We will be posting updates on the Senior Missions Trip to Costa Rica here.
We are planning to be able to post updates provided by email. Any information we have will be posted here. As with any trip to another country things don't always go as planned.
Day One
Greetings from Costa Rica.
Our bus ride to BWI was uneventful as well as the first leg of our trip to Atlanta. That´s when the fun began.
Immediately after getting off the plane Tyler Grove realized he didn´t have his boarding pass for the flight
to San Jose.& nbs p; After returning to the plane and searching for it, Jen Grove also realized she didn´t
have her boarding pass either. While Mr. Roth was searching through Tyler´s backpack for his boarding pass
he discovered firecrackers in the bottom of his bag. How that got through security we don´t know! Now the
dilemma was how to get rid of them. The decision was made to keep going. The lesson learned is... don´t take
a nail clippers but bring firecrackers. Jen and Tyler got new boarding passes printed and we were on our way.
On the flight from Atlanta to San Jose the advisors were bumped to 1st class because the flight was overbooked.
They enjoyed frequent refills on drinks, table clothes for dinner, extra wide seats, and a fine lunch. Meanwhile
the students were in coach unsupervised.
Tonight we´re at Casa de Franco. A cozy bed and breakfast with bathrooms in every guest room and a little
Latin flavor in the decor. We enjoyed a great supper of stuffed chicken breast, rice, salad, and bread topped off
with an incredible tasting mango flan.
Since we are two hours behind many are settling down for a good night´s sleep after being awake over 36 hours.
Tomorrow we´re being tourists and going to San Jose for shopping and sightseeing. In the evening we´re
hanging out with the youth group from the church and having a pizza party.
All for now.
Josh Raber and Cedric Roth
UPDATE:
This is a two day greeting because the internet cafe was closed
yesterday. Yesterday, we went out into town and went to some of the
local street shops. Then we went to a museum of Costa Rica´s history
and art. Next we went to an open market and everyone bargained for
gifts for all of you back in the United States.
Next we went back to Franco´s and got ready to go meet the youth
group. We showed up at the church and immediatley began greeting
everyone with the traditional kiss on the cheek. This was awkward for
some people and really enjoyed by others (Jordan Suders). Dan, Josh,
Darren, Tony, and I led three worship songs in English. The youth
group´s praise team then got up and played the same three songs in
Spanish. The entire group had a great time worshipping the Lord. We
then offered the sports equipment that we brought for their new
recreation center. Brett then amazed them with his magic tricks,
followed by a skit from Dan, Anthony and Ericka. After that we spent
the night having fun and getting to know the Costa Rican youth.
Today we went to church early and enjoyed the enthusiastic worship of
the our Costa Rican brothers and sisters. We then listened to an
entire sermon in Spanish and most people could understand the main
points. We then went to the mall for lunch and some more souvenir
shopping. Tonight we are going to go to the church to split up into
small groups and have a time of praise and worship.
Thank you for all of your prayers and we are having a great time.
--Tyler Grove
UPDATE:
Date: 5-23-05
Whereabouts: Costa Rica (in the internet cafe)
Work Day: 1
6:00 am : Mr. Beers, Anthony, and Ryan woke up to jog. (everyone else...too lazy)
7:00 am : Group breakfast that consisted of rice, beans, an omlet, and plantane. And those who like coffee, coffee.
7:45 am : Left for Abraham Project
8:00 am : Arrived at Abraham Project
8-9:00 am : Toured work site
9:00 am : Broke up into groups with the different Costa Rican workers. ( jobs consisted of: painting, digging trenches,
clearing brush, putting up house trim, sweeping floors, cleaning houses, pulling nails out of boards (Anthony,
Ryan, Darren, and Darrins job))
12:00 pm : Lunch Break. Had rice, salad, and fruit juice.
12:30-1pm : Some played futbol (soccer) in the rain. Tyler, Jordan and Josh come to mind when thinking about people
falling into the muddy puddles.
1-3:00 pm : Continued with work
3-3:30 pm : Final Break
3:30-5 pm : Resummed working
5:00 pm : Dirt check before boarding the bus. Most people had to sit on bags in order to keep the seats of
the bus clean. (Anthony and Ryan were not apart of the dirty group)
5:30 pm : Arrived at La Casa de Franco (home)
5:30-6 pm : Took showers
6:30 pm : Ate supper
6:30-6:45 : Debriefed about the day
7-7:20 : Anthony and Ryan sat down and wrote the Update
Question of the Day : If you could be any super hero, who would you be?
Quote of the Day : In times of great confusion, comes times of great insight - Anthony Butz
Mom of the Day (entire trip) - Mrs. Beers...aka: MOM
*The missionaries and national workers valued all that was accomplished today by our class. They were amazed at
the quality of work and attitude in which it was done.
This Update was written by : Anthony Butz and Ryan Gamber
UPDATE:
Hello to all,
Well good news; everything is going really well. The food is great.
The Costa Rican workers are a lot of fun to work with,
and I think I actually got some sleep last night.
Ok Tuesday,
Woke up again. Ate breakfast, went to the worksite, put on soggy wet
stinky shoes, and started work. Some of us sanded, some of us dug
ditches, some of us..... did a bunch of other various and
miscellaneous forms of work such as trim work, concrete ramp work,
cleaning, pulling nails, painting rails (ooo that rhymed), and daycare
duty. Fortunately it didn´t rain as much and wasn´t as muddy. It was
kind of interesting working with the Costa Rican workers because you
couldn´t always understand them because they didn´t (and probably
don´t) speak english. Ha. But it was still a lot of fun and we
actually got a lot accomplished. After work we went back to Franco´s
house and got ready for supper. We all took showers and the towels
were oh so fluffy. Then came dinner, and we said that it was good!
Oh, can´t forget.... it was Cody´s Birthday!!!!!!!!! Feliz
Cumpleaños! Franco (our host) made him a cake and we had three (tres)
desserts. The first one was the normal dessert, the second was Cody´s
cake, and the third was Costa Rican bona fide ice cream (we went to
POPS later on for ice cream).
¿What happened next? I don´t know either. After we went back to
Franco´s I was mucho cansado (much tired) and went to bed... so should
you.
adios, chow, hasta luego, hasta la vista...baby,
Dan and Evan
p.s.- kangaroos can´t walk
--
I was going to write a book on laziness, but that's too much work!!!
UPDATE:
Hola! Esta es la vida loca! Well, I think almost everyone is loving
it here. Yesterday we had breakfast at 7. It seems early, but for Franco´s food, it is so worth
it! We then went for our third day of work at the project. Our class was mainly divided into two groups,
the smaller one working on moving some of the missionaries into a new home. The rest of the group was put
to work making a fence. They had to find, measure, cut, and pull staples out of the donated planks of wood.
Others were also designated to clear the area where the fence would be. A few STRONG guys were put to
work making a cement ramp. While John Fidoti was innocently swinging a dangerous pick axe, the
axe flew down and sank...right into the water pipe. While the water spewed we thought of Old
Faithful. The Costa Rican workers turned the water off and fixed the pipe..no problem. We ended
work early, at 4:30, so we could eat dinner and go to our english class. Oh, one important fact - for our
dessert at dinner we had Tiramisu- totally awesome! At 7 we went back to the project to help teach a
local english class. During the class we played Upset the Fruit Basket; we also talked about pictures we
had brought with us and sang a fun version of Singing in the Rain. After that we went back to Franco´s.
That was Wednesday.
Today.......what a day! We had pancakes for breakfast, yum! Then we went to work to try to finish
the fence and cement ramp. Much of the work was tedious...priming boards and digging holes, but we
accomplished much. &n bsp; The fence is almost finished! After a long day of work, we headed home at 5.
We had pasta for dinner with a coconut flan for dessert. For the rest of the night we plan on relaxing and building
energy for our last day of work tomorrow. We are excited about finishing our last day of work and
seeing what we have accomplished for the project. Continue to pray for our safety - physically, emotionally,
and spiritually. We love you all! God bless!
P.S. Mommys, WE LOVE YOU! Cayla and Ericka
Choose
life from HIM,
so you can reach THEM!
UPDATE:
¡Hola, to everyone back in the United States! It is a joy for many
of us to know that today was our fifth and final workday at the Abraham Project Site.
The morning seemed to come earlier for almost everyone. People seemed to be in another state of reality as they
stared into oblivion at the breakfast table. We arrived at the worksite by 8:00 am. We divided into our work teams
once again and started working. We saw many of our hard labors come to fruition after having dug an 80 inch trench
around the main building and today pouring cement into the trench to form the drain. Some of us worked on completing
the fence around the property while others were painting the support beams on the education building.
Later in the afternoon we showed our appreciation for the ticos (workers) at the Abraham Project by giving them
each a "Thank You" card. We appreciated their friendliness, humor, patience with us, and their willingness
to serve God in their dedication to the Abraham Project. Then, we had a ticos vs gringos (us) soccer game.
Tonight around 7 pm we will be going back to the Abraham Project to join the youth for our farewell party.
Well, I´m really hungry and Elyse is waiting patiently for me here at the internet cafe to go back to Franco´s
House for dinner. ¡Adios and God Bless!
Brett
May 29, 2005 8:57:37 PM EDT
This is the final update from our trip. We leave Franco´s early
tomorrow morning (before the break of dawn!) Please pray for our return trip home, that everything goes smoothly
and that we all get through customs ok.
I will now pick up where Brett left off: The goodbye party with the youth group was great. They had a testimony
time where three of us and three of them shared something that they learned from God this week. That was a special
time. We had worship and then the group had a traditional dance prepared for us. They were dressed in traditional
costumes and it kinda resembled square dancing, with a Spanish twist. It was hard to say goodbye, we had become
attached to the youth group and will miss them a lot.
On Saturday morning we left to go to a waterfall, hot springs, and volcano. ( we stayed in a hotel 4 hours away
from Franco´s). The waterfall was incredible, we got to swim in it and sit behind it, the pictures we bring
back will not do it justice. That was my favorite time of our weekend adventure. That night we went to a hot springs
to relax. The pools are heated by the volcano. The water was a lot hotter than I was expecting. Brett was pushed
into the hottest pool ( up to his knees) and the extreme temperature caused him to scream, rather loudly, ruining
the peaceful quiet atmosphere. He is ok, no burns.
After the hot springs, we were going to see the volcano, but it was too cloudy and we couldn´t see it. That
was a bummer because we were all looking forward to watching it spew into the night sky. We did get to see it from
a distance on our way to the hotel. A lot of our traveling was over mountains, so we were above the clouds. That
was an amazing view.
Today on our way home, we stopped at a river and had church on the rocky beach. That was pretty cool. We are now
back at Franco´s and dinner will be served in a few short minutes, Mr. Roth, Brett and I must make the 2
minute trek back to Franco´s now. We will see you all soon, with many great stories to tell. Thank you for
your prayers.
Check the announcement center for arrival time at Shalom. 375-2225.
Kaitlin