Thurs 26 Nov

Thurs I went to Guacimo with Omar and Orlando to graft avocado trees at another vivero. We grafted about 40 trees and then collected branches from different trees in the vivero for EARTH. Also we got to eat some oranges from some of the trees that were very good. After our work, we walked across the street to a small restaurant and had some tico food. After work I studied spanish, Ate dinner, then went to the Bibliotheca with some other students to take our funny fake family christmas photo. After the photo, I met Rinas parents and talked with them for a bit, then went home and went to bed.

Wed 25 Nov

Today I helped Omar and Don Orlando with grafting. We worked on citrus trees and I got to graft 5 trees. It was hard for me because my the cut I make into the branch that you put into the tree isn't that good yet. But other than that I am learning very quickly on how to graft. After work, Jensi and Jennifer invited me to participate in a 6km walk. The told me it started at 530pm am it was 515pm when they were telling me. I had to bike home really fast to get some shoes, then I hurried back to get on the bus just as it was leaving. The bus took us to the security stand at the entrance of EARTH. Once we got off the bus, everyone started the walk back to the Bibliotheca. Right as we started walking, I turned on my ipod and we jammed to music through the speakers that I had put in my bag. After the race, I had Dinner at José's house, the president of EARTH. We had Rice and Beans for dinner, then apple and pecan pie for dessert. Once Dinner was over, Sara and I left because she had to do homework and I was going to see Juan. As we were walking home I almost stepped on a snake. I couldn't tell what kind it was but it scared the hell out of me and I was cautious the rest of the way home. Once I got home, I called Juan and then we went to the bar with another student from EARTH until 1230pm. Then I went to bed.

Tues 24 Nov

Today Omar had to go to another place for work, so I got to work with a new person on a different project today. I helped a man harvest Bananas and Papaya. He showed me how to tell when the Bananas are ready and when the same with the Papaya. After work I went and chilled on the campus, then watched Inglorious Bastards with Brad Pitt about the Nazi's. It was very violent but good at the same time. After the movie I went to bed.

Mon 23 Nov

Today was the starting of my second week working at the vivero de frutas. Omar and I walked to the Citrus tree fields to cut small branches that we would use to graft the following day. We used a long metal pole with a clippers at the end of it to cut the high branches. There was a string that you had to pull to make the clippers cut the branch. After collecting the branches we ate some tangerines and then walked back to the vivero. Our next project was preparing the branches for grafting. We prepared them by first cutting all the leafs off, then wrapping then with special plastic to keep them alive. Also I traded my machete and lima for different ones because I had gotten the wrong size and wrong type of machete for the work I was doing. Also my lima was not made well so that had to go. Omar was very nice and helped me change both of those for free to get the right sized machete and lima that would work. After work I had dinner at the cafeteria and then played Frisbee with my team. The field was soaked in water which made the game very wet and slippery and a lot of fun!!! After the game Melia and I ran and slid into a huge puddle of water!! It was our ghetto slip and slide!! After I went home and went to bed.

Sun 22 Nov

Today was another rainy day, but I decided to make the best of it. At 3pm I went with Rina and Drew to the forest reserve to go on an adventure. We had to bike through the roads in the banana fields in the poring rain to get there. The whole trip took about 30min until we got there. Once we got it, we went into a roofed building to chill for a couple minutes, and then decided to go through the trail. We were going to see the huge tree and where almost there when we came upon a fallen tree that blocked the road. We looked up and saw that we had about 50min of light in the sky and decided to turn back before it got dark. It was a good choice because we were 30min away from any lights and we were in the middle of a rain forest soaking wet. On our way home we sang just as before and had a lot of fun. At the last part of our journey it got really dark but thank goodness we were only about 2min away from the lit streets of EARTH. After our adventure, we went to my house to get some chi tea bags, and then brought them to the cafeteria to drink after dinner. Once dinner was over we sat and chatted for a bit and then I went home and went to bed.

Sat 21 Nov

Sat I went to work and it was the day I was finally going to get to graft!!! I practiced the night before and this morning and I felt that I was as ready as I could be. Omar and I walked to the Vivero and selected 7 grape fruit trees. He first demonstrated how to do the whole process, and then it was my turn. I first selected the part of the tree that I wanted to cut to graft, and then I cut the top off of that. I then slowly took my knife and made a cut down the middle of the tree. When that was ready I took the branch I was going to put into the tree and cut it till it fit in the space where I cut the tree. After checking with Omar to see if everything was going well, I then put the branch into the tree and then proceeded with wrapping the section of the tree with plastic. The plastic holds the tree and the branch together and then the sun heats it up to help the branch grow into the tree. After work, I chilled at home for a bit, and then went up to the campus to chill with some friends. Later that night I went to Maurois house to eat some food that she made from Serbia. After that the group that I was with jammed and sang. Once the jam session was over, I decided to go home and go to bed.

Fri 20 Nov

Friday Baby! I went to work and cleaned up all of the plastic that was lying around the different viveros. After, Omar taught me how to transplant banana plants and we transplanted 8 in total. After, I worked on trimming some trees and making sure they were all in good condition for selling. With the branches I cut off, I used them to practice my grafting. After work I chilled at the house, and then went to dinner. After dinner I played pool while, chilled with Malea and Robin, and then went to bed.

Thurs 19 Nov

Today I helped Orlando and Omar work on grafting. I helped them bring the trees that were ready to be grafted to the building and then I watched while they grafted the trees. They told me to start practicing with small branches and try to cut two sides evenly on one of the ends of the branch. This was so it would slip into the tree evenly when you graft the tree. I used branches that the men cut off the trees to practice on. It was super hard to do at first, but little by little I started to see improvement. After work I went to a meeting about getting Chepita Coco in the shop and it worked. The man ordered 15 boxes of her Coco so the only problem now was getting a hold of her. After the meeting Rina and I went to her room to try and call Chepita but had no luck. At 6pm I went to go pick of Tanner at his office because it was his last night in EARTH. All our friends ate together to say goodbye to Tanner. Later that night I wasted almost the whole movie of Funny People with Adam Sandler which turned out to be pretty good. After, I went to bed.

Wed 18 Nov

Today I helped Omar with emptying old plastic bags old dirt that had been used for trees in the past. We dumped the dirt into a wheel barrel and then take it to the dirt pile. The only hard part was it was down poring and that made the mud on the ground extremely slippery so Omar and I had a lot of difficulty getting the dirt from point A to point B without falling. After finishing that project, my friend named Fee came to the vivero to chill and help out. Orlando started playing Cumbia music from his car and we all started dancing. It was so much fun and I learned a couple new moves from Fee. Once we got tired of dancing, Fee and I planted papaya seeds into about 250 dirt bags. When we finished, Richard the professor came to the vivero and gave me a short lesson on the papaya fruit and how to tell the difference from a female plant and a male/female plant. The male/female has the long and skinny flower bud, while the female has the round circular flower bud. He also explained that when planting the papaya seed, you need to plant about 4 or 5 in each bag. This will increase the chance of getting a plant with flowers which means it will grow fruit. Hopefully there will be two plants with flowers and then you will take those two and plant them next to each other in pairs. Once both of the plants grow a little bit bigger, you can tell the difference of the flower and by having that knowledge, choose which one you want to keep. Last he told me about dirt and how it can be dangerous to your plants. If you get dirt from a papaya farm and bring it to a new place to plant more papaya, you are increasing the chance that your plants with obtain some sort of virus or disease. Ways to avoid that is to either get dirt from another place were other plants are growing and not the one your about to plant, your good. Also you can heat up your dirt to really high temperatures to kill all the bacteria in the dirt and maybe viruses. If the dirt has too much clay in it, you need to use sand or rice shells to make the dirt more breathable and able to let water pass through it. After my lesson, Omar taught me how to prune some more citrus trees and then that’s what I finished up with. Later, I chilled at the house, went to dinner and then went to Yoga. After yoga a bunch of the Pasante went to Mary's house to throw a goodbye party for Tanner because he is going to leave Friday. During the party the conversation switched to the sheep at EARTH. I found out through the other Pasante that no one was taking care of them and all they had to eat was grass. Also that one of the pasante saw that the baby lambs were dying from not getting milk from their mother's because almost all of the sheep were sick. So one pasante named Tie went around EARTH to ask for help but no one did. She finally got medicine that doesn’t work that well to help the sheep from loosing their hair. But Tie has been trying to fight this to get help from EARTH to hire someone to take care of the sheep, or if EARTH can't do that, then get rid of the sheep. After hearing these sad stories, I was motivated to help Tie and the other students who are trying to get help for the sheep. Now we are going to talk to EARTH to see we have to talk to about getting funds for medicine and a care taker for these poor sheep. After that party I went home and went to bed.

Tues 17 Nov

Today I went to the Perri Urbana to meet up with Omar. He told me that was a good meeting spot because if we needed any extra tools for the vivero, we could get them there. First the boss told all of the workers including me to prune all of the citrus trees bordering the buildings in the Perri Urbana. By doing this, we would cut off all of the branches that are not helping the tree but stealing nutrients and water from it. After pruning, we went to the vivero and raked for a while to clean up the place. After lunch I returned and it was raining pretty hard so Orlando and I chilled and talked until the rain died down. After Orlando gave me a brief lesson on how to graft a tree and the technique so you wouldn’t cut your fingers off while doing it. I practiced with my Swiss Army Knife because it wasn't nearly as Sharpe as the real knifes for grafting would be. After work I went home and practiced Yoga. Later I went to dinner, and then went to the Bibliotheca to have my first Spanish English lesson with him. It lasted for about an hour a one half and it was fun. After the lesson, I went to Jensi's room to watch a movie with a couple other friends. I left before the movie was over because I had to get to bed. I biked home and then hit the sack!

Monday 16 Nov

Today was my first day working at the vivero de frutas (fruit tree farm). I was going to learn how to graft trees and I was excited. When I got there I met two men, Omar, and Orlando. They welcomed me and we got straight to work. First with transplanted small fruit trees the size of your pointer finger into big plastic bags for each one. Then, we moved other trees in bags to that were ready to be graphed into the grafting area to get ready for the next day. The whole time we were moving these trees, I was raining and the ground became muddy and slippery so it was hard to maneuver the wheelbarrow with 20 trees each weighing about 4 pounds. I feel twice into the mud and got pretty dirty. After a while it started raining too hard for us to work. We chilled under on of the buildings were your fill up the bags with dirt and listened to music from Orlando's car. We talked for a while and I found out both of the men like to dance so I asked Orlando to teach me how to dance all the types each day for two weeks. So first he taught me Cumbia! He told me to feel the rhythm and go with the flow by moving your arms. After the rain, I helped sprinkle nutrients onto the different trees in bags. After work I went to dinner and then went to the Bibliotheca to study Spanish. A friend named Hugo who I didn't know too well came in. We started talking and he told me he needed practice with English because he was going to the U.S. the following year. I told him I would be happy to help him. SO we set up starting the next day and everyday after until the end of school we would meet in the bibliotheca around 7pm and I would practice talking Spanish while he would with English. After studying I went home and then went to bed.

Sunday 15 Nov

Today I woke up and we had waffles for breakfast. After I chilled in the house and took it easy. Later, Daniel, Sara, and I went to a local restaurant for a late lunch which was very tasty. After we rented two movies and went home. Sara and I watched The Ugly Truth which was good. Then I talked to my family on SKYPE and then went to bed.

Sat 14 Nov

After having only two hours of sleep, I work up and felt absolutely horrible. The whole time we were at the Urban Garden working for experiencia, it was down poring. Drew and I had the task of water the plants with the nutrients and decided to make the best of it by singing! After work I was tired drenched and ready to do nothing. I took a shower and then took a three hour nap. After, Sara and I played the card game speed for about an hour and then chilled. Later Drew, Malea, and Robin came over and brought a DVD with stand up comedy. We watched it for a while, but then one by one, everyone feel asleep. About an hour later the girls left and I went to bed.

Friday 13 Nov

Today I went to work at the Urban Garden once again and it was nice to be back. I helped water the plants and helped take out some Bamboo sidings from the pathway because they had rotted out. In the afternoon, I watered everything once more and then I went home. After work I chilled at the house and then went to dinner. After dinner I went with my friends to the bar to go dancing. I didn't have a very good time because they played horrible music and it wasn’t good for dancing. The upside though was the 3 songs of salsa that they played; Melea taught me some new moves in salsa. After the bar, I went home and went to bed around 3am and had to work in two hours. Wow!

Thursday 12 November

Today was the big day. We got up at 7am to help Chepita with the rest of her cleaning and to be ready for Alex. Alex got there around 830am bringing some hanging plants and other supplies. Alex told us that there were no plants to bring from EARTH but there would be in about a week. The group arrived shortly after and we got right to work. First everyone pitched in and we cleaned everything off of the ground, and made a compost pile for all of the dead plants and other things. After we mixed the rice in with the dirt and carbon, and then put it into the other gardens. After about an hour, we were finished. Neighbors came over to help Chepita cook for the group while she was giving a tour to the tour group that had come to see the coco farm. After lunch we bought some coco from Chepita and then said goodbye. Chepita and Carlos were sad to see us go but Riena and I knew that we would be back there soon to play some Dominos and drink some coco. When I got home, I chilled for a while, went to dinner, and then went to bed.

Wed 11 November

Today we woke up and were ready to finish this project. We had a quick breakfast and then got straight to work. First we finished one of the elevated gardens, and then made sure that all of the posts had been put in the ground well enough. After, we called Fernando the neighbor over to cut all of the tops of the post to make them even. When he came, he didn't have a level so he brought a long tube that could have been used for a hose. He filled it with water and then explained how it worked. If you filled a clear tube like the one he had and you’re able to see the water in it, then you can use it as a level. First you start with one post just to start out with. Then that will be the one you make the other ones exactly the same height. Second put one end of the tube on the side of the post and the other end on another side of the post. The tube that is on the first post water level should be right at the top were the top of the post is. Then another person has the other end on the other post and is adjusting his tube up or down until the first person see's his water level reach the same level as the top of his post. Then when the fist post is even, where ever the water level is on the second post, the person will mark it and that will be the same height as the first one. (Sorry if that is super confusing, it’s a lot easier to show than tell.) After all of the post were level and cut, we finished all of the gardens and now just needed to wait until Alex the professor and the garden group came the next day. After work, Chepita told us she had a tour group coming the following morning and she needed to make some boxes to put the coco in to sell it, and also tidy up her farm a bit. So, Riena and I helped Chepita make her farm pretty by planting different plants to make a pathway through her coco trees. We took branches off of different plants and stuck them in the ground where we wanted to plant them. I was amazed that all you had to do was just stick it in the ground and it would grow. After planting we cleaned of the place and racked the leaves off of the pathway. Then, when we were finished, the place looked really nice. Later we played some Dominos and talked to Chepita. We started talking about how we could help her sell her coco in the store at EARTH. She was interested and we gave her some ideas. We helped her from 7pm to 1030pm making boxes out of banana paper and painting them and making them presentable for the tour group to buy the next day. Then when we were finished, we went to bed.

Tuesday 10 November

Today we woke up around 7am and it was raining. Chepita fixed us homemade hot coco from her coco trees. The Coco was so good and it had an original taste that was very natural and didn’t taste anything like Nestle chocolate milk. Chepita owns a farm full of Coco trees and sells the Coco powder in a Banana paper box to tourist. After breakfast it was still raining pretty heavily so we decided to play dominos. I didn’t know how to play but learned very quickly. The game is great and is so much fun. Chepitas grandson came over and played with us two. After a while the rain went away and we then started back up on our work. We built the shelf garden, and then finished the tire and glass garden which was the easiest one. We filled the tire garden with sticks and twigs and some rocks at the bottom to let air come through, then leafs, then dirt, carbon, then rice and more dirt. The layers made the garden full of nutrients and other things to help the plant grow healthy and big. After work we had dinner and then chilled for a bit. When Fernando came home, we decided to play dominos with him. He was an expert and gave us a whole other look on how to play the game, there were strategies and other useful tips that helped me become better at the game. After playing about 15 games, we went home and went to bed.

Monday 9 November

This week I was going to go to La Argentina to live with a family and help build a sustainable garden. This garden would make vegetables more affordable for the family so they could eat healthier, and also save money on food expenses. EARTH invented different types of gardens that were made out of common materials from any hardware store. These different types of gardens all had one thing in common; they were all raised in some way off the grown. This was because of the rainy season and to make it easier to manage the plants. This would make it possible for anyone in these small towns to build their very own urban garden to help their family live healthier.

At 8am I was picked up by Alex Pacheco, the director of Perri Urbana (The Urban Garden Project). I found out that and another pasante or intern named Rina from Boston would be coming. We would work together to build these different types of gardens and then on Thursday, Alex and the community gardening group would come and help plant the all of the vegetables. This gardening group was created by EARTH and formed to help the community come together to make their lives better. By doing this, EARTH has sent students to stay with a family for a week to construct these gardens that the family wants. The family can choose from the demo gardens that EARTH made and see what types will work best at their house. Then after the students construct the garden, the group of other families in the group, come and help so they will get the same in return when it’s their turn for their garden.

We drove for about 30min having to drive on dirt roads that gradually got steeper until we reached our destination. The house was on a Plato overlooking the towns, EARTH, and out into the distance. It was quite and except from the moos of cows that were across the road in a field. It was a lot cooler up in the mountain and it was refreshing to not be so hot. When we got out of the car, we met the couple who we were going to stay with. They were an older couple whose son lived next door to them and worked as a driver at EARTH. Their names were Chepita, and Carlos. They were very welcoming and showed us to our rooms to put down our luggage. Alex talked to them about what we were going to do and get the payment for the plants they wanted to grow. Once they were done with all of the business, Chepita shows us where she wanted the garden to be. The first thought that came to my mind when I saw what we were going work with wasn’t positive at first. The piece of land was covered with garbage that had build up over the years and weeds and tree stumps and everything someone wouldn’t want for a garden. What I was seeing was defiantly not what Alex was seeing through his eyes. When he saw the lot, his eyes lit up and the light bulb turned on right away in his head. He started walking and pointing to where these different gardens would go, he saw right through all of the garbage and saw the finished project in his mind. Once he was done with all of his ideas and plans, Rina and I were motivated and ready to go. Alex told us "Buena’s suerte and see ya on Thursday." Right after he left, Rina and I went straight to work. We looked for tools around the yard that could help us with the task of cleaning all of this garbage. We found a small rake that didn’t work that well and a half broken shovel. While Carlos and his neighbor were cleaning other stuff around the lot, we worked on making different piles with sticks and leafs we could use in the gardens, and trash. After a while, Reina started digging holes for the first garden. I couldn’t believe that she would start doing that because we weren’t even half done with cleaning the lot. I was so impressed when she told me her reason. She told me that she learned in training that if you jump ahead a couple steps and makes it look like the project is coming along really well, it motivates the family and helps them stay on task and work hard. So I decided to help her. We started digging but ran into problems right away. Not only was their trash on the surface of this lot, there was trash burred underneath also. To make matters worse, there were rocks burred everywhere too. This made digging the holes very challenging and slow. Once we finished our holes, we decided to go in for lunch. Chepita had made a typical dish and it was very tasty. We talked to her some more and learned more about the family. After lunch we got right back to work. Our goal for the first day was to finish digging all of the holes to put the post in for the different raised gardens. Before we could put the post in, we needed a neighbor named Fernando to come and cut them to size with his chainsaw. Reina had build gardens at his house so he was more than happy to help us with our project. After finishing our task, we set up the tires for one of the gardens also just to get ahead of schedule.

Later that night, I helped Carlos pick beans of the plants that he had just harvested. We picked until it got too dart to see what we were doing and then we went in for dinner. After dinner, Rina and I were tired and we decided to call it a day.

Sun 8 November

Today I woke up around 11am and then ate some breakfast at the apartment. Juan and Fidel woke up around 12 and I said my goodbyes. Fidel came with me to the bus stop that would take me to Santa Ana. I wanted to go visit my family and see how everyone was doing. When I got on the bus, everything was going well until we came up to a bunch of traffic. It took about 1 hour longer than it should have because they were doing work on a bridge and the alterative road was small and horrible for this amount of traffic. When I got there, my family was gone but I got to take to some other friends and meet the new students who had just arrived the night before for Conversa. I showed them around Santa Ana and told them were all the good places were to eat and go out. After that I had to leave to catch the bus in San José that would leave at 7pm for EARTH. When I got on the bus to take me to San José, I had forgotten where to get of to catch a taxi to get to that bus station. I decided to ask the girl who was sitting next to me. She was very helpful and told me that she would let me know when to get off. So we got into San José and the first stop, she got off and said to follow. She wished me good luck and left. The bus pulled away and right then I noticed I was in a horrible part of town at night. I stood there trying to figure out what I was going to do and must have looked like a lost helpless gringo because then a black car pulled up right in front of me and the window started rolling down. When the window got to the bottom, I saw that it was the girl from the bus; she asked if I needed a ride to the bus station because I looked lost and her dad didn’t want me to be in this part of San José at night. I was thankful and got in the car. The father and the girl were very nice and I told them all about what I was doing at EARTH and all of my experiences. They were very nice and I felt blessed to get a free and safe ride to the bus station with this nice family. When we pulled up I thanked them and then went to buy a ticket in the station. When I got to the waiting room, saw a bunch of my friends from EARTH and we chilled until the bus arrived. We got on the bus and then left. When I got home, Wendy came and picked me up. It was nice to see her after the weekend. I had some dinner and then went to bed.

Sat 7 November

Today I went to the Perri Urbana and worked with the students for their experiencia day. We fist cleaned pots, filled them with sand and dirt, and then planted beans in them. That took up all of the time at work and we got out around 11am. After I went to lunch and then went home to pack for San José. Today I was going to visit my friends Juan and Fidel and we were going to go clubbing. After I got packed I went to Melea's dorm and downloaded some new music on my iPod. Around 2pm I got on a micro bus with Tanner and Drew and we headed for Chepe (San José). We arrived around 5pm and Juan was waiting for us at the bus station. We walked for a bit searching for food and found a Quiznos out of all places. After eating Drew and Tanner went to their hotel and we planned to meet at the night club later. Then Juan and I took a taxi to the apartment. When we got there, we chilled and ate some food and watched TV. Later around 930pm, we got dressed up and went to the club. The taxi took us to a club called Nova and it was awesome. It was cool because it was pretty small or smaller than I am used to for night clubs, but they packed a good crowd and had good music. Also the club had really cool lights to dance to and I had a blast. Juan and Fidel put me in charge of asking girls if they wanted to dance because they said my Spanish was really good (or they were to shy to do it themselves) so I went ahead and asked different groups of girls if they wanted to dance. Surprisingly the girls understood me and said yes. After Nova we went with one of Juan’s friends to three other clubs and then a casino. The casino was what caught me of guard the most. When we got there, for some reason all of the woman were super interested in me and all of the gringos. Then it hit me, most of the woman in here were call girls. I knew we weren’t going to stay here long because the place was pretty darn sketchy, so I decided to have some fun. For the woman who came up to me and spoke English, I talked in a British accent and told them I was from London and my cousin was Harry Potter. All of the women bought it and it was hilarious. After about 10min of making up a huge tale about living in London with Daniel Radcliff and how I got to be in some movies with him, I decided I had enough and we left. O yes and I gambled for the first time in my life. I put 200 colonies in the machine which is the same to about 50cents in the US. So there, I did it all that night, Danced, acted like I was from Britain, and Gambled. We got home around 330am and we went to bed.

Fri 6 November

Today When I got to work, I got to use a leaf blower. This wasn’t a small leaf blower that you have at your house, this is the real deal. This baby was gas powered and you had to strap it on like a backpack. It was heavy duty and got the job done in no time. My task was to clean a part of the garden that had been covered with a bunch of leafs. It was fun to have so much control of wind power and to move all these leafs without a rake. It took me 15min to do a 2 hour job with a rake. After I helped water all of the plants again and helped trim bushes and make the place cleaner. After work I chilled with Robin and Melea and we chilled and watched YouTube videos which took forever. It takes about 10min for one video on YouTube to load. Around 930pm I left and then went to bed.

Thurs 5 November

Today I helped Manuel with watering the different vegetable gardens. The irrigation system is very useful because there are small tubes that water all the plants for you. To irrigate first you need to hook up a pump that mixes the nutrients into the main water line which goes into the small tubes. Then you put the tube from the mixer into a solution bucket with the nutrients and then turn on the water. The mixer does all the work and the pressure from the main water line distributes all of the water and nutrients through the small tubes to the plants. After helping Manuel with watering, I worked on cleaning edges of plants and scraped away all the small weeds and sticks with a machete especially for this task. Around 830am Alex Pacheco picked me up and we went to the small farm in Argentina to finish building the urban garden for them. When we got there, everything was set up and easy to put together thanks to another students help. We planted all of the plants and then ate lunch there. After I got a small tour of this farm and it was very impressive. The woman who owns the farm went to all of the classes that EARTH offered on how to have a sustainable farm with different types of compost and ponds with a special type of plants to clean the water to wash the animals. Also she learned how to make soap and started a business with a couple of her neighbors. She is very motivated and I was impressed with all that she had done. After the farm, I went back to work at the Perri Urbana, continuing cleaning the edges. After work I did yoga at home and then chilled. Later in the night, the British Ambassador came to the house for drinks after his presentation that he had had in the University. I met him and then went to bed.

Wed 4 November

Today was my first day of Experiencia at the Perri Urbana. The students were very nice and hard workers so it was fun to work with them. We started out by planting all the lettuce and the different beds, then learned how to take care of them. Then, we worked on planting Tomatoes in the hanging bags and on the ground. Last I helped on a house being made out of mud. I helped with the mixture and helped make the mud good for packing onto the wall. You need dirt, sand, and hay for making the mixture strong. After mixing the ingredients together you need to jump on the mud to compact it and make it good for and strong for building the wall. So the trick is to take off your shoes and have a dance party on the mud!!! After work, I chilled at the house, went to dinner at the cafeteria, and then went to Yoga!

Tues 3 November

Tues I worked on cleaning up different areas of the Perri Urbana. First I finished racking the junk on the ground around one planting site, and then I worked on preparing the beds for lettuce by mixing dirt, carbon, and other materials together. After, I weeded all of the herb beds which took about 3 hours. After work, I worked out and then went to dinner. At dinner I was invited to play Ultimate Frisbee with my friends at 730pm. Before Ultimate, I went to the Bibliotheca to study some more on Rosetta stone. Ultimate was a lot more fun this time because I was about the same level as the other kids and there was no pressure if you messed up so I was good in the hood. After Ultimate I took a shower and went to bed.

Monday 2 November

Today I woke up and got to the Garden at 6am. When I got there, the director wasn’t there yet so I waited for a while, but then I decided to ask and see if I could help. The man I met was called hicedro and he told me I could pull weeds out of the different gardens. So for an hour and one half while I waited, I picked out all the weeds in the round garden. Once Alex, the director arrived, he told me to load bags of dirt, carbon, and other supplies. These would be used to start a small garden in a small community called Argentina that we were going to. So we got all packed up and set off for Argentina. When we got there, I unloaded all of the supplies and Riena, another pasante (intern) stayed to help prepare this garden so we could build it on Wednesday. Alex and I left her and went back to the garden at EARTH. When we got back he gave Hicedro and I what to work on and then left. This first thing I worked on was cleaning these PVC pipes that were connected to these water gardens to make them look nice. The second thing I did was to rack all of the crap that was lying around on the ground under and around this water garden. After work I ate dinner at the Cafeteria and then watched Vanilla Sky with Tanner. The movie messed me up before going to bed but I got to sleep fine.

Sunday 1 November

Today we woke up around 9am and went surfing for a good part of the day. After we went back to the house and then got packed up and left. When we got home, chilled at the house and then went to bed and got ready for my first day at the Perri Urbana (urban Garden).

Sat 31 October

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! Today I woke up extra tired from the night before but I got up anyway and went to my last day at the Vivero Forestal. I worked on planting trees and then cleaning up a bit, and then I left at 10am. I had to catch a bus going to Puerto Viejo because I was going to meet up with Ben and Eduardo. I got showered and went to the vista (main road) and waited to hitch a ride to the front gate. Right in time a teacher pulled up and gave me a ride. When I got out of the car, I saw the bus coming so I quickly ran across the street and got on. The ride took 3 hours and was good because I got to catch up on my sleep a little. When I got to Puerto Viejo, I called Eduardo and asked him to come pick me up. He came about 10min later with a cousin named Kane. We went back to the house and worked for a while. Eduardo had the plumber from EARTH come up and help with his house and another friend from Pecora come too. After a while we went surfing. The waves were a lot bigger this time which was better. I got some more practice in and felt good and refreshed after surfing. When we got back, the Plumber told us the he got the shower connected so we could use it. After we were all cleaned up, we went into town to eat dinner and then party. After dinner we went to the different bars and chilled and got home at 3am. I was exhausted.

Fri 30 October

Today I conquered my fear of heights. When I arrived at work, Cilia told me that the men had left to go collect seeds and if I wanted to go, I would have to bike up the main road of EARTH to catch up with them. I caught up with them and we went to a tree called Blanco Colorado or something and it was about 12 meters high. Minor got his climbing gear all set up while the other men and I set up this huge tarp at the bottom of the tree to catch what ever Minor was going to do. Minor first threw a small string with small weights tied to the end of it over a branch of the tree. Then he sent the bigger climbing rope over. Then he tied the end of the rope to the trunk of the tree. The tools he used for climbing were the exact same tools that Charlie’s Angels used in the first movie at the end when they were climbing the helicopter. They were like pullers that move when you push up but lock if you pull down on them. They were both connected to his harness and he was safe and ready to climb. They first pulley was used to pull the top half of your body up, then the second one had rope to go around your shoes to pull up your legs. So first you would pull your top half up, then your legs. It almost looked like a caterpillar. Once he was up in the tree, he cut huge branches and let them drop down on the tarp without giving us any warning! We almost got killed from these branches falling straight for us. After the noise of the trees hit the ground, you could hear Minor laughing because he thought it was funny not to tell us! Everyone was laughing too and calling him loco so I guess he does this a lot. Once we thought it was safe to go onto the tarp, we started picked the seed pods and putting them into sacks. Once and a while, while we were picking seeds, Minor would cut a branch or two with the machete but we were ready know. We knew the sound of the machete and knew to drop everything and get out of the way before another huge branch came crashing down. After we finished picking all the seeds and cleaning up, the men asked me if I wanted to climb the tree. I said yes and was amazed that they would even ask me since it was prohibited. Once I got all suited up, they showed me how to climb. I got the hang of it in no time and got up to the top faster than I thought I would. When I got there, it was the first time I looked down. My fear of heights kicked in and I couldn’t believe that I actually would climb so high without checking. Now I was stuck in a tree 40ft high and I didn’t know what to do. The men told me that I could either repel down the tree or they could lower me. I thought the second one would be easier so I told them to lower me. I got down safely and thanked god for it. After work I chilled at the house and then ate dinner at the cafeteria. I talked to Robin and Malea my two new friends who I met; they asked me if I wanted to go dancing. We went dancing from 10pm to 230am and I had a blast. The only problem was I had work the next day in 3 hours.

Thursday 29 October

Today was a very interesting day for me. First Cilia and I transferred 2000 dirt bags into the beds and then planted about 1000 trees. After that Cilia gave me some fresh oranges from a tree near by and taught me how to peel the orange so you can squeeze out all of the juice and cut a hole in the top so the orange is like a cup. I had 3 big and sweet oranges and I was hooked. Then our conversation turned into graph ting and what it was. I asked her how it was done and she told me how. She also told me that she made one tree in her house grow 4 different kinds of fruit in the same citric family by graph ting. I couldn’t believe how cool it was and I asked her if I could learn how to do it? She told me the fruit forestal could teach me and then brought me over there to meet the people who worked there. I met a man named Omar and another by the name of Don Orlando. They were both very nice and told me once I am open after the Urban Farming to come for two weeks. After meeting the men, Cilia and I went through some of the fruit trees that the men had growing and she showed me trees that had been graph ted. It was amazing! After work I went to go work out, and then ate with my family for dinner. Then after dinner I went to bed.