2017 Costa Rica
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Life in Costa Rica
In January of 2017, we helped lead a group of Teens on a Mission Trip to Costa Rica where they would receive training, and then embark on helping the indigenous tribes. Our base camp was a facility called Bucuare Jungle. Here is our accommodations. Some beautiful but rustic cabins for the couples. And agroup bunk house for the boys (across a rickety bridge over the alligators).
Here is a "Costa Rican Shower". Since there is no hot water, they use this contraption to create an electrical short to heat the water just before it gets to you.
Here is our group
Here is Mark teaching and training the teens.
Outreach to an Indigenous Tribe
We made a visit to an indigenous tribe. We brought food bags for the families, plus a ton of donated clothes. The teens played music, danced, blew up balloon animals, and played with the kids. This building is their church.
We had to ride in a wagon, which is towed by a tractor, in order to get up the mountain to the tribe.
Some ladies with their children.
The group loved playing balloon sword fights with some of the kids.
The Balloon Animals were a hit with the kids. Here they are lining up to get a balloon animal and balloon sword.
Here are two beautiful kids that hitched a ride with us on the wagon down the mountain.
Here is our group in the wagon on the ride down the mountain.
Here is our group sorting food and organizing food bags for the Indigenous Tribe.
More Sorting for the food give away.
Visiting a Nursing Home
We had a visit to a nursing home in El Bambú, Bri Bri. We talked to the residents, passed out socks, underwear, and had cake and coffee. Later the teens did praise and worship, dance, and puppets for the residents.
These folks like to get outside and enjoy the sunlight & fresh air.
Meet Enrique, the parrot master.
Meet Teo. He loved seeing his face on camera.
Meet Guillermo. He was able to share with us a bit about his life.
Visiting an Orphanage
Orphanage Visit. We spent about 4 hours with the orphans, loving on them and playing games with them. Teens presented a puppet show to them, and played music for them, and danced with them. Most time was spent in the open outside quad area, but we did get a look inside their living quarters as well. This photo is of our teens in the quad area (before the orphans came out), and is the only photo I took, because we were not allowed to take photos of the orphans (for their safety). This facility is run well, and takes good care of the kids. Within the walls of the property, the kids live in separate homes, with about 12 kids each, with a "Tia" (which means Aunt, or house mom). It was a very emotional day, as many kids here actually have parents that don't want them or who had abused them. Seeing this makes You want to take them all home with you. The kids loved our group's visit.
Team Challenge Activities
As a part of this program, we conducted some Team Building Challenge Activities. These sessions consisted of our Mission Group Teens from all over America, plus a group of young people from some nearby Indigenous Tribes. What a great time, learning to work together to solve the challenges.
More Team Building Challenge Activities.
Even more, Team Building Challenge Activities. It takes team work to climb up the slippery ramp.
When some of the teens make you a Balloon Hat, you then HAVE TO wear that Hat. You can tell that Mark is "supervising", just by that stance.
The Cacao Farm
The Cacao (KAH-COW) farm. They grow the cacao tree whose seeds (beans) they also process into organic chocolate. They also have a coffee shop called CariBean, where the sell coffee and chocolate. They are located near Puerto Viejo on the Caribbean Coast. We came here to learn about the Cacao Industry, as this has to do with one of the socio-economic projects undertaken by this mission group throughout the rest of the year. The goal of the project is to teach native populations to grow their own Cacao. The mission helps fund the purchase of new trees, and helps created a mechanism by which they can sell their harvest.
This is the owner of the Cacao (KAH-COW) farm giving us a tour. He talked about righteousness and restoration the whole tour tying it into restoring the Creation. Awesome message!
He cut some open for us to try. Doesn't taste like chocolate in this stage. The large seeds are inside, kinda like you would find in a pumpkin, only much more organized. The three boxes behind him are what he used to begin the process, which involves a fermentation process similar to making grapes to wine. Obviously this is a small scale production.
This is their cacao bean drying tables.
A "chocolate tasting" experience. Some were more nutty, others more fruity. We also tried pairing with various spices to see how the flavors changed.
This is a "Ceiba" tree, that was on the farm. It is just a "baby". They grow up to 10 feet wide or more. You should Google this tree, as you will be impressed. And look at the spikes on this thing... no tree huggers for this tree!
On The Way Home
On the way home we made a stop down by a river. Across the river, is actually Panama. They harvest organic bananas in Panama and the boat them across the river at this spot to sell in Costa Rica. In the background is one of those boats.
Crossing the river.
Riding in the Van to get to the river.
Also, on the way home, we stopped to do some ziplining through the rain forest.
2017 Costa Rica
THANKS FOR TAKING THIS JOURNEY WITH US!
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