Unexpected Communication

This blog was written by Izaiah Smith. Izaiah is a global navigator that is flexible and is always up for a challenge. Whether that is learning Spanish or meeting new people, Izaiah is a strong communicator. He pushes himself to grow as a life-long learner and to try new things outside his comfort zone.

Hello! My name is Izaiah Smith and I have been thoroughly enjoying this trip to Costa Rica I’ve been on for the past two weeks. Despite my intense fear of insects and lack of experience being away from home for this long, I’ve surprisingly been having a blast. This week we have mostly been working on our final projects in the mornings, and in the afternoons we’ve gotten to spend time with Costa Rican high school students.

Us being high schoolers from the United States, we got to experience first hand the differences in schooling institutions from where we live, compared to Costa Rica’s schools. Most of the local students even spoke a decent amount of English. Most of us spoke a decent amount of Spanish as well…except for me. We got to play games with students, which you’d think would be very difficult due to the language barrier, but through a lot of translations and non-verbal communication, we were able to play every game with every student on the same page. Initially, to be honest I was skeptical of why we were playing these games with the high schoolers in the first place. In my mind, I couldn’t see much deeper meaning in participating in these games other than just having fun. However, after discussing it with my peers, I realized the whole point of these exercises was to show how we could still work together and communicate with this group of kids who spoke an entirely different language who are from an entirely different country. After I realized that, it opened my eyes to what I had truly just experienced.

After spending hours playing games with Costa Rican high schoolers, honestly, I was tired. When I heard later that day we were going on a night hike, I was exhausted and I really just wanted to go to sleep. In hindsight, however, I don’t know what I was thinking. The night hike, honestly, was one of the highlights of this trip for me. Trekking through the forest we came across many interesting insects and animals endemic to Costa Rica. One important lesson our guide adamantly informed us about was the difference between crickets and katydids. While I could go into excruciating detail on the differences, all you need to know is crickets have flat backs and long antennae, while katydids have tented backs and shorter limbs. On our hike, we also encountered tarantulas, lizards, huge dung beetles, bats, stick bugs, and my personal favorite, leaf katydids. They're scientifically known as Phaneropterinae, but we’re just going to call them leaf katydids for today. Through the process of evolution and natural selection, these creatures have evolved to strongly resemble the leaves they crawl around on for camouflage purposes. How cool is that? My mind was absolutely blown at the fact that that could just happen. These creatures can just evolve to look like actual leaves, just like that? Nature can truly be fascinating at times. The dung beetle freaked me out because of its sheer size. Our guide nicknamed it, “the tank”. We also came across bioluminescent fungi, which in simpler terms are just fungi that glow. So during pitch-black nighttime in the forest without flashlights, you can spot these little fungi if you look hard enough (of course, after your eyes adjust). Oh, and I can’t forget about the tarantula. Tarantulas can be a little tricky to spot around this area, but we found one deep inside of a little dirt hole. It was one of those things in life I knew would be coming. Despite my aforementioned fear of insects and spiders, I knew eventually my path would cross with a tarantula one day or another. Just glad I got it over with sooner rather than later.

All-in-all, these past few days were amazing. I learned a lot about Costa Rican Schools, the culture, and the wildlife here. At the time of me writing this, I only have a handful of days left before I hop on a plane and say goodbye to this country. I can confidently say I truly enjoyed the time I’ve spent here. Thank you for reading.