COSTA RICA TRIP REPORT
VOLUNTEERS ON CALL, INC.
OCTOBER 16 - 25, 2006

This year's team was comprised of eight volunteers: Joseph Havranek, Elyse Brodie, Eunice Burnett, Frances Long, Cheryl Floyd, Emma Reeve, Oscar Destruge and team leader, Roxana Bowgen. Six of these volunteers are Greenwich residents, one lives in Stamford and the other is from Norwalk,
Connecticut. They learned about this service project through the media, flyers and personal contacts. Their backgrounds are as diverse and interesting as are their professions.

We arrived in San Jose, the evening of the 16th and were greeted at the airport by our new partner in Costa Rica this year, Charlie Strong of Strong Missions. He is a 38 year old pastor from Texas who has spent the last three years in Costa Rica doing outreach and humanitarian work throughout the capital and surrounding areas. He came highly recommended by long established contacts of VOC. In the past few months VOC and Charlie developed an excellent working phone/email partnership. Two years ago he married a woman from Nicaragua who has been a great partner and contributor to the success of his work, as she is fluent in Spanish and has helped Mr. Strong to learn the language fluently. Charlie was well organized and at all times made sure that our team was safe and well provided for. Additionally, he has become familiar with local customs (advising us on cultural sensitivities), has established excellent connections and is well regarded in the community. We have decided to continue working with him on future Costa Rica projects.

We spent the first two nights at the Hotel Hemisferio in Tibas, just 15K from the El Hospicio de Huerfanos de Vista de Mar, the site of our work project. The first day, Tuesday, was spent familiarizing ourselves with the orphanage and the work ahead. Our first goal was to clear the debris, clean and paint four rooms in one of the ten houses at the orphanage complex, as well as install louver doors in the sink areas including adding partitions between the living room and kitchen in as many of the houses as possible. This particular orphanage is 18 years old and is run by Don Jorge Chacon, who is in charge of four other orphanages. This complex houses about eighty (80) children. There are ten houses at the site, several guards alternating shifts, a house mother for each home, and several acres of farmland.

When this orphanage was built almost twenty years ago, it was believed that only older children suffered at the hands of their parents; as information and new data is gathered they have learned that children of all ages are at risk and the existing homes need interior redesigning to make them child
friendly and safe.

At the house of our main activity, there were thousand pounds of debris, including steel beams, worn mattresses, bed frames and furniture being stored which our team was asked to haul into another house being used for storage and a separate "storage area". Our second goal for being there was
to spend time with the children. Each volunteer was encouraged to alternate between doing physical work and getting to know the orphans.

Every morning after breakfast, we were transported by Luis, our driver, to the orphanage by a van service arranged by Charlie. We used one of the empty houses to store the donations brought by our team as well as our personal items and for our personal needs. We began work by about 8:45
concentrating on the physical work for a good part of the day. We would break daily for lunch at around noontime and ate a meal at the orphanage prepared by our partner's wife Angela. We were joined at this meal daily by both of them, our construction foreman, Wilbur and his team of three young
men, all in their early twenties: Jonathan, Luis and .This crew has been working together for several months. They hope to work together as a team in the next couple of years on various needy sites that Charlie has targeted, including moving over to the Caribbean part of the country in the Puerto Limon area.

Most of the tools we needed for the refurbishing and cleanup were provided locally, although some team members brought masks, eye protection, gloves and hammers. Charlie made sure that we had bottled water at all times, although water potability problems and food illnesses are rare in Costa
Rica. We all ate fresh fruits and vegetables without any problems.

At times the refurbishing and cleanup effort was made challenging due to several small children with behavioral issues coming into the house. We quickly learned to engage the older children to act as "guards" and help us keep the smaller ones outside and safe. While the house mothers are
supposed to look after all their charges, it is nearly impossible for each one to keep an eye on everybody since at times they care for as many as twelve children. Each mother spends her day looking after the children, cooking, cleaning, washing clothes and dishes as well as the children. They
work four day shifts when they return home to their own families. We could not determine how much the house mothers earn but our partner felt that it may be around $200 per month.

Most of the hauling was done by hand, although one cart available to carry the heavier materials. Oscar and Joe partnered during this trip focusing on installing the louver doors.

At around 3pm daily we would stop the physical work and focus on the children, spending time coloring, doing arts and crafts, singing songs and dancing. The playground equipment that the children have is outdated and is a safety hazard. Most of the equipment is rusted and one of the slides has an exposed sheet of metal making it very dangerous for the children. Several complaints have been made to the Director, and we hope that after our visit and expressed concern that this equipment will be replaced. Part of the problem in not removing these has been a financial one, as there is no money to replace the existing equipment. Currently this orphanage exists on private contributions with only 30% of assistance from PANI, the federal agency regulating orphanages in Costa Rica. Their funding is highly
restricted, however, mostly going for food.

Several of the children suffer from physical ailments, having been physically and sexually abused in their homes. Most of the children actually have parents but have been taken away from them, without the possibility of being reunited. The authorities have determined the parents unfit. Three siblings at the orphanage were found caged in a remote part of the country. One of the boys, about 8 years old, has severe frontal damage where his forehead kept banging at the cage bars. His brother is unable to
speak and expresses himself by making grunting noises.

Many of these orphans will never be adopted because of their age and behavioral issues. One girl has been adopted and returned twice. In both cases the adoptive families were unsuccessful, even with professional, help to rehabilitate her. Most of the adoptions are from European families as U.S. citizens are not allowed to adopt children due to an international pact that our government has not signed on child and sex trafficking. It is a shame to note that in the last five years since we started leading teams to Costa Rica there has been a dramatic increase in child trafficking with businessmen being one of the biggest offenders due to the proximity to the U.S . Warning signs are posted throughout the San Jose Airport as one exits the immigration area and television airs ads against this practice.

Some children have inappropriate physical play, displaying some of behavior they have experienced in their homes. In some cases in the beginning, the children exhibited repressed anger and lashed out at the volunteers by spitting, kicking or swearing. This behavior subsided, however, after the first three days as we spent more time with them and showed them love. By the end of our ten days, it was almost incredible to think that these were the same children that we met the first day. Several of them bonded with our volunteers making it extremely difficult to say goodbye on the last day.

We changed lodgings on Wednesday morning to the Terraza del Lago on the side of a mountain just fifteen minutes from the orphanage. This location is closer to the orphanage, although being on the mountain it gets very cold at night. Three of the volunteers had made plans to return to the U.S. on
Sunday the 22nd. We chose Saturday as our tour day which we spent in the National Park Manuel Antonio, a rain forest on the Pacific Ocean.

On Tuesday the 24th, we had the opportunity to visit a school that works with children of special needs including hearing, vocal and visual impairment. Some suffer from Down's syndrome. This facility is the only school for special needs in Central America. Charlie and other volunteer teams have built a wing, storage room and a protective roof at this school and will be building a sensory garden and playground in weeks to come.

We also had the opportunity to visit one of the poorest neighborhoods in the suburbs of San Jose. Strong Missions will start building a home on our departure day in this community that will cost $6,000. This 20' x 20' home will house a family of seven and is a basic structure providing running water, electricity and sewage. Many of the residents are single mothers or the elderly poor. Proof of title ownership and sweat equity is required of the family members. Each house is built of cinder block and metal roofing, leaving interior beams exposed and four finished walls. There are no interior walls and furnishings act as barriers between public and private spaces in the interior. This and other homes will be built with the help of other volunteer teams. It is our hope at Volunteers on Call, Inc. that
we will be able to raise money to build several of these houses by speaking at local schools, sending more volunteer teams and raising public awareness about the needs in Costa Rica.

To date this was the best team effort I have experienced, having led several volunteer teams internationally. All members contributed their best efforts to make this a successful mission. If one recommendation could be made it would be to lodge at only one site, which was out of the control of our partner. VOC subsidized this trip by $400 per volunteer, feeling it was important as a public service to share with residents of Fairfield county the needs of this very beautiful country.

On a closing note, I would like to comment that this was yet another "first" for Volunteers on Call, Inc. having been the first team from Connecticut to serve at this site. It was a privilege to lead this team.