Volunteer Program in Pochote...an unforgettable experience

You wake up with the songs of the birds. The sun is shining bright and lovely into the room.


When you leave the room, which has up to four beds, you breathe in the warm, maritime air. As far as the eye can see, gorgeous nature. Palms, beach, a small copse, a river..,. yea - so man can live!

When you walk the few steps to the restaurant „ Name“, you will be warmly welcomed by a wonderful man to your breakfast. Though his name is Hänsel Hoppe, he is a typical native “Tico” (Costa Rican Guy).

Hänsel: “Food is not only food supply. It has to be an enjoyment for the people who are eating and seeing it.“, and this philosophy and love he puts in, you can taste.

After the delicious breakfast, which is mostly made of Gallo Pinto (Costa Rican traditional food out of rice and beans), eggs and bread, you go to work.

Together with at least one other Volunteer you help in the garden (which is also part of the beach), up keeping the Restaurant, while you are listening to the sound of the music classes from the attached(?) music school. You are surrounded by a group of playful, but not invasive dogs, which you will lock in your heart immediately.

When they need people, you can help in the village school by supporting the teachers, playing with the children during the breaks, or you make the school looking better with broom or wall paint.

Even though in this paradise it is mostly “tranquillo” (calm), there is always something to do. The workers there, who are doing more or less the same work as the volunteers, are really nice people who are happy when somebody is supporting them.
Doesn't matter which language you are speaking, you always are able to communicate. The perfect place to improve your Spanish, or if you prefer to speak English.... this is also understood in Pochote. They also like to speak “Spanglish” there. :)

After my sojourn in Pochote, the small fishing village, which lasted altogether one month, I came back twice in one year.

I wanted to volunteer in different places in Costa Rica. I made a lot of experience, saw awesome places and cooperated in wonderful projects. But Pochote left the biggest mark. You don't have to integrate yourself. You are already part of the fami1y. Its not just because of the work there, which is a great help, it is because of the whole package of nature, people and the work, bound together with the enormous will to change something in Pochote. To offer the children an alternative activity after school instead of lingering in the streets or at home, and to widen the view of the people and maybe your own for the beauty and the love of the earth.

The Volunteer Project in Pochote

Pochote, is a small fishing village in the South of the Nicoya Peninsula between Paquera and Montezuma, not at all touristy but it has many better things that I will try to explain in the following lines, but in reality you have to live it to fully understand.
At the bus stop nothing reveals this magical place; you can see a road bordered by weeds and dry trees accompanied by cows, then you arrive to the first building in the village, the public school.
The few people on the street curiously watch the foreigner with a backpack, maybe she is lost? – they answer a hello with a simple “pura vida” Here everything is “pura vida”
(“Pura Vida” translates to pure life but it is really a friendly acknowledgment meaning everything is good, life is great, all wrapped into one.)
I see some children and their parents in front of their house, they look at me with large eyes full of warmth. It seems to me that in this village nothing more than the present moment exists lest the hour or date. Asking for Hansel their faces illuminate even more, they now know that I am the new volunteer that they have been waiting for. An older gentlemen shows me the way to the Harmony Music School.

Arriving to my house for the next month it exceeds all my expectations. I am in paradise!!, 50 meters from a deserted beach and right beside the mangrove.

“Welcome to Pochote” I’m Hansel, I hear at my side. My boss is an exceptional person, full of love for life and tranquility and is “pura vida”. I see some other people that I am going to see every day, people from the village having a beer in the restaurant, people that work at the school, the boat captains and we are all immediately friends. Friends for life that I never want to forget. I feel happy and treated as a member of the community. I am at home.

Little by little Hansel shows my room with a private bathroom and direct view of the ocean. We walk through the village to get to know the people and everything that there is, it is not much but it is enough: the public school, the catholic and protestant churches, the general store and another bar restaurant on the other side of the village. Hansel tells me lots about the people and the village and its problems. I want to help with all my strengths and ability and feel that here I can .

During the next 4 weeks I will help in the painting of the school, the cabins and the restaurant, in maintenance, learning activities with the children, translations and offer classes in French, German and English to the boat captains that offer tours to tourists.

After work I can take advantage of the ocean and walk on the beach, make new freinds, compete in pool, chat with the people that are open and curious and as such better my Spanish to a point that would not be possible in a language school.

Now I am in my last days is Paradise, where the famous “pura vida” is lived with total integrity, and the tears come thinking about having to say good-by. I hope to return again very soon to help but next time, god willing, it will be forever and not only a month.

Thanks everyone for everything!!
Reason to come to Pochote and work in the Harmony Volunteer Project::

- To help where it is truly needed, to see the changes you can make and the happy and appreciative faces of the people.

- To enjoy the most delicious food ever, prepared by the passionate cook Hansel

- To have fun pool competitions

- To live in a small paradise

- To live the true “pura vida” without stress, hours and dates and with happiness

- To see it raining ants, listen to the children laughing and playing instruments, the ocean when you go to sleep and when you wake up.

- To have a great time

- To have a meal with the people and listen to their stories and jokes

- To learn lots of Spanish

- To meet people that become friends

- To admire the children’s playground tree

- To see poor people live happily with very little

And many, many more reasons!