I’ve had some pretty interesting jobs since moving here! The first one was baby-sitting orphaned monkeys (if you’re an SNA Club member, you can check out my first SNA video from when I was working with the monkeys! It’s in the bonus videos section.) Since the monkeys are kind of like little babies, they need someone to take care of them to make sure they don't get into trouble and to make sure they eat and stay safe.

It was really funny the day we went to film in the monkey room where I worked. The monkeys were so curious about everything—they were climbing up the leg of the woman who was doing the filming (my mom’s friend, Dena) and at one point they climbed onto my mom’s shoulder and then into her hair and got all tangled up! My mom was like, “Uh, Ryan. Could you get this monkey out of my hair?”  Has your mom ever said that to you???

My next job was helping to plant a nature reserve. This was at Sibu Sanctuary, which, again, if you watch that monkey video in the Bonus Videos section, you’ll see some of Sibu Sanctuary. Sibu is owned by Steve and Vicki Coan. They are making the land into a place to release back into the wild orphaned and injured monkeys like the ones I babysat for.

Working at Sibu was one of those times that speaking Spanish really came in handy because I was volunteering alongside all their workers from Nicaragua and they definitely didn’t speak any English!

It’s a lot of work planting the reserve and getting it ready for the animals. Steve and Vicki have been working on it for years. It’s their passion. I think it’s really cool of them to be so passionate about nature and animals that they’re dedicating their lives to it.  (See the Sibu Sanctuary link under "SNA Friends.")

For a while I had a job giving surf lessons to local kids. I got the job because I speak Spanish and I surf. I love teaching.

Lately I've been doing a lot of volunteer work around San Jose.  That's cool, too.  My family cooks and feeds the homeless once a month and I also go once a month to work with a bunch of little kids from Nicaragua.  I recently was the translator for a presentation at a juvenile prison here (the presenter spoke English and I translated into Spanish).  That was pretty intense.

What kinds of jobs  or volunteering do you do around your house or neighborhood?  Tell me about it in an e-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it