Badges (3)
Profile information
Travel information
We are currently
Travelling
Activities we are interested in:
I am interested in outdoor work, work with animals, teaching or cooking. It's most likely it will just be me doing the Workaway this time. I will finish my teaching contract in Costa Rica in July
Description
We are from Rochester, New York but my husband is originally from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and I mostly grew up in Ithaca, New York. My husband and I lived and worked in Bhutan for 5 years doing agricultural and animal husbandry work with extension agents and farmers. Then, when our second child came along, we moved back to the United States and became teachers. I was an ESL and high school English teacher and my husband taught Earth Science. After I retired, we spent several months traveling around the western and southern U.S. in our Ford van and since January, we have been living in San Jose, Costa Rica. I am teaching full time at a local high school where I am paid a local salary. One of the reasons I took the job was because I got to design my own curriculum. My husband and I love the outdoors, working with children and adolescents, and learning and connecting to people who come from a different culture(s). My husband, John, also enjoys doing carpentry and handyman tasks. We have done a wide range of volunteer work since we were young and to the present. We have worked with animals, un-housed persons, environmental projects, and wildlife protection. Before coming to Costa Rica my husband was volunteering twice a week at a soup kitchen and I was doing advocacy and protection work for refugees and immigrants.
Interests
DIY & crafts
History
Cooking & food
Writing
Hiking
Charity work
Sustainability
Gardening
Dancing
Carpentry
Languages
Camping
LGBTQ
Outdoor activities
Books
Animals
Van life
Politics / Social justice
Nature
Farming
Culture
Languages
Languages spoken
Spanish: Fluent
Arabic: Beginner
French: BeginnerMore details about my language interests
I am currently teaching English in Costa Rica and I would enjoy doing that. I am not very good at learning new languages but I have studied French, Ancient Greek, Modern Greek, Russian, Kenkha, Dzongha, Arabic and Hebrew and I love to learn. My husband does not speak another language.
Skills and knowledge we'd like to share or learn
We're interested in:
Babysitting and creative play
Creating/ Cooking family meals
Helping around the house
Charity Work
House & pet sitting
Some knowledge of:
Gardening
Being an elderly companion
Life at a Farmstay
Eco Projects
Animal Care
Able to teach about:
DIY and building projects
General Maintenance
Languages
Teaching
More details about your skills
Both my husband and I have college degrees. My undergraduate was Animal Science/Pre-Vet and I worked for large and small animal vets for 4 summers and did research at a livestock research station in Veracruz, Mexico for 8 months. My graduate degree is in Agronomy and Soil Science and I worked for USDA in Hawaii. My husband and I lived in Bhutan for 5 years working in agriculture and animal husbandry. My other master's degree is in education and I taught ESOL (English to Speakers of Other Languages) for 20 years in public schools in upstate New York. I am 1/2 Mexican and fluent in Spanish and I have studied Hebrew, Arabic, French, Greek, Turkish and Russian. I enjoying teaching and learning from children and adolescents. I also enjoy gardening and being outdoors as much as possible. My husband was a carpenter for many years before going back to school and earning his degree in tropical agriculture. His graduate degree is in education and he taught Earth Science for 20 years at a public high school. He is very handy and knowledgeable about carpentry, plumbing and electric. Until May 2025, when he has hip replacement, he is somewhat limited in how much carpentry etc. he can do (for example, no real heavy lifting). We are both very open-minded, flexible and good communicators.
Age
63 & 71
What else ...
We have been traveling in our van since December 10th visiting family and friends as well as visiting places we've wanted to visit. We will be in Texas at Big Bend National Park and Padre Island before visiting family near Houston and Dallas. My retirement present is a month in Baja California with a whale theme but after that, we plan to travel through the gulf states and would like to connect to people and volunteer there. I believe that especially 'in these times', it's important to learn more about areas and people in the United States that are relatively unfamiliar.
Some more information
Smoker
Driver's licence
Allergies
dust mites which are everywhere so it just means I cough someSpecial dietary requirements
no
Feedback
DeAnna is a really good communicator both in person and with texting. She would outline things for us to do everyday in the morning which was helpful for me since I like checking boxes on a list (!) We… read more
Friends
Feedback
DeAnna is a really good communicator both in person and with texting. She would outline things for us to do everyday in the morning which was helpful for me since I like checking boxes on a list (!) We… read more
