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.