A lot of hard work, mosquito bites, bananas (cooked in a variety of ways), bags of sand, cement mixing, sweat, and dirty clothes…. That pretty much sums up the experience of the past two weeks! I’ll leave the rest for your imagination, and the pictures that I hope to soon have available.
Okay, so maybe a few more details would be good… The two trips were a success. Both of the teams were a great bunch of folks with great attitudes and a willingness to serve, even if it meant hauling bags of sand & rocks from the river for the third day in a row…
The week one team arrived into San Jose at 5:30am on Sunday morning and we took the 10 of them all the way into Yorkin by Sunday night (3/22). It was a REALLY long day for them, having arrived at the airport at 9pm on Saturday evening, so they were ready to crash by the time we had dinner in the village. When we headed to the work site on Monday morning, we found an untouched parcel of land where the health clinic would be. Instead of actually constructing anything, our first two days were spent doing the hard manual labor of clearing the land of trees, stumps, roots, large rocks, and vegetation. The tools were limited so it meant a lot of shoveling, chopping with a pickaxe, and stepping aside to let one of the locals go at the big roots with a machete. Our highlights and feelings of accomplishment throughout the day came from the huge rocks we dug & pried out of the ground, seeing quite a few large trees go “timber!”, thanks to some expert chainsaw duties by one of the locals, and eventually making progress toward “level” ground. After two days of dirt and sweat on the health clinic site, our team welcomed the opportunity for a change of scenery. We left the clinic in the hands of a recently arrived team of Canadians who had come through Samaritan’s Purse Disaster Relief, and we focused our efforts on projects closer to home. In fact, the cabin that we were staying in was still in the process of construction, so there were a few areas of assistance that the Women’s Organization in Yorkin was appreciative of our help. On Wednesday morning, the women of our team were busy filling large rice sacks with sand from the riverbed and carrying them the 200 yards or so to the cabin construction site, where they were used to fill a canal built to protect the septic drain pipes that came from the bathrooms in the cabin. The men, and myself were on a mission to get some wood for the completion of the roof over the front porch of the cabin. We ended up following our local guide for about an hour hike into the mountains which was the closest location of the type of wood in need. The two locals then proceeded to cut down trees with a machete, cut them down to about 10 meters in length, and then we had to somehow balance them on our shoulder and carry them out of the jungle. 8 people and 8 logs. It was definitely a challenge, not only with the weight, but also the length and awkwardness of trying to climb up and down the trail and turn corners with something sticking out 5 meters in front and 5 meters behind. It was about a 3 hour excursion when all was said and done, and we all made it out alive – although with bruised and sore shoulders. And how many times do you get to say that you hiked into the jungle and carried out a tree? We joined forces with the women in the sand bag carrying for the last bit of our work morning, and then in the afternoon enjoyed a break by swimming in the river and crossing over to the other side, officially setting foot in Panama. The ladies did their presentation of how they make fresh chocolate, from the cacao fruit to the tasty stuff that had us licking our fingers. Thursday morning we were bag to sand bag duty, so we formed an assembly line of sorts and brought bag after bag from the river to the construction site. The scorching sun and hot temps made it all the more challenging, and despite the countless trips back and forth and bag after bag that was dumped, I will say it was a little disappointing to see that what I imagined must be a giant mountain of sand was more of a small hill. The local people were very thankful for our all work though, and knowing how much time and effort it took us to do the few small things that we did, it was rewarding to know that they would be able to use that time and manpower that we saved them for future tasks. And it surely gives you an appreciation for all the conveniences of tools and machinery that we have available to us. As those before them, the team members were greatly impacted by their experience in Yorkin, by the work they were able to do, by the challenges they overcame, and by the lessons they learned from the wonderful people there. Our day of relaxation and night in the hotel at the beach in Cahuita was a much deserved and welcomed rest for the hard-workers and they also got to enjoy a new kind of natural Costa Rican beauty – the Caribbean. We brought them to the Cahuita national Park on Friday morning where they got to see monkeys and wildlife, plus enjoy the gorgeous white sandy beach, and then back to San Jose to stay the night before the early 6:30am flight back to Denver.
After dropping the team off at the airport at 5:00am on Saturday morning, then going back home to sleep from about 6:00-9:00am, I had less than a day to try to recover from Week 1 and prepare for the arrival of the Week 2 group. Needless to say, I was exhausted. So after a few errands and then going through all my receipts and inputting them into the computer, I spent the evening on the couch watching movies with Gaby and Faby. It was much needed, and I could have gone for another day of rest, but 5:00am on Sunday morning it was back at the airport to pick up the newest arrivals. This time it was a small group, just 6 volunteers from Colorado, and although I was tired and lacking a little bit of inspiration to do it all over again, it just took a minute of being with them, answering their questions and sensing their excitement that I felt rejuvenated. We had the same all day journey to Yorkin as we had done with the first group. It’s about 5 hours or so of driving, then the process of loading the canoes and riding for about 90 minutes or more up the river, so along with the bathroom and food stops, it’s quite the affair. And a great introduction to Costa Rica as the team gets to see many of the different parts of the country and experience the different climates and habitats in just one day. Monday and Tuesday we worked full days at the clinic site, along with the team from Canada. They had started to put in a few of the first cement columns around the perimeter of the structure, so we joined forces with them and by the end of the day on Wednesday all of the columns around the perimeter and the main hallways were in the ground. Now that is only about 40 columns and might seem like not much to have been accomplished, but considering they the columns weigh about 250 pounds each, the cement has to be mixed by hand in a wheelbarrow, the water for mixing has to be carried up to the site, and that we just so happened to be having the hottest days of the year in Costa Rica, it was a good accomplishment. The team from Canada had a few translators that were helping, and I was serving as translator for our team, but along with the few words like “cement”, “rocks”, “more”, “water”, and “column” that everyone learned in the other language, it made for quite the international construction experience. And me, with zero training in things of the construction/architectural/concrete materials realm (other than my short stint of employment at Home Depot and the common sense and math skills my father imparted in me) became the foreman’s right hand assistant. I was pretty much by his side the whole week, plans in my hand, answering his questions about what time of column was next, what the measurement should be, etc etc. Never in my life did I see myself doing something like that, and most definitely not in Spanish! Good things to add to the resume I guess! J
The hot weather really took a lot out of us, but I was quite proud of our team for all the work that they did, especially the women because they spent pretty much all day Monday, Tuesday, and the half-day on Wednesday carrying bags of sand and/or rocks from the river up to the work site – not only a monotonous task, but a physically demanding one as well! Everyone agreed that the experience was an unforgettable one, and I know they all left with a great appreciation and understanding of “manual labor”. And even though they really enjoyed the time in Yorkin, and in Costa Rica, I’m sure there was a part of them that was looking forward to the desk job!
We did the same half day of work in Yorkin on Thursday, then took them to a great hotel in Cahuita where we enjoyed the pool and just sat outside and talked, had hot showers, then a great Caribbean food dinner. Friday morning was the Cahuita National Park again – more monkeys, lots of iguanas, and even a sloth! We got back to San Jose area on Friday night, and then took the team to a pizza dinner – time to get ready for American food again. Ha. I was planning to take the team to the airport in the morning, but that night I was offered a chance to run in a very popular race on the Pacific Coast on Saturday, so I opted for the opportunity to sleep past 3:00am. (More on that subject…)
So all in all, it was a great success with our teams from Colorado. And now I am ready for a few days of rest!
