Day 6: Pivoting, Pura Vida, and Protecting the Springs

Hi everyone back home!! It’s us, Layla and Liliana as Leaders of the Day for the first Community Action Project (CAP) of our trip 🙂

Day 1 of our Community Action Project (CAP) – which completely forced us to step out of our comfort zones, rely on each other, and grow as leaders.

For Day one of our CAP, it allowed us to step out of our shells and practice communication with one another. We were able to learn a lot of new things about each other, and grow as leaders.

Our delegation learning about community-led water management from Alicia at the ASADA office in Santa Rosa.

We are now halfway through our 11 day journey in amazing Turrialba, Costa Rica, and today was definitely a new experience for everyone. We worked in the rain, had last minute changes of plans, and urgently bought some rain boots for the MUD!.

We started our morning after breakfast to the ASADA (Asociación Administradora de Sistemas de Acueductos y Alcantarillados Comunales – Community Aqueduct and Sewer System Management Association)office in Santa Rosa. There, we met Alicia, an inspiring woman who explained how water works in rural Costa Rica. We learned that an ASADA is a local, community-managed, non-profit water association run by local volunteers. Because the national government network does not reach these rural areas, the community steps up to manage, operate, and maintain their own clean drinking water.

After our meeting, we were supposed to head over to a local school to paint a fence for our CAP to make waterproof fences. But the tropical weather had other plans, and it started to rain. Back home, a rainout might mean canceling plans, but here, we learned the true meaning of “Pura Vida” and adaptability. We pivoted immediately. Instead of painting, we traveled up into the mountains to a natural spring facility to help maintain the essential water infrastructure. We helped clean the surrounding area of the main water base. We scrubbed the fence, concrete floor and wall, to free it from algae, dirt, and invasive bugs.

Working in the rain at the natural spring was challenging, but it was an incredible learning experience. We got to see firsthand how these gravitywater pumps work. High up in the cloud forests, the dense trees act like a giant sponge, capturing moisture and filtering it naturally through layers of volcanic rock and soil. The purified water come from the mountain springs, where the ASADA builds protected cement structures called captación boxes. Gravity then carries this pristine water down to storage tanks and directly into people’s homes, schools, and farms without needing expensive, high-energy pumping stations.

Being leaders of the first CAP day was honestly a difficult experience at first, but we got the hang of it towards the end, and got super happy at the end results. There was a lot of schedule change, and it allowed us to practice being open minded. By cleaning and working together in the mud and rain, we got to help the community by doing something that we thought was small, but to them its a major difference. We got to actually practice environmental justice and global citizenship. We got back to the base house, extremely tired, soaked in water, mud, and cow poo. However, we feel incredibly proud and satisfied of what we got to accomplish.

Going back into the mountains felt like we were in a National Geographic documentary. Right as we were slushing through the mud, a couple of massive, super colorful toucans in the tree canopy were hanging out like it was no big deal. And then we passed cows who were just grazing on the hillside, totally unbothered by the tropical downpour. Seeing exotic rainforest wildlife right next to local farm animals was such a wild contrast, but it made us realize how deeply interconnected nature and agriculture are out here. Plus, fun fact: Turrialba is super famous for its creamy cheese, so we like to think we made eye contact with the literal local celebrities responsible for our dinners!

Community Unity: Clean water in rural Costa Rica relies entirely on the dedication of local volunteers and community-managed ASADAs rather than centralized government systems.
Environmental Interconnection: Protecting high-altitude cloud forests is directly tied to ensuring clean, gravity-filtered drinking water for the communities living below them.

After wrapping up our hard work at the spring, we jumped back on the bus and rolled up to Escuela Santa Rosa. This is a public primary school operating under the Ministry of Public Education (MEP) right near downtown Turrialba. It’s actually a major cultural hub for the area, they even hosted the regional Festival Estudiantil de las Artes Circuito 04 earlier this year! We got to eat a delicious lunch in their dining hall and hang out with the local elementary kids, who were so excited to practice speaking English with us. Once the kids finished their school day, we shifted back into work mode, pulling weeds and completely cleaning up the landscaping around the school campus.
By the time we finished, our shoes were messed up from all the mud, so we took a quick trip to the local market and supply store. We stocked up on some much-needed boots to keep our CAP project going strong, and of course, grabbed some essential local snacks. For dinner, our amazing private chef Diego hooked us up with an absolute feast as usual. We wrapped up the night bonding with our new best friends in the delegation during a cozy movie night.



We miss you all so much, but we are growing closer as a delegation every single day. CAP Day 2 is tomorrow, so stay tuned!
Layla and Liliana, Leaders of the Day

Layla and Liliana, Leaders of the Day

P.S. To everyone back at home I miss you so much especially Naomi and Alex. Im having so muvh fun over here and I can’t wait to tell all of you guys about my trip and all the animals and interesting things I was able to see. And to my dad I never want to do labor work, this reminds me of cleaning the backyard but except theres cow poop instead of dog poop. I miss you all so much and love you all so much I will see you when I get back.

Love, Layla

From Lily to family: I miss you all very much, I never thought I would feel homesick like this before but I am having a great time here in Costa Rica. I have had so many fun times and I know theres more to come. Today I was able to be leader for our first community project, and it was definitely interesting. I also stepped in cow poop 2 times or more so that was amazing……………. My shoes are now super dirty and smelly but its cool because i got new rainboots. I have been trying so many new foods and fruits. I miss my baby siblings so much I miss you guys driving me crazy, and I miss grandma a lot too. I will tell you so much more when I arrive back home. -I miss u too madre leon and padre rodriguez. I miss coco so much.

Love you, Liliana Rodriguez