Bellarmine Preparatory High School students find fast friends in Quebradilla, Costa Rica

After a long travel day, 25 incoming senior class students from  Bellarmine Preparatory school in Tacoma, Washington were welcomed with open arms into Colegio Técnico Profesional Fernando Volio Jiménez, Quebradilla’s local technical high school. The instant hospitality of every adult, teacher, and student involved was overwhelming. Our first day was filled with exploring the town of Quebradilla, whether that was the gorgeous churches, or one of the ten panderias you can find around town, there were always kids out playing and dogs running around. Our group was already so impressed and amazed to see such a close and kind community. Even after day one, we were already feeling at home.

With the rise of the sun the next day, we awoke with excitement and determination to begin the reason for our journey to Costa Rica - to build a basketball court. Building a court meant spending hours working every muscle in your body, rocking out to music, shoveling so many buckets your hands hurt, and making conga lines at any opportunity: getting tired was inevitable. However, that didn't mean it wasn't worth it. As we mixed cement, we also mixed and mingled with the local students. Although our Spanish was a little rusty at first, getting to communicate and speak with the locals of the town helped improve our Spanish greatly. To our surprise, a language barrier wasn’t an actual barrier at all, and very quickly into the building process we were already becoming best friends and genuinely connecting with the locals.

After mornings filled with pouring our blood, sweat and tears into a cement mixer, we spent our afternoons learning about the lovely and lively Costa Rican culture. We painted traditional piggy banks given to Costa Rican children at a young age to teach them how to save money. We practiced some Costa Rican folklorico dance steps (and then returned the favor by teaching them the Cotton Eyed Joe), made tortillas con queso, played soccer with the locals, attended a beautiful church service and even celebrated one of the volunteer’s birthday “tico style” with lots of candy, fun hats, a piñata smashing and a delicious dulce de leche cake.

On Day 4 of construction we made history; the instant the last wheelbarrow of cement was poured into the court, a dance party broke out and was followed by a mud slip n’ slide, all in celebration of building Quebradilla’s first ever basketball court! Days following the court construction were spent relaxing in hot springs, giving ourselves mud exfoliation treatments with hot spring mud, learning how the Costa Rican’s make coffee making, further exploring Quebradilla and our connections with the local students.

After having a day of well-deserved rest and rejuvenation, we were re-energized and ready to celebrate the inauguration of this new space we, Bellarmine and Quebradilla, poured our hearts into. A morning filled with sports, play, laughter and more dancing blessed this new space for future children, students and community members. Later that afternoon, however, tears welled in our eyes and hugs were shared as we had to say goodbye to all our new friends. It was definitely a sad moment. There were so many digital camera lights flashing we didn't know where to look, all of us wanting to capture this sweet memory. This group of people was nothing short of spectacular, very nice, respectful, always playing games and joking around, and we feel so fortunate to have been able to come to Quebradilla and to share this experience together.

There was never a dull moment throughout our CFK trip, every moment was filled with joy, excitement, and curiosity about the next adventure ahead. On our last night when we were reflecting in a big circle and sharing our main takeaways from this experience, it was clear that for our group this trip was much more than just building a basketball court. We learned how to overcome challenges and that deep perseverance resides in all of us. We learned that no matter how hard the work was to never lose our joy or excitement. We learned how to come together and create relationships despite language and culture differences. Through our impactful interactions with the locals and our classmates, we truly learned that no matter who you are, how you talk, or where you’re from, there is always a place for you to shine.

And most of all, we learned that a piece of our hearts will always be in Quebradailla. We will always be a part of the locals' lives and they will always be a part of ours no matter the distance the connections are timeless, because experiences like this are carried with us forever.
~ Gianna Iaia, Bellarmine Preparatory High School Senior

Volunteer Quotes:

My Courts fo rKids trip has been really transformative and has shown me both how hard I really can work and the amazing things that can come from it.
~ Maggie Kranick

This is a life changing opportunity for our students. They form close bonds with each other as well as close bonds with the local community. They will remember this forever.
~ Kevin Lee, Chaperone

Learning the saying ‘pura vida’ meant a lot to me. The saying has helped me in being as optimistic and positive as possible. When I go home, I want to keep using this saying in my daily life to help me and bring Costa Rican life with me.
~ Andrew Dobler

What I understand now is that although I may be a small part of something, I know in the end, what I do will be a part of something bigger than me.
~ Alvis Ray

This experience has shown me how dedicated service can bring life changing levels of fulfillment. I loved being able to share curious conversations with the locals where we both learned about each others’ lives. The more we talked the harder we worked too.
~ Noah Bianchi

Community Quotes:

It was an excellent experience participating in a Courts for Kids project. I was happy to serve the students who gave it their all, they were very hard working and brave.
~ Vilma, local cook

This project filled my heart and soul with gratitude, and it also let me give a little bit of myself to my community.
~ Marlene, school board vice president

This experience taught me to think out of the box. Usually we don't do big projects because we think it's a lot of money and we won't be able to reach the goal. But with a good organization and key activities you can make a big project a reality.
~ Valerie, school board president

The physical work was very tiring but very satisfying at the same time. The reward is to see the students and community happy.
~ Karol Céspedes, local teacher

Excellent, unforgettable. A lot of responsibility and enrichment in every detail.
~ Herlberth Obando, local teacher

Communities should take advantage of the opportunity offered by Courts for Kids because it’s a very good thing for communities.
~ Alcides Flores, project contractor