While at Ocean’s Edge I was one of four selected to help planned and design a playground for a small impoverished town called Playa Azul, otherwise known as Azul Beach. The town is everything you would imagine a small, cute, coastline Costa Rica town to look like. However, they do not have much. There is no night life scene, there are no tourist shops, no acai bowls, surf shops, shopping malls or parks. Our goal was to use donated recycled tires to build an incredible playground.
If you know me then you know within 5 seconds of hearing about this project I was attached. I started researching everything under the sun. From tire swings to tire animals to massive tire beehives for the kids to climb and play in. I was PUMPED!
We went to Azul the following day, ready and confident to present our plan to the local government workers we are partnering with. They immediately started asking us to build a trench, bury the tires and make a fence. A fence… to line a property…. for the kids…. why? My initial reaction was sadness and frustration. Within this week we have lined one side of this fence with tires and started painting them and it is gorgeous. I later found out that the fence will be the outline for the soccer field and volleyball net and a place for parents to sit and watch their kids.
Samir, is the main contact from the local government, he has a passion to give back and Azul was where he grew up. He has named the park, Park of Valor, and given us the responsibility of making a sign with the name on it with quality characteristics under such as friendship, honor, integrity and so forth.
One of our supervisors, Stephanie, has the biggest heart and is a visionary like myself. She talked to Samir and said if we were able to collect the materials needed we could still build parts of the playground as we had planned! AMAZING!!!!
My team would love to build a small wooden frame for one tire-rope swing, a small tire car for children to imagine they are driving and a small obstacle course made from all tires. To do this we need a lot of donations from the town of Jaco or raise a goal of 100 dollars by Friday, September 21st!
If you would keep the Azul playground in your prayers and ask that the Lord provide in miraculous ways would be incredible. We want nothing more to be able to give these kids something they can have for years. A place where community is built, creativity is born and friendships are made. We are doing a playground kick off later in the month with the town and would love to amaze them with more than they expected because they are so nice and treat us incredibly well while we are there working in the hot sun for hours.
If you feel led to donate to this specific project you can Venmo me at rachelosmundson with the subject line Azul and if you don’t have Venmo you can contact my dad on ways you can donate to this specific project at [email protected]!
Please enjoy the following pictures of the project thus far and thank you for the support and prayers. Watch for updates on the project via this blog!!
Much love & many blessings,
Rachel
