Elizabeth Bakalyar will be traveling to San José, Costa Rica in June to create an after-school arts pro-gram and library in a small community of Nicaraguan immi-grants called Pavas. The program will be run in the Lutheran church of Jesus Our Refuge, and she hopes not only to provide a safe, inviting place for children to come after school to do their homework and explore the arts, but also to provide concrete programming including music exploration games for young children, music lessons for older children, visual art projects, and drama. In addition, as students are required to pass an English exam in order to graduate high school (which has proven to be a significant barrier for this community), she will have certain aspects of the program facilitate the learning of the language – such as availability of books and games in English. She will be staying in the community for at least 14 months, and hopes that the community will gradually take over the project so that it can become a sustainable and intrinsic part of Pavas.
We wish Eli,
“Vaya con Dios.”