2024 Laurelhurst Costa Rica Service Adventure

Blog 6

Today was such a fun day! We started kind of sad by leaving our host families in the morning, and it was a rough time for all of us. We were all pretty close with our host families and we didn’t want to have to say goodbye. After that, we got to take the bus to a waterfall that we got to swim in. The water was so clear and clean and the nature around it was so green. We swam in the water for a long time, and got it eat our lunch down there.

After the waterfall, we got back on the bus to head to our final destination for the trip, the Tucan Hotel. The hotel is gorgeous, with hammocks and couch’s everywhere and plants lining the halls. As soon as we got there, Iimmediately jumped in the pool and spent most of the night in there. After we got settled in we went out to dinner at a delicious restaurant down the street. We swam a lot more and hung out in the common area, and had a pretty chill night after that. Overall, it was such a fun day and I’m so excited for tomorrow!

– Evelyn & Ravenna

Blog 5

Last night there was a soccer game between Costa Rica and Brazil. We all went to watch at the cafe. We mostly talked and didn’t really watch but the end score was 0-0. According to many people this is a victory for Costa Rica because Brazil is a lot better than them so a tie is way better than losing.

Today was our last day of working at the school. We cleaned and painted tires for decoration. We continued to paint the walls orange. And we cleaned up their greenhouse. Our host families brought us lunch many of us had rice. We then worked some more but then it started raining so we had to go under cover. We then went to the community center to help get ready for our party tonight. Everyone then went back to their host families houses to clean up and rest before going to the party.

We all then headed to the community center with our host families at 6. We then ate dinner which was arroz con pollo (rice with chicken), beans and salad. It was very good. Some of us played duck, duck, goose with some of the local kids. We then had some performances. Cleo, Ravenna and Bronson played “Count on Me” by Bruno Mars. Bronson and Eric performed the song they had written in Spanish about our stay here so far. Evelyn and Brennen then gave a last minute speech as well. After that we played karaoke using our favorite songs that Señora Lewis showed us. There was a piñata that we all got to hit at with a wooden broom stick.

The broom did not last long because Grant hit the piñata so hard the broom split in to two pieces. Once the piñata was opened we all rushed to get the candy. We then got cake with the Costa Rica flag on it. After that we just talked to friends and then went back to our houses. Most of us then prepared to leave the next morning for UVITA!

– Ellie

Blog 4

We got up a bit later than usual. Then we ate breakfast and started to walk to the school. The school had a ton of decorations because there was an art festival going on. We all sat down and the festival began. There were a ton of kids who performed dances, skits, and song songs. Then around 11:30 we got lunch and started working on painting and cleaning the walls. It started to rain a little bit so we went under cover. After the rain stopped we all walked over to our dance lessons. Right when we got there it started pouring and thundering. The dance instructor taught us salsa dancing and one other dance that I can’t remember the name of. After that our host families picked us up and we all went home and rested.

– Stuart

Blog 3

We woke up today at 6:30. Me, Ardi, Eleanor ate some granola and in a fruity yogurt, which was pretty good. At 7:45 we met with some friends to walk to the school and help out with the rest of our classmates. I then worked on painting the first of a couple walls with friends with a beautiful terracota color. I switched over to helping power-wash the more mossy and dirty wall in the back (which was pretty satisfying). After taking a small break and hydrating, I then when back to painting the 1st wall, and once it was all done, then made concrete to make a wall over a small river (for
safety purposes I’m guessing).

Between all the painting and mixing and pouring of concrete, I was very dirty and tired so a quickly washed off with a damp paper towel and took a break. After, I then I helped with the 2nd and 3rd walls with a large paint rollers (which take a lot of unique strength weirdly), and it started very slightly raining. We went to help in their school garden. It was sooooo cool seeing how these kids ate extremely fresh veggies in comparison to our highly processed ‘lunch’ in America.

I spent the time by firstly pruning and pulling veggies from old beds and replanting them. I then took out the old dirt and placed it in a wheelbarrow for someone else to place in the next room to make a new bed for other plants When all the dirt was removed from the beds, me and some others smashed the old bed (made of wood and sooooo satisfying to destroy) and took the wood to be later composted/ recycled in someway. In about a half-hour later everyone came out. We cleaned up the small area outside where people had been chilling and such to get ready for the Arts Festival tomorrow. It was still raining hard by this point so to go to the next activity we went in groups of four in a car with Patrica to the place.

When we were all there, we had the pleasure to be taught to make keychains by a kind local woman named Isabell. She gave us all the necessary materials and more and was very kind and patient. We had UV resin, small keychain bases stickers with our names, glitters, chains, ribbon and more. It was very high quality and extremely fun to do with friends.

After we got picked up by our host family and played cards, ate pizza for dinner (which is better than American pizza in my opinion), and then invited 2 friends over to play cards with us again at 7. I had sooooo much fun, working a very fulfilling job by helping a local school for 5-6~hours, had ice cream, played with friends, was in literal COSTA RICA!, and much more I didn’t put in here. I love and cherish each day and I hope the others do too.

-Lucy B.

Blog 2: Guadalupe

Today we woke up, got ready, and ate a wonderful breakfast. Some people had a traditional American breakfast of eggs and bacon, while others had rice, beans, and fruit. We then walked down to the front of the school where we are working at. Once everyone was there they oppened the gate and we got to it. We made concrete, scraped and deep cleaned brick walls, poured the concrete, and moved large scraps from the greenhouse. After around 2 hours we went across the street and a kind neighbor invited us to pick mangoes from his yard. Then we walked to a soccer field and played games with kids from around the area and afterwards ate pizza and ice cream. After that we came back to the school and finished the same jobs. It was very tiring but also enjoyable. Once the rain hit we hung out under a covered structure, listened to live music, played basketball, and recapped our day. Then we got picked up by our host families and ended the day. Was a great a day.

– Brennen

Blog 1

The day before today we had gone on 2 plane rides and after went to a hotel to eat pizza and talk about the trip. Today we woke up to birds singing and beautiful views. We ate a good breakfast and left the hotel to go too our host families houses. It was a long bus ride but the views were
gorgeous so it was worth it.

We saw the first restaurant in Central America, and come cool buildings when we were in San José and we also got to see the city from up high a little later. We saw the valley from up high which was cool because they had lots of jungle with different plants and mountains. We also saw the highes village in Costa Rica. We went really high up when we were on the bus, highest we went to was about 1100 feet. Near the end of the bus ride we went to this cow farm that made cheese. Most of us milked a cow so that was cool, and some even tried the milk straight from the cow, one student even said, “”It tastes like milk from a Starbucks steamer” We also feed milk to a one month old cow which was soo cute. After that we got a tour of how they make cheeses, a story of how they started making cheese, and we got to try some! Al of it was really cool I enjoyed it a lot.

– Cleo