Time Capsule Letter – October 2016
Hey Alex, Aly, Bryce, Colston, Ewan, Gabi, Haile, Jessica, Mary, Nick, Thomas, and Trevor!
By the time you are reading this, you will all probably be back at school, your memories of surfing, playing sports, and doing service in Bahia Ballena Costa Rica a fond yet distant memory. For those of us who facilitated your trip, we too have wonderful memories of our time spent together. Those of us who live in Bahia Ballena see the evidence of the Sports Service Adventure program every time we pass by the main plaza (soccer field) of Bahia Ballena and see the wonderfully painted and decorated bleachers! We also are reminded of the fun times we had working with the local kids of Bahia Ballena when we pass them on the street and they want to give us a high five and reminisce about the fun times they had this summer.
Our aim was to help teach you how to surf, and during your five surf lessons in the Marino Ballena National Park, you guys impressed us so much with your great listening, tenacity, and constant ability to smile and have fun. Your surf skills developed greatly during your ten days with us and we sincerely hope that you will be able to take that skill forward with you in your lives. More than anything, we were so stoked that you all began to understand why it’s so important for surfers and anyone who spends a lot of time in or near the ocean to work together to keep the marine environment clean, healthy, and beautiful. We learned that everything ends up in the sea, so we can all do our part regardless of where we live by cutting back on plastic use, reducing our consumption, and preserving energy and water. All of these actions will help to protect our wonderful Planet Earth — the place that we call home — as well as the world’s oceans.
Your aim this summer was to help create a space where the local kids could practice and perfect their sporting abilities, and you guys were oh-so-successful in this mission. Through these camps, our program made a very positive impact on the local kids in the community of Bahia Ballena this summer by showing kids from all walks of life that sports are fun and can bring people together. You guys worked a lot, learned a lot, and we hope also had a lot of fun.
We will never forget about hearing playing Zoo together, watching you play soccer with the locals in Esteban’s family’s indoor soccer field, helping the kids of the Flor de Bahia School play kickball, going on an epic rafting trip down the Coto Brus river, paddling out to ride the green waves on surf lessons four and five, learning all of your stories during the “Story of Self”, and having a rousing game of jeopardy on the last night! For us, it was a blast and even better because we got to share it with all you guys — our third Costa Rica Sports Service Adventure group!
Thank you so much for all your dedication this summer!
-Adrianne, Emi, and Gibran
Sports Service Adventure 2016, Costa Rica
Summer Blog Posts
July 21, 2016
Our epic Sports Service Adventurers are here in Costa Rica! We spent our first evening together checking out a local park and tasting local cuisine at a typical Costa Rican restaurant. In the evening, we got to know each other with rounds of icebreakers. Everyone is happy, safe, and ready to get started! We are so excited to have Gaby, Mary, Alex, Ally, Haile, Colston, Thomas, Trevor, Nick, Ewan, Jessica, and Bryce with us for the next 10 days! Local Directors Gibran and Adrianne are amazing souls and we are all so excited to begin our journey together as an empowered group of individual and collective positive change-makers. Y lo sabes!
Abrazos desde Costa Rica!
July 22nd
July 23rd
