EXPERIENCE: Peru

PTPI is excited to announce that July 13 - 23 will find 20 students ages 16-18 years old EXPERIENCING all that Peru has to offer!

Students may apply on-line by December 7, 2009 to be a part of this incredible delegation.

Please visit the EXPERIENCE: Peru Event Page for full program details, including our itinerary.

Our Final Day

July 25, 2009

Our final day began with a much appreciated 7:00 AM wake-up call, and after a quick breakfast, we boarded our bus and departed for the Aldeas S.O.S orphanage. Anticipation on the bus grew until we finally arrived.

As we walked into the orphanage and witnessed the excited children, we knew exactly why we had an extra hour of sleep. We spent the next few hours laughing and playing with children, who appreciated every minute of it. Helping us at the orphanage were local Costa Rican Boy and Girl scouts. Many of the scouts spoke English well enough to hold a conversation with, but some scouts were a different story. Fortunately, even those of us who had only learned a limited amount of broken Spanish over the last ten days were able to communicate well enough to joke and have fun. The scouts helped us plant trees and supervised activities such as arts and crafts. Though difficult, leaving the orphanage was a touching moment for both the children and us. We made our goodbyes last as long as possible before loading the bus and returning to our hotel.

Our final night came to a close with an emotional closing ceremony. We said our farewells to our beloved leaders and Mary Eisenhower opened the microphone to questions allowing each of us to get to know her a little better. After the Q & A session, we broke up into teams and took an “exam” to see exactly how well we’d gotten to know each other over the past ten days. After learning the… substandard… results, the leaders each spoke about the trip and what it meant to them and some of the delegates also took part in sharing their final thoughts. In keeping with the trip’s rollercoaster of emotion, the ceremonies ended with a final dance party – GYFHC Delegate, David, leading the way and one of our last acts as the 2009 GYFHC delegation, a group hug.

-By Elliott Wall (Mexico, MO)

Back Home

After a long day of travel, our GYFHC Costa Rica delegation has returned and all delegates are making their way back to their home towns. Another successful GYFHC!

"A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."
--Margaret Mead

At the Airport

All delegates are checked in and through security at the San Jose airport. Our flight to Dallas is currently on time.

Back to San Jose - 7/24/09

Today, we left beautiful Monteverde for San Jose. Our 4 hour, uneventful bus ride took us to the Britt Coffee Plantation where we ate lunch and toured the facility. While on the tour, we learned about the legend of coffee, the different stages of harvesting and roasting, as well as how to tell a good cup of coffee from a bad one; additionally, we learned how coffee is one of the major exports of Costa Rica, and how it helps to sustain the country. At the conclusion of the tour, we all had the opportunity to purchase coffee straight from the source!

Next, we checked in at the Intercontinental Hotel, where we were greeted by PTPI's President and CEO, Mary Jean Eisenhower. The whole delegation had the opportunity to meet with Mary to fill her in on our Costa Rican experience thus far,and to let her know of all the sites we have seen and service projects we have completed.

To wrap up the day, we all visited Pueblo Antiguo, which is a unique cultural center representing historical San Jose. The goal of Pueblo Antiguo is to recreate what San Jose's main square was like between 1880 and 1930, but the coolest part about Pueblo Antiguo is that all of the proceeds generated benefit the National Children's Hospital. During our visit we attended folk show where we were able to experience authentic Costa Rican music and dance and we concluded our time there with an authentic dinner. It was a great evening!

By GYFHC Delegates Alyssa Vigliotti and Sarah Mathiesen

Magical Moments in the Monteverde Cloud Forest

Thursday July 23, 2009

Day eight started off with a rush. After enjoying the blue morning sky, our delegation began our zip lining tour of the Monteverde Cloud Forest. The tour started off slowly with the completion of what we had thought to be only three short zip lines. Soon after finishing the first three lines, we found ourselves zipping across tree tops in many different ways: upside-down, backwards, and in pairs. To complete our tour, we each plummeted off of what was likely a 30 ft platform to find ourselves dangling from the “Tarzan Swing.” This was certainly, for me, the best way to start off a great day.
After lunch, our delegation split into two groups to complete our service projects. One group left to join Willow Zuchowski, a famous botanist, and the other to help construct a handicapped-accessible viewing platform in the Children’s Eternal Rainforest for the Monteverde Conservation League. The group that went to work with Willow, the botanist, gathered materials for the construction of a garden and removed grasses in order to create a path with benches to view their hard work.
The other group, who went to build the viewing platform, had quite a bit in store for them. The work mainly consisted of digging 18, 2 foot deep holes in which to place the very large supporting wooden poles of the platform. In addition, delegates cleared brush, moved large rocks, carried wood –and whatever else was needed.
Needless to say, after planting 500 trees yesterday, creating a garden and digging the holes for the poles today, GYFHC Costa Rica delegates are certainly qualified for strenuous yard work. We left the service sites today feeling exhausted but happy for a job well done and knowing our contributions will help the Monteverde Conservation League. This may easily be our favorite humanitarian project we have completed so far.
- GYFHC delegates Madison Taylor & Sarah Mathiesen

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

On Our Way to Monteverde

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

After waking up to the sounds of the birds chirping, cows mooing and monkeys chattering away, our delegation left LaFortuna for Monteverde. We traveled through the windy roads and lush jungles and farmlands to arrive at our hotel. Though the rain kept us from our second ziplining adventure, instead we had the opportunity to come together as a delegation and get to know one another through some rainy-day activities. It was indeed another amazing day in Costa Rica...