The British Invasion

David: It's an el nino year and that means a rainy season that is drier than normal. It's always interesting how we want what we don't have. Here we are experiencing these beautiful sunny and rainless days at QERC in the middle of the rainy season and yet we can't help but catch ourselves sometimes thinking that we wish it was raining. I think that the rain somehow places us in context of the time of year and maybe we just feel like something is off.

Despite the oddity of it we truly have enjoyed the "good" weather. For the month of August we have been able to get a lot of work done outside on both grounds-keeping projects and field biology projects. We had a backhoe on our property to help us level out a few spots that were causing some water runoff problems. The mass moving of all that dirt has given me the excuse to level off a few other areas on the lawn that will be good places for expanding our native botanical gardens, a project we hope to wrap up this fall. A little more rain would help us out with that.

I spent quite a bit of time in the field working on the QERC aguacatillo phenology monitoring project. The aguacatillos are the trees that provide a good majority of food for our quetzal population. The name literally means little avocado and that is basically what they look like. QERC has been monitoring the flowering and fruiting cycles of hundreds of these trees for over a decade. The project needs a little revitalizing in order for us to continue properly monitoring the trees, so our work was to relocate all of these old trees that were once tagged and mapped. Once they were relocated, they were photographed, GPS coordinates were taken for their location, and they will be re-tagged with a more updated system.

We have had an assistant helping us with some of these projects during the month of August. Aidan is a British high school student who set up an independent research experience with us here at QERC. He stayed with a host family in our community, worked with me in the mornings, and worked on his personal research in the afternoons. For the majority of our three years here we have enjoyed the mixture of people who have worked with us at QERC and the diversity of positive experiences that has brought us. Aidan turned out to be a little different story. Normally we wouldn't take the time to talk about a negative experience with someone we have worked with but these stories are just too bizarre and funny not to share. And it shows a little bit of the reality of our daily lives as well.

So one night around 8:30, Sarah and I popped some popcorn and were headed upstairs to put in a DVD. I went upstairs to get the DVD going while Sarah was getting the popcorn. All lights were off and I was rounding the corner from the stairs when I saw a flash of someone darting into one of the bedrooms. So naturally I frantically ran downstairs as fast as I could, came into the apartment, and slammed the door shut behind me.

I told Sarah that I thought someone was upstairs, and she thought I was kidding until she saw that my face was completely white. We were locked in our apartment, contemplating what to do, and figuring if it was indeed a robber he was probably gone off the balcony by then like any good tico who wants to steal but not get caught. So I grabbed a shovel that was outside our apartment door and we cautiously opened the door to the rest of the building. We systematically checked around downstairs and noticed the back lab door was still unlocked, which meant technically someone could have been in the building. We checked all closets, storage room, bathrooms, etc. downstairs before proceeding upstairs. Once upstairs we saw that the door to the bedroom I had thought I'd seen the guy run into was open, causing more reason to be alarmed - it was becoming more and more real that someone had been upstairs.

So I called out "IS ANYONE UP HERE?" and no answer. I walked into the bedroom, shovel ready, and at first glance didn't see anything. Then I noticed a blanket crumpled up inside one of the shelves (shelf size shown in reenactment photo) and upon a closer look I saw two legs through a hole in the blanket. I left the room and whispered to Sarah "Someone's in there. I can see them". So I called out again "IF ANYONE IS UP HERE YOU BETTER COME OUT NOW!" and still no answer. Finally, in one last hopeful thought, I yelled "AIDAN? IS THAT YOU?" All we heard was a whimpering "yeeeessssss".

His excuse was that he couldn't sleep at the family's house he was at, so he somehow thought it would be a good idea to sneak over to QERC, sneak upstairs, and watch some movies on his computer using his headphones and keeping the lights out so we wouldn't notice. I told him he was lucky we didn't have a gun because we thought he was a robber! It turns out he actually crawled out the bedroom window at his host family's house. When he returned to the house and sneaked back through the window, he woke his family up and they thought it was a robber too. Well, in the end he lied to both us and the family about why he was out, how he got out, and what he was doing. Deceitfulness and lying were recurring themes with him during his time at QERC.

In the end, Aidan earned himself an early departure from QERC and San Gerardo de Dota when we discovered that he had been stealing from us. Based on what turned out to be accurate suspicions, we searched his bags at his house one morning while he was working. We found a slough of QERC lab equipment, souvenirs, and art supplies. It turns out he had been systematically stealing from us for weeks. I went back to QERC, told him he was leaving, and we had him on a bus to San Jose within two hours. This is why it's easier to work with quetzals. :)

The good with the bad

Sarah: Well we're definitely back in the swing of things since our summer trip home. Seems like a day or two after we got here, it felt like we'd never left and we were back to working hard, practically non-stop. We've been doing lots of work outside - weeding, yard work, land maintenance including having a backhoe come in and do some leveling, and David's been working on projects in preparation for researchers and professors and students to come down. On top of that, we're preparing to do some recruiting for our semester program, and the semester program alone takes a lot of prep work and time!

One exciting thing since we got back was that our friend Pam, her husband, and a few friends came on vacation to Costa Rica and spent a little bit of time in the valley here with us. We studied with Pam here in Costa Rica 7 1/2 years ago, and have only seen her a handful of times since then, so it was great to spend some time with her again. This picture is most of the group up at Laura's Bakery, visiting with Larue (Laura's cousin's husband). Pam is next to Larue.

Last weekend was also very eventful. August 15th is Mother's Day here in Costa Rica (last Saturday), so on Sunday we were invited over to our friend Nancy's house for a big lunch to celebrate. Nancy is our cook during the semester program and she's become a good friend to us over the last 8 months. We had a good typical Nicaraguan meal, cake, and spent a good part of the afternoon just sitting around chatting. Nancy and her husband Clemente have 3 kids, Belen (8), Angelica (3), and Brittany (1). Pictured here are the adorable Belen and Angelica.

We also have some sad news to share. Our friend Laura, who owns the bakery up the road and has been a good friend for us for 3 years now, has been diagnosed with cancer. It's melanoma (skin cancer), but unfortunately it is internal and has already started attacking her lymphatic system in her body. It's fairly serious at this point already, but Laura has been in the hospital this week getting a pet scan in order to find the original source, and to have surgery to remove as much (or all) of the cancer they can. We don't know the results of the scan yet, but we do know that the surgery went well and that she has responded positively. Please keep her and her husband Mario and daughter Erica in your prayers!

And to end with some great news, my sister Emily and her husband Greg had their first baby this week! Thursday, August 20th, Asher William Ford entered the world weighing in at 8 lbs. 5 oz. and 21 inches long. This is the first baby on my side of the family, and we are all very excited for them!

Summer Lovin'

Sarah: Our apologies for our long absence from the blog. We spent the entire month of July traveling in the USA visiting family and friends, and are finally back in the swing of things here at QERC.

Our time in the States was relaxing and of course went by too quickly. As much as we love Costa Rica, we miss our friends and family and soak up the time we have with them. We spent the first half of July in Spokane, with David's family. The first week was the Hille family vacation up at Loon Lake, where they rent a cabin each summer. David's parents, older sister and husband (Jordan and Rusty), and their 3 kids were with us the majority of the time, and his younger sister Jenna was able to come spend a long weekend with us. We enjoyed our time as a family and spent much of our times keeping the kids entertained. :)

Our second week was a busy week in Spokane. David's parents recently moved into a new house so we enjoyed getting to know the new home, and they now live down the street from Jordan and Rusty so we saw their family almost every day as well. The long summer days that we are not used to provided some good time to eat dinner outside and visit until late. We also had David's 10-year high school reunion, which was fun as he was able to connect with many classmates he hadn't been in touch with for years. On one Sunday we had a baby shower that was great for us to be able to get together with lots of people we otherwise may not have seen! And we also took a 2-day trip over to Montana to visit the University of Montana, where David may have a potential of being a grad student at in the future. We were able to stay the night with Jenna, and were accompanied by Matt Chitwood who had flown over from Portland to spend a few days with us.

Unfortunately, I don't have many pictures from our visit to the States I'm realizing! I suppose that could be attributed to us having so much fun with friends and family in both Washington and Iowa that I didn't even stop to think about taking pictures.....right?

Following our 2 weeks in Spokane we flew to Des Moines to spend the second half of July with my family. My dad had taken off a week of work to hang out with us, so we enjoyed visiting some nearby areas to walk around. And being that it's summer, my mom only worked in the mornings, so we enjoyed pie time and movies with her. My youngest sister Rachel had just gotten back from an internship in Mississippi and was jobless, so we also had lots of time to hang out with her - playing Wii, feeding the ducks at the pond, lounging by the pool, and playing games that David made up outside. My other younger sister Katie lives near my family and works in Des Moines, so she was able to join us for Wii and outside games during her free hours and days. As a family we took a trip to a Kansas City Royals game and had a few evenings of playing Scene It.

We also had a baby shower in Iowa and were extremely thankful again for the gifts people gave to help us stock up on our necessities in a few months. It was a great time for me to see some old friends and family all at the same time. I'm also happy that one of my dearest friends Theresa lives near my family, so we got to see her and her husband Jefferson and their new baby James a number of times.

And finally, as we were traveling back to Costa Rica at the end of July, we had an unexpected bonus. We had the opportunity to catch a later flight out of Atlanta, which meant we had a long enough day in the Atlanta airport that my sister Emily and her husband Greg were able to drive over from Chattanooga and visit with us for the afternoon! Emily is also pregnant with her first baby and due in just a couple weeks, so it was fun to spend some pregnant time together.

So here we are, back in Costa Rica. Today was a beautiful sunny morning with a rainy afternoon, and all seems normal. The first morning back I saw both a quetzal and a toucanet outside the kitchen window, as if welcoming us back home.

And....

We're having a girl!

To heaven and back

Sarah: Last week we had the privilege of visiting one of the most beautiful places in all of Costa Rica - Playa Conchal. We have good friends here in Costa Rica, Trevor and Laura, with whom we get together every couple weeks or so in San Jose. We go out to eat or cook at their house and always enjoy a nice evening of chatting and spending time together. We've never taken a trip together before, unless it was education related through the Latin American Studies Program (where Trevor and Laura work) and a QERC collaboration. A few weeks ago we were out to eat with them and they had just returned from visiting this paradisical Playa Conchal and mentioned that we should all go up there together sometime. Upon further discussion we realized that trip had to happen soon, or it never would. Since David and I are only committed to staying in Costa Rica one more year, and LASP has semester programs in both the fall and the spring, we took advantage of summer break and made the trip happen.

We stayed at Reserva Conchal and had planned on renting a condo for 3 nights. There were good offers going on, like 20% off and breakfast included, and once we showed up we found another offer for a 4th night free. It took about 10 minutes to decide that we wanted to stay an extra free night at the place! The condo was very nice - 2 bedrooms, 2 bath, air conditioning, and a small porch off the back where we could see the ocean down the hillside below. Though as nice as the condo was, we spent most of our time on the beach and by the pool!

The owners of the condos pay a monthly fee to give them access to the club house, so we took full advantage of the club house pool, spa, and restaurant. The pool was perhaps the nicest pool I've ever seen, and most of our days were spent in and out of the water, relaxing, and reading. We also took advantage of the spa area and indulged in massages one day. Trevor and David also realized they really enjoyed sitting in the sauna at different times over the course of our 4 days. The jacuzzi and pool area inside the spa was dreamlike, and during times when the sun was beating down above us we sat in the covered area. The restaurant was extremely reasonably priced with excellent food, so we took advantage of the free breakfast and at enough in the mornings that we only had to snack on leftovers for lunch. We also tried out a couple of restaurants in the area and had delicious seafood throughout the week.

So besides the nice condo, the stunning club house, and excellent company...the beach was also unimaginable. The waters were the bluest I've ever seen, with a white sandy beach and pristine forest all around. We enjoyed some beautiful sunsets, and the water was so warm that we could swim in the ocean while watching the colors change and the sky darken above us. Trevor and Laura had actually gotten married on this beach at sunset years ago, and it was fun to be back with them. All in all, it was the kind of vacation we could only dream about, and we are thankful that we currently live in a country where we could make that dream a reality.

Herpetological Adventures

David: One of the many aspects of this job that has been enjoyable is the interaction Sarah and I are able to have with visiting researchers and professors. It gives me the opportunity to expand my career experiences into several fields of ecology and Sarah always loves a good adventure that includes some wildlife. John Cossel, from NNU, is a professor/ researcher that we have been blessed to spend a significant amount of time with down here within the context of professor, researcher, and friend.

John was back in Costa Rica with his family in May. While spending a week at QERC and several weeks at other locations his many goals were research driven while also hoping for many photography opportunities. John is a talented herp (reptiles and amphibians) photographer and has won awards for his work. In fact, at QERC he is working on a photo library of the 4 frogs, 1 caecilian, 2-4 salamanders, 3 lizards, and 7 snakes that we have confirmed present at our location. Hopefully someday we will have a digital library like this available on the QERC website.

One of the most recent aspects of John’s herp research is looking at the presence of a micro fungus in the populations of frogs at San Gerardo de Dota. This is a fungus that most likely is responsible for the virtual overnight extinction of several species of frogs and toads in Costa Rica and the drastic drop in populations throughout the Americas. John is conducting a pilot study of the frogs in San Gerardo in hopes to obtain funding to expand the project for future studies. Kyle Luthman, NNU student who attended the QERC semester program this last spring, was advised by John and collected 30 swab samples of our most common frog species the Piglet Leaf-litter Frog, Craugaster podiciferous. John’s goal in his week at QERC this May was to collect 30 swab samples of a much more secretive species called the Meadow Tree Frog, Isthmohyla pseudopuma. Although the Meadow Tree Frog is secretive it acts in an explosive way during a few weeks in the beginning of the rainy season. When heavy rains create puddles in meadows and forest openings these tree frogs descend onto the forest floor to find puddles and mates. The subsequent tadpoles that are created then spend their transformative days in these seasonal puddles before changing into adults and then ascending into the trees to live the majority of the year in the canopy of the forest. Luckily for John, and just as he had planned, these tree frogs were found in puddles on a nightly basis throughout his week here. We were able to collect swabs from 30 individuals. We also were able to include some of our neighbors in the hunt, capture, and release activities. It was great to expose some community members here to this little known frog species. The majority of the 250 people that live in San Gerardo have no idea that this frog exists and is living out its life in the tree tops.

Upon leaving QERC John’s next mission was to find, record, and capture a frog called the Zetek’s Tree Frog, Isthmohyla zeteki. The destination for this mission was Monteverde Cloud Forest Preserve. I say record because John has the equipment to record the tree frog’s song that it uses for territorial and mating purposes. The song of this particular tree frog has not been described to science. We were able to accompany John to Monteverde and assist in the efforts. We spent a total of 23 hours on location and had great success. The Zetek’s Tree Frog was found, recorded, and captured. This will enable John to author a note on the song description that he will be able to publish in the appropriate herpetology journals. He was also able to have a nice photo session with a glass frog called Fleishman’s Glass Frog (pictured here, not his photo as you can tell by the quality).

Sarah and I very much enjoyed the short trip to our rival cloud forest at a lower elevation in the Tilaran Mountains. The hummingbirds were incredible (check out the video) and we had some luck in our nocturnal mammal sightings. A Grey Fox bolted pass us in front of the research station and paused for a quick photo. A Prehensile-tailed Porcupine gave us a good view of its talented arboreal habits. And the owls put on a vocal show to entertain us while we were frog hunting. Hopefully it will not be our last visit to the famous Monteverde.

Three and a half exciting things!

Sarah:
Ok let's start with the half.

1/2) We bought a new car! Well sort of...the university gave us money with which to buy a new car, so we happily spent their money. :) It took a couple of months of searching for the right deal with the amount of money we were allotted, but we finally settled on a '97 Hyundai Galloper. It's in excellent condition with only about 40,000 miles, and our mechanic checked it out thoroughly and gave us the thumbs up, so we went with it. We are only waiting for the paperwork to be complete, and we'll have it this week! Once we get it out here, we'll post a picture - it only deserves a "half" exciting thing because we don't have it quite yet.

1) It's quetzal party time in our tree again! This time of the year is always exciting as our aguacatillo tree right outside of our building is fruiting with the aguacatillos, which the quetzals feed off of. It's a lot of fun to look outside and see 2-3 quetzals sitting in the tree, or be making lunch and see one fly past the window. It's truly a remarkable bird. I'm posting a picture of its cute head, which doesn't show off it's long tail feathers, but gives you a good close-up look.

2) Our mural is complete and installed!! Last weekend, our muralist Mario came out to QERC to finally put up the long-awaited mural in our museum. It is BEAUTIFUL. We have already had many members of the community come by to check it out, and they keep coming back with more people to take a look. We couldn't be more thrilled with the way it turned out, and we now look forward to other details in the museum to make it even more complete.

3) And for the most exciting news in our life right now...I'm pregnant!!! (Aaack!) I'm due November 26th and we are very excited for this new stage of life. We will indeed be having this baby in Costa Rica, at a top-notch hospital in San Jose with our top-notch doctor. Pictures to come as my tiny baby bump begins to grow!

And that's "all" for now...

Part III (of III)

Sarah: And finally...here's Part III.

As David and I don't have anything other than tourist visas, we are still required to leave Costa Rica every 90 days. May was shaping up to be a busy month with groups, professors, and researchers, so we needed to quickly renew our visas as soon as the semester program ended. SNU provides us with a stipend for the purpose of visa renewals, and anything we spend on top of that stipend comes out of our own pockets. Rather than doing what we would normally do - take a 12 hour bus ride to Nicaragua or Panama and find a place to stay - we decided to do something a little easier.

We had always seen these promotions for a Caribbean island called San Andres, owned by Colombia, in the daily newspaper. The deal was for 3 nights, and it was all-inclusive, including airfare, airport transport, and of course lodging and all food. David and I aren't the type to be drawn to all-inclusive resorts, and usually enjoy finding a smaller, more locally-run lodge, that gives us the freedom to explore the area and eat where we want and do what we want. However, being that our visa renewal trip came up in between the end of a busy semester program and a busy May with people in and out of QERC, we decided to go for it. We only had to pay a small fee extra on top of our stipend in order to get the complete experience. And it was worth it!

We really enjoyed a few days of complete relaxation, reading by the pool while the bluish-greenish ocean waves crashed behind us. The resort is owned by a company called Decameron, and there were a number of Decameron resorts on the island. The deal was that we slept at the one we had booked, but could take advantage of any restaurant or pool or facilities of any of the other resorts at anytime, which was a part of the all-inclusive package. Every day we explored a new pool to sit by and relax, new beaches to sit in front of, and new restaurants to try. It was just what we needed in the midst of our busy schedules!

One interesting thing about the island was that we only saw 3 other North Americans the entire time we were there. San Andres is a very touristy place to be, but for tourists from Colombia, Costa Rica, Argentina, Brazil, El Salvador, etc. Being a Caribbean island, the majority of the people were of African descent, and that often means that English is widely spoken. If that was the case, we didn't experience much of it! We hardly heard any English spoken the whole time we were there. It was very fun and an interesting experience to be in a tourist location where the industry caters to primarily Latin Americans.

Upon our return to QERC, we welcomed a researcher named John Morrow and his wife Melissa. They are here for an entire month while John is working on a project for his Master's degree at Penn State. He is looking at the model of the Chacon family and how they've come to develop the valley and the decisions they've made along the way, looking closely at how the environment has impacted their choices and how they've impacted the environment in regards to conservation and sustainability. It has been a lot of fun to see his work progress as he interviews many family members and they open up by showing him old documents and pictures from the last 50 years.

We also welcomed Point Loma Nazarene University for a few days while they were here in Costa Rica for a Tropical Ecology course. Dave Cummings was the professor in charge of the course, and we have enjoyed getting to know Dave over the last year. His students were a great group and we are hoping some of them will be interested in joining our semester program in the future.

Messiah College is another group that came for a couple nights at QERC. They kept a busy schedule and were going to spend around 3 weeks traveling between Costa Rica and Panama. The oddest encounter with that group was seeing a friend I graduated college with, Craig Dalen, hop off their bus! I had no idea he even had any association with Messiah, nor that he would be showing up on my doorstep. He and his wife were along as chaperones and it was fun to catch up with Craig and meet his wife Tashya.

Finally, John Cossel from Northwest Nazarene University, is currently back at QERC with his family for a week. They have a total of one month in Costa Rica while John is doing some preliminary work with herpetology, primarily with frogs. David especially has had a good time going out at nights searching for frogs in our puddles that form on a daily basis from all the rain we are now getting.

And that's it for now! You are all caught up on our lives from the past couple of months. Actually, we do have some more exciting things to share about QERC that I will be posting about in the next few days. So be sure to check back here soon for even more fun things going on in our lives.

Part II (of III)

Sarah: To continue...here's Part II.

The last couple weeks of the semester flew by, with the students taking every opportunity to go on a hike, watch a movie together, or play a game. During the last academic week they were all busy finishing papers, collecting data for their research projects, and preparing for their community presentations. At the end of the last academic week, the very end of April, the final SNU professor came down, Bob Lively. He didn't come down to teach, but to be a part of the wrap-up and debriefing process and to observe the community presentations. It's always fun having Bob around, especially since his sole commitment is to evaluate the program and talk to students about their experiences.

Commuinty presentation night is always a highly anticipated night by both us at QERC, and also by the community. Unfortunately, the weekend we had laid aside for presenting the students' research turned out to be a busy weekend for the Chacon family, who is often most of our crowd. One night there was a soccer game in an adjacent valley, so many family members were going to be gone for that night. We scheduled the presentation night for Friday in hopes of gathering as many people as we could, but that day also proved to be an unexpected day for the Chacons. It was the day that many family members came to visit with the purpose of hiking the trail from San Gerardo over to Providenciea with Efrain Chacon (the grandfather and patriarch of the family) in order to re-walk the steps Efrain took when he first came over here in the early 1950s. I think they may have underestimated how exhausted they would be after the trek, and all ended up falling asleep by the time our presentations were to begin!

Needless to say, we had a very great turn out, with about 40-50 people in attendance. Many people hadn't been to QERC before, and we enjoyed hosting them and showing them around our building. Our students did a fantastic job presenting their research, with Raul Fernandez (grandson of Efrain) doing our interpreting. It's always a fun night to see everything finally come together, and the students also were relieved to have the final academic component complete! As a celebration we had a sleepover with popcorn and a movie and leftover cookies from the presentation night.

Once presentation night was over, the students only had one last weekend here at QERC and in San Gerardo de Dota. Much of their time was spent packing and saying goodbyes to friends in the community, but they also had to get in many last card games and hanging out with each other. Some of their friends from the community came over for one last night of playing "sardines" outside and Mafia inside when they'd had enough running around. After a good last weekend with little sleep, Monday morning rolled around and the final goodbyes were said to this place.

We had scheduled a few days at the end of the semester for a debriefing/re-entry retreat with our students, and like last year, this took place up at Arenal Volcano. This year we stayed at the Arenal Observatory Lodge, the closest lodge located near the volcano. We had beautiful views of the smoke coming out of the top of the volcano and rocks tumbling down the side. It's also a great location for watching some beautiful birds and swimming in their pool and Jacuzzi while watching the volcano. One afternoon we took advantage of some of the attractions around the area and did the Arenal Hanging Bridges. We had a great time exploring and going on one last hike together, while being able to cross 6 bridges suspended up in the canopy. It put us right at eye level with some beautiful birds and made for some terrifying views (for me!) of the land far below us.

Though our time at Arenal may sound like it was all play and no purpose, that was not the case. We had scheduled 4 different "sessions" where we had lively discussions both in order to debrief the entire semester, and also to prepare the students for re-entering their home country and culture. It was a good time of recapping all of their memories, and pulling out the more meaningful experiences and worldviews that they wanted to bring back to the U.S. and implement in their lives back home. We also discussed reverse culture shock in full detail, complete with fun skits where the students tried to imagine what their lives would be like upon their return.

After Arenal, we returned to San Jose for one last night together, complete with a movie at the VIP theater where we saw a movie sitting in our own personal recliner chairs, and a nice dinner to finish. And then it was time to say our goodbyes at the airport the next morning, not only to our students, but also to Peter, who had been our intern for almost 7 months and an integral part of the semester program. They will all be missed!

To be continued with Part III...

Part I (of III)

Sarah: Well it’s been forever since we’ve written a blog entry. David has been excited to write about the second half of TES, but our lives very quickly became very busy, and he was never able to get to it in the midst of everything else. I’ve decided to catch up our blog on everything SINCE that class finished, and I’ll let David go back and write about the second half when he has a chance.

So I’ve decided to split up this enormous blog entry into three parts, in order to cover everything between the beginning of April and now, and not to overwhelm any faithful readers in the process.

Thus begins Part I.

After TES, our group returned exhausted but thrilled with their experiences traveling around Costa Rica. After learning all about the different ecosystems in Costa Rica and experiencing firsthand different sustainability projects, it led well into the next professor coming down for classes. Marty Michaelson came down to teach his week of Biblical Theology in Global Stewardship, so it gave the students even more of a chance to approach the topic of stewardship in their personal lives and from a biblical perspective. After TES and Global Stew, our students were feeling quite motivated to go back and change the world, recycling one tin can at a time. :)

Following Marty’s week, the students had a full schedule. Three professors came down, Nancy Halliday, Carrie Bentley, and Sharon Young for her second time. Sharon continued to work with the students a little bit with the Entomology class, and Nancy was down to teach Tropical Medicine. Carrie is a new professor at SNU, so she came along to check out the location and the semester program. She also has a lot of experience with research, so she took the opportunity to sit down with each student and talk about the direction of their research project. Though late in the semester, those talks were valuable and encouraging to the students to finish their research strong.

Tropical Medicine was the focus for the week, with the students following the same schedule as with the other visiting professors and having class time every afternoon. However, unlike the other classes, this particular class incorporated a couple of extra elements. David and I had met and briefly gotten to know the chief of the indigenous tribe Boruca here in Costa Rica, so she and 2 other women came to visit and talk with the students about their customs and culture with a focus on how they utilize medicinal plants within their community. The workshops the gave to the students were incredible as they talked about their lifestyles, how they make a living, and the struggles they have as indigenous people being less than 1% of the population of Costa Rica. Toward the end of their workshop they actually did a demonstration of how they weave the cotton into thread and then how they use that thread to make all sorts of artisan goods like bags, purses, and belts. They are also famous for making Boruca masks, which are elaborately designed and painted in the shapes of animals from Costa Rica. The students took turns weaving, and were excited to purchase lots of handmade souvenirs from these women.

Later that week, the Tropical Medicine course took a field trip into San Jose. First stop was InBio, the Institute of Biodiversity. Here they received a lecture followed by a tour of the bioprospecting unit, which looks at the chemical properties in plants and animals and fungus to be used for medicinal purposes. After that, we headed to Clinica Biblica, one of the main private hospitals in San Jose. They received a talk from QERC’s main doctor, Dr. Longworth, and then a tour of the hospital. Everyone was impressed with the high quality of the equipment and facilities in the hospital.

The following week was the last week of visiting professors for the students. Frank Johnson, the Spanish professor at SNU, came down to finish up his week of teaching Applied Cultural Integration. The students had each done a project of their choice on an issue dealing with Latin America or Spain, and they each gave their presentations to Frank the week he was here. The other purpose for Frank coming down was to give the students a test over their Spanish ability. It wasn’t mandatory, but allowed for the students to possibly get credit for Spanish in addition to the other 15-17 credits they were receiving in other areas. Almost all students received at least 6 Spanish credits, with two of our students receiving 12 Spanish credits! It is a lot of fun to see them so excited about learning more Spanish, now that they have a desire to learn more and better communicate with Spanish-speakers they’ll come in contact with.

And for the last picture, every weekend our students continued to enjoy the excellent food and good fellowship up at Laura’s bakery. Most of them even bought a hat that they had picked out the colors for and were made by Laura’s Costa Rican sister-in-law.
I’ll leave that to be the end of Part I…