While the majority of my time in CR has been quite luxurious and vastly different from what I expect to find in Peace Corps, some facets of this excursion are likely to be relevant to what I will encounter in Panama. Particularly, my progress with Spanish and my short stint working on a permaculture farm. So fair warning, I already mentioned most of the exciting stuff last post. :)
I’m finally beginning to understand the depths of the phrase “language barrier.” I mean, I’ve never claimed to be fluent in Spanish, at least not without a lot of implied sarcasm, but it is seriously difficult to convey your personality in another language. I have no real troubles getting by, I can genuinely communicate any needs or desires, but actually holding a conversation and sharing stories is sooo difficult; it often forces me to silence. It’s been fun trying to communicate with Javier’s parents, who only speak Spanish. Facial expressions, hand gestures and a lot of patience on their part has been helpful. But I can definitely understand how it will become frustrating, particularly in a setting where I’m trying to assess needs and desires of a peoples I know little about. Trying to understand Javier’s friends has been far more challenging. Between the random Costa Rican slang and speed, and the fact that they’ve known each other so long they essentially read each others minds, I’ve had some challenges following basic conversations. I’ve definitely noticed an improvement but there’s a long road ahead.
Lesson learned: spend the next few months actually studying spanish. Reading the headlines on BBC Mundo no longer counts.
And then of course, The Farm. It’s called Finca Fruicion. And I had no clue what I was signing up for.
It started with an adventurous cab ride (after a 3 hour bus) from San Isidro del General, Perez Zeledon, to the farm. When I got off the bus not a soul knew what I was talking about when I asked about Finca Fruicion. One cab drive seemed to understand the place I was talking about. He lied. We stopped about 8 times asking for “la finca de los gringos en San Augustin?” Literally the words “let’s turn around” were on the tip of my tongue when we found the Finca Fruicion sign. The following week was a bit chaotic (something I also intend to find in Peace Corps). Since I was only there for about a week and it’s the dry season, I only worked on a couple different projects. I mostly helped with construction of a bunk bed, playing with the two older kids (7 and 4), mulching, and harvesting salads for dinner.
“Babysitting” my 4-year old nature guide to one of the waterfalls on the property.
Honestly, I was hoping to get more involved in the permaculture aspects of the farm, but the resident permaculture expert was out of town while I was there, plus not as much farming is done in the dry season. But Alana was kind enough to give a tour and explain a few concepts of permaculture. One of the principle concepts, it seems, is the idea of of observing and sustainably harvesting what the land and climate are already producing. On this farm, for instance, there’s a fresh spring that produces clean water which is used for all water needs on the property. They give all leftover food waste to the animals or turn it into compost, as well as composting human and goat manure. The chickens run freely during the day through pastures with fruit trees, eating bugs and leaving presents (and thus fertilizing) the trees. In the fish pond, they have a predator fish, tilapia and minnows. This helps keep the balance so the bond doesn’t overpopulate with tilapia. The tilapia eat water lettuce in the pond, which is then harvested to be used as a fertilizer in the vegetable garden.
Tilapia pond pre-water lettuce harvest
Tilapia pond post-water lettuce harvest. Not bad, eh?
Furthermore, all of the structures on the property are built largely from materials found on the land. This typically means that much of the wood for walls and thatched roofs are found from trees on the land. Even cooler, part of the “downstairs” (by downstairs, I mean about a 10 minute hike down the side of a mountain) area of the farm was made of cob building. This was the first I’d heard of cob building and I wish I could have been more involved with it. It’s essentially similar to adobe and very effective in areas with a lot of seismic activity. Perfect choice for Costa Rica where I experienced two (baby) earthquakes in one week. The buildings here even used some old wine and olive oil bottles to bring in some natural light. Plus you can make some cool designs!!
My personal favorite aspect of the built environment on the Finca was the solar shower. Yum. Seriously. Don’t knock it until you shower outside in perfect weather, under warm, natural spring water, with a view of distant mountains to one side and tropical fauna on the other. Yeah, like I said. Yum. This picture does it zero justice, but it’s impossible to capture all that.
And, finally the most relevant part of the Farm experience – getting sick. Yup, I died. And I had to use a compost latrine (outdoor pit in the ground and separate #1 and #2). And it’s likely to happen again in Peace Corps many more times, with less accommodating sanitation facilities. Be thankful for indoor plumbing people. Seriously.
Lessons Learned:
Buy animals, feed them what you don’t want, use their poop as fertilizer.
Working on a farm for one week is not long enough.
Cob building looks cool. Investigate further.
Outdoor solar showers are sa-weeeet.
Thanks for reading all of this, Mom.
