Sámara, Costa Rica – Wagner College rising senior forward Marie-Laurence Archambault (Montreal, Quebec/ Montmorency) is in the midst of a three-week stay in Samara, Costa Rica, where she is volunteering with Asociacion CREAR, an American non-profit organization that works with children and the community of Samara. A small town situated along the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica's Guanacaste Province, Samara has long been a favorite vacation spot for both Costa Ricans and foreigners alike. Archambault, however, is not on a sight-seeing mission.

Archambault is in Samara to further Asociación CREAR's mission, which is to provide supplemental educational, recreational, and career opportunities for community members, primarily youth with limited resources, in the local rural beach communities. La Asociación CREAR achieves this mission by offering a wide variety of innovative programs focusing on academic and artistic education, environmental consciousness, health, and socio-cultural development. Archambault, who is pursuing a double-major in Spanish and International Affairs at Wagner, is blogging about her experiences with wagnerathletics.com.
 
Here is her first entry!
 
This year, when I realized I had a passion for volunteering and the Spanish language, I decided to find a place where I could do both. I did a lot of research and I luckily found Asociacion CREAR, an organization that does many cool things with the kids. They do a lot of art projects and sports, and recently they started a surf and lacrosse team through the organization “Fields of Growth.” I was so excited when I learned of this that, before I left, I asked members of our women's lacrosse team if they could possibly donate some equipment. They were generous enough to donate 12 sticks, two helmets, balls, goggles, gloves and Colin (O'Rourke) from the men's lacrosse team donated some pinnies. The morning after my final exam, I took everything and left for Costa Rica.

I arrived on Wednesday at Noon, and was greeted by my host-sister because I live in a host-family here. My family is amazing. I have two Tico (people from Costa Rica) siblings, Fiorella and Fabricio, a mother, Xinia and another Canadian mother, Johanna. They were all so nice to show me around Samara and everything it has to offer (amazing beaches, mountains, people, and much more).

I started working on Thursday, where we played sports with the kids from Samara and later went to the neighboring town of El Torito. The kids were full of energy, and so much fun to be with. It was an amazing first day. That night, I met up with some of the girls from CREAR and we promoted an activity that will be going on this weekend called "CREAR combate,” a group fundraising activity that consists of a combination of relay races. I will go into more detail on this in a bit.

That first day, I was able to meet a lot of people who lived in Samara, mostly Ticos, expatriates (expats) and young people who just love Samara. On Friday (May 11), I played lacrosse (my first time!) with the kids, and then I had the weekend to explore Samara with my host family. Saturday (May 12) was my first real work day, after my 8:00 am surf lesson with my host brother. I helped at our little library, went to El Torito to do a program with the kids about our the five senses, followed by a very long and productive meeting with everyone from CREAR to organize the CREAR Combate on Sunday. 

CREAR combate is one of CREAR's many fundraising activities. This event is a race with four people on each team and everyone needs to pay four- thousand colonnes ($8.00) to participate. Many of the expats, who feel they aren't in good enough shape, have offered to sponsor people who don't have enough money to pay. This amazing gesture makes the event accessible to everyone. The race will take place on the beach and will consist of seven different relays: Biking, running backwards, swimming, surfing, running with a blindfold, a five-legged race, and it ends with each team building a sand mermaid out of a one of their teammates. 

I am so excited about this event on Sunday. It will regroup the whole town because we will be asking all of the local businesses to help us by sponsoring us with prizes and equipment needed for the race. There will be activities with the kids the whole day, followed by a party for everyone at the end. It will be amazing!! I can't wait to tell you guys about it! 

Finally, my Spanish teachers will be glad to know I have been speaking in Spanish the whole time I have been here, and I think it is already much better! 

Adios!
Hasta la semana proxima!

To learn more about Asociacion CREAR, click on www.asociacioncrear.org and click on http://fieldsofgrowthintl.org for more background on Fields of Growth.