Community Service

On Saturday I had the privilege of doing some community service with Wendy, another student teacher, and some of the girls in the high school.  These girls are in charge of a group that organizes opportunities for community service that students at school can take part in!  They mainly work with a woman named Gale who is stationed in La Carpia.  Apparently, this is one of the worst parts of the city.  When I mentioned to my host that we went there, she was very surprised and hoped that we had been accompanied by someone (don't worry, we were).  Part of the reason that La Carpia is such a dump is because it was not intended for anyone to live there.  However, many people live there, and it is a clear place of poverty.

Gale (located at the top of the photo hugging the child) came over with the peace corps a number of years ago, and she has been here ever since.  The people who live in La Carpia all know her and respect her very much for what she has done for their town.  While she has been here there have been many many different projects that she has become involved in.  She mentioned that she had built 30 houses, she built a small clinic which is now a school building and library.  

While we were there, she told us about some people whose homes were right on the side of the mountain.  When a bad rainstorm came, there was a mudslide and many people lost their homes.  One fifteen year old girl was in one of the houses and died because of the mudslide.  One woman whose home was destroyed has 2 children and now nowhere to live.  She doesn't have a job, food, or anything else.  Gale gave her food for her and her children and gave her some laundry detergent.  She could not help rebuild her home because the land is no longer there.  

Gale is working to expand her school/ library building, so we were in charge of picking up trash, leveling the ground, mixing cement, and pouring cement.  Let me tell you, that is some tough work.  My arm muscles were definitely getting a work out (even for how big they are! ;) ) We worked from about 9:30-12:00.

It was nice to see a different part of town and to learn a little more about Costa Rica.  It was definitely inspiring and really cool to see how Gale has loved on the people of La Carpia.  I was thankful to be able to help out in a small way during my visit here.