Southwest Washington to Tierra Prometida in Costa Rica

In April, 2007, we took a team of 26 volunteers from Southwest Washington to Tierra Prometida, in Costa Rica, to build a basketball/volleyball/soccer court.  The community of Tierra Prometida is a marginalized community that started as a squatter village 19 years ago. Since then, roads and basic utilities have been developed, yet the kids had nowhere to play.  The community school had a small sidewalk where kids would play during recess. Two kids in early 2007 had literally broken their arms playing and running into posts. The headmaster of the school, the community leaders and a Peace Corps volunteer heard about our organization and applied for a court.          We came down, hired a local construction company, worked alongside them and built the simple court below out of concrete.  As a result of the court, the school has the first sports teams ever at the school (see pic below), a place to play during recess and the ability to rent out the court in the evenings to generate income for the school.  One of the most exciting benefits to the court is that, due to a Costa Rican law, the government now is required to pay for the school to hire a PE/Health teacher since they have a court. Since we left, the teacher has been hired and the school has had its first PE class.