We arrived at the facility and were welcomed in open arms by Father Sergio Valverde, the founder and head priest of the association. Following this, we briefly met the children with whom we were about to spend the day. As we walked onto the grounds they ran at our group and greeted us with hugs and handshakes.The director, Ana Silles introduced herself and brought us to site of their national campaign to collect donations for the children. There, each of our students were able to give a personal donation along with school supplies that were purchased with money raised by the group prior to the trip. Next, we were given a tour of the broadcasting station and into the sets of popular news channels in Costa Rica. After, a select group of students stayed at the donation center to aid with the collections while the rest waited to be assigned their first service station.
The remaining students were directed to one of four stations. First of which was the "esquela." Here the students were able to interact and play with school aged children who were full of life and eager to learn about us. There was a consensus that a number us will have sore backs tomorrow from all of the piggy back rides given throughout the day. The second station was the "bodega." This was a warehouse used by the organization to store and sort donations collected through the national campaign. Students were asked to take inventory of the donation already sorted as well as sort donations that were not yet processed. Once an area of the warehouse was clear we also were asked to sweep and tidy as we went along. The third station was "granja." This was a little farm located just behind the school building that is kept up by only a few staff members. For some students this was a bit of a wake up call but others felt right at home. The work mostly consisted of scrubbing the animal pens, while interacting with the various breeds of animals. The last station was the "guarderia." Where three female students went to look after the younger children. These students returned with mixed feelings. The students felt this was a very rewarding experience even though there was a bit of accident on one of the individuals.
At the end of the day each student was able to experience at least two if not more of the stations. After this experience, we can honestly say that the group seemed extremely fulfilled from the day's activities. Some students even left with gifts personally given to them by the students they had spent their time with.
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