Day 3: The work begins

Written by:  Caitlin Boiyd-Ragin

Day 3:

Day 3 was the first day that we had to get up at 5:30. The real work had begun. From 8:00-3:00 we worked on our service learning project. This year we are paving roads in La Carpio. La Carpio is a very poor town, home to thousands of people, in Costa Rica. The first thing that caught my eye upon arriving in La Carpio was the  large number of stray dogs running thorugh the streets. I think I seen more stray dogs than I see stray cats in my own neighborhood. Some of the dogs were so cute and tempting to interact with.

Once it was time to work, we were told that we had to level a road. At first glance it seemed impossible. There were huge rocks everywhere, large dips, and it seemed as if there wasn't enough dirt. After hours and hours of hard work we had finally leveled the road. Once the road was leveled, we ate lunch. While looking for the church, where we were told we could eat our food, we walked into someone's house. We thought is was the church, until we asked a little girl and boy who led us to the church. Once there, we could hear a little girl and boy chanting "Gringo en mi casa." That made my day. They were so happy to interact with us and even happy that we had accidently walked into their houses.

After lunch, we had the opportunity to play soccer with the kids in the community. They were so fun to interact with and very good at soccer. Even though they didn't have much, they still knew how to have fun.  Soon after that, we got back to work. First, we paved a walk way between houses, and then we started to pave the actual road. At that point, the entire community came out to help. I liked the fact they they didn't just watch us work. They had a desire to help us and they did just that.

Even though I'm tired, I very excited to work again today. I love helping others even when that means hard work.