Children´s Eternal Rainforest

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Today was probably one of the days that "hit the heart" the most. We began with a delicious breakfast as usual. The delegation then headed to the Children´s Eternal Rainforest. An informative briefing held by the VP, Bob Law, and Mia Robert informed us about about every aspect of the rainforest from funding, to cost, to the volunteer opportunities available. During all of this, the bugs were attacking us and we were all so eager to begin our hike. The delegation split, and the hike began. Personally, our group had an advantage of a $2000 telescope to assist our vision! We were able to see a vast group of insects and birds. It was very interesting to see how different the species are from the U.S.

After the hike, the group reconvened for lunch. We then returned to give the Children´s Eternal Rainforest a "gift" of a bunch of trees. When I say "bunch" I mean 300 plus! We established an efficient system for planting and each individual person played a massive part. (By the way, we all went into this project thinking we were each only planting two trees or so. We were happy to say that we planted many more!)

After covering ourselves in bugs, dirt, vines, etc. the group freshened up for dinner and some cultural interaction with fellow delegate and Monteverde resident, Daniel Vargas´ friends. That was most definitely a good time as we played all sorts of teambuilding games that Daniel helped facilitate.

The food is great here, the environment is fantastic, but most importantly the memories we are creating will stay with us forever.
By GYFHC Delegates Stephanie Rodriguez and Gen Montreuil