Day of Rest

Our relaxation day started off by waking up to howler monkeys and a gorgeous view of the rain forest.

We headed to breakfast with a walk through the woods. Breakfast consisted of eggs, fresh fruit and delicious jelly for our toast. After morning prayer we went to our snorkeling tours. Once on the boat we went out about 30 minutes to the perfect spot and dove in.

There were many various corals and fish galore!!  Although we were there for two hours, the time went by insanely fast and we all wished for more.

 Lunch back at Restaurante Roberto included chicken/fish, plantains, beans and rice, and pineapple juice. After scarfing down our lunch, we returned to the Goddess Spa to shower and do last minute packing. It was sad to leave our gorgeous surroundings, but we were all ready to get back to Earth University. On our way back we ate at a restaurant recommended by Jaimie, our much appreciated bus driver. Dinner was delicioso!! As soon as we arrived at Earth, we met the adults and had a youth-led compline then Pows/Wows. We can't wait to show the adults the results of our hard work tomorrow. Buenos Noches!!
Love,
Maggie and Kate :)

Pictures from Thursday: Last Day of Work!

Here are some pictures of the final project!

Celebration night in Germania

LAST DAY OF WORK!

From Miss Amy's Lovelies.
Our day started with a typical breakfast: rice and beans, fruit, cereal, etc.  We headed to the Parish House in    Guacimo to finish our beautiful garden.  We began by watering the plants we planted yesterday and finished bordering the playground.  Before Jonathan came, we sang camp songs and mixed fertilizer in the remaining beds.  Jonathan arrived at about 10:00 with lots of pretty flowers and cool trees.  We also collected any debris (including tons of medicine bottles and shards, plastic candy wrappers and Andrew's underwear, toothbrush, high heel, and comb).  When the garden was completed (HOORAY!), we ate a lunch of rice mixed with beef, yummy coconut balls, slaw, and delicious plantains.  Then we went to the church down the road to plant the excess flowers around the sanctuary.  Meanwhile, Norma painted Kate and Kaelyn's fingernails excellently.  She has promised to do the rest of the girls nails tomorrow.  When we got back to Earth, we showered and had plenty of exploration time before dinner.  Many enjoyed ice cream treats and chips from the snack counter.  We met up with Donna Osborne and Liza who is the Costa Rican diocesan representative and talked to the them.  Dinner was chicken or beef, rice and beans (of course), potatoes and fruit.  Then we made our way to Germania for a end of week celebration hosted by the locals.  We played musical chairs (video to be posted soon) and did relays.  Then some of the older girls performed a cultural dance to express their gratitude.  Pedro and Armando thanked us graciously for spending time with their youth.  Lots and lots of pictures were taken and our bus moved out.  We shared Pows and Wows at Earth and reflected upon our work week.  THE END.  No more work.  Buenos noches.

Love Sara, Kate, Andrew and Miss Amy (who's currently sleep deprived to the point of hallucinating) Miss Amy did not approve this message :)

Greetings from the Elders

Rustin and Sara: From Costa Rica to North Carolina.
Hola! Buenos noches! Today began well before six.  Breakfast was lovely.  Showers were also lovely.  Cheese quesadillas, rice and beans (of course) and cereal were served at breakfast.  We waited til 8 and left for Guacimo.  Today was the hottest yet.  Water breaks were frequent and long.  Kate, Rustin, Andrew and Mike went with our friend Jonathan to Earth University to collect 250 plants for the garden.  While they were gone, we created rock beds for the flowers and Matthew finished the ditch.  Lunch was Americano.  Cheeseburgers, french fries and rice pudding.  Then we got re-design some of the rock beds into circles.  We planted these huge purple stalk-like things (pictures to follow) to border the garden along with little green stems and little purple boys around the edges of the playground and walkway.

More rocks were moved to make a entrance to the garden.  After the workday, we quickly went to Germania to set up the volleyball net then back to Earth for showers and dinner.  Dinner was really good: Fish or Roast.  Then we drove back to Germania to celebrate Sara's birthday bilingually.  We played duck-duck-goose and watched Toy Story 3 in Spanish with no subtitles.  (In case you were wondering, Buzz does not switch to English after he is reset.  It stays Spanish.  We were all highly disappointed.)  When we got home, we shared our Pows and Wows and special moments of the day.  Thanks momma for the birthday camera :)  Buenos noches.  Lots of love.
Sara y Rustin.

Pictures from Santa Cruz (work that was done on previous St.Marks trips)

Outside of Santa Cruz

The altar (lots of cement under that pretty marble)

Look at the pretty tile!

Storage closet in Sunday School room that we framed before we left

More tile

Wall (right) that youth dug footing for in 2008, and then the storage closet in the back that was completed after we left.

Day 3

Today we woke up extra early to go grab breakfast. Everyone was excited that there was rice and beans again, along with eggs, and fruit. We loaded the buses and headed off to Pedro's house to do a lot of hard work. Today we turned the ground in our 7x12 (meters)garden, which was very exhausting. We had an assembly line with picks, hoes, shovels, and rakes which worked for a little until everyone walked on it. We met an interesting man today who came to serenade us, but once we offered him a shovel he went straight to work. Our lunch was very good with more rice, beans, and beef stew, although the new red Fanta was interesting, yet gross. We went to finish the garden and then left around 3:45. Fortunately, earlier another youth group had left so we got to grab their rooms with hot showers. We left and met at the San Lucas to have another fun night with the kids. We had various games to play including four corners, human knot, and the name game along with hot popcorn cooked by Cindy and Amy. We headed back to the buses saying our goodbyes to the children. We all got together like in previous nights and shared our wows and pows with each other. We are very tired and ready to get back to bed.
-Kaelyn

Dia Tres

We started this day off with a filling breakfast of eggs, beans and rice of course, watermelon and cereal. Once we arrived at Pedro's house in Guacimo we took a trip to Santa Cruz and saw the finished project of many days of work in the past. The mural was still gorgeous, the wall was still standing, and the alter was still strong, spiritually and structurally. Our work day started with digging more giant rocks from the garden area. Norma provided a delicious snack consisting of bananas, pineapple and chocolate. Then it was back to work breaking up the ground. After lunch some of us started digging the trench for the runoff and the rest of us started an assembly line with pick axes, shovels, hoes and rakes. One side had a field day and finished quickly while the other side kept finding many more rocks. Once everyone was thoroughly worn out we headed back to Earth University. The much appreciated dinner included meat/lasagna, vegetables, beans and rice, and pineapple/papaya. After having showered, everyone packed back on the bus to head for San Lucas. We played games with the youth for about an hour and shared drinks and snacks. It was a fantastic day and we hope for the same tomorrow as it's our last night with the group in San Lucas.

More pictures!

Field behind the Parish House

"American Cook out" at Guacimo with local youth

Hard work removing rocks!

Pictures from Sunday July 24, 2011-Day of Departure

Day 2

Today we started out with a great breakfast - rice and beans. We left Earth University to go start work at the parish hall in Guacimo. We all got there and our eyes widened. We had to completely start from scratch pulling out all weeds and digging/ picking out 1000+ pound rocks. Our bus driver even helped us out a little. The down side of starting from scratch was all the millions of ants and bugs. We had a little hive problem that broke out on Jack halfway through but a little corazon cream calmed it down. After a couple hours of work we went inside to go have more rice, beans, and chicken. We split up and most of the girls went to go shopping to buy food for our cookout at San Lucas while the others stayed and worked in the ants. We worked for a little longer then went back to Earth to quickly shower and head out to Germania ( San Lucas ) We met Marie Jose and Daniel there who are Pedro's kids which love to play outside. We went to go walk the streets to gather people to come to the church at 5:00 for yummy hamburgers and hotdogs. We made a few friends who came to eat and then play soccer - which they were very good at. After it got dark we loaded the bus to head back to Earth share our wows and pows, take another cold shower and head to bed.
- Kaelyn

Day 2!

After waking up at 7:00 this morning, we began the day with the tough job of digging up rocks out of Pedro's backyard, which was soon to become a garden. When we first started, we thought there were only a few small rocks, but as we dug and dug we realized that there were actually many large rocks. One was about 1000+ pounds (literally!) and took about 45 minutes to dig out of its hole. However, even though the rocks were huge and there were a ton of ants, we all had a lot of fun clearing out the yard.
After eating an amazing lunch at Pedro's house, we dug until about 2 o'clock and then got ready for a cook-out in Germania. We were going to meet the kids in the area and share a meal of hamburgers and hot dogs. It was a little hard at first to interact with the kids because we had to walk down the street and recruit them, all the while not really able to speak their language. But we quickly got the hang of introducing ourselves to them and ended up with about 20 kids at our dinner. They were all really nice and we played soccer and volleyball with them. At the end of the day, it felt like we had made a lot of new friends, and we're all really excited to hang out with them again tomorrow evening! Hopefully, though, we won't get as many bug bites and it won't be so hot outside!

- Maggie Fahey

Dia Uno

Yay! We have arrived! After a long wait at the airport, and an even longer wait on the plane, we arrived in San Jose around 3:00 local time. We met up with Clarence, loaded the bus up and headed out. We drove through the Costa Rica National Rainforest on our way to dinner. For dinner, we stopped at a local restaurant and ordered. Thanks to Clarence we tried some amazing bean dip. Once everyone was finished eating and paying, we got back on the road. We arrived at Earth University around 8:30 and got our assigned cabins. After having a Pow/Wow session, everyone settled down and fell into a much needed sleep.

And then there was lunch

Today most of the youth going on the trip had lunch together.  If anybody is ever curious why one would want to do youth ministry they should have been in that room.  I enjoyed the questions, the conversations, and the excitement about the trip.  From our day-to-day activities, to a discussion about journaling, youth energize me and fill my cup.  This is going to be a great trip!  I cant wait to see what is in store for us.  We will eat, sleep, work, sweat, and grow together in healthy ways.  These kind of things can only happen in once place.  This place is the church.

Here We Go!

This is where we start...Its Monday before we leave and Im getting very excited about the trip.  I hope and pray this trip will be something that we, the youth of St. Mark's never forget.  I ask for any prayers or thoughts.  Please stay tuned for pictures and thoughts from our youth and our leaders as we begin this adventure together!