David: For the second time in our lives Sarah and I are empty nesters. I have a feeling that someday in our lives we'll truly know what that means but I can honestly say we kind of know what that means. All of the SNU students returned to the U.S. on Friday the 9th, over a week ago. It hasn't been exactly quiet around here since but nonetheless it has been very different. Needless to say, they are greatly missed and we often think about how their transition back into the homeland has been.
After we all returned to QERC from the 3 week Environmental Science Concentration the students had 5 weeks to take one more QERC course, finish up there distance learning courses from SNU's campus, and finish their research projects. It proved to be a busy time for all but it was great to see them work hard and finish well.
The QERC course was Biblical Theology and Global Stewardship taught by a member of SNU's theology faculty, Dr. Marty Michaelson. In the end it was one of the most valuable learning experiences for the students and a great class to compliment the issues looked at during ESC. One book that was part of the student's text was called Serve God, Save the Planet by Matthew Sleeth. If you want a thought provoking read on God's call to be stewards of the Earth I'm sure every one of the students would recommend this book to you.
As the students were busy finishing up data collection I stayed quite busy with two research projects involving jays and bats. One of our students, Meredith, was implementing a survey of bat species at different elevations and habitats. As adviser/assistant, Meredith and I were partners in bat catching crime for a good four weeks. We spent about 2-5 hours on 5 nights a week setting up and taking down mist nets, patiently and impatiently waiting in the pitch black, untangling extremely angry bats with very sharp teeth, and identifying the captured bats to the species using a dichotomous key. Sarah joined us a few times and also was an integral member of the identification team back in the lab. The project turned out to be very successful and laid the ground work for more in depth chiroptology (bat) research in the future. In total we caught 11 bats representing 6 different species. The majority of them were insect eaters but we caught a few fruit eaters and one nectar eater. One life lesson learned while assisting on this project is that listening to jaguar vocalizations on your Ipod while sitting in the pitch black is not a way to become relaxed in nature.
The other project that I dedicated several hours to was the nest description of a bird called the Silvery-throated Jay. It is a beautiful jay species that is endemic to the Chiriqui Highlands of Costa Rica and Panama. It is a under studied species and no scientific records have been taken on their nests and breeding habits. While Scott Smithson was here for ESC he discovered only the second nest known to the scientific community. In order to do my part for science I took part in several observation sessions at the nest. The gist of the work included hiking 1.5 km into the oak forest and lying on my back for 1-5 hours taking notes on all activity at the nest. It was an enjoyable experience and over the course of several sessions I was able to observe a large array of activity that will hopefully be combined with observations from a few others and put into a scientific manuscript.
One final activity of the semester was a "debriefing / reentry retreat" for our five remaining students. Sarah and I know how important valuable closure and reentry preparation is to bringing a cross-cultural experience full circle and we were enthused to provide this for these students to the best of our ability. We were pleased to be able to take the students on a retreat to the Volcan Arenal area. It was a great location to relax, detach from QERC, and begin an important reentry process. Our goal was to help the students pull out the life lessons from the semester that they felt were worthy to take home with them and then begin giving them the tools to integrate those life lessons into their lives back at home. This can be a very challenging, but rewarding, process. Often those who have experienced a cross-cultural experience return home feeling as though they have changed, matured, and grown and then find it very hard to reconcile those changes to who they were before they left and who friends and family view them as now. The integration process can be painful but ultimately very rewarding. Anyway, we had a great time beginning this process with the students and hopefully they feel like they are more prepared for being home. We felt like it went very well.
