Moving on.

No, the title does not suggest that I am leaving. It merely represents my mental state this past week or two.

So, do you remember in my last blog how I talked about the "big" meeting with all the people who voiced an interest in garden projects/ other small agr. projects? Well, I went house to house handing out invitations just to make absolutely sure everyone remembered when it was - a friendly reminder. The day came and guess who showed up? Absolutely nobody. Not a single person showed up. Nobody had the decency to call to tell me they wouldn't make it and to this day (a bit over a week since) I have only heard one excuse from someone as to why they didn't go. The rest just try to avoid it and act as if nothing happened.

As you all can imagine I was furious. It's one thing for me to push projects that I want without the people voicing an interest and then have poor turnout. It's another thing to have people specifically tell me they want to learn more about gardens and so forth and then just not show/care about actually doing it.

The week following the incident I was mainly just angry. I was upset that I put the energy into something that was just a lie. I was angry that I am spending my third year not doing anything. I was angry with the community for being deceiving.

So, as the week passed I found myself less angry and mainly just disappointed. Disappointed in the community, my third year, etc. I had specifically signed up for a third year to continue with the work I was doing. I didn't have sitting around and doing nothing with people that don't want to do anything on my mind when I decided to extend.

But, though it is frustrating and harsh, it just goes to reinforce the Peace Corps experience. That is to say, even when you feel like you know exactly what you will be doing, nothing is for certain. Our goals are to help with technical aspects of community development, and cross-cultural exchange. My time has been mainly the latter. And, so, even though that wasn't what I wanted, it is my third year experience.

That being said, I have decided to change things up a bit. I've decided to try and work with volunteers in their sites. I figure if people don't want to work here I can find people elsewhere who do. I've also decided to try and take more vacations. I might as well see the country while I'm here. And, finally, I'm still here. Things could change/happen within the next 6 months. So, instead of being frustrated and pissy about the whole situation I'm just going to go with the flow. If my third year ends up being more cross-cultural exchange, learning a new language then so be it. I'd rather it not be like that...but at this point it is kind of out of my hands.

A rant

Here it comes:

I just got back from a week in San Jose for Mid Service Training. It was nice to get to see other volunteers and hear what they are doing and what not. We had some interesting sessions and I was asked to give a presentation on worm composting and biointensive garden practices. It was good.

Now, I just got back in site and went to check on my garden which I had been working on prior to leaving. I put in a lot of work, did lots of planning in how I would plant everything etc. And I come back to a bone dry garden with most plants dead/dying. I'm pissed.

I specifically asked the family if they could water the garden "Of course we can, not a problem, don't worry about it." Great, I figured. Besides, it rains here so often that they probably wont need to water. It barely rained this week and when I asked why nobody watered the garden I wasn't given any answer, just an embarrassed shy shrug. I understand that the garden is my responsibility, but the family knew it was for them too, and they said they would do me the favor.

Now, I'm pissed. It's not necessarily only the garden. I think it's a combination of things. Everyone's general apathy towards any type of work, their disinterest or feigned interest in most things. Add those to a bone dry garden with no excuse as to why and maybe you can understand my frustration.

I'm going to work in my garden tomorrow and try to salvage what I can. I'm also going to hold a big community meeting to make concrete who actually wants the gardening projects they originally had said they wanted. If people flake out on this, or just don't care then I'm going on vacation....for six months.

Manuel Antonio

This past week I had the pleasure of having Emily, a past PC Paraguay volunteer, come visit me. She came up to my site for a bit and then we headed down to National Park Manuel Antonio. The park is about 3.5 hrs South of San Jose by bus. It is an absolutely gorgeous jungle/beach paradise that you see in the movies. The rainforest makes it's way all the way up to the white sand beaches. The park itself isn't that big and you can see it all in one day. There was a ton of wildlife. We saw sloths, monkeys, snakes, lizards, crabs, pelicans, raccoons, and all kinds of interesting bugs. This is a picture heavy post, so I will leave you all to enjoy the photos.

Emily and I made Chipa in site to celebrate Paraguay's bicentenial.

A not so great picture of a tree sloth.

This is Manuel Antonio beach, one of a couple beaches located within the park.

This was an amazing palm...we will return to it later.

Beach

Emily on the palm.

The jungle in front is punta catedral. It used to be an island but a land bridge was formed so you can walk around and get some great views of the park.

Cool tree.

The beach from above.

Hermit crabs

Towards late afternoon the waves started to get HUGE. In fact, the park guides said they had never seen waves that big, nor seen them come so far up shore. It was kind of scary.

This was that palm that is pictured earlier..the waves came so high and were so strong that it took out this palm. sad.

Outside of the park are many other beaches, and the waves were also quite big.

It was a really nice vacation, and obviously great to see a good friend. I came back to site feeling rejuvenated and with some new ideas for potential projects. More on that in the next post.

Another trip to the river

I went on another little hike to the river today. It's still the dry season so as you can see the river is pretty low. Regardless, there is still a nice current of cool, crystal clear water. Also, on the walk back I was lucky enough to spot a poison dart frog! They are called blue-jeans frogs..and you can see why in the pictures. Enjoy!

A quick pictorial of the biodigestor

I mentioned in an earlier post about helping a couple families build biodigestors and gave a basic overview of what it is and how it works. I took some pictures of the basic setup so that you all might get a better concept of how it all works.

1. On the left are the stalls where cows are kept. The floor was built on a slight slope to aid in cleaning. All the waste and water is washed into the first catchment and then continues to the next two barrels. This is a system an ag. extension agent here recommended. I have never used these additional barrels, but he said that they help in filtering the water since cows track in a lot of sediment and dirt which would otherwise settle in the bottom of the biodigestor bag and make it fill up quicker than necessary. I have my doubts about it since I feel like we are losing a lot of precious poop, but time will tell.

These are the barrels, one is still missing a top. From there the mixture goes to the biodigestor bag..

This is the bag. A trench is dug so that the bag is about halfway in the dirt. Two cement tubes are placed at each end at an angle with the ends above ground level (the big opening you see is a cement tube with plastic around it). The bag is filled with the mixture daily. The mixture stays at a fixed level (ground level) and when new poo is added the exact same amount is pushed out of the bag at the other end through displacement. What comes out is good, but strong, liquid fertilizer.

In the middle of the bag on the top is a hole connected to piping. Since the bag is devoid of oxygen , anaerobic decomposition occurs and the bacteria in the mixture create methane. As the bag fills pressure rises and gas is pumped out of the hole easily. It goes through a water filter (plastic bucket you see after the green piping) to clean out any impurities and then goes right to the house for use in the kitchen.

And that's basically the setup for a biodigestor. There are different ways of doing it such as a cement or brick tan with half bag on top, but this method shown above is the cheapest and most accessible here in Costa Rica.