2024 Crater Costa Rica Service Adventure

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Blog 8: Goodbye, Maybe Forever

At 9 today, we left our host families it was a biter sweet goodbye, for we would never cross paths again but will remember each other forevermore. We mounted the bus and set off for new waters, where we would ither sink or swim. We arrived at a place called Rio sarapiki where we all must use all the strength we could muster to stay aloft. Threw all the winding and thrashing of the rath of the water we ended up at shore. In the end, all that was lost was Parra as she fell to the water below a watery grave that she ended up recovered from.
We left the waters and went to a place of wonders, a place of feasting. after a delcetibel meal of burger and fries as well as some of the most delicious Mexican ice cream that tasted as if the stars had all finaly alined and my tonguehad gaind a new trewth, which is clearly the most othentic Mexican food. we mounted the bus and went on our merry way to a little town called La Fortuna.
At long last, we arrived in a wonderful location of sprawling homes and wonderful people everywhere. as our bus came to a stop, we disembarked and came to our new home for 1 of the darkest and stormiest nights of all. we parted ways with our supplies and waltzed down to a place brimming with water. We all had fun and had meny a laugh with 1 another. There we also dinghnd authentic Mexican food consisting of a cheeseburger and soda. later that night, we retired to our accommodations, where we spent the rest of the night relaxing and recovering.

– Ayden L.

Blog 7

Today we started off bright and early in order to eat breakfast at the local kids school. Together we enjoyed gallo pinto that we all finished pretty quickly. After a quick game of volleyball we got straight to work, this work included painting desks and painting palm tree to protect them from pests. I joined the group working on the palm trees, the work was honestly pretty fun painting the tree but it did get tiring. After eating lunch again as a group and multiple games of volleyball the last thing I helped with at the school was unloading new chairs and replacing the old ones.

On the bus ride home we enjoyed time with friends then got off at the same stop as our teachers. At their house we relaxed and played multiple games together before starting our quesadilla making class. I learned so much and now I definitely feel that I can make a quesadilla on my own with the right materials. Kamdyn and I then had our host family pick us up where we came home to a crazy storm and the power shutting off. As the power was off a bat then flew in and all around the house. After catching the bat, our host family then took us to pizza in a few towns over. On the car ride there we played with Colette pretending to be various animals and monsters. She did not stop laughing the whole ride over. Together we ate a jumbo pizza half Hawaiian, half mediterranean. I ended an amazing day with Colette holding my hand while she slept on the car ride home.

– Harper M.

Blog 6: A day full of sun 

We started the day by waiting for a bus to pick us up from our host family houses. This bus took us straight to a high school to do some work. A lot of other students helped us out with painting and sanding desks. We also stained some wood. When we didn’t have work to do, we passed the time playing volleyball, soccer, talking with people from the community or cooling down in the river from the scorching heat. My favorite part of the day was working with people we didn’t know. It was fun getting to know some locals. We wrapped up around 3pm and headed back to our host families to eat dinner. We ended the night by attending a rodeo at 7pm. From my personal experience I didn’t really enjoy it. I didn’t like the part where they had to catch a baby cow and tie it up. When we were ready to leave, our host families picked us up for the night.
– Alona H.

Blog 5: Costa rica and new friends 

Our day begun when we woke up in the home of our host families. We got ready for the day, ate breakfast and waited for our bus to pick us up at 7:30. The bus took us to the high school to begin the first day of our service project. We started the day with some volleyball, it was our TWI group vs. the costa rican students. After volleyball, we go to work painting desks, sanding chairs, and staining wood. I got to paint the desks blue and stain the wood. When we had breaks, I got to socialize with the students from the high school. For lunch, we had beans, rice, salad and meat with potatoes. It was very good. We finished at the high school at around 3pm and went back to our host families.
My host mom, Hazel, asked us about our day and I told her my favorite part was interacting with the students from Cosa Rica. At 7pm, we attended a rodeo. Some of my friends from the high school we worked at invited me to sit with them. The rodeo was interesting at first, but then I started not to like it. My least favorite part was when the people on horses tried to catch baby cows and tie them up. It was hard to watch. We left the rodeo at around 9:30 and our Host family picked us up and took us home.
– Clarissa D.

Blog 4

Waking up in the animal hotel was a fun surprise, and with the sounds of nature around us, it made it sound magical, after waking up we all met at the reception area to get ready to go on the cocoa tour but in order to do that we had too cross shaky but beautiful bridge to meet Isabel, our guide for the cocoa tour. Isabel taught us all about cocoa, and we ate lots of chocolate. We went back to the reception area for a breakfast with many variety’s of things, like some yogurt beverage, cereal and the typical breakfast in Costa Rica… gallo pinto and after that delicious breakfast we took a short four-minute walk to a dance class where we learned merengue, salsa, and other dances. But the heat beat a few people that, it made us tired, and Koda and Clarissa got headaches, so we cooled off in the river. After that, we met our host family, gave them presents, and talked for a while. We enjoyed a nice meal with them and then went to sleep, feeling happy about our day. The kindness of our host family made us feel right at home and ended our day perfectly.

– Osvaldo V.

Blog 3

Where do I even start…….Well, why not the start of the day. We woke at 7 in the morning and ate a delicious breakfast of eggs, beans, rice and some other stuff. Then we went on a banana tour where we learned all you could possibly think about bananas, how to grow them, eat them, and even cut them off a tree (shout out to Alona for cutting down the bananas off the tree with a machete). Part of the whole experience is learning how to cook banana. We divided up into groups and made typical Costa Rican dishes. I myself made a salad sort of thing with banana, onion, cilantro, carrots, mayonnaise, and EGGS! We could say it was the crowd favorite. Other things were made and we had a big feast. The main dish was rice, beans and chicken.

After the banana tour we went to a garden where we met Jaime. Jaime is an expert at plants. He probably knows all the plants in the giant Costa Rican jungle. In this jungle we spotted a sloth, finally! And some iguanas. With Jaime we went on a trip of the senses. We tried many fruits, plants, and seeds of plants found all around us. My favorite thing that we tried was a leaf that numbed your mouth and gave an extremely weird sensation almost like licking a banana slug if you have done that. After that we had dinner. The options were nachos, spaghetti or chicken, beans and rice. If you haven’t figured out almost all they eat here with every meal is beans and rice. No complaints though. Then we headed to our hotel and fell asleep quickly. It was a good day :)

– Ben W.

Blog 2

Is it the beginning of a dream trip!.. Or a nightmare? It all started on day one, Wednesday. After a long drive through the  vineyards of California we arrived at the Sacramento airport. Thinking upon how amazing the plane was bound to be. Comfortable? Relaxing? Amazing!.. It was none of the above. After a three hour flight, we proceeded to enter the capital of Texas, Dallas. The students of TWI consumed the goods of the international airport, from Dunkin’Donuts to McDonald’s, savoring their last bites of American food. The minute before midnight the group proceeded on to American Airlines to suffer for the last five hours of the journey to Costa Rica.

After the student received 3 minutes of sleep out of 5 hours on the airplane, the impossible happens, they arrive to coconut paradise AKA Costa Rica! The students knew this as they felt the moist air touch their skin and their Costa Rican or “Costariqueno” guide welcomed them to the country of two oceans. The dry and cooler Pacific Ocean on the west side of the peninsula and the humid and warmer Caribbean Ocean found on the east side. The Costariqueno guide picks up the group along with Mow the bus driver. The groups enters the air conditioned limo bus and makes a quick stop to have some Mexican food in the town known as Sarambique. The group goes on to what they were informed was a hotel but was more like a private village! the group splits up after checkout into different rooms and meet up in the evening after shenigans within the private village pool and have gallo de pinto! A dish that carries rice and blacks beans on the side and can vary from having chicken to fish. This is where the group goes to their own rooms and get a good night sleep to finish the first day of Costa Rica.

– Victor (Giany) M.

Blog 1

The group has arrived safely in Costa Rica, more updates and pics to come.

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