Orientación a La Paz

We’ve been dreaming about sending these girls to La Paz for so long! The first day of school is on Monday, September 5th, but they will be riding the bus so I had to get this shot while I could.

Develop the self into a peaceful lifelong learner by improving physical and mental well being through critical thought and extension of comfortable limits.

Cultivate peace amongst family and community by disseminating and sharing love and compassion.

Create peace within the community by preserving the environment and respecting the delicate balance between local and foreign cultures.

Spread peace throughout the world by effectively communicating thoughts and ideas as well as actively listening to all perspectives.

Abel and Griff!!!! For those of you that don’t know, these two were freshman year roommates at Bowdoin. Abel is a co-founder of La Paz and the current Director of the school.

The orientation started with all of the new families gathered in a circle under the large, central Guanacaste tree (which is the national tree of Costa Rica and also the symbol/logo for La Paz). You will see the tree on the uniforms the girls wear to school when I snap a pic of them on their first day. There will be 360 students at this campus this year with a roughly 50/50 ratio of local and expat families from all over the world.

It was fun for us to see Abel in action and it also felt wonderful to be part of this community of families.

Certain grades are grouped together in houses or casas. Lydia and Tess happen to be in the same casa which is called Arenal (grades 3-5). This video shows the teachers of casa Arenal introducing themselves.

All of the teachers did different fun introductions. These are the specials teachers (Art, music, PE, etc.) introducing themselves. They are singing “Los especiales de La Paz” to the tune of Day-O by Harry Belafonte.