Trip: Costa Rica May 2023 Team
Dates: May 27 - June 4, 2023
Location: Heredia, Costa Rica

Our team had a great week serving Roblealto Childcare Association, our partners in Costa Rica! This invite only trip consisted of two families that created their own team to serve abroad. We were able to impact the ministry with three different projects: dental care, hair cutting, and construction projects. Read more bleow!

This is a short video recap of our International Service Trip made by our partners!

Read daily recaps below! ⬇️

Day 1

After an overnight travel day for everyone, the team landed and enjoyed a local lunch while getting to know the hosts. Then a stop at the market to grab some items for the week and finally off to Roblealto! 🇨🇷✈️🛒

When they arrived, they settled in and carried their donation bags in the rain into the team house where they unpacked and sorted the donations they brought. Then a self guided tour of the facilities led them to running into some kids and playing soccer with some of them! The day ended with a delicious dinner and team bonding! Ready to start serving tomorrow! 🧳☔️⚽️

Day 2

Orientation by our partners, set up the project sites, coffee break, then the team got divided to work on our three projects: dental work on the kids, haircuts for kids and house parents, and construction to expand the school! 🦷💇‍♀️🔨

But intense rain and thunder slowed things down and even flooded the construction site. Rain was gone in the late afternoon which allowed for soccer with the kids! ☔️⛈️⚽️

In the evening, each team member had dinner at a different care home house and got to be part of their family for the night.🍴💙🏠

Day 3

5am wake up call to help with a concrete and excavation crew! The whole team worked together to finish leveling out the soon to be classrooms. 🚧🛠🚜

After a quick breakfast the team went off to their work stations. Rain came down hard once again today but that didn't stop them! The hair salon and dental office saw over 22 clients each. For perspective, in a typical work day, they see 7 clients! 😲🦷💇‍♀️

The rest of the team arrived-so they are finally complete! After lunch in the guest homes, they finished work and hosted a workshop for the girls of the homes. It included gymnastics, indoor soccer, basketball, bracelet making, spikeball, Cornhole, and more! ⚽️🏀🤸‍♀️

They had a wonderful dinner as a team to wrap up the day! 🙏✨

Day 4

The team had another very productive day in all 3 ongoing projects: construction, haircutting/styling, and dentistry. The dentistry team saw 21 kids today! 🛠💇‍♀️🦷

Coffee breaks have been delicious and help keep the team going!☕️🥐😋

The rain called for play time with the younger kids in the cafeteria and finally dinner in our houses. ☔️🏠🍴

Day 5

The team spent another busy day working on projects. 🤗🤝

They started the day joining the children for a school wide devotional to kick off the school wide campaign to care for one another. 🙏🏫

Our team hosted a hair cutting lesson for house parents equipping them with skills to help care for the children in their homes. 💇‍♀️🏠

The afternoon was filled with some soccer in the fog with the kids! ⚽️🇨🇷

The team wrapped up the day with a pizza party for all the kids! 🍕🙌

Day 6

A final day of construction work, hair, cutting, and dentistry work. 🛠💇‍♀️🦷

The team wrapped everything up before lunch and headed to their homes for a last meal and a goodbye. They shared gifts and letters with them, and they returned letters of love. It was extremely special. There were even tears shed as they boarded the bus to head home to their families for the weekend. 💌🏠🚌🥲

The day ended with a big soccer game where surprisingly, our team (USA) beat the locals (Costa Rica). Lepi (PE Coach) took the team on an incredible night time river/waterfall hike all in the dark. They were all super tired when they finished the day. 🇺🇸⚽️🇨🇷🌄

Day 7

The team made their way to La Paz Waterfall Park for the day, talk about amazing! It was a total immersion experience into the high mountain rain forest which included a unique experience in an animal sanctuary, delicious lunch, some swimming and rock jumping, and a wet hike down a few waterfalls! 🇨🇷🌊🌿

Everyone in the group learned new facts about butterflies, snakes, frogs, birds, and sloths. They enjoyed a great lunch at the sanctuary. 🦋🐍🐸🐤🦥

On their way back to the Hogar Bíblico, they stopped for ice cream & visited the Heredia plaza. 🍦

Back at the team house, they did their final reflection of the week and set goals for themselves as they return home. The night ended with some intense Spikeball tournaments with the PE coach/hike guide/friend: Lepi! 🙏✨