Hello there!
So, my last two weeks have been madness in the city. I have been spending 8-12 hour days at the center and working on a ton if interesting, yet stressful projects. I am writing a paper about the food crisis and how sustainable, small-scale farming can be affective in preventing it for my writing class, which is very interesting. A lot of my work after my service learning has been centered on agriculture and I am already planning out WOOFing adventures for my future. On the topic, I am also writing about the actual agricultural techniques and their specific environmental impacts for my environmental sciences class. The other paper I wrote this week was about colonial Latin America women in the church, and it was fascinating!
School has been stressful and I have a bit of a cough, but I have been provided four different remedies from an assortment of tico and gringo friends, so I am feeling better already. :) Other than that, life in the city has been repetitive: get up, go to school, do homework, eat dinner, do homework, sleep. Last weekend I went into San Jose at 4:15 IN THE MORNING (ewww) to this farmers market. Oh man, it was spectacular. One thing about Costa Rica is they only have one kind of cheese, squeaky cheese as my friend Kristy calls it. Though a lot of people don't like it, it is fine with me, but they eat it with EVERYTHING. It sorta looks like a hunk of tofu and it squeaks when you eat in (hence the name). But at the farmers market we found goat cheese!!! We also found amazing banana bread, bread bread, chocolate, vegetables, fruits, and flower. It was so refreshing to get some all-natural, fresh, organic food! This weekend Lorna, one of out teachers and my advisor, took us into San Jose for a reggae concert, which was great. I have missed live music!
That is about all I have to tell about MY life for the last two weeks, it has been a lot of work and a lot of fun. Oh, and Spanish classes ended, which is very sad! I will miss my mornings with Ariel!!!
So manana I leave for Panama! I know I say this like every blog entry, but I can't believe how fast my time is going. The next two weeks are packed with travel and fun! We were going to start in Costa Rica and move down the coast, but now we are going to Panama first and than working our way back due to the damage of the landslides that have been hitting the area. It would take me forever to list off all of the things we are doing, but here are some highlights. We are going scuba diving, getting an ocean tour, staying with indigenous host families and learning about their life styles, visiting the cloud forest, and watching some traditional indigenous island dances. I fell so lucky that this is my school! I think the neatest part of all of this is that we are learning all along the way, moving every few days, oh it reminds me of my TTS days!
Last, I don't know what kind of news coverage (if any) Costa Rica is getting right now in the international community, but there have been a ton of very bad landslides and floods that have ruined many people's homes. I went to the community of Bajo los Anonos with Gail and a few students this Saturday to see the damage and it was overwhelming. Often the poorest people live by the river and so people with barely anything now have nothing. It is all very difficult to see and hard because the rains are still coming. I want to get the word out about it though, so check of the pictures. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=96824&id=1269311946&saved#!/album.php?aid=96824&id=1269311946
You don't have to be on facebook to view it, just to comment. check it out and stay informed!
Alright, I will get you guys a update about Panama when I get back. Hope you are all doing well, I miss you all and hopefully will see some of you over Christmas!
xo
Greta
