Community Service at Jose Figuerres

During this semester, the Sabanilla community has been really welcoming and helpful to all of us, and we all agreed that we should do something to give back to the community that has given so much to us. Staci and Cullen, who has been student-teaching all semester, arranged for us to go to Jose Figuerres, a local elementary school for a beautification project. Linda supplied us with a car-load of flowers, shovels, rakes, spades, paint, etc. and we were set to spend the afternoon improving this poor public school.
What a shock it was! Like almost every building in Costa Rica, the school is enclosed in a cage of bars and barbed wires to keep out robbers. On the property were two open air 'court yards.' One was labelled a "Danger Zone" and had a big, gaping hole and jagged rocks scattered about. A sink of sorts, with rusty faucets and dirty looking water, was in front of this courtyard, and Cullen tells me that this is where each and every child brushes his teeth in the morning as part of a government implemented dental hygiene program. The second courtyard, where we worked, was smaller and had two big palm trees in the middle of it. Our job was to clear debis (including trash, dead leaves, and shards of glass) from the courtyard, and plant a colorful garden instead. We also cleared away several large rocks around the palm trees, and planted small flowers there instead. Cullen and Maggie painted the stone wall and several of the stones that were too big for us to move away.
I was also really surprised to see how excited how the Tico students were to help us. Whenever we put down a shovel or rake, we'd basically never see it again because the little boys and girls would snatch it up and use it until their hands hurts, then pass it on to another one who was waiting in line. They also really liked talking to us to practice their English and show off their knowledge of US pop culture.
After an hour or so of work and a lot of help, we finally finished our beautification project. The little courtyard looked a LOT better, but it was still quite disheartening to see that we threw our trash into this overflowing trash pile behind the kindegarden class rooms. Still, it was a positive experience to at least give back a little something to this community.



<3, jessi

ENS Field Trip the Sequel: Cerro de la Muerte

This second Environmental Science field trip was very different from the previous field trip for several interesting reasons. First, it was much colder on this most recent field trip because we travelled to a tropical cloud forest instead of the tropical rain forest from the last field trip. Also, we stopped along the way to hike in the mountain bog, which is just a wet as it sounds. We had to be extremely careful to not fall into large seemingly harmless, giant holes of watery mud (unfortunately one of the group still had the misfortune of stepping into a deep hole and getting very wet). The rest of the first day we went looking for flowers that hummingbirds feed on for our lab work, and then spent a very cold night in the hotel (apparently people just don’t use heaters in Cerro de la Muerte).

The second day we set up our nets and caught some hummingbirds, which is both easier and more difficult than it sounds. The easy part was having the hummingbirds fly into the big nets and get entangled. The hard part was getting the birds out and then carrying them to another location. It is an interesting feeling to hold a hummingbird, one that I didn’t really enjoy simply because I thought I was going to break it the whole time, but other than that really cool. In case you are wondering, they pee a lot, but it doesn’t really get on you it just kind of shoots out. Later, we observed hummingbird feeders to see what kinds of hummingbirds visited the feeder and how many there were to aid in our lab reports. The rest of our time we spent identifying pollen on different slides and packed up to go home. We were supposed to do a second hike on the way back to San Jose, through a type of forest called the Paramo, but it was too rainy. Overall, it was a very different second field trip in that it was less comfortable for me because it was so cold, but more interesting because we got to work with and observe hummingbirds.

-Nicole Olavarria

Environmental Science Field Trip to Cerro de la Muerte

On the weekend of November 3, our biology class headed to the Talamanca Mountain Range along with Alejandra, our professor, and two teaching assistants. The weekend started with a two hour drive to an oak forest, which we hiked through, eventually reaching a remote mountain bog. The topography of these two areas was COMPLETELY different than what we have seen thus far in Costa Rica. The trees in the oak forest were shorter, the canopy was less dense, and moss and vines hung everywhere. The bog was - in a word- muddy. I made one wrong stepped and was sucked into mud nearly as deep as my stomach! It was cold, and I am pretty sure I felt creepy crawlies slithering around my legs. Luckily, Amanda came to my rescue, grabbed me around my shoulders and pulled me out. Still, I had to hike around in wet jeans and water-filled boots for another hour. It was miserable!
After a quick lunch near the oak forest, we continued our drive to La Georgina Hotel and Restaurant in Cerro de la Muerte, where we would be staying for the night. We drove all this way in order to study hummingbirds, and La Georgina was selected because of the abundance of hummingbirds attracted to the restaurant's sugar-water feeders. We went for another hike (in the pouring rain, not so fun).
Cerro de la Muerte basically translates into "Mountain of Death" because in the olden days, people who camped in the area were at risk of dying of hypothermia or other perrils of cold weather. The thermometer said it was about 40 degrees but it was raining, and after two months of living in a hot and humid tropical climate, we were all miserable. I literally wore 5 long sleeve shirts, one North Face jacket, two pairs of pajama pants, and three pairs of socks to bed, and I was STILL cold. Future ENS students should definitely pack accordingly, and be aware that La Georgina is by no means a deluxe hotel (there are no heaters or hot showers).
Sunday started for us bright and early at 5:45 am. Basically, we set up nets to catch hummingbirds who were eating at the sugarwater feeders and then checked for pollen on their bodies. The hypothesis was that feeders negatively impact growth of local flowers, because the birds who eat from the feeders aren't fulfilling their roles as pollinators. The only thing that made the experiment worthwhile was holding these tiny little birds in our hands. They're soo fragile, and it's hard to believe that their rainbow colored, irridescent feathers are natural. They were just so beautiful!
In the early afternoon, we packed up and headed back to San Jose to later evaluate the data we collected over the weekend. While the trip wasn't the most fun way to spend a weekend, holding the hummingbirds was definitely a worthwhile once-in-a-lifetime experience :)



by Jessi

Jose Figueres Elementary School

Having spent four to five hours a week at the school, I felt as if I was prepared for the experience we would have volunteering. While some needs of the school and students are immediately obvious to me, others have come to my attention only because of the time I have spent there interacting with the children. I was excited to be able to work with the children outside the classroom and get to know some of them on a more intimate level by doing something that would add life to the somewhat barren school. While I am happy we spent the time planting the flowers and painting rocks, I feel that with better organization and more effort from all of us, we could have done more to give back to the community that has given so much to us.

While I was very happy and excited to complete this work to beautify a section of a local elementary school it made me realize how much more is needed and all the things that could have been done in addition to the work we did. I think that working with students gave us a new perspective on the needs of the people who live among us and hopefully opened the eyes of some of those that may have thought otherwise. Every little thing done makes a difference and is noticed, and this is something we cannot underestimate as volunteers. My time spent at the school has taught me so much and although it was overwhelming at times I could not have asked for a more interesting experience getting to help students with my native language and getting help in return.

- Cullen Pitler

¡Alejandro´s B-day Fiesta!

The host family of one of my friends here threw a birthday party at there house for their 10 year old son. I was invited to join in on the celebration and had a terrific time. Cullen and I counted about 45 people in attendance…most probably under the age of 10. WILD. There were kids running everywhere, adults chatting while watching the soccer game on TV, and lots of birthday cake being consumed.

I love the kids here in Costa Rica, they are so excited to talk to you! A whole bunch of kids were trying to help me speak Spanish, and asked me every essential question like ,”What’s your favorite color? And do you have kids?” They are all really polite and I was quite impressed with the amount of English they also knew.

When it came time for Alejandro to blow out the candles on his cake all the kids gathered around to help out. I’m not really sure how much air was being blown as there was spit, but I smiled and ate a piece with some ice-cream.

I love that things like baby showers and birthdays are such big family and community events. Everyone is just so happy to be together and catch up. It was really nice to be included in the celebration!
-CM

Cafe Britt

I don’t drink coffee but I still wanted to see how Costa Rica makes its coffee…so Kim and I decided to take the Cafe Britt tour in Heredia. We got up early one morning and took a taxi downtown to San Jose where we were picked up by a tourism van. The van driver was really nice and gave us tour of the city in Spanish on our way to the coffee plantation. Once there we paid and joined our group which was mostly made up of an elderly tour group from the US. Even though I am technically a tourist I felt like I was a “tica” because I live here and can someone speak and get around.

The tour was fun. They do this somewhat cheesy, but entertaining production as they lead you through the plantation and processing plant. Did you know that there are like 4 layers to a coffee bean and they end up throwing out most of the bean flesh before they even use the bean for coffee? Interesting!

Part of the tour included lunch and Kim and I sat with a girl from Argentina vacationing here for the week. We talked to her about her country and the differences between CR and her home. I love the unexpected cultural experiences you get to have if you are just willing to participate!
-CM

Monteverde

After spending all of fall break getting on and off buses trying to fit everything in, there was nothing that could make me excited about another long bus ride on a never ending unpaved road. And although the bus ride was just how I expected it to be, the ride through the mountains allowed us to see beautiful scenery of far away mountains. The one thing that sticks out to be about our Monteverde excursion is our canopy tour. The experience of flying through the rainforest attached to thin metal wire by a harness made me realize how close we have come as a group. And even though we might have laughed as we watched each other shake as each zipline seemed to get higher and longer, and laughed when we heard each other screaming as we gained speed, I knew that it was an experience I would never forget.
- Cullen Pitler