Finca Hopping

Hey guys, so I know it's been a while and I apologize for keeping you all waiting. I guess I haven't really written since the first few days of classes here. Since then things have kind of been getting more into routine, but there's still a lot of change going on. Waking up in the mornings has surprisingly not been too much of a problem. It helps that I'm not staying up until 2 or 3 a.m. here every night, which is pretty common for me back home. Work experience hasn't really been much experience, more just work. We spend most of the time raking, weeding, or carrying stuff. We do have a short presentation about some medicinal plant at the end of every session, and we get cookies and juice which is nice. When it was my turn to give a presentation on a plant, I chose to do Mangoes. I was very surprised to find out all the different ways that they can be used in treating ailments and even things like bad breathe. I had a whole page handwritten about it. (I have it on my computer too if you're interested.) I guess it just made me realize that much more all the ways in which God provides for us. As for my other classes, I've got a few pretty big projects to do this semester. I'm doing an experiment with rooting hormones on pineapples in which I actually have to plant about 60 of them in a field and observe them over 2 months. I'm also working on a group report about a development project taking place in Central America. In addition to that I have to research a non-traditional crop (something not native to Central America, or that is only produced on a small scale) and figure out all of the problems that would occur trying to grow and market that crop and develop a plan to fix those problems. Sounds like I'll be pretty busy.

Something that I'm really excited about though is that I will soon be working on a semester long project related to turf in place of retaking entomology. I've been in contact with a professor B.K. Singh here at the university who has a lot of interest in turf. He gave me several options for things that I could participate in dealing with things like landscaping, golf courses, bio fuels, and even planning an international conference to take place here next year. I decided however, with my limited amount of time here and my interests, that I would try to do like a mini internship with one of the golf courses in San Jose. (the city that I was in for language classes) This would consist of me going to San Jose for Saturday-Monday every weekend and working on the course and learning about the decision making processes that take place, and the unique challenges that are faced in this climate. The only thing is that I would have to have a place to stay while I'm there and won't be able to afford it unless the golf course compensates me for the cost. Dr. Singh is in the process of trying to work that out and I hope that it is a possibility. Also, I've met a student here named Oscar who is doing his thesis work on water management in turf and wants to work at a golf course after graduation. This coupled with the fact that he's a fourth your student and is getting ready to graduate as well, has given us a lot to talk about. He also works at the golf course on the weekends and seems to be a pretty cool guy who's worth getting to know, and who could help me out quite a bit.

This past week I was blessed with the opportunity to go on a 4 and a half day field trip with my nontraditional crops class. It was a lot of fun. We left Wednesday after lunch and headed out on our cross country tour of fincas (farms). We started by visiting an organic pineapple farm then heading on to a place called Nueva Luna to spend the night. Nueva Luna is an organic farm that has a wide variety of plants and is owned by an American company that imports ginger from them and makes medicinal products from it. In addition to being a farm, 8 months out of the year Nueva Luna also functions as a hotel/ resort with many hiking trails, cabins, a pool, and beautiful scenery. We were lucky enough to stay in the cabins this night where we each had our own bed and a cool night made for a very good nights sleep. The next day we woke up and spent the first part of the day planting trees that would eventually be used as forage for cows. After that we went to another part of the property and picked our lunch straight from the plants. We gathered leaves and other vegetables to make salad. Even the juice we had was made from leaves. It wasn't too bad but definitely one of the more unusual meals I'd ever eaten. That afternoon we left and headed on to EARTH's other campus in La Flour. This land used to be owned by a former president of Costa Rica and was donated to the school. There are a few buildings already on the grounds including the presidents house which is now used as sort of a main office. They are still in the process of developing the land before there will be permanent students and classes there, but right now it hosts many research projects and a bunk cabin for people visiting (like us). We were given a presentation of what the new campus was going to look like and what it's main purposes were. We also helped out in the mango orchard a little bit. (unfortunately none of the trees had fruit at the time) From there we went on toward the west coast where we stayed at this guys house who raises shrimp, mangoes, and a few other crops on his property. We arrived in the evening and were greated by a feast of freshly caught shrimp prepared a few different ways along with a bunch of other food to accompany. It was delicious and very relaxing as we sat on the front porch and looked off over the hill at the lights lining the opposite side of the gulf. That night we slept on mats on the floor and we attacked by bugs all night, but when we walked out on the porch in the morning and saw the trees and farm stretched out before us at the bottom of the hill, and the gorgeous gulf reflecting the suns early morning beams it was all worth it. We were shown a little bit of what goes into shrimp farming then went on our way once more. Our professor, Panfilo Taborra, (one of the funnest, happiest and nicest men I've ever met) treated us to dinner that night at a fairly nice restaurant where we had civiche (traditional fish soup type dish that they eat a lot of in Costa Rice) accompanied with appetizers and even some calamari. It was sooo good and totally comped by the prof. We arrived that night at the residence of another one of Professor Taborra's friends. This place had a nice swimming pool and a guest house with large front and back patios. I was one of the people that had to sleep outside on a hard wooden bench which did not lend itself to the best nights sleep, but as I woke up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom and put on some warmer clothes I got to witness one of the best starry nights that I've seen in a while. Everyone had gone to sleep and therefore most of lights were off and the sky was as clear as could be. I hung out for just a little bit and watched it before I went back to finish the night on the bench. (Sidenote: I've decided that it's one of my goals within the next 12 months to find a clear night no moon and a place with absolutely no lights around) For our last day we headed back toward San Jose where we toured an ornamental plants production and even got to take home some flowers. I've got 2 birds of paradise flowers and some other funky looking red flowers in my room right now. As you can probably tell the trip was very eventful and the small group made it easy to get to know people a lot better. I think being surrounded by Spanish 24/7 for those days helped a lot too. I've definitely been able to see a lot of improvement but know I'm still no where near efficient enough to have a fluid conversation.

I also have a roommate now. His name is Fransisco and he's from here in Costa Rica. I moved into his room about a week and a half ago I guess, and it's been pretty good. There are a few things that I didn't have to deal with when I had my own room, but I'm glad that that change was made. He knows decent English and maybe uses it more than he needs to, but he's trying to learn too. He's super nice and helpful, and likes really loud rock music. He's also been pretty interested in talking about turf stuff (It seems like I've met more people here that are into it than I did at home).

While things are going well, I still have my hard days and am trying to find out where I fit here. I've still not found anyone who even claims to be an active Christ follower let alone a church community to be a part of here, and I'm trying to figure out what that means for me and what God wants me to do here on the campus. I'd also really like prayers to know how to really rely on God and make Him enough during those times that I feel really alone. That said, I'm really grateful for how all of you have kept in contact with me and kept me involved with what's going on in your lives as well. I'm just trying to follow God's calling for me one day at a time and trust him even if I don't what he's doing. Thanks for reading and I'll update again soon.