Hamilton Happenings......: Courts For Kids trip to Costa Rica!

We had a great time over spring break in Costa Rica! Maco and a friend, Angie, led the CKF trip because Derek wasn't able to go. Three other women and I also went along as chaperones. We took 25 kids from three different area high schools. It was a wonderful and exhausting week. The first 4 days consisted of getting up at 6am and taking a 15 minute walk to the site. Actually it was more of a hike, since it was up a mountain and through the trees. It was a great workout to start the day. After the cooks at the school fed us a delicious breakfast, we would work on the court from about 8-3. Luckily since we had so many people, we were all able to take much needed breaks.

We had to shovel sand and gravel into buckets, pour them into the mixer, add water, and then take them in wheelbarrows to empty into the court. I'm basically a professional now at laying cement, so if anyone is in need, just let me know. :)

We went on a long walk through Cocori to check it all out!

Monday was National Sports Day, so we met the kids at the field to play soccer and other games with them.

We also visited the local garbage dump. This was very humbling! There were about 10 people living there when we visited. They go to sleep around 7 at night and get up at 1am when the trucks come in so they can start going through the garbage. They look for food and plastic to sell. A huge garbage bag of plastic gets them about 50 cents.

We had a fun time playing with the kids!

Maco and Alex. Alex is the Peacecore volunteer at the school. He applied for the court a year ago and was thrilled that it finally happened.

The little kindergartner girl in the middle told us all about her boyfriend. The only problem is the boy she said was her boyfriend said another girl was his girlfriend! Man, it starts early! :)

Jamin was attached to our group. He showed up everywhere we were. He loved to rap while Maco gave him a beat. The only problem was he wasn't rapping about the best things in life. :)

Almost done with the court. This is half of the team and the local workers.

Costa Rica 064 The teachers from the school had a wonderful dinner for us. It was held at one of the teacher's ranch. It was amazing! We had Carne Esada (spelling?), chicken, sausage, and so much more. They went all out. The kids swam and had so much fun. We even had a dance party.

Maco learning how to salsa. Now hopefully he'll teach me. :)

The last pour of cement for the court!! We're done!!! Since the kids worked so hard, we took them on a fun day of horseback riding through the rainforest, swimming in a waterfall, and playing at the beach! It was a fun day!

Maco sure was out of his comfort zone today. The first thing he did that he hadn't done before was ride a horse! He kept us laughing with his commentary throughout the ride. The next day he couldn't even walk!

I decided to participate in the cliff jumping. I didn't ever think I would. The only reason I included these 2 pictures before the jump was because I wanted to show how you had to climb up through the waterfall and how high it was. When you first start climbing up you can't even see. You just have to put your complete trust in the guide and the rope. I actually liked the climb more than the jump!

The jump was about 30 feet high. I actually jumped 2 times. I was more scared the second time, I think because I knew what to expect. :)

This pictures doesn't even do the height justice. It looked much higher in person!

And you'll never guess the second adventure that Maco took part in today that I NEVER thought he would. I'm really not quite sure what got into him.

Unfortunately, I totally spaced and forgot that you can't turn the digital camera vertically when videotaping. :( So, it's a little hard to watch, but try. It's priceless! And know that I can pretty much say with a 100% guarantee that this will not happen again!!! :)

He survived!! Kenzie and Angie with us at lunch during the horse trip!

Friday was the inauguration of the court! It was amazing!!! The school's VP, Sammie, really went all out to put this together. It was my favorite part of the trip!

They even had programs made!

Alex gets interviewed by the news! Maco speaks to the community.(By the way, if we'd known the inauguration was going to be nice and formal, we would have brought some nice clothes. We only had our grungy work clothes on. Although we would have been very sweaty and gross after making the 15 minute climb to the court! Hopefully they all understood and weren't offended. :)

(The video below was actually my favorite part of the week. They played the Costa Rican National anthem and then our anthem. I actually shed a tear and it was a very special moment!!)

The kids performed two wonderful dances for us!

The ribbon cutting. They even called each of us up by name and gave us a certificate, a pen, and a picture made by a student. It was wonderful! (I actually would have had a few more pictures of it all, but my camera died right before the end of the ceremony!) My roommates for the week. We slept on these comfy bunk bed cots. The games were always going on right outside our bedroom doors!

More pictures of the sports complex where we stayed.

This complex is a free place for the community members to come and workout, play sports, swim, skateboard, etc. I loved that we were living here so that we could interact with the people much more!! We were so excited to see Mia when we got back. It was actually almost 9 days since we'd seen her last. It was so hard!!(for me especially! Maco was pretty busy with leading, so he was distracted much more!) I actually thought she might not want us when she got back, but she reached right out for us. I actually cried. What a sap!!! Motherhood sure has made me more emotional!! Sittee took such great care of Mia while we were gone!!