small farms

Group photo after a hot day of installing a biodigester.

Note: Lots of pics from service day are at the bottom of this post.

So I’m not going to lie – last night was a little freaky. We had the light on in our room so we could write in our journals, and it attracted bugs – monster bugs. I don’t freak out easily, but a bug the size of my hand kept flying towards me.

Backing up a bit … I was pretty tired by the time we were done with dinner that I decided to sit on the bed and journal before getting ready for bed. Lidia came in and took down the mosquito netting above the bed and wrapped it all around the bed. I asked if we really needed that, and she said yes. Within 10 minutes I saw why. I could not have been more thankful to have the netting when the monster bugs came in. I finally convinced my roommate that we *had* to turn off the light. The trouble was, I hadn’t gone to the bathroom or changed into my pajamas – but I wasn’t about to leave the protection of the mosquito net with the bugs flying everywhere.

Once we turned off the light, the bugs calmed down, but it was a couple of hours before I got the courage to get up and go to the bathroom and change clothes. Even so I had a hard time sleeping. I tried playing word games on my phone, which is how I get sleepy at home, but the light from the phone got the bugs stirred up again, so that wasn’t going to happen. I may have gotten three hours of sleep if I’m lucky.

I vowed not to make the same mistake again tonight, so as soon as we got back for the evening, I showered, dressed, repacked the suitcase, and put the mosquito netting over everything on my bed and the bed where I was storing my stuff – all while it was still light. I guess everyone who travels to developing countries has a crazy bug story to tell, and now I’ve got mine.

Anyway, today was service day. We painted a church and installed a biodigester on one of the local farms. It was fun and also good to be of use to the people here. The group seems to be gelling pretty well and getting along. One thing I’ve found in life is that the quickest way to really get to know people is to 1) live with them, 2) work with them, or 3) travel with them. People are starting to get more comfortable with each other which is good because it takes less effort to get along. I’ve enjoyed the smaller group at the home stays where we’ve had a chance to talk more with just a few people about matters of substance. Becca was our Spanish speaker in the group and really stepped up. It’s also been nice talking more to Leesha and Carla.

I have really enjoyed seeing the farms, especially how the farmers integrate and use everything. That’s the idea of the biodigester – to put the manure to use in cooking food. Both farms I saw do a great job putting together food scraps for the animals. I did see a few things on both farms that concerned me. Both had dogs tied up by themselves in the back. At one the dog is kept tied up to watch the tilapia pond. The other had two dogs tied up by themselves – one a little cockerpoo that needed a shampoo and trim as bad as any dog I’ve seen.

All these dogs did have dog houses and plenty of food. But dogs are pack animals. They are evolved to be social. It’s really not fair to them to keep them so solitary all the time – if they don’t have a dog pack, then humans are their pack, and they should be kept with us. Of course some people in the U.S. tie up dogs alone, and sometimes forget to feed them, which Mario said happens here too. In some cases at home, the neglect gets so bad that humane agents take the animals – one of my friends runs an agency responsible for this in rural counties outside of Columbus, and the things he sees are terrible.

While the welfare of dogs that I saw at the farms here was certainly better than what my humane agent friend deals with in the U.S., dogs and cats don’t seem to be considered part of the family in Costa Rica. Apparently it’s not part of the culture. I wish it were, but those sorts of norms take a long time to develop and a long time to change. We asked Lidia if they would ever consider bringing their dog in the house, and the answer was a definitive no. She seemed a little surprised when I showed a photo of my cats sitting on the bed with my husband. This is a common occurrence at our house but would never happen here. I don’t think it’s something they can relate to.

Of course as people establish close relationships with their pets, they start thinking about their relationships with other animals. Some people call this anthropomorphism, but I really don’t think it can be dismissed so easily. Animals, especially mammals, have evolved the same structures in their brains as we do to create emotions, and they form the same attachments to people and to each other – as well as the same dislikes, fears, jealousies, etc. Anyone who pays attention to animals can see this. On the other hand, the welfare I saw for farm animals in Costa Rica is much better than for most animals at industrial farms in the United States. So every culture has its pluses and minuses.

Service day photos

Painting inside a village church near the home stays.

Painting the stairs of the church.

The inside of the church finished.

Starting the biodigester project. The biodigester is made mainly of a thick sheet of plastic looped around and closed off at the ends.

Using an old bucket to enclose the end of the biodigester.

Carrying the biodigester to its location.

Cleaning out the hole where the new biodigester will go. An old one was there previously.

Filling the new biodigester with air.

Into the woods for a nature reserve hike.

Note: Many more photos are at the bottom of this post. You can click on any photo to see it larger.

This morning was a hike through a forested nature trail on the grounds of Earth University. One of my goals this trip was to keep up with the undergrads who are half my age, and so far I’m doing okay. Either I’m in better shape than I thought or they are in worse. I felt pretty good this morning and hope that lasts. It helps that in getting a decent amount of exercise this trip. Most of the time at home I’m on the computer for work or school or social media and personal email, which really takes a toll after a few days.

Banana tour

Also this morning was a tour of the banana plantation at Earth University, and of the packing and shipping house where workers sort, clean and box the bananas to go to Whole Foods. Today they were being shipped to the Whole Foods in Jessup, MD. This was so interesting and fulfilling to see. The values of the organization are printed in large letters on the outside of the building. This is a fair trade shop where the workers work an 8 hour shift with lunch and coffee breaks. The work looked very hard even so — I can’t imagine the exploitation that must go on in a shop that isn’t fair trade, which most are not.

The tour made me happy and a little proud that these are the bananas I buy. We first started shopping at Whole Foods because unlike most grocery stores, it has animal welfare standards. I’m willing to pay more for this, and for sustainable standards on seafood and fair trade on products like bananas. Of course this can come at a price. Our guide Mario thought it was pretty funny that the nickname of Whole Foods is “whole paycheck.” I hope someday we can move into a place where I can have a vegetable garden like the one at our home stay location, and we can grow more of our own food. In the meantime, I’d like to start ordering vegetables from a CSA.

Home stays

Me and my housemates at Laureles Farm. Clockwise from upper left: Becca, me, Carla, Leesha.

The home stays will be the true experience of Costa Rica. I’m staying with three other students at a small working farm called Laurel’s with Lidia and Fernando. Besides the garden, they have a horse, several chickens and a very friendly turkey, a pig, about 15 head of beef cattle, a couple of milk cows, and a pond full of fish. We started our tour of the farm by taking turns riding Fernando’s very sweet and well-behaved horse. She was so tolerant of us who haven’t ridden in ages — and who had a little trouble getting on.

Then we walked down the mountainside where Fernando keeps his beef cattle. One of the cows tends to walk and graze with part of his front legs on the ground. Fernando said the cow has a worm, and that he had given the cow a shot. But this made me wonder what kind of veterinary care these animals get. Does someone from Earth University travel to farms to take care of them? Earth has an animal farm because we visited it. I didn’t think to ask there what kind of veterinary care those animals get, but hopefully they have some kind of veterinary program there, even if it is not as developed as the one at Ohio State.

The other notable thing about Lidia and Fernando’s farm is the howler monkeys in the back yard. As we were touring the farm, we heard them hooting to each other a lot, so Fernando walked us over to the trees where they live and threw in a few sticks to get them to come out where we could see them. It worked. We saw four or five on various tree branches howling a lot at us.

I was surprised how small they are based on how loud the sound they make is – so they live up to their name. The males have a special vocal sac in their throat that helps them amplify the sound they make, which sounds like a strong wind running through a tunnel. I did wonder what the monkeys on Fernando’s farm were trying to tell us – was it a greeting or more of a warning to tell us to get out of their territory? I’m guessing the latter – that’s what it sounded like. I hope we didn’t stress them out too much, but living next to a farm, they have to be pretty used to interactions with humans.

Nature reserve photos