Friday, Final Day in Estrada

It is hard to imagine that we have been in Costa Rica for nearly an entire week, but as we look around the site of our mission project in Estrada, it is clear that much has been accomplished. Today's work included the erection of the final fence posts forming a perimeter around the church and school, and we are told that our efforts have laid the foundation for securing this property in the coming weeks.

Our "boss man," Sergio, aligning the fence posts

While the work outside is quite demanding, the relationships among the missioners has grown and the load of each shovel full of dirt is lightened by humor and many hands.

Bishop Hector (crouching) with the digging crew

Likewise, the relationships among all of us and the children continues to flourish. Our departure from Estrada today was especially heartening, as we shared a noon time Eucharist service and a wonderful meal (on fine china) with our hosts.

Joseph and the "Amazing Technicolor Entourage"

The impact of this building project is growing with each trip, and we are all encouraged by the local participation of the parents and their families as the structure takes shape, and its uses can be imagined.

Our departure from Estrada and the accommodations at Earth University led us back to San Jose, where we were again greeted by Bishop Hector and his gracious wife, Sandra. Following worship and reflection in the Diocesan House chapel, we enjoyed a delicious meal prepared by Sandra and got ready for the long day of travel ahead tomorrow.

We are all looking forward to our return to Emmanuel and can't wait to share this experience with each of you in person. Thanks for following our adventure and for your prayers while we were away.

Written by: Marcia and Gary Krasicky

Thursday, Day 4

Hello to our dear family and friends. I told Meg I would do the blog tonight because, as a newcomer to this mission, I had to tell you that I am experiencing a life changing adventure. I had listened to many of the people who have come before, but I now know why they said that it was hard to explain the feelings they have about Estrada. Each morning I wake to the excitement of returning to the village, the villagers, and, MOST OF ALL, the amazing and precious children. Tomorrow will be a difficult day. Lynne, my sister, and I are concerned that the children we are packing to bring back may make too much noise or make our bags over 50 pounds! I wonder if children have to have a passport to leave Costa Rica. Adoption takes too long, and we are having trouble with their parents. Some people just won't let go! Michelle, I am bringing Deyner and we may have to share custody!!

Some of the beautiful children of Estrada

Today was a short day because we were travelling to Limon to visit the school where Rev. Irma Watson is now the principal. She was at our service on Sunday. It was a memorial service to honor the 10th anniversary of her father's death. During his life, he was a beloved person of Santiago. After visiting, St. Mark's School, we visited her church, San Marcos, in Limon. It was a charming and welcoming place, but needs much work. We were touched by the very young children in the back of the church who were learning English. As you can see in the picture below, SOME of the students were worn out!

Sleepy head John and his little buddy

Although we enjoyed our little excursion, we all agreed that we would have rather stayed in Estrada and work and teach. It is where our hearts are!

I must tell you how proud you would be if you saw the HARD work that is being done. I am in awe of our friends who are digging the trenches day after day. I have gone out to dig a few times, but for some reason they hide the shovels. That is fine, because my heart is filled daily with smiles, hugs and little blessings. I can still sweat in the Parish Hall. I must say that the language barrier with the children has been frustrating. It amazes me how patient they are with those of us teaching. We are especially touched by the way these children take care of each other. Each day we leave, I thank God for bringing us to this wonderful mission. As we pass the children on the street, waving and smiling, knowing that they will be wandering around, we see what God wants us to do. Soon, these children will be safe, will learn many new things, and know that the entire building is wrapped in love from the people of Emmanuel Church. Thanks be to God!

Oh, by the way, we all have a great recipe for rice and beans!!!

Written By: Sandy Lampros

Wednesday, Trip 4

Greetings from Earth University. It's not even 10 o'clock at night and I'm already ready for bed! We had another successful workday in Estrada, and I had the privilege of spending the afternoon working with the (large!) group of children who came to the parish hall for games and treats. The picture above is of two of the children... aren't they beautiful?!

The work we are doing (digging ditches, mixing concrete, carrying poles) is only a small part of the impact Emmanuel is having in the community. The children come everyday with so much enthusiasm to learn from us and experience all that we bring each day. Despite the language barrier, so much love is communicated between us and the kids everyday that I leave with my heart practically exploding everyday. Today as we pulled away from the work site, there were a group of about 7 or 8 kids waving goodbye outside my window of the bus. I opened it just so I could hold their hands and remind them to come back tomorrow. I told them I love them in my best Spanish and they just smiled. Their stories have impacted me deeply and I am so burdened to give them the best I have.

Rest assured that your friends from Emmanuel are making the most of our time here in Costa Rica. When we come together each night to reflect on our days, the heartbeat of our mission shines through, and we are honored to serve together.

Below are some pictures from today:

This is Marta and one of her new friends. She is a companion officer in the Diocese of Costa Rica and my roommate this week!

We had a blast with the May pole today! The kids were hilarious.

These four girls got dressed especially for their performance (an animated dance) around the May pole.

And last, but certainly not least, one of our epic adventures today when our bus got stuck in the mud.

Written by Caitlin Clendenin

Trip 4, Day 2

So here's the story: the blog from yesterday mysteriously disappeared. It told me that it posted, and then it disappeared. We're all pretty sad about this, but I (Meaghan) am particularly sad about this because there is nothing worse than having to re-write something you have already written!

Because of this inconvenience, I'm going to quickly highlight some of the great parts of yesterday and show you some pictures. The pictures are the best part anyway, right?

We had a great day of work yesterday. More cement mixing which is RIDICULOUSLY hard here. If you want to try it at home, take a shovel out to your back yard and then put your youngest child (ok, maybe your middle child if you still have an infant) in it and then try to lift them repeatedly. Oh, and try to simulate 85 degrees with humidity. It's really hard, is all I'm trying to say. Others in the group were doing still more difficult shovel work while they dug trenches where we were pouring our concrete. Still more of us worked in the building with a massive group of children. They did crafts, sang songs, and played games. We have more and more people at the work site every day, and the mood is joyful.

You'll see that we have posted a video below. The ground we are wheelbarrow-ing concrete over is extremely bumpy and hard to navigate, making an already challenging task even more difficult. At one point there is just a huge ditch full of water. Gary and John found two four inch lengths of cement (like a cement 2x4?) and rigged a bridge for us to get the wheelbarrow over. I felt compelled to try a balance beam routine, and the great Cait Clendenin offered a terrific commentary. I hope you enjoy the video! Here are the promised pictures:

Sandy showing a picture to Ishmael

The kids doing their crafts

Yesterday's craft

The Krasicky's

Mav on the bridge

The poles along the edge of the property

Joseph fanning Lynne off at the end of a long day
And finally, the balance beam routine:

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

Trip 3, Days 7 and 8!

Our last full day in Costa Rica began with beautiful sunshine and a breakfast by the ocean. Due to our late arrival and the rain the night before, we hadn't really gotten to see much of the beach until morning. We planned to meet late in the morning so that everyone could relax or sleep in as they chose. Some took advantage of the air conditioned room and slept in, while others had an early breakfast and went for a walk on the beach.

The hotel dining room is an open room with beautiful views of the ocean and we all enjoyed listening to the waves as we ate breakfast. After breakfast, most of us decided to spend the morning taking an Aerial Tram Tour of a nearby rainforest while a few of us decided to stay behind and relax by the ocean.

We arrived at the rainforest and were met by our guide, Hugo, who first took us took us on an hour long walking tour around the gardens and the serpentarium. We were all especially impressed by the medicine garden and all it had to offer. At the serpentarium Hugo explained how to tell the difference between poisonous and non-poisonous snakes and about ehd ifferent varieties of snakes that are indigenous to Costa Rica. We then walked around and saw a variety of snakes in cages, including a boa constrictor whom we had fun teasing.

After the walking tour we split into two groups and went up into the rainforest on gondolas for the aerial tour. On the way up the cars hung lower into the rainforest, allowing us to see up close the trees, plants, and animals there (one group saw a sloth, one group a monkey, and both groups many spiders and birds). Our guides were wonderful, stopping the gondolas several times to allow us longer and more detailed looks at things. On the way down the cars hung up higher giving us spectacular views out over the forest to the ocean.

After a late lunch at the restaurant we had eaten at the night before (it was so good we just had to go back) we went back to the hotel to enjoy the beach and the hotel pool. A few of us braved the waves and went out into the ocean, though none of us was brave enough to try surfing. We went to dinner at one of the popular local restaurants where we sampled delicious seafood and Costa Rican dishes before heading across the street to TCBY for dessert.

We also socialized with members of a youth group from the Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Columbia, South Carolina. Although not technically from NORTH Carolina, Trinity is participating in our companion diocese relationship with the Diocese of Costa Rica. This particular group had been working during the week at the Diocesan House, and will eventually be building a new school in Heredia, near San Jose.

We shared Compline together when we got back to the hotel before going to bed.

We woke in the morning and had breakfast, enjoying our last hours at the gorgeous beach before reluctantly packing and boarding the bus for the final time. We arrived at the airport in plenty of time, said goodbye to our magnificent driver Marvin, and checked in before heading to our gate. We did some last minute shopping before having lunch and watching the Argentina-Mexico soccer match in the waiting area at the gate.

Overall it was a wonderful trip and touched us deeply. I know personally, having been on the last trip in February, I felt that I knew what to expect from the week, but from the moment we arrived I found myself constantly surprised and awakened by new experiences and insights. I feel incredibly blessed and grateful to have had the opportunity to visit this wonderful community and country not once, but twice. I hope that through this blog we have been able to convey to all of you, at least a little bit, how much these trips and the community and people of Estrada mean to all of us.

See you all again in February.

written by Katharine Vess

Trip 3, Day 6

Our last day at Earth and in Estrada began much as the other days had, with a breakfast of rice and beans and a short morning prayer, this time led by Katharine. We arrived in Estrada and were greeted by our work crew and a group of children (some of whom had run to the church behind the bus). To our surprise and delight there were even more new faces among the children gathered and we set about getting to know them and finishing our work projects.

The painters worked hard and soon ran out of paint and so moved on to help with other projects. On the second floor of the building, most of the outer frame was up and so we worked to get as many of the roof trusses up as possible, an interesting and impressive feat without a crane! And of course, we continued to play with the kids, enjoying our final morning with them.

After a delicious lunch, which we enjoyed with many of the children, we took lots of pictures and received lots of hugs before reluctantly loading onto the van and heading back to Earth one last time. After quick showers and a few last minute purchases at Earth we headed out. You may remember that when the group was here in February, they purchased a tree to plant on the Earth University campus in the name of Emmanuel Episcopal Church. We talked with the staff at Earth and they told us where the tree was planted, so on our way out we stopped to visit our tree. It is still very small, but looks good. It is a part of a nice hedge along the side of the road that leads to the main campus.

The main road through the mountains of San Jose was, thankfully, open, after being closed on and off during the week due to mudslides, and we made it to San Jose by 5pm. We stopped at the Diocesan House to drop off Father John, who had to return to Emmanuel a day early for the Bishop's visit on Sunday, and Clarence, before quickly getting back on the road. Unfortunately, the new road to the Pacific coast was closed and we had to take the long way, driving through the rain and traffic for three hours before arriving at Jaco Beach. We checked into our very nice rooms at the Cocal Hotel and Casino before going out for a late dinner.

Leaving Estrada, and all of our new friends there was sad and we were all sorry to go. Saying goodbye, however, was made easier knowing that our connection with this community has been strengthened and that we will return, some of us in person, others through pictures and stories brought back by others who will make the journey next time.