Today…. I had a little adventure.. A few of us here at LASP decided to go to a sustainable development farm today to do an interview for our research paper that is due in about a month… and it was amazing.. and sooo BEAUTIFUL… The farm was called, “Finca La Flor de Paraiso,” and it was so cool… you all should check it out… Their website is www.la-flor-de-paraiso.org and they also love to have volunteers, so it would be a sweet opportunity and you could be in Costa Rica! This organic farm was a self-sustaining community and it is so easy to say that such a theory could work in theory, but to see it lived out is another thing. The organization that is working on and through this farm is the Association for the Development of Environmental and Human Consciousness (ASODECAH) and their purpose is the following: “The project seeks to demonstrate human alternative community living coexisting symbiotically with nature, assuring the continuity of the natural resources and the health of the people for the survival of future generations.” Pretty neat huh? Well I think so but I guess I am a science nerd at heart… but I think that everyone should be able to see the power and significance of a place like this! Let me explain it a little more….
We arrived there today after taking a couple of buses and finding ourselves out in the middle of nowhere, but none the less we it. When we first arrived he talked to us for a little bit and then we had lunch… and if everything works out right there should be a picture of my plate of food in my flickr account… Click on the link on the right hand of my page! But the sweetest thing was that the food for our lunch was all organic… all natural! It was really good! Then after lunch he showed us around the farm…. And it was crazy… They compost everything… they save the rain water, by having collecting the water in these containers connected through the gutter system, they used manure and take it through this long process that with the help of some earthworms turns into some new rich soil that they will use in their continuous process of growing, picking and eating. They grow a diverse range of plants from mint to tobacco. But really the only reason they plant tobacco is because it acts as a kind of natural insect repellent, since they don’t use chemicals on anything they grow. They have even developed a way to use the animal waste with a combination of water to form natural gas, known as methane gas. It is so complex.. and it was really interesting to me… they combined it and then but it in this big tube like thing made out of plastic bags so that it would be heated by the sun and then the gas was formed and rises up out through a tube connecting to a holding tank and then the water that is left over runs off and waters other plants.. then they can use this natural gas for numerous things including cooking! Well I would love to talk about this more later if you would like.. but check out the few pictures I am going to try and post.. but no promises!
Also during the last few days I bought a paper and was just recently reading through it and I came across this poem written by a local person in Guadalupe and it goes like this:
Tomorrow
Just tomorrow at this time
We’ll be a day older.
Our dreams a little colder,
When we can’t accomplish in our way
The things we plan today.
So it’s not just another day
That comes and goes away.
Every moment we’ll be tested
In the seconds that we’ve wasted.
- Ronald J. Torres
I think that I have found this poem to be so true especially knowing that I am here in Costa Rica but life in the United States have not stopped, but yet continues to go on… and knowing that tomorrow brings more things and tests with it… and it is scared and I have so many dreams and I don not want them to go stagnant… or cold…. I know that through this experience that God is going to do to so many miraculous things… and he has already done some of that that by bringing new people… and friends into my life that pray and hope that they will in fact becomes friends for life!
The above was written yesterday night.. but to that I am going to add some of my thoughts so from this point on… when I say today.. I really mean today.. and before this today meant yesterday! So now that I have the confusing stuff out of the way let me continue! I really haven’t done much since I wrote last night.. but I did get up and go to church this morning and that is always interesting.. and this morning I was telling everyone that I was going to Nicaragua tomorrow for two weeks, and after telling them this after church a few of them took me aside and prayed for me.. it was really nice… and then beyond that on my way out the pastor told me that he was going to pray for me, too! That is so reassuring and nice to hear! It amazes me how religion, and my God transcends time, language, and countries.. as well as continents and more.. What a might God I serve! I know that all of you out there are already praying for me, and appreciate it immensely… and DO NOT stop.. especially for the next two weeks I am going to be Nicaragua and have heard some horror stories.. but I know that it is going to be an experience beyond my wildest dreams!
Oh ya and for all of you out there who are reading this I am not graduated from my Spanish classes at the “Instituto de Lengua Espanola” or (Spanish Language Institute), it is official and I have the certificate to prove it! We had a little graduation ceremony on Friday February 10, 2006… and I spent a total of 57 hours at the Institute in Spanish classes… Oh good times!
It is such a weird phenomena that I am beginning to feel at home here? I mean I can finally look like I know where I am going… I can do other things on the bus besides starring out the window looking for landmarks… and it is just getting to the point where I am adjusted to being here… Does that make sense? It is beginning to be the “norm” for me to see the things that were so foreign to me only a month earlier! I have become accustomed to the money here which is in colones which is like 500 colones to the dollar…. so everything here seemed to be really expense when in actuality it was not.. however things here are not as cheap as one may think. The other day when a few of us were over at Meg Bauhof’s host family’s house we pulled out some of our change from the states and it felt so weird…. And was sooo small… it was strange.. because yet another adjustment made.. It is intriguing.. and then for me to have to think about whether or not the same adjustment is going to needed when reentering the foreign culture of the United States… and am I going to want to reenter such a culture and all of the conditions that come with that? I cannot escape the fact that I am a North American and I need to take responsibility and begin to stay up to date on what my country is doing.. I need to be able to be relevant to people and when I refer to people I am not just talking about people in the states because that is easy I grew up there… but I am also talking about marginalized people and more… people who I have no idea what they are going through and facing daily? I need to be able to be relevant and effective to those people as well!
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