Apologies for the lack of posts.  My bad.  Some recent goings-on:

  Another outreach with Tercera Edad

I really like hanging out with little old ladies.  And they're earring making machines!  I can't tell you how many itty bitty pieces of metal I torqued with my pliers.  I also made a some for myself though, so can't complain.  The little old ladies are so happy to listen to my broken Spanish.  They're also all in love with one of the students.  When we went to help with the recycling collection in town one of the old ladies stole him away.  An hour later we see him walking back towards us, carrying her groceries.

Shay with COOLER of arroz con pollo!

Homestays + Family Dinner

Students spent a weekend with local families, and the next week we invited all of the families for a big thank you dinner.  The preparations that went into this affair were incredible.  We had at least 3 tents rigged around the open air classroom to fit the maximum number of people.  We ordered more plates, hired a DJ, and cooked an insane amount of arroz con pollo.  I believe the cooks made a total of SEVEN tres leches cakes.

Gabriel Calderon with beans, pre-roasting

Coffee Farm Visit

We visited an organic coffee farm near Atenas and got a tour by the owner Don Gerardo and his son Gabriel.    Although they don't make as much profit as they would on a conventional farm, they are both incredibly happy with their decision to go organic.  Don Gerardo said that the difference in profit doesn't account for the value of your health, your freedom (from the constant chemical rigamarole), and your peace of mind.  

They've also found that the combination of organic and shade cultivation has actually decreased their pest outbreaks, compared to neighbors.  For those who don't know, coffee plants are actually happiest under shade, and can live up 15+ years.  Many farmers grow them in direct sun to force higher bean production, but this results in weaker plants with more volatile harvests due to the stress of sunlight.  Under shade, not only is the crop more consistent, the plants are also healthier and can respond better to diseases.  

El Sur

According to students (and most staff, although some miss Nicaragua), this is the best trip we've been on so far.  We visit a community of 10 families called El Sur de Turrubares, which is working on making their own ecotourism group.  Each year they get 150-200 visitors in a mix of volunteers, school groups, and "normal" tourists.  We started with a very muddy, slippery hike through Carara National Park that the students absolutely loved, even though at least 3 of them bit the dust (or clay in this case) on the trails.  After that we visited the trapiche (traditional sugar mill) again and gorged ourselves on different forms of raw sugar.  Definitely a good pick-me-up after a hard hike.

That night some of us left with Edgardo for a night hike around the area.  And by night hike I mean a walk down the road at 7 or so, once it was dark.  But we still saw quite a lot of very cool frogs, including glass frogs (below) and giant rain frogs that eat other frogs! 

Edgardo also pointed out this egg mass on leaf, hanging over the stream.  I actually know quite a bit about it, because the lab I worked in during college studied something very similar.  The frogs lay their eggs on a leaf, and the tadpoles hatch and grow within the egg mass.  Once they get big enough, they drop off into the water below.  As if that wasn't cool enough, it's been shown that at a certain point, the tadpoles can decide when to drop off!  It's best for them if they can stay on the leaf for as long as possible, to avoid predators.  However, there are two types of predators that like to eat eggs!  There are wasps, which will eat only a few eggs, and snakes which can eat the entire egg mass.  The tadpoles are ready for them though.  If they feel a wasp vibration on the leaf, the closest few tadpoles jump ship, but the others stay put because they "know" that it's just a wasp and probably won't come close.  If they feel a snake vibration, all of them will drop off to evade impending doom.  The coolest part is that they can distinguish "wasp vibration" from "snake vibration" from rainfall, from wind, etc.

Tomorrow night we leave for Panama and I may be more or less incommunicado for the week, although I'm holding out for good internet at the hotel.  We'll be staying in Panama City and visiting the canal, the Smithsonian Research Center, a national park, and various historical locations around the city.  I'm excited to see skyscrapers again!