With MFS students on semester break until mid-January, we thought we would devote this newsletter to a different group of people – our volunteers.

MFS operates with a very lean staff – only 5 non-teaching staff – in order to keep our tuition affordable for local Monteverde families. The only way we can keep our paid staff that small is to rely on volunteers, but even that brings on a dilemma. On the one hand, we need volunteers because our staff is so small, but on the other hand, because our staff is so small we can’t spare enough staff time to work with a lot of volunteers.

That dilemma is solved by relying on longer-term volunteers who have specific skills we need and who can either spend at least a term (10-12 weeks) with us or who volunteer on an ongoing basis. We’d like to highlight some of our volunteers for the 2019-20 school year.

Meet the MFS 2019-2020 Volunteers

Paul Angell has been visiting and volunteering at MFS since 2003, as breaks from his career in special education and as a behavior specialist have allowed. He spent the entire 2005-6 academic year at MFS offering special education. During recent visits he has led reading groups and conducted assessments. He is at MFS for the third term of the 2019/20 school year, assisting Maggie Fatovic, the MFS special education teacher.

Kenna Manos got her start in Monteverde in 2002 when she volunteered with Habitat for Humanity seeking some physical work as a break from her more cerebral work as a university professor in Canada. One of her colleagues at Habitat was a Quaker and invited her to her first Meeting for Worship – and she was smitten. By 2007 she became a member of the Meeting, and began volunteering for the school shortly thereafter. As a teacher herself, she loves supporting other teachers. She usually spends half the year volunteering at MFS, currently assisting the teacher for grades 5/6.

Jennette Affleck first read about the Quaker community in university and vowed to visit someday. After a 30-year career in teaching at the primary level and as a Special Education Specialist she came to Monteverde in 2006 to offer help to local schools. Jennette has spent the last ten years at the Friend's School teaching small groups of children and helping in the classrooms. After three months working in the school, she returns to Canada energized by her experiences of teaching wonderful children, attending Quaker meetings, and enjoying the incredible beauty of Monteverde.

Don and Liz Tanner first volunteered in 2011 shortly after retiring from teaching in British Columbia.  Don's experience was primarily in math and Liz's in elementary. They heard of Monteverde through their Meeting in Argenta, British Columbia, which was founded at the same time as Monteverde Meeting, prompted by the same concerns around the military actions of the United States.  Some of the disaffected Americans created Monteverde, while others  went to rural B.C.  They intended to volunteer once, but the beauty and the sense of community have kept them coming back. They are currently in Monteverde, with Liz assisting in grades 1/2 and 3/4 while Don works with high school math classes and the 7/8 science class. 

 Susie Washington Smyth has traveled extensively and after her husband passed, she realized that just being a tourist wasn't enough, that she was happiest working with people who were interested in education, conservation and environmental protection.  Since 2014 Susie has assisted teachers in the field of science and environmental education encouraging students and teachers to plant and maintain the garden, to build a more viable composting system, and reduce water use, thereby using the school facility itself as teaching tool. Susie has worked with fellow volunteers to form a nonprofit to accept tax-deductible donations in Canada and she gives of her time to manage that foundation.

Mike West After a long career as a chemist and in researching patents, Mike found he could retire in his late 50’s. Long an attender and member of a Friends Meeting in Delaware, Mike had heard of the Monteverde Friends Meeting and came to explore and from there started volunteering at the school. He initially volunteered on a variety of tasks but over time specialized on managing the school’s Internet network, working to maximize access for both classrooms and staff in a location where internet access is not the best. Mike has counted Monteverde as home for 3 years now, but is often off on travel adventures.

Ellen Cooney A sheer coincidence got Ellen interested in MFS: two MFS staff in the same workshop at the 2017 Friends General Conference’s annual Gathering. Her interest was piqued and as a widow without kids or grandkids, she realized she was free to spend time wherever she wanted. She made her first visit to volunteer in late 2018 and was hooked. Given her career as a nonprofit manager, she was a natural to assist in fund-raising. She’s been back a couple of times more recently and is now moving to Monteverde to serve as MFS Development Director. And those newsletters and notes that land in your inbox from MFS? Yup, that’s Ellen doing that. 

Ken Hayashi After some changes in his family life, Ken has taken the opportunity to retire and travel, volunteering along the way. He spent the fall semester 2019 in Monteverde – drawn by the location, tutoring individual students mainly in algebra. He had to keep a lesson or two ahead of the students, as algebra wasn’t central to his career in school nursing. After a quick visit with family, Ken is already back in Guatemala, where he has volunteered before, and practicing his Swahili as his next stop is Kenya where he will work on HIV prevention and treatment. 

In addition to these volunteers, we are blessed with the talents of a wonderful array of local volunteers who join us to do things like offer a Friday mini-course, or visit a class to share their career or personal experience as it relates to the class. 

Wish you could volunteer but don't have the opportunity? Your donation is just as meaningful to us, helping us ensure we are affordable for local families. 

For tax-deductible donations in the U.S. or Canada:

www.mfschool.org/donate

What Brings Us Here to Volunteer?

When you tell people you are heading to the rain forest in Costa Rica to volunteer, you get a lot of teasing from friends – “Wow, tough duty volunteering in beautiful Costa Rica!” And admittedly, being in this amazing environment is certainly one of the perks.

But there are lots of other factors that both bring us here initially and keep us here.

For starters, we need to be at a point in life that we can either take a break for a few months or make a complete break to move to Costa Rica. Sometimes that’s a really positive event, like reaching retirement age or having a sabbatical or a break between jobs. But just as often, we find our volunteers are free to work with us because of more dire life events. Sometimes that is the death of a loved one, meaning we are not tied to where we’ve been living and caring for them. Sometimes it is a traumatic family event that requires some distance.

Given that, we get attracted to MFS in a variety of ways. For some of us, like Ken, the location was the primary factor drawing us to Monteverde where we then look for volunteer opportunities. Others, like Mike and Kenna were initially drawn to the Monteverde Friends Meeting and through that got involved with the school as the Meeting’s primary ministry.  Ellen was attracted to the school by meeting two of its staff members, and from there got to know the Meeting and community. 

One thing that is consistent across our volunteers: we are people who want our time to be spent doing something that benefits others. We just aren’t people who want to sit around relaxing in retirement or vacations.

But what keeps us here goes much deeper. We discover a real community in the school, in the Friends Meeting, and in the small and welcoming local community. We find our values reflected by both the Quaker community and the country of Costa Rica, from valuing and preserving the environment to being in a country that hasn’t had a military for the last 71 years.

We’re readily included with about 15 or 20 area folks, often Quaker, who gather for coffee and potluck treats every Tuesday morning at the home of one of the original group that came to Monteverde starting in 1950. Then there’s the Scrabble games on Friday at the home of another longtime Monteverde resident (potluck treats again!), Meetings for Worship on Wednesday with all of the MFS students, and with the Meeting on Sundays and many other potlucks and activities. And there’s the local community, where it is sometimes a challenge to walk anywhere as locals stop and offer rides (and yes, it is safe to accept a ride, even with strangers).

It is impossible to put the magic of Monteverde, the school and the Meeting into words, but hopefully this gives at least a taste of what draws and keeps us here.