Climbing to the Top of Our Hearts

Everyone woke up with excitement for our first whole day in San Jose, which also happened to be our day of service to the community. Four years ago Bryant’s Latin America SIE program formed a relationship with The Holy Spirit Association of Costa Rica and has spent a day volunteering every trip since. Upon our arrival early in the AM, we were warmly greeted and given a tour of their organization. The organization is mostly focused on children with lesser opportunities. At no charge, The Holy Spirit Association runs a food court that feeds 72,000 people a month, in which 42,000 are children. The amount of children they feed is comparable to more than twice the population of Smithfield Rhode Island. Other services include education, health, homeless shelter, consultancy, human development, and entertainment. Needless to say, they do a lot for the community and boy did they put us to work!

Gabe getting a nice bicep and shoulder workout in

After the tour we were put into groups and began our work, which happened to be more like a workout! Los niños were filled will never ending energy and constantly asking for “caballitos” (piggy back rides). They seemed to love being carried and some of the more daring children even enjoyed “the helicopter” (where we spun them on our shoulder until they we got dizzy). Andreas even taught a dance to a large group of girls, who seemed to be all over him! Legos, jump roping, puzzles, playgrounds, and horseplay brought out the kids in all of us, even the professors.  Besides playing with the kids, the females went to an orphanage, while the men went to the kitchen...... and cleaned. We stopped briefly to refuel, and then went back to our services until 4 PM.

Even Professor Z participated in some jump roping

Concluding our day of service we presented the organization with a small monetary donation and school supplies that we had collected throughout the semester. The Priest, who also founded the organization 12 years ago, told us how thankful they were to have us and wished that we could have stayed. He also mentioned how much we have touched the kids and how we will always be in their hearts. But it seemed as if they have touched our hearts even more. They showed us that friends, smiles, and love, is all that we need, which not even a language barrier could impede. As James M. Barrie once said “Those who bring sunshine into the lives of others, cannot keep it from themselves.”

By Alex Smolenski and Krystin Sinclair