Today was even longer than I expected, yet an incredible day, still. We got up and had breakfast before getting in the van to make the trek out to Puerto Limon. On the way out of San Jose we picked up Padre Arturo, a priest in the diocese. The bishop could not come with us today so he sent Padre Arturo in is place. Padre Arturo was born in Limon, so he is well versed in the area which came in handy. The trip took around three hours, part of which took us through a rainforest. The weather today was kind of overcast, grey and raining on and off, but that was fine since we spent the majority of the day in the car. Also with the rainfall came visible waterfalls throughout the rainforest.
About an hour outside of Puerto Limon there is a college called Earth University. They offer programs in ecotourism, sustainable farming and other cool Eco-focused programs. It is an internationally known school and on occasion the diocese uses their dormitory facilities to house groups that do mission work in the area. Just past the university are some of their agricultural fields of pineapples and bananas and other typical Costa Rican agriculture.
When we arrived in Puerto Limon we stopped at St. Mark's Episcopal School. This is not the same model as the Escuelas in San Jose and Heredia. It is a low-income private school for both primary and high school aged children. We met with two women who told us about their various needs around the property. First, they are currently renting computers from a third party source at a huge expense of $3,000 per month to offer computer classes to their students. Their hope is to have someone help supply 30 computers that will be owned by the school so that the expense they are currently paying to rent computers can be used for other things. The computers would also be used to bring community members in for computer and English classes, allowing them to become more marketable in the career arena. The second project they would like for a group to take on is resurfacing the outdoor play space to make it safer and more condusive for the kids to play sports during PE without risk of injury. Beyond that it was mentioned that two classrooms on the second floor of the building have been condemned due to unsafe structural elements which has caused them to close down the preschool and daycare aged program they once offered. A future goal would be to make the space more structurally sound in order to reopen those programs. The school is located in the city center which makes it very convenient for working families to drop their children off and pick them up again without a huge expense in travel back and forth from work and school.
After we checked out the spaces they talked to us about, we made a quick trip over to a small church just down the street. Padre Arturo was the rector at this church for a short while in the past. They serve around 50 members. In the back of the church is the parish hall where they offer English classes to children in the area. They have several projects they need completed. The first and most important is updating the children's bathrooms and bringing them indoors. Currently they are accessible only by walking outside under a tin roof overhang. The idea would be to knock down a wall in the parish hall and build out to make space for updated bathrooms accessible through the parish hall. The other project that was mentioned was fixing the outdoor drainage problem in the back and side yards in order to create a play space for children of the parish. Currently both yards are at a backwards tilt bringing all the rainwater into the yards. We would need to build up the earth in the back to re-adjust the water flow.
For lunch and our final visit in Puerto Limon, we went back to St. Mark's, but this time to visit the church. The church was built by funds donated through the United Thank Offering. It is the largest church in the diocese. Padre Floyd Gibson is the rector there and a good friend of Padre Arturo. We sat down for a typical Costa Rican meal prepared by a few of the vestry members and women of the church. During lunch, Padre Floyd talked to us a bit about their needs. They are currently in the process of building their safety fence up about a meter higher, as well as reworking the entry of the space to have a farther reaching rain cover. They are also making a handicap accessible entry for the elderly members of their congregation. Their members have already begun to donate to the cause and they will wait to ask for more donation until the project is underway.
When we had completed our meal and said our goodbyes we took a short drive past the beach and new dock where cargo boats can come in. On the way back into San Jose we stopped at one last church called San Pedro. Padre Arturo explained that the railway used to be the main mode of transportation and when it was being built workers were brought in from the Caribbean. With them came multiple different churches, including the Episcopal Church. Along the railway they built several Episcopal Churches. San Pedro is one of them. However, one of the previous presidents of Costa Rica decided that cargo should be moved by truck rather than train and a highway was established. Now that freight was being moved by truck, there was no need for the railway and the president shut it down. With this new way, the towns began to move closer to the highway and farther away from the railways. Some of the churches did not survive this move away from the railway, but it seems San Pedro is doing well under the guidance of their rector Madre Mavis.
The building is made of concrete blocks with open air windows, currently covered by pieces of tin roofing. They recently took it upon themselves to cut down a tree and frame out a roof which they covered with tin. Now they can meet even when it rains. Madre Mavis told us about her two priority needs. The first is to use decorative concrete blocks to fill in the windows. This would still allow light and air to enter the space but it would keep the vandilization to a minimum. Additionally, she would like to add an iron gate door to the back entry for the same reason. She has other big plans for the space, but those are the top two right now.
While we were there a church member gathered a few nutmegs to show us what they look like. Jeff and I were both surprised as we had only ever seen it in powdered form. Hopefully we can get them through customs to show everyone. They look like fruits to begin with then when they are almost ripe they burst open and a nut falls out covered in this red stuff that looks like plastic brains. Once it dries out you can grind it all up and make what we know as nutmeg powder. Rather interesting if you ask me. They warned us not to open nutmeg fruits before they burst open themselves as they are toxic. Who knew!? I do now.
From San Pedro we all got back in the car to make the remainder of the trip back to San Jose. We passed an active volcano on the way back that we had not noticed before. It was off in the distance but still cool. The trip got a little scary as we passed back through the rainforest, though. It was pitch black outside with no street lamps. The fog was really heavy and there weren't any reflectors on the street for a little while. There were a few moments that Jeff and I let out simultaneous breathes we didn't even know we were holding. Luckily, we made it down through the rainforest and back just in time for some dinner.
We are all completely wiped so we are turning in early again. We get a little later morning tomorrow beginning the day around nine. There is one final site to see before we spend the afternoon at the market in downtown San Jose. I am pretty excited to get a little Christmas shopping out of the way. Overall I think this trip has been very successful in acquiring all the information we need to make an educated and spiritually inspired mission experience for our parish.
Goodnight.
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