Learning, Service, and Fun at Global Works Costa Rica Trip

Teens having fun
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Mathew "Matt" Kafker was a high honors and high credits student at his former high school, Middlesex School. During his time there, Matt Kafker took part in a Global Works trip to Costa Rica, where he helped renovate a local school. 

Global Works is an organization that provides teens with travel experiences that also incorporate community service, cultural exchange, adventure, and language immersion. These travel programs benefit not only the teens involved, but also the foreign communities the teens visit. These communities receive assistance in funding and in completing service projects. 

During the trip to Costa Rica, for example, Kafker and his friends were housed by a family in La Lucha. They interacted with the family over meals and even helped prepare local delicacies like tortillas and picadillo. They also interacted with local children through games like tag, sack racing, and jump rope, and even taught the local kids some American football. 

For their service work, the team helped renovate a local school. They mixed and poured cement for the school’s new side walk, painted the school’s exterior with fresh paint, and covered its drainage system with dirt. They also assisted the students in planning for English lessons. In between all this, they got to tour San Jose, paddle in deep forest rivers, dance salsa and merengue, marvel at the hot springs of Baldi, and go zip lining across the canopies.