Delta 2: A real sense of achievement in Jokbata

Delta 2's Glyn Worthington writes from Jokbata's newly completed primary school:

We said goodbyes to Fieldbase early in the morning and headed off on our bus to the Chirripo Indigenous reserve. The drive was amazing, driving up winding mountains and down steep slops with spectacular views. The reserve is very remote and there are only a few roads entering the Talamanca mountain range.

Our bus couldn't go any further due to the terrain so we trekked on foot with horses carrying our building equipment. We walked up steep muddy paths that were often very tiring and the weather sometimes turned sour!

After about three hours we arrived at the Jokbata primary school. The old school was made out of wood and in terrible condition. It was also pretty clear that it was far too small for the current number of pupils. We were sleeping in a house about twenty minutes walk away so we set up base camp and rested – we knew we had a tough few weeks ahead of us!

The next day we got up and set about demolishing the school, which was actually very fun – it’s not everyday you get to destroy a school! We were working with a few local builders who spoke Spanish but we had people in our group who could translate so communication wasn’t too bad – let's just say my Spanish was a little rusty!

Unfortunately not all the building materials had been delivered (it's pretty difficult to organise things in such a remote place), so the group decided to carry wood down from the mountain – which was hard but rewarding work.

The building phase consisted of levelling the ground, digging holes for the foundations, laying the foundations, laying the floor, building the frame, nailing the walls up, painting and raising the roof. There was a lot of manual labour and sawing in between this but everyone pulled their weight and handled it very well.

The locals are very different to us. The majority are poor farmers and have little or no education. We spent a few nights playing with the kids who were nothing but smiles and helped boast morale – it is after all the children who we are trying to give a better chance to.

A local woman who was our cook. We had a wide range of local food – mainly rice, pasta, chick peas, lentils and plantains. We also had some delicious salsa sauce and some very strong local coffee. Communication was hard at times as nearly all the locals only speak Cabecar, although a few did speak Spanish.

Overall the project was a huge success. We got the majority of the school built although due to delays outside our control (mainly wood supplies) some bits were not fully completed. I have made some friends for life and was blessed to have fun and interesting leaders. I think everyone in my group will come away feeling a good sense of achievement and I even found the inspiration to give up smoking out here!

Delta 2 photo album

We've collected stacks of photos from the Delta 2 Venturers and PMs - here are some of the best:

Photos from Delta 2

Here they are... the first photos from Delta 2. Fieldbase visited them yesterday and they are all well - all of the wood has been carried to the worksite and the foundations are complete... next, the walls...

Delta 2: Jokbata community project

Graham Snyder, Valentina Toledo, Jess Rivas-Furlong, Glyn Worthington, Ellie Williamson, Daniel Alpizar, Henry Lonsdale, Nicola Gale, Susannah Sconce, Seona Stalker, Emily Rigby, Owen Nicholson, Kara Forsyth, Ariadna Venegas, Natalie Smith, Rahul Ghelani.

Delta 2 will be working in the Chirripo Indigenous Reserve to build a primary school in the community of Jokbata. The reserve is one of the remotest areas in Costa Rica and there are very few roads that enter - the project site is about 2 hours walk from the nearest roadhead. There are about 4,000 Cabecar indigenous people who live here spread out along the mountains.

The existing school in Jokbata is too small for the current number of children and some of the classrooms are falling down, so Delta 2 has plans to build 2 new classrooms. Many people in the reserve don’t have a basic education, so these improved teaching facilities will provide major benefits to the whole area into the future.

Delta 2 will also have a unique experience where they can learn about the lives of the Cabecar people and understand the challenges that face this indigenous community at the beginning of the 21st century. The culture of the area is still strong and many traditions persist.

The Delta 2 PMs gave us some thoughts on the project before heading out to Jokbata:

Owen - "I'm excited about the challenge of building a school with a group of young people who've never built anything before. The community have given us a really wicked house to live in and we'll be working in some of the most stunning scenery you'll ever see. I'm also looking forward to finding some local people who play instruments and having a jam."(Ed. Owen takes his guitar everywhere.)

Natalie: "I can't wait to see the faces of the children when we finish building their new school."

Ellie: "The walk into the project site is a challenge but I'm looking forward to getting to the top of hill and enjoying the awesome view with the Venturers. We have an awesome group of young people and I really think they're going to come of age. It will also be great to be part of the community and enjoy some real home-cooked food. And there's going to be some sweet firefly action - it's like being able to see the stars even when it's cloudy."

Julian's fascinating fact: Some school children have a 5 hour walk to and from school each day and to leave Jokbata you have to climb 500 meters over 2 kilometres, not an easy task.