Lizard!

Everyone needs more lizards in their lives.

Double-Digging and Zai Holes

Every week we have two workshops teaching us the practical part of sustainable development. In this case, double-digging and zai holes. Sounds thrilling, eh? Actually, these techniques are pretty cool because they help rejuvenate tired soil as well as increasing crop yields. This is wonderful for farmers with very little land or who have been growing cash crops without resting their soil. Great stuff. Very easy and effective - really the main idea is to add compost for nutrients and then learn how to apply the compost correctly.

Learning how to double dig an existing raised bed. Basically you loosen the soil and add compost. 

Digging a Zai Hole - 2' by 2' by 2'. We filled it in with layers with fresh manure, compost, dirt, and dry materials. This nutrient rich and light soil can increase yields by 3-4 times the normal compost and dirt in the double-dug beds. It's a bit more work, but it wonderful for wakening up tired land.

Plants! We put some baby zucchini in our hole. Hopefully they will do well. I like zucchini. 

Visitors

Last week my class headed out to one of the poorest communities in San Jose. Most of the people living there are are Nicaraguans, probably illegal immigrants. Our teachers are part of a ministry called Homes of Hope which has built a number of houses in this community and they wanted to show us the difference it can make in a family's life.

We weren't there to do ministry, just as visitors to understand the meaning of extreme poverty. I'm not particularly proud of our excursion, since I don't think any community should be used as show and tell. However, our teachers seemed very at home with the people we visited and everyone was very welcoming. If the same thing had happened to me, I don't think I would have been nearly as forgiving. 

That being said, it was amazing to see the difference a single house can make in this community. Just look at the differences between a Homes of Hope house and it's neighbor.

The yellow house on the left was built by Homes of Hope. They didn't paint it bright yellow, the family did that themselves. Our teachers thought the colour choice was pretty funny.

Right next to the train tracks.

The entire neighborhood looks like this - it was pretty intimidating.

Settling In

This week has been quite an adventure, both good and bad. Luckily for me, I've had a lovely week, though the base has been in chaos with two volunteers going to the hospital. All is well, but one man almost died of a heart attack, which shook all of us up quite a bit. He's up and walking around already, which is amazing given his condition, and we are all extremely grateful.

Other more interesting adventures include attempting to learn to dance latino style. I fail. What are hips and how do you move them?

My first real football match! They whistle instead of booing, which is hilarious. Also, I didn't get a good picture, but there was a section of the stands that spent the entire game jumping around and chanting. That's an hour and a half of dedicated cheering. Ohmygoodness, so much noise. The local team, Saprissa, won and watching the crowd celebrate a goal was definitely the highlight of the night. The mascot is a purple monster and I have no idea why.

The stadium in San Jose

And the goats have finally decided they like my friend and I milking them, mostly because we have gotten much more efficient. Goats and chickens are highly amusing to me, but finicky enough that I am content not to be dependent on them for my livelihood. My respect for farmers and ranchers is growing by the minute.

Milking Vanilla - definitely my favourite goat. It's actually pretty fun.

Practical Learning

In the past five days I have:

- Learned to milk a goat

- Made friends with three lovely cats, one of whom just likes me because I help milk the goats

- Investigated the murder of three pullets, apparently a daring crime by a weasely-type creature

- Fed the adult chickens as well as the slight creepy ducks, who have been charged with the brutal drowning of a turkey

- Learned how to make good soil out of composted goat poo and rice hulls - it's all about the poo, fyi. Great for growing things. Though the compost will pack down too far, so you need rice hulls or straw for aeration.

- Learned that some cultures are actually accepting of Christian tracts. I didn't believe, but some others of my school handed them out and I saw people reading them. It was so odd.

- Watched Solly the dog bully the horses

It's great good fun! My Spanish is improving daily and I'm enjoying talking to so many people with different backgrounds. 

There are also lots of birds, though I haven't gotten a chance to go birding yet. So far the highlights have been a summer tanager, rufous tailed hummer, and blue gray tanager.

Adventures

On January 17th, I will be flying to Costa Rica to be part of YWAM Heredia's Environment and Resource Stewardship program (entertainingly called "EARS"). During a ten week class I'll apparently be learning everything from foundational missionary practices (how to help without being pationizing) to basic veterinary care to how to construct and take care of an aquaphonic system. Basically EARS combines two of my deepest passions: caring for the environment and helping others.

I just got accepted into the program a couple days ago, so I'm a bit in shock. Bah! Less than a month. There's barely even enough time to start a countdown. Think I need to go spin in circles for a bit - coherency will return shortly.

Anyway, I am excited to learn how to gracefully integrate my (occasionally unorthodox) views within a stricter Christian community as well as discover hands on techniques to promote sustainable development. I've been searching high and low for an opportunity like this! How often does one get the chance to combine two of their loves AND go to an amazingly beautiful place (ALL THE BIRDS)?

Oh, more logicistics, just for reference. I will be in Heredia, Costa Rica from January 17th through the end of March. After that, I'll go on an outreach to an unknown location until the beginning of July. Finally, I fly back to Seattle on July 7th. It'll be a long trip - especially since I don't know Spanish. "No entiendo" will become my new favourite words.

One more thing, for more information on the program or the YWAM base, here's a link: http://ywamheredia.com/training/ears/

They also have a fb page that is updated moderately regularly.

Please think of me and post travel tips! Either here or on facebook, whichever works. Hopefully, this blog will stay current, but I know myself well enough not to promise anything :)

Picture from the first time I was in Heredia - Youth Mission Trip 2010. I barely remember the base. Somehow, I think this experience will be a bit different...

Small Things

I'm starting to get restless. After so many adventures and new experiences in the past two years, staying in a single place with a fulltime job is rather... uninspiring. So I've put a lot of thought into a variety of plans and ideas - thinking about traveling, moving, and big changes. A lot of my thinking was spurred on by the idea that I care deeply about living compassionately and bravely, not simply sitting on a couch blogging my ideas into the air. If I care so much about the environment, I ought to do something about it. If I care that there are children who are unloved or starving, why not go love them? Idealistic and silly when I put it like that, but in the end, I think that putting effort towards my beliefs could help me move my live from idealism to realism.

Anyway, I realized today that I had forgotten about the small things in my life. My job wouldn't be able to just pick up and find a new person. I have responsibilities towards my family and my friends. There are small ways here that I can start making my life meet some of my ideals. Little things, which can be just as important, and hard, as more drastic measures.

All that to say, I just it's just not time to move on yet. Not that this means I can be complacent and comfortable, but there are people here who might need me, if just in little ways.