Day 317: Day off. Our contacts took us to visit a beautiful island. We spent the day on the beach and went whale watching on the way home!
Day 318: Today we traveled higher up the mountain to visit two different primary schools where we put on assemblies.
Day 319: This morning we went to a school to do ministry and we all got asked for our autographs before we left. We also discovered more lice in Sara’s hair today… she was not very happy.
Day 320: In the morning we to a boarding school for at-risk boys. Chrin gave her guitar to one of the older boys. In the afternoon, we went to a teen jail.
Day 321: Kip and I stayed home to edit video all day. We are showing a different video every night at final debrief next week, so we have a lot of photos to sort through from the entire squad. Our teams went into the city to visit a woman’s prison and an orphanage. After dinner we got to play with puppies!
Day 322: We spent most of the day packing and cleaning our house. I also met a family from Michigan who vacation 1 mile from my parents house. In the evening we attended a Quincenera (coming of age party for 15-year old girls in Latin culture) at the church.
Day 323: We attended church in the morning, did shopping for our travel day and had a farewell dinner with all of our new friends from Panama. I was up until 4am editing video.
Day 324: We had to have the van loaded by 5:15am and we were at the boarder by 7am. It took us over 3 hours to get through the boarder crossing (our last one until America) and then settled in for two 6 hour bus rides. We finally made it to our final debrief location in Costa Rica around 9pm.
Day 325: We had the day free, so we spent most of it relaxing at the beach. In the evening we had a squad dinner and most people went out for karaoke afterward. Our squad was called the Zac Brown Band and Glee (did I mention my squadmates can actually sing!).
Day 326: Today we went on a Catamaran Tour along the shore. We stopped for snorkeling and watched the sunset off the deck of the boat.
Day 327: Today we enjoyed spending time at a resort and spa. We started the day with a canopy tour (ziplining), took a few rides down a 1,500ft water slide, and then rode horseback to a natural mud bath and hot spring.
Day 328: Our last day together as an entire squad. We spent the afternoon at the beach for Ann’s baptism service and in the evening we got dressed up for our final dinner. My teammates all added sand to my final bottle from the race (I have collected sand in every country). Afterward, we had a viewing of the year-end videos I made.
Day 329: We flew out of Costa Rica in the morning and were met by the family and friends of several squadmates in Miami, FL. I travelled to Tampa with Britni’s family and we stopped to get Chinese food for our first meal back in America.
Day 330: The Last Day… I had to be at the airport early in the morning, reality set in when I realized I was alone for the first time in over a year. I flew from Tampa to Detroit and then on to Traverse City. I was met at the airport by Mom, Dad, Christina, and lots of hugs! I was also welcomed home to some much needed pampering!
WHAT A YEAR!
