Costa Rica Medical Mission

I was invited to do a Medical Mission trip through Compass Church in Colleyville, Texas. It was to be six days in beautiful Tamarindo, Costa Rica, a country I had never been to. Although I was still mentally recovering from my last trip to Thailand driving what seemed like hours in the back of open pickup trucks (lots of dirt and sand in every pore of my body), I always succumb to the Sirens call of my good friends Chad and Sara who were on the trip. We had a goodly number of nurse providers from various disciplines, some lay people like me and Doctor Ken from Thailand was along too.

We were blessed with a relatively short fIight (3 hours versus 23 to Thailand) and was rather surprised on our arrival of the amazing accommodations we were provided at the Epic Tamarindo, a five-star resort tucked away from the Tourist Zone of Tamarindo, Costa Rica. The resort was fairly new and was owned by one of our sponsors. Liberia International Airport is the closest international airport to Tamarindo, about an hour away.

We were there under the auspices of an organization called S.O.S. International in Keller, Texas. Although they plant Christian churches internationally, their focus is on child trafficking. We were receiving medical donations from Blessings International in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma to do our clinic work. Another fun change was S.O.S., through the churches we would be serving, would do all the setup of the clinic and we would bring the medicines and personnel to conduct the clinics, a real time saver for us. S.O.S.is a new partner for Compass Church Outreach and we were the guinea pigs as such. 

A bit about Costa Rica. Costa Rica's history began with indigenous peoples before Christopher Columbus arrived in 1502, leading to Spanish colonization, which decimated the native population (isn't that the way it always goes?) and left Costa Rica as a poor, isolated colony.

After gaining independence from Spain in 1821 and briefly joining the Central American Federation, Costa Rica became a fully independent nation in 1838. The country then developed on a foundation of agriculture, particularly coffee (really GOOD coffee), and established a strong, stable democracy in the 20th century after a very messy civil war. Today, Costa Rica is known for its peaceful, eco-friendly, and democratic society, a far cry from its other Central American neighbors.

Costa Rica does not have a traditional standing military, having abolished its army in 1949 after the civil war and instead relies on civilian security forces like the Public Force for law enforcement and national security. This decision led to shifting resources from military spending to social development in areas like education and healthcare, making Costa Rica an example of a peaceful, unarmed democracy (what a concept).

In 2023, about 95% of Costa Rica's electricity came from renewable sources: 74% hydropower (probably all that rain!),13% geothermal, 12.5% wind, 0.5% solar, and 0.1% biomass. That's actually a dip from recent years, mostly due to drought. Since 2015, the country has consistently generated more than 98% of its electricity from renewables, peaking at a record 99.98% in 2021 (again, what a concept).

The 1994 film The Endless Summer II, which featured Tamarindo’s waves and beaches, is widely credited with launching a significant tourist boom in the late 90’s and early 2000’s.

On day one of our Medical Mission trip, we started the day with a chef prepared breakfast on the patio at Epic Tamarindo. After the meal and a brief prayer, we did our Daily Devotional together and discussed our first Clinic of the week. I and two other members were tasked with Pharmacy duties which involved prepackaging various medications which our medical providers would be prescribing to their patients.

We rode an hour on our bus with driver Diego to the village of Santa Cruz and set up inside of their church. At noon, the town provided us with a very tasty lunch of  Arroz con Pollo and chips dish at our stations.

The days interesting case was a woman who showed up with an obvious through and through bullet wound to both legs. She had already been treated for the wounds and only wanted to be seen for the tooth pain. You can’t make this stuff up.

Taking a history

The fun case was a pregnant woman who heard we had a sonogram machine and wanted to be checked. It was the first time she heard the baby’s heartbeat. It was amazing.

One gentleman came up on his crutches. He was homebound but because he heard we were doing a clinic, left his home just to come see us. It was quite a distance but he made the effort because regular medical care in that part of the world is rare.

By four that afternoon, we had dispensed vitamins, pain medication and antibiotics to over 75 patients. It was very hot and humid and we left with booming thunder clouds overhead. We were right smack in the middle of Costa Rica’s rainy season (May thru November) which added to the extreme humid conditions.

That night we celebrated our success by going into Tamarindo for a scrumptious pizza dinner at Pizzeria La Baula. I had the Focaccia Bread Pizza. Really tasty.

Day two was our second run at Santa Cruz. The usual cases presented themselves, lots of aches and pains but one in particular that got everybody’s attention was a gentleman who had a huge open wound to his left ankle. He also suffered from a traumatic brain injury in years past so he was a “poor historian” in medical terms and he couldn’t accurately say when he acquired the injury. He would just say sometime around 1984, which wouldn’t account for the extent of the injury. All we could do was clean, wrap it and hand him some pain meds for the road.

We were able to get a quick shower and change to get to a late dinner at Patagonia Del Mar in downtown Tamarindo. Their primary menu was sea food but had some meat items and amazing desserts including the best caramel Flan I have ever seen. Formed like a small volcano, it had sprinkles of coconut on top. A co-worker had ordered it (another Flan Fan) and reported how delicious it was.

A Flan Volcano

Day three was a free day which brought us to the Langosta Beach Club sponsored by our hosts. Beautiful beachfront playground with monkeys in the trees and gentle waves to bathe in.

Day four was a new site and about a two-hour drive to, Matambu, a part of the Chorotega Indigenous Territory in the Nicoya region. This was a group of indigenous people who had recently been given some autonomy from the government to rule themselves.

It was a small church off the beaten path that our intrepid driver, Diego, said we couldn’t drive up to so we disembarked and hiked the rest of the way. The church was a stout tin roof building lined with wood planking, no air-conditioning, just some fans. Lunch was Arroz con Pollo made on an open fire behind the church. Delicioso.

Let me take a moment to discuss the weather in Costa Rica. We arrived in the middle of the rainy season and boy did it rain. Afterward would bring a crushing humidity which tried men’s souls and their antiperspirants. Of course, it didn’t faze the natives but wore me out. I began sweating as soon as I exited the bus until I got back in. In Matambu, it decided to rain each afternoon as we ended the clinics. On the second day, there was thunder and lightening right overhead and rained so hard you couldn’t hear the person next to you speaking.

That evening, we went back to Tamarindo and dined at the Auto Mercado food park. Many ordered from El Chante Burger, I had Asian at Anthony’s. To entertain ourselves was a Corn Hole game setup.

Some of my worthless trivia;  was first described in Heyliger de Windt's 1883 patent for "Parlor Quoits", which displays most of the features of modern cornhole, but uses a square hole. Quoits is a game similar to horseshoes, played by throwing steel rings at a metal spike. But I digress and will not deep dive on that game.

Back to site two the next day. This time a villager hopped aboard and convinced Diego to drive up the rutted path to the church Diego, a more courageous man with a 45 foot long diesel pusher than I, gripped his wheel and made it without incident. It was a long day punctuated by the above-mentioned rain storm.

Lunch was a first for me in a Latin country, We had spaghetti and meat sauce. Again cooked on the open fire with a big vat of pasta and another with ground beef in a light sauce. Really terrific. Then they went further and made grilled handmade tortillas. There is something about a warm, pliable corn tortilla as you bite into it that warms your soul. The best tortillas I’ve had ever.

Our Bus

After packing up our stuff, we hopped on our bus and held our breath as Diego slipped and slid his way back to the highway on the now saturated rutted road for our long return to Tamarindo.

Later after another long shower to cool off, we were treated to a wonderful meal prepared by the resort Chef and her staff.

That night we debriefed about our experiences and turned in. The following morning was full of packing and loading up for the trip to the airport and security. We navigated our way back on for the connection in Miami and back to a late-night arrival in Dallas.

In closing, I feel a few things need to be addressed. First, our accommodations were amazing but not atypical. I did have mixed feelings about staying there but it was the first trip of its kind and I'm sure more modest accommodations will be sought, if and when we go back. The food was crazy good for a mission trip and I know it was designed by our sponsors to entice us to return but I missed the down-home culinary delights we've experienced in Mexico and Thailand. And we should have "mixed it up" more with the local's that, I'm sure, will be addressed in the future. Nothing like sharing a meal or worship with others to see how they do it.

All in all, a rewarding trip in which we got to serve our fellow man and I'm sure those we met were grateful for our work and contributions. I can only hope our efforts, in some way, made a difference in their lives.