Adios Costa Rica
Well adios Costa Rica, wish I could say I’m super sad to go but I cannot. It was definitely a learning experience but not really fun and far from a vacation. My overall experience with the people (not all but a lot) was meh, at best.
All said and done I believe my trip was of course my journey but it was more than that. A time to heal, it was definitely a time for me to go within and do some soul searching and basically figure my shit out.
I went looking for answers to my life purpose and soul mission. It forced me to be isolated on more than one occasion. And I mean isolated.
But it was what needed to be done because had I not been sick and forced to be confined to my room I wouldn’t have done the work. But because I did do the work I was rewarded with the answers, and boy did I get my answers.
Another reason I believe I was there was to put stuff on blast, if you will. I’m not trying to bring anybody down but I do find it important for people to know the truth about anything and everything. When I had decided to do the volunteer program with IVHQ my dad of course was concerned, it’s a lot of money and it’s taking me out of the country.
With that said, he searched high and low for reviews and could only find ONE bad review. Kudos to him cause I didn’t find it and after speaking with many other volunteers they didn’t either.
The first unbeknownst to me when it came to my volunteer program was that upon arrival it was no longer IVHQ but instead Maximo Nivel. While they are a volunteer program, they’re Spanish lessons first and foremost. Expensive lessons to boot.
“I signed up under the impression I would be working with special needs.”
I was disappointed with the overall program so while I started this blog for friends and family I’m gonna take the opportunity to be honest with people who are also considering doing the program. Somehow (wink wink) all the bad reviews disappeared painting this picture that everything is perfect. Um, no.
I signed up under the impression I would be working with special needs. I mean, that was the one of the main reasons I was going and was super excited about it. Well come to find out, and basically after a week of doing nothing at this church I was sent to, “Oh because of COVID, there is no special needs.”
I’m sorry what, why didn’t I get that memo? And before I spent $2000 on program fees TO work with special needs. Which is pretty oxymoron when you think about it, who pays to volunteer lol?
And I get it, COVID literally fucked up EVERTYHING but don’t you think it would’ve been nice to have known that before I signed on the dotted line, cause I’ll be honest, I probably would’ve done something different.
But whatever, it is what it is and I’m here so I’ll make the best of it.
My first week was challenging to say the least with the unfamiliarity of being out my country, and issues with money and not having access to it for banking reasons, and of course the language barrier was probably the hardest. I don’t really have much beef to say about the lessons, other than they’re ridiculously expensive, you can find other options for way less.
But anyway, as far as those went you’re gonna get out what you put in and most of your success is whether or not the time and effort was put in it. I did in the beginning but then lost the desire as the first bad taste of people was put in my mouth.
“Know what that’s called? Karma.”
My host family on the surface in San Jose seems pretty picture perfect. And I’m not here to drag anybody through the mud so I’ll just stick to the facts. I was taken advantage of, money wise, and three different times. Granted I am partly to blame with my naïve, never been outta the country and put way too much trust in everybody, ass.
And I did roll in there with my new haircut (thanks Nicole Brown Wisp & Willow Salon) and my acrylic nails lookin all nice like I’ve got money. I don’t, but you know what, I do like to look nice and we just had my moms celebration two days ago so those nails were for her.
Anyway, they took advantage and that didn’t sit well with me. So when they pocketed a coin my mom had left me I was done. Wouldn’t you know it though, the next day they had a nice water leak from the upstairs bathroom.
Know what that’s called? Karma. And she can be a bitch and right now I’m grateful she’s got my back. I left for Manuel Antonio with a smile.
Only to be taken advantage of again by my host mom there. Like WTF, why is it so hard for people to do the right fucking thing? Seriously. When I initially got sick my first round of blood work was $40 and I paid in cash. Bad move.
When it came time for my results, which I was supposed to receive the following day via email, they went to my host mom instead. I did give them permission so whatever. But when they couldn’t provide the actual documentation it became clear to me that my cash went somewhere else, and it wasn’t until the third day of bitching about it I received results stating that it WASN’T Denge.
Wait, what? well if it’s not Denge, what the hell is it? I I had gotten better so whatever, move forward. And it wasn’t until I got REALLY sick, this time with a fever and couldn’t even use the bathroom by myself that I had round two of lab work done (paid by cc this time) we found out it was a gnarly bladder infection.
And you know I didn’t say anything really cause I still have to live there but boy did she show some true colors. I had gotten better right around my bday but apparently she had told the house guests I may have COVID and keep their distance from me, or some shit like that.
So while it’s tradition to do cake and whatnot on peoples bday, I got nothing. Which is fine, I’m 46, I don’t need bells and whistles, but it did hurt my feelings and made me feel even more isolated after spending the last 10 days already confined to my room.
“Boy did she show some true colors.”
It’s cool though, what’s her face had my back, cause no sooner did I leave (early cause I had received my answers) they shut down the volunteer program and school with 12 confirmed COVID cases and half from my house. Know what she’s called? Course we do.
I won’t even go into the story of how I watched a grown man put my ring into his pocket at the pool where he’d brought his two young sons. I was like really? Really? The ring was far from real and missing a stone, but that’s besides the point. But I let it go.
The old me would’ve called him out him in front everybody, and not in a nice way, but you know what, I’m really making changes here and for the third time here In Costa I didn’t let my emotions run my actions so I let it go. Have you met my friend Karma? lol
So yeah, how are the people in Costa Rica you ask? Meh.
Back to the program. Now that I’ve switched locations I’ve agreed to do daycare. Only it isn’t daycare per se. It’s children of all ages who weren’t getting any education (“COVID”) so we were asked to teach them English.
Which would’ve been fine but there were too many volunteers and the whole thing was really unorganized. AND Maximo Nivel is known for their TEFL (teaching ESL) program so why are we doing for free what you educate people to do?
Things that make you go hmm. So I switched to animals, which was the most rewarding of all of ’em but that lasted two days and that’s when I got really sick. I was just disappointed with a lot between the people, the program and the withholding of information on a lot of shit.
And I think what bothers me the most about it, and I did say something to the main guy in San Jose, was how it reminded me of why I really don’t care for my own country these days. While there’s a plethora of reasons, one of the main ones is the money hungry Corporate America we don’t give a shit about people anymore attitude.
Every time I turned around I was being nickeled and dimed to death for this that and the other. I swear my karmic debt has to be paid off by now cause everything I used to do to my parents has shown it’s face in some which way shape or form in the past 20 years.
So yeah the way I see it, I’m good.
Would I do it again? Maybe. But I wouldn’t sign up for 7 weeks. I’d sign up for less than that that way if I wasn’t happy I could bounce and if I wanted to stay longer I could. But you live and you learn and since my last 14 months have been a crash course in life lessons, why would this experience be any different?
I’m not saying don’t do it, I’m just saying do your homework. And make sure you take extra money for the all the little things that add up. The one thing that bothered me the most was the to and from transportation fees you’re responsible for when going to your program.
At one point I was paying bus fair to the program (both ways of course) and the bus fair to school (both ways again). That’s bus fair four times in one day, and that’s not counting if you just wanted to go out after, so that’s however many times five days a week. Granted it’s not gonna break your bank in one week, maybe for some it would, but that shit adds up.
I ended up leaving the program early cause I had gotten what I came for and quite frankly, I was over it. Deuces. They offered me a credit but I’m not gonna hold my breath and don’t really see me returning to the program in the future anyway.
“Things that make you go hmm…”
That’s another thing that bothered me. Zero refunds on anything. No refunds, no exceptions, no nothing. I don’t know, to me that speaks for itself. You’re not confident enough in your program, you have to put in the small, super small, fine print that you’ll never see the pretty penny that we managed to squeeze from you for VOLUNTEERING .
Puts a whole new perspective on companies that do offer things like 100% guaranteed or your money back. You don’t even have to go that far, but to say zero money back we don’t care why you want it back cause you’ll never see it, seems a bit dodgy. That’s all I’ve got to say about that.
I will say this though, and I’ll end on a good note for Maximo Nivel, because I know the people I’m dealing with on a daily aren’t the people sitting at the oval desks making all the decisions when chances are they’ve never set foot on the premises but love telling everybody how to run it and what works best. Corporate…pffft.
Anyway, I do not know his name but I do believe he’s the owner in Manuel Antonio. One night we were all doing dinner when two, who looked like another set of volunteers, joined us. Turns out they were hitch hiking (it was Semana Santa, or holy week, which is Easter essentially) because they couldn’t find anywhere in town to sleep cause everything was sold out.
So he picked them up and brought them over to the house so they could get something to eat and be safe for the night. I was pleasantly surprised and meant it when I said I really wanted to shake this guys hand because it (temporarily) restored my faith in humanity.
But sadly never got the chance.
— Melissa Parker
— Your Friendly Neighborhood Fearless Leader