Univ. of Alabama Students Venture off the Beaten Path

What images come to mind when you think of Costa Rica? Canopy tours through dense tropical rainforests? Surf breaks on pristine beaches? White-faced monkeys? Bright green tree frogs? What about indigenous peoples? Making up about 1% of the country’s population, it’s a group that is, more often than not, out of sight and out of mind for visitors and nationals alike.

There are eight different groups of indigenous people in Costa Rica. Most of them live on reserves in the most isolated areas of the country in some of the most impoverished conditions with little access to the resources that are abundant in the more developed parts of the country.

Recently, a group of honors students from the University of Alabama decided to plan a trip to Costa Rica as the culmination of a course that focused on Latin American culture. Going through the on-campus service-learning program, Alabama Action Abroad, and in partnership with Costa Rica Outward Bound School, a group of nine students set out for the small indigenous village of Amübri, Costa Rica.

Amübri is a village in the Talamanca Indigenous Reserve along the Costa Rican-Panamanian border. The people who live there are from the Bribri tribe. Loaded with school supplies, sporting equipment and an eagerness to participate in a unique intercultural exchange, the group of students from the University of Alabama crossed the Telire River in dugout canoes and entered a world that few ever get to experience.

The course´s purpose was to learn about the culture of the Bribri people while volunteering their services in the areas of youth and community development. Students helped to

• teach English with an interactive curriculum they prepared prior to arrival
• lead teachers and students in a field day
• donate school supplies
• work alongside locals to make improvements to the village’s athletic facilities by painting the basketball court and filling holes in the soccer field
• construct trashcans and placed them in strategic areas around the high school as part of an environmental project
• plant plaintains in the community garden

The cultural exchange was by no means one-sided. The University of Alabama students put forth effort to not only improve their Spanish, but to learn basic phrases in the native Bribri language in order to better communicate with the locals. They also learned about much of the mythology surrounding the Bribri culture, traditional songs and dances, and methods of gathering and preparing local foods.

After a few days sharing with the people of Amübri, the group bid farewell and left enriched with a better understanding and a greater appreciation of the Bribri people they had come to call friends. Not only did the students contribute to the development of this small community, they also played a role in the preservation of an endangered culture. Students went home with a sense of accomplishment and lessons they’ll carry with them for a lifetime. The trip is perhaps best summed up in the words of student, Rachel Hunkler, who says, “The trip allowed me to experience another culture in a way I never could have done by simply being a tourist. It taught me about a different culture and it taught me about myself.” Read more student reflections in our blog.

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