March Photos

It's been another full month here in Carrillos, and here are the photos to prove it! This month, we've enjoyed the company and service of Oakwood UMC from Iowa, Carthage UMC from Illinois, and the youth of Kingsbridge Parish in Ontario.




This is the ramp and stairs of the playground. Forms made, cement poured...and the Ontario youth also poured a lot of the sidewalk running through the park.







This is some of the Ontario youth, watering the stairs and smoothing out the ground so they can pour the sidewalk.







The Iowa group dug the trench for this part of the wall, and they laid the block. Then the Canadians formed and poured the top, and laid the block for the corner section. Truly an international effort.





How many people are in this picture? Yes, that orange hat in the second septic hole is on top of David's head. The Carthage group, including these hardworking couples from Atlanta, worked to prepare Strong Missions' new headquarters down the street. They also did welding, painting, and some holes in concrete for our new office building.







In addition to their park work, the Iowa group painted and cleaned a classroom at the school.

Educational Progress

Some of you have already heard about the pilot educational program we started in Los Guido at the beginning of the year. For $600 a month (supported by donations), we pay a retired professor to go to Los Guido and teach classes. We started with 25 students. Now, a couple of months later, we have 64 students, ranging from primary to secondary (there are multiple classes). Many of these students are attending public school already, but this gives them the extra help they need to progress and make it through. The desire to learn is strong, because education gives opportunity.
We're very excited at how well this new program is going, and we're hoping to set up a similar program in Alajuela. Very promising!