Monday morning came along, and Kalina and I headed over to Hogar de Vida while Sherry and Lindsey stayed at the house with the kids. We spent several hours talking to Tim and Dina, they are the couple that started the Hogar de Vida children's home over 10 years ago. We talked about a lot of different things that we might be able to help with while we were there. They were very cautious and made sure we knew all the rules before any of us could come to help. They had a whole list of rules that we heartily agreed to, such as no immodest clothing, no piercings besides earrings, no cursing, etc. This place was structured around providing a Christian atmosphere for these kids, and they were very serious about it. They have had a lot of struggles lately with financial support because of the economic situation in Costa Rica and in the USA. They don't have any large supporters. They mostly depend on a lot of small donations from lots of places. So while they obviously needed help, they wanted to make sure we were not just wanting to come for a photo op with the kids or that we would cause more problems. They explained several problems they have had in the past with groups that have come to help but ended up causing more problems than they fixed.
This was the view from just inside the gate of Hogar de Vida.
We were looking for something we could do for them in a day or two but we also had Kathia with us. She is one of our Costa Rican friends that has helped us so much. She was interested in getting involved in a continual effort to help the orphanage. She has several of her friends and family that could help with making clothes for the kids or even just yard work.
So when we were done we had agreed to come back the next day and Kalina, Sherry, Lindsey, and Olivia along with Kathia's group would work on cleaning windows and folding laundry. I planned on taking Logan with me to go buy supplies for the orphanage and hopefully be back by lunch time.
Well it was lunch time and we had the rest of the day free. This was the only time we would have for just "fun" and it was time to fulfill a promise we had made to Logan and Olivia. It was time to go see the Crocodiles and then the Beach. We headed west toward the pacific coast and in about 40 minutes we arrived at what we have started calling the Crocodile Bridge. The kids were both absolutely amazed to see crocodiles that were not in a cage. I think before this they had only seen one small crocodile at the Memphis zoo and in pictures. There was one of them laying in the sun that was at least 15 feet long. There was probably 15-20 of them swimming or laying right below us. Most of them were just laying there soaking up the sun and Logan just could not stand it. He kept yelling at them, "CROCODILES WAKE UP" over and over again. He was very disappointed that none of them seemed to notice his wake up calls.
From the Crocodile Bridge we headed a little farther south to a beach that we had heard about from Kathia's husband Jason. It was not a place you could get to unless you knew where you were going, luckily we had the inside info. You had to take a right off the highway at an unmarked dirt road and drive about 10 minutes until you entered into the back gate of some kind of Resort community. Then you drive thru the middle of the compound of condos until you get to another dirt road that goes another 300 feet where you have to park and then walk the last little bit thru the trees and over a very treacherous looking bridge over a small creek and there you are. Easy right? I am sure you can find it now all on your own.....Anyway it was a nice quiet beach, there were only 4 other people there besides us. The kids had a great time playing in the water and the girls had a blast sifting thru tons of pieces of coral reef.
We stayed a few hours at the beach then we had to head back so we could fix something to eat and I had to be at the Airport to pick up Keith at 8:15.
I arrived at the airport right on time and wonder of wonders Keith's flight was on time. I was even able to stake out a good spot to wait on him to get outside and I was able to swoop in and save him from the mob of taxi and shuttle drivers eagerly waiting to devour unsuspecting tourists. I was excited about the possibilities of Keith being along for this trip especially since he is much more fluent than myself with Spanish. I have gotten a lot better but it takes time.
Once we got back to the house we all spent some time talking about Costa Rica and the days ahead but we all went to bed pretty early so we would be rested for a hard days work at Hogar de
-David
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