TRIP 4!!!

Greetings to all our family members and friends back in North Carolina! This is the first blog entry for our February 2011 mission trip to Costa Rica, and we thank you for tuning in to hear about our trip.

For those of you who are reading about our project in Costa Rica for the first time, here is a brief introduction to the topic. Our Parish (Emmanuel Episcopal, Southern Pines) is working with the Santiago Mission of the Episcopal Diocese of Costa Rica to build a school and parish hall in Estrada, Limon Province Costa Rica. The building, once completed, will be called Hogar Escuela (Home School) Estrada. Santiago Mission, and the school, are nestled amongst the banana plantations of Costa Rica. It is an area of tremendous natural beauty, and great need.

This is our fourth mission trip to Estrada, and our principal project will be to construct a fence around the church and school. We are inspired by the contributions of the teams which preceded us, the Parish-wide moral, spiritual and financial support of this important project and the support of our families back at home. We are having a wonderful experience and know that it would not be possible without you.

Our team members are Meaghan Kelly, Caitlan Clendenin, Marcia and Gary Krasicky, John Fessenden, Mav Hankey, Carolyn Giltzow, Cynthia Norwood, Sandy Lampros, Lynne Brown, Stuart Mills and Joseph Payne. We are also working closely with Marta Davis, the companion relationship officer of our own Diocese of Costa Rica.

We convened on Saturday morning early. After a brief prayer together in John Fessenden's driveway, we set off for Charlotte. From Charlotte Douglas we flew directly to San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica. We were met at the airport there by Marta, and our bus driver Marcos, and drove directly (with a brief stop for dinner at Rancho Robertos, an Emmanuel roadside favorite). to Earth University, where we are staying.

On Sunday morning we worshipped in the church at Santiago. The small church was filled. The congregation included 30 or more children, many of whom we knew from previous trips. We were made to feel extremely welcome. A beautiful lunch was provided afterwards in the new building which is looking awesome! After a tour of Earth, we ate dinner in the cafeteria, played a spirited game of "Truth, Truth, Lie" (a getting to know you game), read compline together and separated for some private time.

Today was our first day of work at the jobsite. Within a few minutes of our arrival at Santiago, two trucks arrived with construction materials for our project. These materials were purchased with funds provided by generous donations from our parish, and we worked together to unload and store away the materials. A natural circle was formed as we unloaded more than 1300 cinderblocks and stacked them alongside the new building.

We then separated into work teams. One team dug trenches to accomodate the fence around the property. Another team mixed concrete on the ground, hauled it to the trenches and placed the poles in the concrete. Others worked cleaning the jobsite of debris. We also hosted and entertained a group of local children in the new building.

All in all, it was hard but rewarding work. We are impressed by the accomplishments to date, but also very much aware of the additional work required. Over the course of the day we were all conscious of missing our loved ones back in the U.S. on this Valentines Day. We look forward to seeing all of you when we return on Saturday, February 19. More tommorrow . . .

In the meantime, here are some pictures from our trip so far:

The flowers at beautiful Earth University.

Two of the children of Estrada

Cait Clendenin with the local children

The building in its current form

Teenage Mutant Ninja Surgeon

The pile of cinderblocks we moved from the truck

Digging out the ditch for the foundation of the fence

Written by Stuart Mills