Costa Rica — the land of the turtles
As a young man at St. Augustine Prep in Richland, New Jersey — a great school that shaped me (go Hermits) — I earned a spot on the Third Semester trip to Costa Rica, the land of the turtles.
Getting there was half the story. You could fly in by helicopter — but I took the hour-long river boat, deep through the jungle, and a white-knuckle bus ride along cliff edges straight out of Jurassic Park. It was the rainy season, and I loved every drop of it: howler monkeys calling through the dark, no air conditioning, just the windows open and the storms rolling in. I fell asleep to thunder and woke to the sound of the rain. I’ll never forget it.
“Some things you see once and they never leave you — the rain, the monkeys, the turtles. I carry them still.” — David Hahn
Sea turtles have crossed these oceans for more than a hundred million years. They were here long before us, and if we do our part, they’ll be here long after. This mission is my way of giving back to the water — and the wild — that gave me so much.
And one dream from those rainy nights is still coming: to capture that sound — psalm rain, thunderstorms, the quiet ambience of God’s creation — and share it, so that something as simple as rain can help fund children and an orphanage in Pakistan. Good memories, turned into good works.