Day 8

Hi everyone!

Today we all had a lot of fun, buta few set backs. This morning we woke up to pouring rain, which we reallyenjoyed our mile and a half walk in. Abby, Anna, Elizabeth, Taylor, and I alllive fairly close to each other along with the teachers, so we all startedwalking at 8:15. Along the way we picked up everyone else, and we all made itto Chilamate by 9. The rain was still coming down hard, so we all hung out inthe classroom for a little while. Davis, who is in charge of our serviceproject, came and told us that the rain was too much for us to start working.Davis decided that he wanted to tell us the story of how Chilamate got it’sstart, so we all listened to him (or Javier’s translation) and heard theinspirational beginning of what used to be his dream, which is now his reality.It was definitely an inspiring story and we are all very excited to start ourservice project ASAP. After this we walked to the location of our project, andDavis explained the type of work that we’re going to be doing. So far there isa big open area, which later will be where the Community Center will belocated. The only problem is there is a large quantity of plants that arecovering the big open area, and in order to start building the CommunityCenter, all of these plants need to be cleared out. So, over these next fewdays we will be the ones clearing out all of the unwanted plants.

            Afterseeing the location of the service project, we all hopped on a bus and drove toan organic farm, which is named “Paradise”. We all met the owner of the farm,Daniel, and ate lunch. We ate pig, tortillas, rice, beans, plantains, andvegetables, all which were organic and came from the farm. After lunch, we gota tour of the farm. It was such a fun experience. Daniel loved showing usaround, and he especially loved Hayes because he would stick anything in hismouth. Daniel would hand Hayes different leaves, and Hayes had no problemtasting them. He showed us his pepper plants, and Hayes decided it would be agood idea to eat a full bushel of them. Hahah, we definitely all got a goodlaugh. Normal pepper is rated around the number 4, while this pepper is rated a7.5. Hayes needed a lot of water after that one… We also got to feed the pigs,pet the goats, and help make compost. Mr. Scott and I got the pleasure ofspreading the animal droppings in the compost… I was definitely out of mycomfort zone for that one. Once we were done with our tour, we got on our busand headed back for Chilamate. Probably one of the best moments of the day waswhen we thought we were going to have to walk back to our homestay families,but our bus driver was nice enough to drive us and drop us off. 40 minutessaved for us that live the farthest!! He’s probably one of my favorite peoplethat I’ve met in Costa Rica so far. J

            Everyone isback at their homestay families for the day, we’ll all play with the kids, eatdinner, and go to sleep until its time for us to wake up and start our servicework tomorrow.

           

            We all misseveryone, but don’t worry! We’ll be home in six days! There’s no specificshoutouts for today, but just know that we all love and miss you very much.

            Xoxo, Aby