Lifeworks teen summer community service and adventure summer camps and programs.

Days 1-7 | Days 8-14 | Days 15-21

Mystic museum adventures

Day 8: June 28

Author: Russell
Location: Santa Ana

I woke up to banging from Ella (my neighbor). She came to my door and I said I was up. Jorge and I got out of bed about 30 minutes later and made our way to breakfast. I ate pineapple, very great pineapple, juicy, luscious, fresh pineapple. Soon after I took my malaria pill. We got on the bus and went to the school in La Carpio. Today was hot and sweaty. We finally started building the wall. These cement blocks are over 100lbs. Furthermore we have the pleasure of lifting them over ten feet in the air with out the use of machinery. It was quite the workout, and Jorge felt very manly doing it. He shows me his muscles a lot. They aren't very big. Don't tell him I said that. We got on the bus and ate hamburgesas on our way to the children's museum. We got to hang out with the kids from the kindergarden in La Carpio for 3 hours in the museum. This is not as fun as it sounds. The museum is a horrible place filled with shinny distracting lights and giant red buttons. You have to click every button out of sheer wonder. When we were trying to escape, Brad and I got lost. A mechanical man (a model of the first Costa Rican astronaut) began speaking to us. I was frightened. I ran. I pushed buttons on my way out, of course. Finally on the bus ride home, I gave Brad a head massage. We hanged out until dinner, and then we had some lasagna and peanut butter sandwiches (odd native food??). Well right after dinner I began to write this so I don't know what will happen the rest of the night. Maybe Shrek (in Spanish), maybe the usual guy conference, maybe sneaking around with my clown mask on (I secretly bought this today at the museo). Tomorrow we leave early to make our way to Tortuguero. Good night.

Happyland!

Day 9: June 29

Author: Mia
Location: San Jose to Limon

This morning began very early with a paranoid leader of the day, Laura, asking what time it is with the answer being 3:11am. A couple of hours later, at 5:45, I was told to get up and get going. Not two minutes after she left to get everyone else up, I heard "Jorge!!!! Russell!!!! GET UP!!!!!" Ha! That didn't even get them up, so I heard the whole story of their grand awakening later on the three and a half hour bus ride, which was long but beautiful. After the first two hours, we stopped for breakfast at a cool little restaurant. It had a nice little fire and the food was delicious. Another hour later, we met a group of indigenous people. These people were simply amazing. Just two years ago they had just started to learn about art, school, language, etc. They had several crafts that were simply stunning. They had made decorative animals out of bark cloth, which is a tedious process in the first place. They also had an assortment of necklaces and other jewellery. Gail and the others played with some of the kids. This was very funny considering they were trying to explain how a Frisbee works via gestures. Then we were shown the school by one of their teachers. He told us about the background of the school building and it was shocking. The progress it had made in the last two years was really amazing. After all this we went to Happyland. Yeah! It's great! There are everlasting rainbows and horses! And huge pots of Gold!! Uhm no. It's the hotel. We had a lot of fun in the pool playing on the slide and seeing who could do the best imitation of a seal. But I must say the showers are pretty nice. I can just imagine when we are all home taking our showers, we'll all think "Ah...I haven't had a shower like this since...well...since Happyland."

Limon to Tortuguero

Day 10: June 30

Author: Jorge
Location: Limon to Tortuguero

This morning after a delicious breakfast we took a five minute van ride over to the docks where we were greeted by Willis. Once aboard his two launches and well on our way to Tortuguero, I realized that I had left my bag and my passport on the bus*. The reason I lost my passport with my bag was that I did not feel the need to tell the staff that I, in fact, had two passports, only one of which I turned in when explicitly asked for my official documents. This situation was not as bad as it seems for I had remembered my two bags of snacks. So while I munched on my snacks and enjoyed the jungle tour my fears about the location of my passport slowly faded. The jungle tour was amazing!! We saw lots of wildlife. We got within almost reaching distance of the granddaddy of all crocodiles while we discussed who could wrassel him into submission. Then we were set upon by a whole group of monkeys who were obviously trying to tell us something by the way they screamed at us. All too soon we arrived at the hotel on the river. We spent the next hour trying to discover how many people you can fit into four hammocks (eleven for those who are wondering). From Willis we walked over to museum were we learned EVERYTHING there is to know about green sea turtles. Armed with this knowledge we attacked the trash on the beach so that the turtles might have a clean spot to lay their eggs, (100-120 per nest). That night our turtle knowledge came in handy, as we tracked down one in order to observe her laying her eggs in the dead of night. This is made especially hard by the fact that turtles are so fast on the land. After watching her lay her eggs we all realized we were dead tired and decided to go to bed. Tomorrow would be another full day.

*Don't worry I got my passport back. Hi Mom!

La Selva Biological Station

Day 11: July 1

Author: Josh
Location: La Selva Biological Station

After breakfast at Willis we had a nice relaxing boat ride back to Limon. On the way back we saw even more monkeys. We had a wonderful lunch at the Relaxed Turtle. Once we arrived at the biological station we put our stuff away and had a spirited, awesome, somewhat violent game of Spoons/Kemps. This was followed by a great dinner where everyone thoroughly enjoyed the chocolate milk. That night we played human Jenga in the staffers' room (see photo). Then we had a great Lifeworks forum about destiny, with people spread across several bunk beds and a few rafters. Everyone had really good ideas and interesting opinions. Everyone was so into the discussion that we talked about it for several hours till we realized we needed our sleep for the day ahead, which would be here in about 6 hours.

Jungle adventure

Day 12: July 2

Author: Sarah
Location: Sarapiqui

After packing our bags at La Selva and eating breakfast we meet up with several jungle guides and split up into two groups for a nature hike. We saw ants as big as Cheetos, very smelly pigs, Macaws, spiders almost as huge as the ones in Jumanji, and legions of army ants. The first group also claims that they were privy to the second-ever jaguar sighting in the history of La Selva, though proof remains to be seen.

Then we got onto the buss and went to the white-water rafting headquarters. It was the maiden voyage for many but our experienced guides assured us of the upcoming AWESOME time. Once we were a little bit down the river many stopped to jump off a side cliff into the water. Even further along we pulled ashore for a much needed break with watermelon (sanda) and pineapples (pia). During this break we climbed the giant hill to the top of a swinging bridge and a proud few bravely jumped of it. Despite Richard's claims that the bridge was a mere thirty feet above the water, we all remain convinced that it had to have been at least 100ft!!! The last leg of the trip presented a fabulous opportunity to test out physics knowledge on a not-so-stable swinging vine. The principle in question is the one about gravity. The process of overcoming gravity and swinging up turned out to be more difficult than previously thought as Sawyer found out when he broke it on his second attempt after a remarkably familiar brave few had tried it out.

After a classic and now familiar Costa Rican lunch of chicken, frijoles, and rice, we began our trip back through the mountains towards San Jose. Along the way we stopped at a gorgeous waterfall and had a great time getting way too close to the edge. Shortly after this we stopped at an unsuspecting roadside stand where Jorge once again cleaned out the Pringles section. Another two hours passed and we finally arrived back in Santa Ana to meet our home stay families. And that is where the real fun started. The reports were all spectacular, with different stories from each house. The themes that remained constant, however, were undoubtedly food, fun, ad then more food. Sydney described a fabulous evening of games like Hide and Seek and Tag during which Sydney was almost attacked by the Lorena family ferocious Chihuahua. Josh and Richard had nothing but praise for the Seguro family's hospitality and awesomeness. Josh even helped their host mother and English student with her homework. Mia and Laura also had and exciting linguistic experience as they tried to read their phrasebook while jumping up and down on the trampoline at their home stay family's house. Sawyer and Jorge were fed to their hearts content (no small feat) and frijoles were in no short supply. Freddy and Max spent some quality time with their host family and looked at pictures from their aunt's wedding. However, Max, in trying to tell the bride how pretty her wedding (boda) picture looked, instead said how he had loved seeing the pictures of her birth. After a few confusing and abashed minutes of discussion, however, this mix-up was resolved (with lots of laughter ensuing). Deborah and Angela spent their evening repairing the damage that the Lifeworks boys had inflicted upon her beloved Shamu dolphin stuffed animal. Their host mother kindly helped them to sew up a few missing stitches while they all watched "Ice Age" in Spanish. Ella and Hillary had the most lasagna they have ever eaten in one sitting and insisted that it was also the best. Russell and Brad joined Colleen and I to ride the ATVs that our family owned. Despite the fact that I almost crashed into the first ever moving tree, a great time was had by all. In summary we all had an INCREDIBLE day and look forward to being back in la Carpio to finish our beloved wall.

Some natural healing

Day 13: July 3

Author: Gwen
Location: La Carpio, Quitirrisi Indigenous Healing Temple

Today on a particularly damp day, it was quite humid (duh) and hot. We started off our day on a bit of disappointment when we found out that we wouldn't be spending our precious Frankin's (dollars) on goods. Instead we would be going to meet the medicine healer of an indigenous group that originated in Costa Rica. Anyway we went to La Carpio and half of us got to teach the cuties in kindergarten and the other half started our murals. Of course mine is the best with a rainbow and a sun wearing shades but other than that we all did an awesome job. Since we had moved in with our homestay families the night before, we couldn't wait for our 5 lbs. lunch pails made with love. We actually got in trouble because we started going to town on our pear juiceboxes and gallo pinto, before cleaning up, but it was definitely worth the wait.

When we had packed up and headed towards the mountain. We spent the next hour painting the boys' hands while they were sleeping and we documented the whole scene. Upon arrival we had to gallop through thundershowers and soggy clay down to a hut. We were greeted by the son of the healer and were introduced to physical and spiritual sickness that the world faces today. We then ventured into the world of plants that did miracles. During which Mother Nature decided to take a shower and make us run to the hut and hover over a fire in order to warm our buns. Little did I know that sparks would get on my legs, but I survived. After we crushed sugar cane and made juice, it was definitely the best sugar high I have ever experienced. We returned to the rancho where we learned the art of salsa and became the next "Dancing with the Stars." Peace in the Middle East, I'm Gwen and Out.

Cuantro de Julio en Costa Rica

Day 14: July 4

Author: Arron
Location: underway

I heard it. Loud and clear. Once again. The infamous call of a rooster in the early morning. Fortunately, this morning it was at 6:15 rather than 5 o'clock. Nonetheless, I was unable to sleep any longer at about 6:30, so I made the mistake of wandering downstairs. This mistake caused me to be very hungry later, not because my home-stay family is not feeding me, but because mi mama began preparing my breakfast as soon as I walked down those steps. We left the house at 7:30 to meet the rest of the group at Ana's house. Once the whole group was present, we loaded the bus and headed to La Carpio to jazz up the wall we built by painting some murals. On the bus, Hilary, Deborah, and Richard informed us that we would also be playing with the kids in La Carpio; the plan was to set up some sort of street fair for them. Some of the street fair attractions included jump rope games, coloring, and face-painting. I was at the face painting station for a while and did my best to accommodate the children's desires, most of which were: puma, dragon, or flower. Over where the kids were drawing it was apparent that the kids had never been told that their pictures were muy bonita or muy bien as they continuously showed their finished products to our group for approval.

When I rotated out of the street-fair activities and back to painting, a couple of interesting things happened. First, Angela and I painted bananas so real-looking that I wanted to reach into the wall and grab one. Second, we had an unexpected visitor. When we first opened the lot on which we were building, Gail explained that there was a jail next to it. We all noticed the double barred window to the jail cell, but simply shrugged it off. Today, however, we were all under the window when we heard a sort of farting sound, obviously made by the mouth and the tongue. I was confused at first, but someone pointed out that someone in the jail cell had made this noise. The jail mate continued to poke his head out every few minutes and said things that I will not repeat in this entry. He eventually must have lost interest or have not liked our taste in music and stopped yelling things. After our day of work at La Carpio, we went back to our homestays for a siesta before the fiesta.

At about 5 o'clock p.m. we all arrived at Ana's ranch with our homestay brothers and sisters to play games. Soccer, Frisbee, and relay races were among some of the most popular activities. Relays included, among others, wheel barrel, an adaptive version of egg and spoon race. In the absence of eggs, Hilary and Deborah made use of their surroundings and had us use freshly picked limes instead.

Later on, the parents arrived with their pot luck additions and we all sat down to a FABULOUS dinner. There was soup, chicken, rice, pasta, frijoles, and everything else you could imagine. By the end, we were all stuffed. After dinner, we were surprised with fireworks in Ana's yard (only in Costa Rica can you actually sit directly underneath the fireworks...how cool!). Next we sang the National Anthem and then listened to our host families sing the Costa Rican National Anthem. Delicious cake followed and we once again ate until we were about to explode. Then after a night of fun, food, and fireworks, we returned to our houses for some much needed rest.

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