Today, during RAP, Kurt's reflection was a poetry reading. This is one of my favorite poems that I had forgotten about until he read it. I think everyone should read this poem at least once a month. At least one part of it will speak to you, no matter who you are and when you read it.

Desiderata by Max Ehrmann

Go placidly amid the noise and the haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.

As far as possible, without surrender,
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even to the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons;
they are vexatious to the spirit.

If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain or bitter,
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.
Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.

Exercise caution in your business affairs,
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals,
and everywhere life is full of heroism.
Be yourself. Especially do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love,
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment,
it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.

Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.
You are a child of the universe
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be.
And whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life,
keep peace in your soul.

With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.

After listening to this, Laura turned to me and said "I feel like I'm back at Sant Bani!" I couldn't have agreed more.

This is a photo of sunset at the center. I took it from next to the clothesline outside the dorm.

Weekend Fun

Here are some of the fun things that happened this weekend

- Discoteca with traditional activities like bull fighting. Mostly it was just fun to go out and dance.

- Football game in San Jose. The group of us that went bought jerseys beforehand and learned some of the cheers in Spanish. It was a great match. Herediano vs. Saprissa. We were rooting for Saprissa because Yendri, one of the outreach staff at the center, took us to the game and we followed her lead. She is a big fan of Saprissa and was freaking out the entire game. It was hilarious. Saprissa was losing in the beginning but made a great comeback with three goals at the last minute! Vamos Saprissa!!

- Getting to call home even though my phone card only had 7 minutes and 30 seconds left on it!

I Guess That’s Why They Call It a Dry Forest

Santa Rosa National Park is beautiful. Definitely my favorite place we’ve visited so far. It is not at all what you would expect to see in Costa Rica, because it is a dry forest. They get six months of rain and six months of absolutely no rain. There were cacti. There also were some beautiful huge trees with perfect climbing branches. We ended up setting up our campsite underneath the branches of those trees. Unlike Manuel Antonio, the weather was perfect for sleeping. Very breezy and not humid at all. Something about the wind made the place even more beautiful. It was the kind of wind that normally would be followed by a cathartic storm back home, but here, it was continual and almost mysterious.
We ate dinner with another study abroad group and with the staff of the park. A few of the staff were really interesting and started explaining their work with the ecotourism industry, with research on howler monkeys and with environmental education programs. They also were very forgiving of my bad Spanish and were eager to help teach me new words and phrases. A few of us stayed at dinner late to keep talking with the staff and ended up making plans to play guitar and hang out later. On our walk back to the campsite, it was dusk and I glimpsed two deer through the trees!
Edgardo is the ultimate wilderness badass. He took us on a night hike through the park, which was magical. Our headlamps reflected the eyes of any wildlife so the ground sparkled everywhere we looked because of the wolf spiders that were camouflaged in the leaves. When we spotted a scorpion, Edgardo had no problem grabbing it and holding it up for us to see. He explained he’d been stung so many times it doesn’t really bother him anymore. He also brought along a blacklight, which he proceeded to shine on the scorpion. It glowed! I didn’t get a picture of it, but here is an example.
The stars were incredible and even brighter than the clearest winter night back home. I didn’t recognize many of the constellations though. Soon our headlamps reflected a bigger set of eyes and Edgardo explained that it was the Common Paraque, a bird that sits on the ground and uses camouflage for protection. He nonchalantly said, “I’ll go catch it” which he did. He asked for my help by shining my light directly into its eyes while we slowly crept up on it. Because it couldn’t see, it stayed perfectly still until Edgardo was on his hands and knees directly in front of it. He lunged just as the bird took off and in a cloud of feathers, he emerged holding the bird in his hands. It was incredible. After showing it to us and explaining a bit about its physiology, he released it. Edgardo also picked up a tarantula for us to inspect, then looked surprised when we turned down his offer to hold it ourselves.
Finally, the solidifying factor that wins him the prize for coolest professor ever- he caught a gecko and explained to us that when they get frightened, they detach their tails to distract possible predators, while they run away. Soon the gecko detached its tail, which began jumping around, independently of its body. It kept twitching and jumping for about 3 minutes. After releasing the gecko, he pocketed the tail, leaving us to wonder what other interesting thing we’d find if we looked through his pockets.
The next day we got up to do our field experiment which consisted of setting up transects through the forest, starting at the road and moving further away from it. In each plot, we counted the trees, measured their DBH and height and then measured the noise from the road. This will help Edgardo in his study of the effects of the road on the forest. Later we took a hike through the park. It was really nice to not be completely drenched in sweat, for once. We saw a perfect example of an Acacia plant with the ants that live in it. This is a very interesting symbiotic relationship where the ants protect the plant (they swarm anything that tries to touch the plant…even fingers…) and the plant produces food for the ants and allows them to live inside its thorns. Here is a picture of the ants. Also a few pictures of monkeys. I couldn't help taking about a million pictures of the baby. So cute!








































This is class. Jealous?

I Feel Selfish

We had a few days of classes that were focused completely on climate change. I was really excited to learn about how climate change is effecting the region and the possibilities for the future. Of course, there had to be a bunch of review so everyone could get on the same page in terms of the science behind climate change and everything, but I soon realized that we would be reviewing for 2 days straight, and not going much further in depth. I was disappointed but more frustrated with myself. For the past few years I have been sitting through classes that explain how things are spiraling downwards with feedback loops, tipping points, lack of leadership and total confusion amongst where blame and responsibility lie among developing and developed countries. Last semester back home I felt like I was finally taking action and DOING something about these issues instead of sitting around discussing how scary they are. Now I’m here. I increased my personal carbon footprint by a LOT flying here. I’ve been swinging around in my hammock, enjoying learning about new bird species and eating tropical fruits but not really DOING anything. I feel selfish. Last night the Leadership Campaign had a sleepout in Amherst and I wanted to be there so bad! I know that in the long run, this experience will have given me a valuable perspective that will help me to take better action in the future. But I can’t help feeling that the time is NOW and all I'm doing is hiking through the rainforest, looking at Acacia plants.

Be a Top Banana

The past week of my life has revolved around bananas. It is pretty silly. My only connection to bananas previously was an occasional snack, a nickname and a song that my dad and I wrote when I was about 5. After this week, I will never look at bananas the same way.

We gave presentations on Costa Rica’s most important crops and bananas are the top export. After visiting the Dole plantation and giving my presentation, I learned almost everything there is to know about the history of bananas, the process of growing and harvesting bananas, the social and environmental justice issues surrounding bananas, the environmental degradation that results from mono cropping vast amounts of bananas, the best way to eat bananas, and the fact that they make banana liquor.

I also have been eating more bananas than I ever have in my life. For some reason, every meal ends with a peanut butter covered banana. Since there are not a lot of options for meals (we basically eat whatever they feed us. Which is ALWAYS rice and beans…) we try to be creative with whatever we find. Usually we find bananas. And peanut butter. This reminds me of that Mr. Rogers episode where he taught us how to eat bananas with peanut butter and crushed Graham Crackers. Good call, Mr R.

This past week, I was on breakfast set up pandilla. This meant waking up an hour earlier than everyone else to cook them breakfast. Though this sounds horrible, it was actually really nice. I got to see the sunrise and hang out with Mariela, the classic, jovial cook. She calls everyone “Mi amor” and gets really excited when we ask to cook something different than rice and beans. I made banana pancakes for everyone. Mmmm. Even at 5:30 in the morning, she is smiling and happy. She wears an apron with handprints on it, like a kindergarten teacher or something. She told us that a group of students a few semesters ago made it for her. She cried when they left. She cries every time the semester ends and the students leave. Her birthday, she told me, is April 1st. I’m going to sneak into the kitchen before she gets there and make her a queque (cake)!

One morning, we were making fried plantains, and suddenly there was a pounding noise on the roof. Mariela threw down her wooden spoon and bustled over to the crate of past- ripe bananas. Then, spewing Spanish that I caught only half of, she pushed us out the door in front of her and followed behind with an armful of bananas, which she promptly threw onto the roof. Quickly, we realized that there was a group of monkeys up there! They ran down, grabbed the bananas and began munching. They were adorable but we were a little skeptical about the idea of feeding them, since we’d just been learning about how bad that is. Mariela explained, mischievously that even though Victor (the site manager) continually asks her not to feed them, she can’t help it because they come knocking and she is a cook, that is what she does – she feeds people!

Soon after the banana presentation, we had our first “FEX” write-up due. Our field exercise was with Sergio so it was for economics. We surveyed people in Manuel Antonio about their experience in the park in order to determine the effect of ecotourism on the park. Basically this meant that everyone pulled an all-nighter in the computer lab in order to get it finished on time. The next morning at 7am, we left for Santa Rosa National Park. Everyone was completely passed out on the bus.

Pictures from Manuel Antonio Trip

I really need to learn how to rotate.

This is the African Oil Palm plantation.


















Iguana.













Class at Manuel Antonio National Park



















White Faced Monkey. They were everywhere at the park. They've gotten way too comfortable with people. One was trying to steal something from Laura's backpack.








A really big tree. It reminds me of Jack and the Beanstalk. And it is a type of bean.

I Guess That's Why They Call It A Rain Forest

Me and my roomie, Ellie















Me and Laura












Resort built too close to the beach. Technically there is supposed to be no construction within 150 meters of the beach, but the local government is in charge of monitoring that and it is very easy to sway them with $.















Terraced land directly across the street from the beach.










Where we had our lecture









This week, after three days of classes, we got up at the crack of dawn (literally) to drive to Manuel Antonia National Park. On the way, we stopped on a small beach for a lecture about eco-tourism and sustainable tourism. Then we drove some more and stopped again in a sweltering, mosquito filled oil palm plantation for a lecture on oil palms and biofuels.

Finally, we arrived at Manuel Antonio National Park. Basically imagine the quintessential tropical beach, add about 20 degrees, and you have Manuel Antonio. The park is a peninsula so there is beach on both sides and a forest remnant in the middle. After a third econ lecture, we had dinner in the park ranger's house, had a discussion/briefing on the next day's field experiment and then camped out on the beach. This sounds great but really, it wasn't. Sweltering heat + rain + lots of mosquitoes = not much sleep. Especially when it is raining in your tent, directly onto your face. It was quite the experience. Very opposite from waking up in -7 degree weather and being able to see your breath, which is how my recent sleepout experiences have been.

Besides the rain, the park/beach were beautiful. There was a lot of wildlife - though much of it had been overexposed to tourists and were strangely tame.

Animals I have seen in Costa Rica already-
Three Toed Sloth
Two Toed Sloth
Iguanas
Howler Monkeys
Tarantula
Agoutis (rodent guys that look like big, tailless rats but cuter)
Capuchins (white faced monkeys)
Geckos
Tucan
A bunch of other super cool birds

Animals I still want to see -
Jaguar (haha, yeah right)
Quetzal
Scarlet Macaw

After camping on the beach, swimming in the ocean, getting reeeeaaally sweaty and sandy, all we wanted was to get back to the center and take showers. Ironically, when we got back to the center, the water was broken (again.) No showers tonight.

Highlight of today- While hiking out of Manuel Antonio, I was craving Ben & Jerry's Ice cream and lamenting the fact that I most likely wouldn't have it for the next three months. Little did I know, they have it here! So I ate an entire pint of Cherry Garcia on the bus ride back from Manuel Antonio. :) I was too full to eat dinner. Or maybe I'm just getting really sick of rice and beans. Either way, melon for dinner was just fine with me.

Last Night, There Was a Tarantula In the Sink

Last night, there was a tarantula in the sink.
The news arrived in the dorm and everyone ran to the cocina to take a look. This probably had to do with the fact that we were all procrastinating from doing our mountains of readings that were due today.
I think we're all realizing that we are actually in school and not just here to have fun.
The tarantula must have been a bad omen, because today was a rough day. Breakfast at 7, RAP (which is our morning meeting) at 8. Class from 8:30 until 5 with an hour break for lunch. It was intense. I actually have a callus on my middle finger from where my pencil rests.

Tonight we're going into town to play football, basketball and volleyball with the locals. Just in case we weren't fried enough from all the classes, they're going to make sure we're physically exhausted as well! I guess I'll sleep well tonight.

In the back of the truck at the Palmito Plantation. the plants in the background are Palmito trees.













Dole Banana Plantation.
So. Many. Bananas.












Banana Plantation. Those are banana plants. The blue bags are what the bananas grow into.














About to go bird netting. It is before 6am.












Orientation hike in Braulio Carillo National Park










I don't know how to rotate this, but it is a huuuuge tree. Beautiful. Katie and Tomas are trying to see the top.













Rio Sucio














Yep. Good Shoes.











The first night. EVERYONE was on their computer. It was ridiculous. Since then, the internet has not worked well enough for that.

Manú

Classes have started and I am so excited for all of them. They each seem like they are going to be really fun and informative. Since our schedule is basically non-stop all day (starting at 7am), and we have structured program time 6 days a week, it feels more like we are just constantly learning instead of having separate class time to learn. Our courses are extremely interconnected, which is great because it makes everything feel less disjointed. The things we are learning and the field trips we’ve gone on can all be examined from the perspective of any of the courses.

Our professors live here at the center so we spend a lot of time with them. Achem, the Natural Resource Management prof is a tall, pony-tailed German with a 3 year old daughter who lives here too. Sergio teaches Environmental Economics and Ethics and is quick to laugh and poke fun at us, which is very entertaining. During our last class while telling us to ask for clarification if we couldn’t understand his English he said “My English is....better than your Spanish. Hahaha,” which cracked everyone up. Edgardo is, by far, my favorite professor so far. He teaches Tropical Ecology and he has the coolest glasses ever! They are small and round with the wire that wraps all the way around your ear. Very stylish. He also is quick to smile and he knows SO much. During our hikes over the last few days, I’ve been lucky enough to be in his group. We stop every few feet so he can teach us about some crazy tropical plant or insect.
My Spanish teacher’s name is Olga and, though I’ll only have her occasionally, I’m looking forward to practicing with her. I was placed in the intermediate Spanish class, which feels about right. Her class was good, but to be honest, I think I learned more last night from talking to some of the locals over a bottle of Imperial.

We spent the last three days at Manú, which was a beautiful, summer-camp type place with cabins and a pond. We took a hike through Braulio Carillo National Park, visited a palmito (heart of palm) plantation and a banana plantation owned by Dole. We also did some bird netting and hiking at the Manú center itself.

Memorable things about the last three days-

*Waking up at 5:30 to hop on the bus to Braulio Carillo and picking a Mandarin to pack for lunch

*Learning about epiphytes (plants that live entirely in the tree canopy and don’t touch the ground) hemi-epiphytes (plants that live in the tree canopy but send roots down the the ground) and epiphilia (plants that grow on only the leaves of other plants)

*Getting to SEE each of those plants in the forest! My favorite is the strangler fig.

*Plodding around in rubber boots, and a silly rain hat with my zip off pants unzipped halfway for ventilation. Classy.

*Seeing Rio Sucio (Dirty River) which is an orangish color because of natural processes.

*Buying galletas (cookies) at a rest stop and chatting (en espanol) with Alexandra, the Costa Rican grad student, who’s English is a bit better than my Spanish, so we made it work.

*Attempting to string up my mosquito net in the cabin where we slept but failing horribly and giving up. (Don’t worry- no suspicious bug bites yet)

*Teaching the group to play LAP TAG during some free time in the evening. Really, the only way to break down boundaries, inhibitions and personal bubbles. We’re going to be living closely for the next three months, lap tag was a necessity. Thanks Leadership Campaign!

* Eating a slice of sugar cane that Edgardo cut off the plant for me. It tastes like sap before it has been boiled down the maple syrup. Mmmm.

* Seeing a pineapple growing on the ground. They look quite silly, really.

* Finding a mama sloth and her baby up in a Secropia tree at Manú! She was asleep, with her arms wrapped around the baby. Very cute.

* Watching the parade of leaf-cutter ants marching down the path, lugging leaves four times their size.

*Experiencing the incredible sensation of holding a snowcap hummingbird and releasing it back to the sky. It hopped onto my finger, where it sat for a moment, getting its bearings, then zoomed off to the trees.

* Realizing that I don’t actually hate economics and might really enjoy this class.

*Eating sooo many fruits that I didn't even know existed.

* Riding in the back of a big farm truck at the Palmito Plantation.

* Listening to Carlos at the Dole Banana Plantation tell us the story of bananas in an extremely pro-banana, pro-dole, pro-big corporation way that made me want to scream a little bit. It was very interesting, though.

*Playing Nickel Nickel ( a great card game) with a bunch of new friends until waaaay to late at Manú.

*Going for a run in Atenas and jumping in the pool afterwards.

* Saturday night Alternative Spanish Class at Don Yayo con uno o dos botellos de Imperial que los Ticos compraron para mi.


Water here is almost as unpredictable and unreliable as the internet. Since it is the dry season, there is a water shortage in Atenas so the water is shut off after 7pm every night. That said, it doesn’t always work during the day either. Showers are a luxury that we are learning to go without. At Manú, when the water stopped working, we all grabbed our biodegradable soap and headed for the pond. Bathing at night in the pond was soooo refreshing after a hot, sweaty, sunscreeny, bug spray coated day of hiking.

Today is the presidential election in Costa Rica. It is quite the scene. There have been people campaigning all over the place. Elections here are a national holiday. We’ll see what happens! This is the first time a woman has run and she seems to be the front runner at this point. I’m going into Atenas to witness the election madness and try to buy a phone card so I can call home! If that doesn't work, Happy Birthday Mom!

Getting to Know You, Getting to Know All About You

I saw my first banana tree today. It was quickly followed by star fruit trees, mandarin trees, orange trees and avocado trees. And this was all on our tour of the center where we’re living! It is so amazing to be able to walk outside, grab a mandarin off the tree and eat it. We also have chickens at the center, so that means fresh eggs! I already have eaten more healthy and delicious food in the last four meals than I’ve had in the last four months, I think.

Each of us have been assigned daily pandillas (chores) to keep the center running and clean. I’m on lunch set up this week so I get to work with the ladies in the kitchen, helping them set up and serve lunch. They only speak Spanish, so there was a lot of laughter and demonstrating when I couldn’t understand them. Only a little bit of the frijole dish we were serving ended up on the floor, so all in all, it went well!

This morning we played a name game in order to try and imprint the 36+ names we have to remember into our minds. If you’ve ever been to summer camp or been through any type of orientation at Clark, you’ve probably played this game. It involves saying your name and doing a dance move and being able to repeat the names and dance moves of everyone before you in the circle. Some highlights of this morning’s game were Meredith doing the “get it on” hip/arm movement without realizes that every single person after her would have to do it while saying her name, Colin doing the backwards butt hop right as Dayla told us not to be shy, Dan’s full body shimmy, Amanda’s crow move and matching sound effect (ka-kaaaw!) and Kurt’s shopping cart.

Our tour of Atenas started by piling into two SFS mini buses and driving through the neighborhood of La Presa, which is where the center is located. Next we drove through the neighborhood of Los Angeles and then arrived in Atenas, which is only 2ish miles away.

We changed money at el banco, where the lady behind the glass automatically started speaking to me in English as soon as she heard my terrible Spanish accent. Then we walked around town, which is full of shops surrounding a cute little park where, we were told, young people come to kiss. It was true. There were at least four couples occupying some of the benches in the middle of the park. And I’m not talking peck on the cheek…

There were a few supermercados and internet cafés. One of the internet cafes has a butterfly garden in the back and free coffee. Nice. We walked through an open market area where they had fresh fruit, vegetables, meat, ice cream….everything! There were beautiful arrays of avocados, mangos, passion fruit, squash, and tons of fruits/veggies I didn’t even recognize. In town, strangers kept smiling and saying “Adios” as we walked by. I was confused, since adios means goodbye. I soon learned that it is a Costa Rican thing. Apparently, it is just like saying hey in passing. If you’re going to stop and chat you can say “Hola” but otherwise, adios is used. Directly translated it means “to God” so I guess it makes sense.

I made it to Costa Rica!

Yesterday was a blur of plane rides, new faces, new names, warm breezes and tropical plants. Today, after getting a full nine hours of sleep, things are a bit clearer.

El Centro de Estudios Sobre Desarrollo Sostenible is almost like a tiny college campus. We live in a "dorm" with 3-4 person rooms equipped with bunk beds, desks, closets and fans. The Dorm also has a big common space with couches, ping pong and foozeball tables, bathrooms (with cold showers only) a library, computer lab, and a small classroomish space. Some of the faculty and staff live at the center as well, so their houses are close by as well as the main house, where the professor's offices are. There is also an outdoor classroom, kitchen/dining room, and a pool.

The best discovery so far is certainly the hammocks. There are a few outside our dorm and a few next to the pool. Beautiful.

Soon after discovering that the wireless works, almost all 36 of us were on our laptops in the common space. A few minutes later, it crashed. Right now, we have ethernet which seems to work fine. But now it is time for an introductory session to the program so I'll write more later.

Hope everyone at home is well!

1 Hour and 20 Minutes To Go

Hi friends and family!

I'm here in Canterbury, awaiting 2:00am when Laura (my best friend from High School with whom I am going to Costa Rica) will arrive and we'll head to the airport!

Things I have to do before now and then -

*Get out of my pajamas
*Figure out how to strap my sleeping bag onto my backpack securely
*Turn off my cell phone, leave it on my desk and accept the fact that I will not be making or receiving any calls or texts for the next 3.5 months
* Wrestle with my suitcase until it agrees to be zipped shut and weigh it one more time to make sure those batteries I just added didn't bump it over 50 lbs.
*Say goodbye to eight adorable puppies and their mom, Kali
*Remember how to speak Spanish

I'm fairly confident that the suitcase will be the easiest of these tasks.

Now I have exactly 1 hour and 6 minutes to go so I'll leave it at this for now. I'll be writing as often as I can manage with limited internet access. Feel free to email me at htirrellwysocki@clarku.edu but no promises on a hasty response!

Oh! I have a mailing address where letters (but NO packages) can be sent, if anyone feels so inclined.

Hannah Tirrell-Wysocki
CEDS
Apartado 150-4013
Atenas - 20501
Costa Rica
Central America

OK, less than an hour.
Goodbye snowy New Hampshire, hello sunshine!