Returning for her fourth Global Works trip, Kelly is excited to blend two of her favorite things with this summer adventure: soccer and travel. Kelly is currently a bilingual teacher in Madison, Wisconsin but has spent the past eight years between Chile and Boulder, Colorado. 
Jackie spends her days teaching Spanish/ESL and coaching soccer at Basalt High School in the beautiful Rocky Mountains of Colorado. With a passion for traveling, teaching, and community service she looks forward to summers with Global Works. 
Crisley first met our students when he was working on his dissertation at the Poco Sol research station in the Monteverde Cloud Forest. Since then, he has traveled all over Costa Rica teaching students about the ecology of Costa Rica. 
A native of Argentina has been working in youth sports and education for over ten years. Holding a National Soccer Coaching License he has had four successful seasons as head coach with his high school freshman team. Francisco holds a degree in Psychology from the University of CT and is certified as an Emergency Medical Technician. Welcome Global Works travelers, parents and friends. We are excited to share with you trip updates from around the world. As our main office receives updates from the trips we will update the page as we receive news from the field.
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Saludos to all the futbolistas that will be joining us on the inaugural Costa Rica Soccer and Service trip this summer! We are anxiously awaiting the trip and we hope that you are as well. With two beautiful weeks of soccer, rafting, community building, and service, this is sure to be a summer you’ll remember! Be prepared to improve your skills in both futbol and Espanol, make new friends, try new things, and have tons of fun! We’ll see you July 6th. (And please contact any one of us if you have any questions!!!)
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UPDATE #1:
Here we are on day 3. Time is passing quickly. So far, we´ve learned to salsa, rafted one of the most beautiful rivers in the world, eaten typical Costa Rican food, played soccer with Costa Rican coaches, practiced our Spanish, and made new friends.
Our second night in town, after a scavenger hunt in the local plaza, and a scrimmage at the soccer complex, we cleared out the tables from the common space and danced salsa and meringue. The kids picked it up quickly and twirled and turned and cha cha cha´d their way around the dance floor. One student even claimed, ¨I´ve got the moves now!¨ as the dance lesson wrapped up.
We woke up early on Thursday morning to head into the green Costa Rican hills to raft the Rio Pacuare, voted one of the top 5 rivers in the world to raft, due to its natural beauty and exciting rapids. After a delicious breakfast at base camp, we packed into the bus and headed to the put-in point. Many kids had never rafted, and this trip did not disappoint. Four hours of rapids surrounded by beautiful rainforest vistas, along with swimming through canyons and perfecting our paddling, left one student saying, ¨Rafting was thrilling!¨ (no, really!)
The soccer complex we´ll be playing in while here is fantastic. Four turf fields and great coaches have made for an excellent experience already. The mornings are filled with training, and the afternoons bring scrimmages against locals. We´re starting to get comfortable playing together, and our turf touch is coming back.
The kids are bonding well…. not afraid to be silly together, they marched past the eating area of the hotel the other night, singing at the top of their lungs. When asked what they were doing, one boy commented, ¨oh nothing, just marching in order of height singing Kumbaya and Journey.¨ After their sing-along calesthenics, we found them crowded together sharing fun facts about themselves and laughing hysterically.
We´re anticipating an amazing two weeks. We couldn´t ask for a better group of teenagers, and we´re excited to bring you more stories soon. Hasta pronto from Costa Rica!
Update #2:
Hello from La Lucha!!!!
We arrived in our homestay community on Tuesday afternoon, and we are already feeling at home.
First, back to Alajuela. After a header training session, a visit from a professional ref, a water balloon fight, and a talk on soccer injuries with an athletic trainer, we finished our time in the city with soccer games versus the Ticos. Dressed in Costa Rican uniforms, we played well, but were not able to beat the Costa Ricans. (We swear we could take them in a rematch!)
We were sad to leave everyone at Wilmer Lopez soccer facility, but after a bus ride filled with sing alongs and dancing, we arrived in our new community. La Lucha is beautiful. We were met at the school by our host families, and spent the first night practicing our Spanish and getting to know our new families.
Wednesday brought our first work day, as well as our first true Costa Rican tropical downpour. The rain didn´t get us down, and we continued to work hard painting fences, planting trees, and creating a new garden in the schoolyard. Muddy and wet, we headed home to watch the USA women beat France!!!! The afternoon brought drier weather and more work. After work, we joined the locals on the soccer field for a 50 person soccer match. Everyone had fun!
Wednesday evening, we had our first evening activity, which was a huge success. The kids came out and organized games for the local children. A night filled with face paint, duck duck goose, play-doh, friendship bracelets, coloring, and card games left everyone smiling but exhausted. As I write this, they´re all home with their families again, playing games and heading to bed.
We will leave you with a few pictures and some quotes about the homestay experience so far!
“Its hard knowing barely any Spanish, but fun figuring out how to communicate.”
“Goooooood chicken!”
“Family is so nice. Love the food. Don’t need ketchup!” (Guess who, dad!)
“A really cool life experience.”
“Eye opening.”
“The family is very kind and hospitable. The food is amazing.”
“The family is super nice and my Spanish is getting better.”
Update #3:
Greetings from La Lucha!
The last five days have been filled with soccer, work, fun and rain. Thursday we continued our service projects during the day and the nighttime brought freeze dance and more games with the local kids. Our girls played the local women´s team and came away with a 4-1 victory. It poured rain the entire game and puddles slowed the ball down a bit, but the girls loved working through the mud to score some beautiful goals. We continued our work on Friday of painting fences and moving trees to clear space for the new multi-use field. After, the boys also had a victory over the local team beating them 3-2. During the boys game it rained even harder than during the girls game, which we didn´t believe was possible. That evening the local señoras taught us to make tortillas, which we enjoyed with some delicious home-made fruit juice. Saturday brought sunshine and a tournament de niños. We cheered on the La Lucha boys team and planned our talent show acts for later that evening. The show brought singing, beat-boxing, dancing, human pyramids, juggling and peanut-tossing. As a grand finale, we sang ¨Don´t Stop Believing¨, a capella style.
Sunday was penalty kick day for us….directly while the US women´s team was losing in penalty kicks, we too, lost the semi-final game against La Lucha, in penalty kicks. Our first match was an agressive 2-1 victory against the speedy team from Chachagua. Then, in the semi-finals, La Lucha, the team with much more experience playing on a puddle-filled field, got up 1-0 early on. We fought back and with five minutes left, scored the game-tying goal. The celebration was filled with mudslides and cheers, and energized the game. Unfortunately, we came up short when we went into penalty kicks. We ended the night with a soak in some nearby hot springs and some delicious pizza. The locals we brought with us had never eaten pizza before…it was fun to share a little of our culture with them as they have shared so much of theirs with us.
We are setting up and looking forward to our big despedida party for tonight. It will be hard to leave La Lucha as we have met so many wonderful Ticos here, but everyone is excited to head to the zip lines tomorrow.
See you soon!!