Costa Rica: Service Days

After our stay at the gorgeous Marriott Resort in Los Suenos, we traveled into the city by car (3 hours) and stayed at a really nice Hyatt Regency in San Jose, Costa Rica.  It was decorated in the most awesome, modern style and had by far the BEST complimentary breakfast we have ever had!

 It was really fun to try some of their traditional foods for breakfast, along with their delicious fresh watermelon juice or mango juice!

The orphanage and dental clinic where we were to serve for the next three days was fairly close to the hotel--only about 15-20 min. drive away.  The place where we served was actually named, "The Abraham Project."  It is a medical clinic, church, and school with an orphanage on site.  There are missionaries from Christian churches that come and live there to act as a "mom and dad" for the children who live in the orphanage.  They get to attend school with the other children in the area as well as the Christian church there.  

 Here we are - unloading all of our supplies that we had to bring from the United States.  

The operatory was actually much nicer than we expected.  Tom was remembering back in Ethiopia where there was just a chair and a bucket for the patients to spit in.  I'm really glad it was nicer than Africa :)

 This was a beautiful mural that someone painted of Jesus with little children.  There are lovely Christian themes all around the establishment.

 This is the shell of the new church they are building.  It will be quite an edifice when it's all completed.  They were really creative and used the wood from the pallets that the windows were shipped in to help build the frame.

 That's a lot of wooden pallets!  But what a smart and creative use of resources that helped them save a LOT of money!

Here are the homes where the orphans live.  I love the Noah's Ark theme on this one!  

 This is inside the school.  Again, see all of that reclaimed wood? I just love the painted walls in each classroom. They each had a certain theme and the kids all loved it!  

 This is where they stored the wood in their outdoor sheds.  They have to use metal roofing to keep the rain off of the wood.  It rains there A LOT!!!

 Here is the whole gang that traveled with us:  Stephen Velasco, Kelsey, Tom, Tamara, and Annie Creviston.  

 Ahh - we loved this restaurant!  It was a taco bar right in the same mall that our hotel was in.  The food there was delicious and the bar swings were pretty fun!

 What a tremendous service Tom and his staff were able to perform for so many people in those three days.  Mostly, Tom did extractions which meant getting those sweet people out of pain!

 While Tom and the staff were in the dental clinic, just across the parking lot was the school.  Kelsey and I were able to help in some of the classes.  We learned several Spanish phrases that helped us but we still felt REALLY handicapped not knowing the language.  It made me think of my missionary son, serving just a few thousand miles to the south of us, speaking Spanish WAY better than us!  Still, I think he would be proud of us!

 We brought crafts, stickers, coloring books, and played games with them.  Kelsey was super good with the kids.  I loved watching her in action!  We got really good at saying, "Mui Bien!" ha ha!

 We played "Elbow Tag" with them and the older kids went crazy over it!  They played for almost 1 hour!  We were super tired after that!

 The little guy in the green pants had a major crush on Kelsey.  His name is Justin and he was super sad to say goodbye to Kelsey!

 Krista is the gal in the white blouse playing with the little children on the floor.  She was our liason from The Scheduling Institute who helped check in patients and watch some of the patients children while they had their dental work done.  

This was one of the very last patients they saw and I will never forget this scene.  The mother was in a lot of pain and needed to get several teeth removed.  The sweet husband never left her side.  He held her hand so tightly.  It really touched my heart.  

Kelsey played with their little baby and just fell in love with her.  She was such a little cutie!

On our second day - Kelsey, Annie and I left the clinic early so we could drive out to see the Costa Rica Temple.  Our driver took us there so we didn't have to drive in the absolutely CRAZY San Jose traffic.  Seriously - I thought we were gonna crash more than once on this trip!  Anyway, it was a one hour drive to get to the temple site but totally worth it when we got there.

 This was a small visitor's center but it was closed when we were there.

 These flowers were gigantic and SO gorgeous!  I'm sure all of that rain totally helps their vegetation to grow so green and luscious!

 On the temple site, there were two buildings.  The one on the right is the chapel and the other was a family history building.  

 Security is a must around these parts!

 This is their baptismal font - a little different than we are used to in the states.  

I love this photo because it reminds me of our church is a worldwide church and that temples truly do dot the earth.

 After our last night of service, we went to this really fun market place that had great souvenirs.  So, we bought a pan flute!  The man who played it was a master and made it sound so beautiful.  Kelsey has a lot of practice to make it sound like he did!  ha ha!  But I have to say - it was an absolute JOY having her on this trip.  Kelsey is a hard worker and she rolls with things very well.  She is flexible and easy going which is are great qualities to possess when going somewhere you've never gone before.  I was so grateful to have her there with us!

 We invited our driver to eat dinner with us.  The food was really delicious--lots of meat and veggies, fajita style, served on banana leaves.  Yum!

 In the airport I fell in love with this hand-painted wagon.  Isn't it incredible?!  "How can I fit this in my suitcase??" ha ha!

 As we took off in the airplane, Tom had his eyes closed and was resting.  He worked hard and deserved that rest.  But for me, I was fixed on the scenes below me.   Tears just ran down my cheeks as I looked at the hundreds of homes where families just like mine were trying to live and raise their children.  Most of these families live way beneath the poverty level and my heart goes out to them.  I couldn't stop thinking about my missionary son, Elder Chamberlain, who is in a country similar to this, speaking Spanish, and testifying of our Savior Jesus Christ.  My heart just burst with love for my missionary and for my Savior.  This truly was an experience we will cherish forever!

If you look closely, you can see water trapped in the mouth of a live volcano.  Pretty cool!