You’d be surprised at how many things we did and places we went on this Costa Rica trip in just a two-week timespan. From the mission trip, to a few more days exploring, it was a wonderful, adventure-filled trip with lots to see and do.
I’ll start by telling you all about the mission trip CBC did to Roblealto, then get into the details of the vacation part of the trip. Roblealto is a place where children go when they have terrible living situations at home – wether the child lost their parents, the parents are gone and unable to take care of their kids, or they are exposed to prostitution, drugs, or abuse. It’s at this bible home, or temporary shelter where the kids from ages 6-12 are able to receive a nice place to live, parents who love them (the non biological parents live there to take care of 10 kids at this village), they are fed, clothed, given an education, and Christian values they take back to their parents and families. Here’s how Roblealto describes themselves: “The Roblealto Child Care Association is a Christian, public welfare, non-profit organization founded in 1932. From the beginning, its mission has been to care for the children of Costa Rica who are in critical situations, at social risk and in need of specialized care so that they have better chances of becoming men and women of good standing.
Since 1932 thousands of children have received comprehensive care in the areas of health, nutrition, education, spiritual and emotional support and psychological treatment. But especially, this population has received the love and understanding from a staff that shares Christian values with them, which will help them function successfully in society.”
When we went to volunteer, Roblealto was about to welcome 10 more kids into the village. Me and my team of 19 people from Community Bible Church were able to finish painting and varnishing a home and its furniture to welcome the new house parents and the kids coming into the bible home. What a blessing it was to do this for them.
Our time in Roblealto consisted of finishing the house, playing soccer & cricket with the kids and some of the house parents in the village, making crafts with the kids, and having dinner with them in each of their homes. At these times, we really got to know the kids and we enjoyed being there for them. Myself, Hannah (who writes many of my blogs and is also my sister in law, and my sister, Audrey all got to spend time in the same house with these kids every night.
On our last day, it was so hard to say goodbye, but Audrey and I decided to support one of the kids, and I believe Hannah did as well where we can donate each month to help provide for the child’s food, education, and clothing needs.
You’ll see in the pictures that it was such a blessing to go and serve these kids. Our team also got to go and see some of Los Guido, where many of the kids come from – their parents still live there, and they get to go back and see them every other weekend to visit. But Los Guido is the worst part of San Jose – it’s the slums, where there’s prostitution, drugs, gangs, and violence throughout this large, poverty stricken neighborhood. Seeing these circumstances not only put things into perspective, but it amazed me to see each and every child at the bible home so happy and thankful to be there – they also loved to go and visit their biological parent(s), but to know they have a safe place to stay really moved every one of us from CBC.
If you’d like to help out this amazing organization, or help a child, feel free to check out their website: http://roblealto.org/index.html
On to the vacation part of the trip!
We hit the road running, we went all over:
La Paz > Monteverde > Arenal National Park > Heredia > San Jose
Things we did (which I recommend):
- La Paz Waterfalls
- Ziplines in Monteverde
- Tabacon – near Arenal Volcano
- Chocolate, Pineapple, and Chocolate tours in Heredia
- San Jose shopping – the place to go is Marketa Central, but when we got there, it was closed due to a holiday.
As you can tell, it was A LOT, but it was so fun to go work and enjoy this Costa Rica trip with my mom and sisters. I’d do it again, but next time, we’ll hit the beach after the mission trip. 🙂
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