Thursday:
Brady and I were on a team that played with students Mon / Wed and painted Tue / Thu. That meant we weren't really going to spend much time with the students...or so I thought.
We arrived at the school at our normal time. However, this time the school had students lined up in two lines to greet us (think football tunnel the bands or cheerleaders make for the football team). When I saw this was what we were going to be going through, the water-works started. And it was ugly. I had to walk to the back of the line to TRY to compose myself. Brady was not happy I couldn't keep it together, but I think he understood, as did the rest of the team, that this was a very special gesture for us.
As we entered the tunnel one student picked us to give us a small gift of a single Hershey's Kiss and then hugged us. (Hug and Kisses, get it?) I cried the ugly cry yet again. Here these less than privileged students are GIVING me something and I feel like I am giving them NOTHING.
I made it through the tunnel, tears and all, and continued to the large meeting area to regroup both physically (with our team) and emotionally. From there we broke up into our teams for the classrooms and painting.
Brady and I helped bring up painting supplies to the 2nd level of the school where we were painting. I should describe that a bit more though - the school only had 1 floor - but each "wing" of the school was tiered up the hill - there were 3 tiers. we were painting on the middle tier, or what I just referred to as the 2nd level.
Today was the last day and we had to complete the big "Eres Importante" mural, plus some more hand rails, benches, walls and touch up several areas that were missed due to simply not being tall enough.
I was recruited by Alfredo, the artist in charge of the painting project at the school, to come help finish the mural. I was happy to help wherever, but this was a neat place to paint. I took several pictures of this mural's transformation over the week:
Brady went off to help paint the hand rails.
Unfortunately, about the time we started paining, a light rain also started - which caused the wet paint to run and drip. UGH! Brady's team was uncovered to the elements and of course, dripping paint all over the walk ways under the hand rails. So, we stopped them from painting and had them grab some drop cloths to put underneath until the rain stopped. But all was not lost. They went off and played with the students which kept them busy until the rain stopped. Brady did come over because he wanted to be part of that mural, so I let him paint some of the red flowers.
I was handed a tiny cup of paint for the mural and told to do a second coat and smooth out the lines. The wall we were painting was a cement wall and very porous - so making these lines "smooth" was a challenge - but it worked out ok.
During one of the bells for recess, I video'd what the bell sounded like (remember I told you it sounded like a bomb raid alarm???!!) listen to it for yourself here and tell me what you think. I also tried to capture the students headed back to class. Hope you can see that there was no "line up and return to class" thing. Also - they still operate there like most places in CR - on "Tico Time" which is kinda like "island time" ....and I often thought this was like the saying in the movie "Pirates of the Caribbean" where the Pirate Code was more like guidelines than rules. HAHAHA!
Before I knew it, it was time for lunch. This time, however, the lunch ladies had a special treat for us - they had dressed up the tables with colorful cloths and centerpieces that they handmade - AND they SERVED us - like we were told to sit and they waited on us by bringing our food and drinks. Que the tears AGAIN. I was just so moved by them feeling like they should serve us AT ALL. We were there to SERVE them!!! Lunch was a delicious fried white fish with rice and beans (of course) and more of that delicious freshly made juice!
After lunch, the students were either leaving to go home or were just arriving. (they only go for half a day because there are so many) I ran into "my girls" from Wednesday and they wanted to play tag with me, so we did. :-) The bell rang shortly after we started playing and I told them (well, I TRIED to tell them in Spanish, but who knows if what I was really saying made any sense??!!) that I would meet them at the next recess in the big area and play with them again.
Back to painting. It finally was dry enough to finish other uncovered painting, so that was tackled. Also, Courtney was chatting with the lunch ladies and discovered that there was a table outside the lunchroom that they wished were painted too. So, Courtney pulled together some painters and got the table painted for them. This is the place where the teachers and lunch ladies sometimes sit to eat, so it was a special way to acknowledge them this week. They were very appreciative!
After lunch things were more about clean up and the final touches than anything. Remember all the paint dripping during the rain? Well, that had to be cleaned up. We had wire brushes to clean the sidewalks and everyone went to work on getting all those drips cleaned up.
Also, some guys felt like the overgrown grass around our newly painted benches and halls needed to be trimmed. So, those guys cut the grass by hand. When I say "by hand" - that is exactly what I mean. They were pulling grass up by hand. It looked awesome once they were done too!
After all was cleaned up and tools all brought back to the big meeting area, it was time for a goodbye assembly with the entire school. Our team had special seating upfront just like we did for the Monday session. This time, after a few musical performances, we were called up on stage to receive a large envelope with artwork from the students. As you can imagine, I couldn't even look at it - I knew I would cry. In fact, I still haven't opened mine. I wanted to get home and have time to look at these alone.
After the assembly, "my girls" found me and wanted to know if we were coming back the next day...I cried and said no...and they just hugged and hugged me. One little girl did the Catholic cross from my forehead, chest and shoulders and put her hands into a praying way and said something then pointed at ME! I was very taken by this. I was praying for THEM and she tells me she is praying for me!!! I lost it! Ugly cry again. A team member came by and asked if I wanted her to take a picture of me with the girls, which I am grateful for. Here we are - my face red and puffy from my ugly cry and all....
If I could, I would have adopted every single one of those 5 girls and brought them home to Georgia!!
It was time to leave, but I saw one final thing I wanted to share - if you recall, in my last post I mentioned that the bathrooms had no toilet paper (or hand soap) in the bathrooms. Well, I learned that apparently, the teachers must keep that in the room and when the student asks to go - they have a small basket (metal) that contains both the TP and the hand soap and they carry it to the bathroom with them. I only learned this because just prior to us leaving, I saw a student carrying that to the bathrooms with her. So mystery solved!
We left the school and part of my heart stayed right there in that school in Costa Rica. I prayed a lot for God to watch over those students - to protect and keep them safe and for me to one day see them again and hug them!
We didn't have much time when we returned to the hotel because we were being treated to a nice dinner out for the week! So, we ran to shower and get dressed up and meet back at in the lobby in an hour.
They drove us to a mountain side restaurant - imagine a charter bus driving through winding streets that were barely large enough for 1 car to drive down! It was crazy. At one point, we were having a stand-off with a small truck - to decide who was going to back up and move over to let the other pass....WHILE ON A HILL!!! Needless to say, the small truck eventually backed up to let us through. Once there, we understood why they brought us up to this particular restaurant. THE VIEW was INCREDIBLE!!! Here are a few pictures to feast your eyes on!
View of the city of San Juan - with a cloud passing by!
After dinner (which was a buffet style deal - how else would you feed bus loads of people quickly??), there was a "show" of sorts. A dancing presentation that "tells the story" of how folks were coffee farmers and picked/harvested the coffee. It was fun to watch - and especially entertaining with some guy who made a pig squeal sound about every other minute.
The dancers broke off and went into the crowd and selected folks to come dance with them. Brady ran to the other side of the restaurant to avoid dancing!!! I was eventually asked so I went and danced for a minute. It was fun, but my dancer guy handed me off to another guest, who like me, had no idea what we were supposed to be doing. So we thanked each other and walked off the dance floor!
Then it was time to leave for the hotel. It was a late night and we had a very early morning the next morning, so when we returned, we went straight to bed.
Friday:
We had to be at breakfast by 6 am, so we could leave by 7 am. Our "fun day" included 2 activities for us plus a long bus ride - 1.5 hrs.
First, we went ziplining through a tropical forest. It was so cool! The actual zipline took no time at all, it was the platforms and waiting for each person to go that took most of the time. It was super fun and Brady and I both took advantage of the option to "go upside down" on one of the lines. Here are those pics!!
Then, after Zip Lining, we went to the beach which was part of a Nature Preserve. We saw monkeys in trees, iguanas, raccoon looking critters, and red toucan looking birds up in trees. Besides the wildlife there, it was a very nice uncrowded beach. The kids all played in the ocean and the adults either napped, read books or waded in the surf. We only got to spend about 2 hrs there, but it was very much worth the drive and effort to get there!
Monkey in Tree
Iguana?
Raccoon thing
Red Bird - maybe a Toucan?
For our last day, we had dinner back at the hotel with the head of the Hope Center - this is the organization we were partnered with and who selected the school and coordinated our work there for us. She gave us some numbers that summarized our work and impact at the school. We were all humbled by what God was accomplishing through the Hope Center. Not a single one of us wanted to leave CR. We all wanted to go back to that school and finish painting the last level - that is left for another group coming behind us - but we still wanted to finish that school!!
Saturday:
Packing and Arrival back in Atlanta....
Packing up was sad. Driving to the airport was also sad.
We said our goodbyes...
... to our bus driver, Mr. D, who was an INCREDIBLE driver to maneuver that bus like he did through all the traffic and small streets!
... to our translators - Emmanuel and Alejandro (Nilsen left on Thursday)
and ultimately once in Atlanta, to each other.
We all vowed to do this again soon - already planning for our next Global X trip to Costa Rica - so we could all get back to THAT school and THOSE kids.
Until next time folks. Thank you for your support whether prayers, financial or both, we appreciated this opportunity to be a part of this so very special trip.
Trisha & Brady
