First day with the charity project

Lack of blogs; yes I have been ill again, this time a stomach bug possibly from the water but I’m not really sure. The reason we are in Costa Rica is to do a charity project that involves building houses for underprivileged families. Emma was supposed to do the project about 4 years ago but had to have her wisdom teeth out in hospital and therefore cancelled the trip. Me, Paul, Chalkie, Mum and Dad agreed it was a great project to get involved with so decided to volunteer with her.

On Sunday 18th we went back to San Jose airport at midday and were met by Nikki from I to I, the company we are volunteering with. She took us to the Alajuela backpacker hostel about 10 minutes from the airport where we checked into our room of 2 bunk beds for me, Paul, Em and Chalkie. Mum and Dad were supposed to be in the room with us but there were not enough beds so they were upgraded to a room of their own with a double bed.

After we found our room, we went up to the roof terrace where they had a nice bar overlooking the city. We got chatting to a girl called Steph who had just finished a project with I to I teaching English in a school, we then met her friend Olly who had flown out after her project to travel with her and another girl Lucy also on an I to I project. We sat up on the roof and drank some beers with them while we waited for mum and dad to arrive in the evening.

We had dinner at the hostel with other volunteers who had arrived the same day then we got the bus with Nikki and picked Mum and Dad up at 9pm from the airport. We got back to the hostel and had a drink and pizza in the bar. I had started to feel unwell so went to bed, soon followed by the others.

On Monday morning we had to meet at 7.30am for orientation where we learned more about the projects. We then got a bus to San Ramon and were dropped off at a bus stop where our home stay mums met us. Our mum is called Rosa, she has a husband called Jonaton and four children; Jeimy, Christian, Kennya and Brandon. The Three youngest children were all there to meet us and Jeimy later when she had finished college. They are 17, 14, 12 and 9 and are all lovely. Luckily Paul and I can speak enough Spanish to get by and Jeimy speaks English which is really great for us. There is also another girl called Linda staying here, she too is on the building project but on a different site to us.

Unfortunately I spent the afternoon in bed with an upset stomach while the others went to see where we would be working and how to get there. At about 2pm there was an earthquake which I felt very subtly because I was in bed, the others didn’t feel it as they were on the bus. In the evening I felt a little better so got up and spoke to the family, Paul had been chatting to them all day and we even helped the youngest Brandon with his English homework which was really fun. We went to bed about 9pm as our morning bus leaves at 7am!