Costa Rica: The Beginning

In late May of this year Tyler and I headed to Costa Rica for 3 weeks. But this is not where this story begins. Since the year before I had been bugging Tyler about going on an adventure. I really really just needed to use my passport. My goal was to get us to Europe and for months I planned budget trips to Europe that still cost over $6000. That wasn't going to fly with Tyler so we made a compromise. We decided to go somewhere closer, for an extra week, and to volunteer during the trip.
So May came around and I was so excited. We graduated at the beginning of the month from the University of Utah in Community and Consumer Studies. Yes, we both graduated in the same degree and both were on the Dean's list and Tyler had honors. We moved down to Saint George, UT for a couple days and then left from Vegas, connected in Florida and then landed in San Jose, Costa Rica. Here is an email we sent to our families the first day:

It has been an exciting and eye-opening first day. I woke up at 5 this morning because that is when the sun comes up. One of our walls in our room is all widows so you can see how this is something to get used to waking up to. We are staying with Alejandro and his son Felipe who is 9. We live in a very nice middle class home. It is all gated and we have a our own room with a lock. There are other volunteers that are staying here to. One couple who just left today is from Hurricane, UT and then another couple who just came today is from slc both are LDS. We had orientation this morning then in the afternoon we went to Casa de los Ninos. The children are not orphans, but they are severely impoverished. There families are mostly from Nicaragua and near their homes are places that have problems with drugs and such. The little building we go to feeds the children a meal in the afternoon and gives them a place to play safely. We play with the children and help serve the meal and clean up. I was nervous at first because I couldn't speak with them, but the children are so kind and friendly and just wanted me to swing the around, I even won at a game of dominoes. Unfortunately, the director of the program said we couldn't take any pictures right now. So hopefully we will be able to later. Some of the kids we even found out are LDS, that was a lot of fun to connect with them on that level. I'll write more about CR tomorrow. Love you all!
Clare&Tyler

This is the place we stayed for two weeks while volunteering.
The walls are paper thin and the floors are all cement.
But it is the nicer part of the city.