As we have mentioned elsewhere, schools in Costa Rica work diferently than "whatever you may have experienced". There are many reasons for the shortage of books and the lack of a reading habit that is an indirect spin off of the culture - a culture that is probably more committed to their children than most. And a culture that is proud of it's history of pacifism, healthcare and literacy. How is it possible to have one of the highest literacy rates on the planet (around 97%) and almost no libraries and few books? But how do YOU define literacy?

Here it essentailly means the child can "read and write". But when mandatory schooling stops at age 12 what is the likelihood that you will later bump into Kafka or Marquez?

How will you grasp the significance of the precedents for the Geneva convention or even the history of evolution.

Kids can graduate from school life with very little access to books here. They are just too expensive and take a beating in the wet and creature filled neo-tropics. For the last few years we have had good success cajoling our guests to bring some books for the kids along with their luggage.

These books have been donated to Escuela Tuetal Sur which is located in a small modest rural community just north of Alajuela. This is a typical public primary school - the mandatory years of kindergarten through age 12. This school has 350 children this year. If we get books more suitable for older kids, these are now going to Colegio Tuetal Norte - the closest high school about 1km from the hotel. The colegio has 510 children this year and a library with about 300 old useless books.

The education and literacy issue is a complex one but here are a few local factoids. In Costa Rica, the government (MEP - Ministry of Education) provides the teachers but the neighborhood must find ways to house them (build classrooms, assembly areas, toilets and the like). Most schools do not have libraries and there is no funding for such. The children are fed their main meal of the day for the equivalent of 25 cents (US) or about 100 colones. The schools have very few supplies and in many poor rural neighborhoods the parents are unable to afford to help. Kids drop out of "colegio (high school)" early primarily due to the inability to afford books and uniforms.

Thanks to the efforts of the school staff and the help of some of the gringo visitors a library is now an active part of school life at Escuela Tuetal Sur. To date our guests have donated many books as well as a large amount of school supplies. This is an ongoing effort and this year we are "adopting" the local high school and will make every effort to get a libary working there. As yet this high school has essentially no computers or internet connections either.

What Can Visitors Do?

Book donations have helped and if you want to help the kids in some way we hope you will consider bringing one book or 10 books if you are visiting Costa Rica. Here are a few ways you can do this.

If you are visiting Costa Rica and passing through the main International Airport in Alajuela, stop by the taxi booth at the arrivals exit of the airport. Give the books you bring in a box or bag labelled "Pura Vida Hotel/Tuetal Phone:2430-2929 for Escuela Tuetal Sur" tell the booth that the "hotel pays" and they will taxi the box to the hotel and we will take them to the school that week.

If you are visiting and staying at the nearbye Pura Vida Hotel (just up the road from the Escuela Tuetal Sur) leave the books with the hotel on your visit. If you like you can schedule a visit at the school and the staff and children would love to show you around and perhaps put on a small performance for your visit.

If you are visiting ANYWHERE else in Costa Rica, contact your hotel and ask them if you can help with something for their closest public escuela (primary school) or colegio (high school).

Our PO Box for mailing or M Bags (we no longer recommend this method as a small box of books costs $80 to mail now - a donation would be more useful for a bookshelf for example):

Pura Vida Hotel
PO Box 1703-4050
Alajuela,
Costa Rica
Attn: Berni
Phone: 011-506-2430-2929

What Can Visitors Bring?

Below you will find a list maintained by the Escuela of "useful things" they are always in need of and rarely have available.

For the kindergarten/younger kids, we need:
>>> picture books/work books and such are OK in Spanish or English
>>> learning tools/toy/blocks/flash cards and similar

For the older kids (age 5 to 17)
>>> if you only have access to English books then reference books such as atlases, dictionaries, biology books etc
>>> we prefer Spanish language books including young age novels, history, geography etc
>>> sets of 20 books of anything for class study

This is a detailed list we recently got from the escuela for specific books:
>>> Books with a lot of pictures/ to draw in etc
>>> Magazines to be cut up
>>> Science magazines
>>> National geographic books or magazines
>>> Dictionaries
>>> Harry Potter collection/Narnia in Spanish
>>> Books with exercise material/English/Spanish
>>> Books with maps
>>> Computer books basic/internet
>>> Musical books

Also the school has requested we try to get a kid's movie library started this year to include things like:
1. Fables like Disney movies Cinderella, Pinocchio,etc...
2. Documentaries about environment/science/discovery/national geographic/etc
3. Movies with school's subjects High school musical/Harry Potter/The Chorus/Dead Poets

Finally as much of the teaching here is done from blackboards and copying, anything you can do for supplies will most definitely improve the learning process - for example: