VCHS Engage: COSTA RICA

When we flew back from Costa Rica over a month ago, we had no idea what we’d be coming back to. We knew that the stores were out of toilet paper and that school would be closed for a week, but to be honest, most of us were excited about an extra week of spring break! None of us could have anticipated that we would still be sitting at home, waiting for this global pandemic to subside and for the stay at home orders to be lifted! If we knew then that we would not be returning to campus for the rest of the year, that our spring sports seasons would be cancelled, and that our seniors would be cheated out of the best parts of their senior year, I’m sure that last day of our trip would have felt a little bit different and we would have savored those last moments together just a little bit more!  As much as my heart breaks for all of you students and what you are missing out on right now, I am reminded that even in the midst of uncertainty and uncomfortable situations God is still

Well, we had one more day here than we thought! We all slept in, then enjoyed breakfast at the house followed by a soccer game. The most impressive thing at the soccer game was that Mrs. Harrison was MVP in the goal! She had like 10 stops! We spent the rest of the day napping, packing, and playing some games, before we left to go to the Mall for dinner, some hang out time, and to see the movie Onward. We got back to the house around 12:30 and since we were leaving at 3 AM for the airport most people pulled an all nighter! Now our team is back in the States and all enjoying some much needed showers, naps, and delicious American food! Below are the final thoughts from our team to wrap up this year's trip. Be looking out for one more post where we'll link our highlight video for all to watch! Final Team Thoughts: Rebecca  - This trip made me fall in love with the people, culture, and country of Costa Rica. Despite every difference and every

Today we woke up and had breakfast at the hotel, then all gathered by the pool for devotions and reflections on the day before when we painted and went to the beach. Team Thoughts: Tanner - When we were painting there were spiders and lots of bugs everywhere. At the beach it was soo cool to see the jungle that led right up to the black sand beach!  Jadon - When we were painting he noticed how much paint we had to use to cover the walls because a majority of the surfaces were just falling apart and crumbling every time you tried to put paint on it. He also had never seen a black sand beach before, which was pretty cool.  Spencer - When he was painting in the corner a gecko fell down! And he thought the black sand beach was pretty cool.  Abigail - She's really glad that we got to paint at the church. It wasn't the best paint job because of the resources we had and the type of walls with lots of cracks and holes, but she was reminded that it didn't have to look perfect

Today we went straight to Mrs. Harrison's sister's church to assess our painting project. We then visited the equivalent of the Costa Rican Home Depot and purchased paint, rollers, paintbrushes, cleaning brushes, and more! After we bought all of our supplies we returned to the church and worked on painting their basement area. We worked most of the day, from 8:30 - 2:30 ish with just a small lunch break in the middle. It was difficult to paint some of the areas in the room because the walls had lots of cracks and holes, and sometimes when you tried to paint, the cement would just flake off the wall and onto the ground. But, we found a way to get most of the two rooms painted and it looked pretty good! Cleaning up after ourselves was another story, there was one small sink where we tried to clean all of our brushes, rollers, and trays, and it took quite a while to clean up since only a few people could work at a time. After we finishe