On the Turrialba Waldorf Initiative´s Tenth Year

Is it possible that at the close of this year we will be celebrating ten years of the Turrialba Waldorf Initiative? It´s hard for me to believe! We opened our doors, welcoming 7 preschool children into the living room of one of the founding parents in 2002. Since then, we have moved to and remodeled a farm house for the kinder and school, gone through the government bureaucracy to get legal status for our foundation, remodeled the farm house again to get our infrastructure approved by the Ministry of Education, gained approval from the Ministry for operation of the kinder and school.

In the meantime, we had the priviledge to be served by Waldorf teachers from Colombia, Peru and Mexico - before it became clear that without local teachers, an initiative in Costa Rica wouldn´t be able to flourish and grow. And so, we have also been served by Costa Rican teachers, helping the school to find its way within this culture, as they learn about the Waldorf pedagogy and philosophy. It isn´t easy for them to pioneer this project. There is so much new territory to discover and to create - they are brave women and men!

And what about all of the families who have passed through the school? To those of you who came and took on leadership roles, we thank you! To those who were touched by a teacher and have since moved on (to Cameroon, Mexico, Colombia, St. Lucia, the USA, Denmark), you are a part of our history and we also thank you. We also have families who have come, gone and come back again. Do you know how important you are? And to those who have left the school, but are still in Turrialba, you too have been important.

And we have to thank our advisors - women and men from Peru, England, Holland, Brazil, USA, Colombia, Germany, who have come to share their wisdom with us and support us in our growth. And family and friends who have supported us financially and morally.

And the question to be asked is, has it been worth it? And are we there yet? I can only answer that as a mother - one of the three mothers who has seen a child graduate from the school. I am so thankful for what this school has provided my daughter - her love for learning, her capacity for discernment, her gentle confidence, her artistic abilities and intellectual capacity and respect and love for those around her. And what can I say when my third grader, on a homework assignment dealing with pronouns chooses the 4 sentences with "I": I am good. I am beautiful. I love myself. I did my homework.

And his 2 sentences with you (plural): You are good. You are beautiful. - illustrated with the pictures of his classmates. In this turbulent world in which we live, what a great start.

My only hopes are that each day, we come closer to providing a full Waldorf education to the children in the school and that, eventually, this education will be available to a much wider group of children. I think that Turrialba deserves the future promised by this type of education - and its children certainly deserve it today.

- Ruth Junkin