Engineers Gone Global, a student club from Grand Canyon University’s College of Engineering and Technology, traveled to the indigenous community of Shiroles in Talamanca, Costa Rica, this summer. The team consisted of six students and two professors who worked on constructing a water tower for the Yàmipa project while also supporting local gospel outreach.
Yàmipa, which means “family” in the Bribri language, was founded by Luis and Susan Selles to promote community development based on biblical principles. Luis Selles, who grew up in Shiroles and is Bribri himself, had previously constructed water towers in the region with his brother. For this project, he acquired all necessary materials ahead of time.
Brynnor Poplin, a senior majoring in mechanical engineering at GCU, described the approach: “It was kind of a backwards engineering project,” he said. “Luis, the guy that we were going down and helping, and his brother had built different water towers in the region before. So he had bought all of the supplies for the water tower, and then we helped him design the water tower with the supplies that they had bought.”
The group spent seven days in Shiroles but stayed in Esperanza due to limited accommodations. They interacted closely with local residents and learned about life in rural Costa Rica.
Addison Samarin, another mechanical engineering senior involved with Engineers Gone Global, spoke about their experience: “We were helping,” she said. “There were a couple of different areas that we were in. So we were staying at a mission center called Esperanza and got to hang out with the community. (We were) just like seeing what their life is like and living there in a kind of village.”
Both Poplin and Samarin noted language barriers as one of their main challenges during the trip.
“There were a good number of people there who could speak pretty well, both English and Spanish, so that helped,” said Samarin. “(It was a challenge) when you’re trying to communicate with people from the community who helped us with the water tower. One of the main guys who helped us spoke pretty much no English.”
Poplin echoed this sentiment: “There was definitely a language barrier,” he said. “But, we picked up on it a little bit, a couple of us better than others, but we were able to communicate. Google Translate was helpful for sure. It’s amazing that there’s such good cell service in rural areas and other countries. In Phoenix, there are a lot of blank spots.”
Samarin also mentioned another challenge: “(It’s) one that’s less important, but there are really big bugs in Costa Rica,” she said. “So it was definitely a little shocking.”
The purpose behind building the water tower extended beyond infrastructure needs; it supported ongoing mission work within Yàmipa.
“(We were…) more so like working to help people who are working on spreading the gospel,” Samarin said. “We helped them in their mission. The water tower project made it easier for Yàmipa to have people doing mission work for better things.”
She added that figuring out how Engineers Gone Global could assist despite language differences required effort: “We definitely had intentional conversations when we’re hanging out with people and stuff,” she said. “The biggest thing was, how can we make it easier for the people who are there (spreading the gospel) and going to be continuing to do that?”
Poplin reflected on his personal growth during this experience: “The whole goal of us going down there was to help Luis and his mission,” he said. “His goal is to reach the community and spread the gospel. That is ultimately the main reason we went down there.” He continued: “But I would say my faith personally was more trusting in the Lord,” he added. “It was just cool to see everyone just working together and accomplishing the mission. It was an awesome trip with a bunch of awesome people.”
“They’re sort of seeding the future,” added Samarin.
