Day 6 Wednesday March 12: Sinking our Teeth In

It was a huge day for everyone here at the ranch. The day began with a nice breakfast of eggs and other goodies.  Then, it was time for science.  Today was a day of really digging into our individual research projects to discover what will and won’t be effective.  Las Tortugas Blancas had a flexible day in the lab as our project went over quite a few bumps in the road.  With the advisement of Adrian, Lev, and Ms. Rupp we tweaked and adjusted to make an efficient effort at answering our question.  Los Depredadores performed trials of their experiment and didn’t receive results they were hoping for. As a result, they have decided to change their question and design a new experiment. This design process is underway and moving forward. We worked hard on our experiments from breakfast to lunch and took the rest of the afternoon off from lab investigation.

After a filling lunch the group headed in to the town, Colonia Libertad, to help a group of women varnish their new shop they are building.   This is a massive effort headed by 10 local women to build a shop and location where they are able to grow cash crops to sell, along with soaps and medicinal plants. We were truly able to tell this was a huge step forward for the community as a whole.  Afterwards, we went directly to the local soccer field where there was intense battle to be waged.  Nine of the local boys, whose ages ranged from 12 to 16, played a game of soccer against nine of yours truly. The Forest Lake team consisted of all the guys and Maddi.  The final score was 4-7 in favor of the Costa Ricans.  We cooled off as we exchanged contact information and headed on our way.

Our final journey for today was receiving cooking lessons from a pair of Costa Rican women. After the soccer game we stopped for some ice cream and went from there to the home of the Costa Rican ladies. On the menu there was fresh salad, homemade cheese, homemade tortillas, rice and beans, pickled vegetables, and chicken in a sauce based from coconut milk, spices, and caramelized sugar.  Everything was cooked on a wood-fire stove in the home and a wood burning grill outside.  The natural feel of the women cooking and the way they simply didn’t think but only knew exactly what they needed to do is indescribable.  While a few cooked in the small kitchen, others played outside with two daughters of our master chefs.  All the cooking we did was hands on for those involved.  We ate dinner as a large group over great conversation.  Afterwards we even put on our boogie pants to get down and dance to some of the classic local dances and songs including Gangnem Style and Girls Just Wanna Have Fun. 

Today was a chance for us to finally dig into the reasons we are really here.  We started hard work on our experiments and got a chance to get a feel for the culture and community we are in and surrounded by.                             

                                                                        Tim Brennhofer

                                    Jake Anderson