would not really work out the way we planned to. By now we should have known that you can never trust a published or told schedule of any public transport around here. We went (again) by boat to Isla Solentiname, which was described as a very artistic place. In reality it was just a small island with a few houses and 1 shop with some wooden arts. The next day we took another boat to El Castillo. We arrived in pouring rain and decided to first go for a late lunch before visiting the castle. When the rain had stopped and we got up to the castle it was already closed. That night we both got very very sick. Probably there was something wrong with our lunch. All by all this was not a very successful last weekend in Nicaragua but we still saw some nice things and had fun.

The last 2 weeks I stayed at the farm Villas Mastatal in Costa Rica. The farm is situated in de middle of nowhere in the rainforest. The views were stunningly beautiful and the whole place and the people were great. There were constantly about 10-15 volunteers and we all got along very well. In the morning we worked on the farm: (re-)planting beans, banana trees, corn and other stuff, building a greenhouse and a bus stop. All our meals consisted mostly of food from the farm. If you had cooking-duty you could be picking the same food you’ve been planting in the morning. Everything tastes just a bit better if you freshly pick it and are involved in the growing process. In the afternoons we went for walks into the National Park in which the finca was located, and went swimming in the several waterfalls. Further we just relaxed all together, made a bonfire, had movienights etc.

In the weekend I went with Wren and Lauren to Manual Antonio, a National Park which is quite famous for tourists to go. We had a great time here relaxing at the beach and spotted a lot of wildlife: monkeys, deer, crabs, bats, raccoons, agoutis, iguanas, sloth. We even had a fight with one of the monkeys because he tried to steel Laurens bag.

Right now I am in Panama City and my last month here in Latin America has started. This afternoon I’m gonna pick Jesper up from the airport and our trip together will begin. I’m really looking forward to it. And hopefully we can have a great party in Bocas del Toro when he gets his final results.

P.S. Thanks a lot to everyone who contributed to my founding for the project. I’ve bought a lot of stuff like: computer, internet, printer (so that they can study English on their own), mixer, radio, clothes, toiletries, diapers, towels, toys, fruits and of course all materials for the English classes. They were very grateful for it so thank you!!