Last week of Internships

the completed solar heater attached to a space,
where you can dry clothes

It’s hard to believe there are only 5 weeks left in the program. This past week was another wet and rainy one. We had visitors from CIEE come to evaluate the program. All CIEE programs are evaluated every 5-10 years or so, and so it was cool being a part of the group that was evaluated. The evaluators attended some classes with us, talked to Matt and Karen, and visited us at work during our internships. On Monday they attended Spanish classes with us. In Spanish we had a reading quiz on the book we are reading, La Loca de Gandoca, which is about a woman fighting to stop a development project in order to save the environment—so overall a pretty relevant book for the program. We also had oral presentations, and everyone in my class presented on their internship. On Tuesday after internships we went to the Common Cup, a café in town, and talked with the evaluators about our thoughts on the program.

This week we finished our internships, although nobody is truly finished. When we get back from the field trip we will have some time to finish up completely. Libba and I met with a science teacher at the “Friends School” in Monteverde to plan a day to come teach students about our solar-powered systems.

the sibs: Esteven & Alina

The Tuesday after the field trip we are going to teach. Libba is going to teach about her solar light tube to 5^th and 6^th graders in the morning, and then I am going to teach about my solar space heater to 7^th and 8^th graders in the afternoon. We are each going to talk about the basic concepts behind our systems and do an activity in which the students build their own system (or part of the system) to see how cheap and simple it is. The idea is to inspire the students to get students thinking about solar solutions to other problems they encounter. 

This week we worked on the educational materials and made “How To” manuals for people to create their own solar thermal systems at home. We also created a website for our projects. It is called Monteverde Innovations, and if you want to see my project, it is the Secadora Solar. http://monteverdeinnovations.blogspot.com/ The website is not yet complete, as we all still have things we need to put up, but it will eventually be home to all of our internship projects. 

My host family! Alba, Roy, Esteven y Elena
the guy with the football in front of his face is
my uncle (Alba's brother, and also John's host dad)

What else happened this week? We wrote essays on the role of the Feria del Agricultor on food security in Monteverde. The Feria is the local farmer’s market that is held every Saturday morning in Monteverde. My argument, if you were wondering, is that although the Feria offers organic products and contributes to the local economy by supporting farmers in the Monteverde Zone, it does not contribute significantly to food security because it is lacking in staples such as grains and cereals, it offers very few options, and it is only held on Saturday mornings, which makes it difficult to access for many people and vulnerable to transitory food insecurity. I won’t elaborate too much, since that would probably lead to me re-writing my entire essay in this blog, which I’m sure is not what anyone wants.

WELL today we head off for our second field trip with an emphasis on agriculture. We will be crossing the border into Nicaragua this afternoon. CRAZY! I will keep you all updated about my adventures away from home...away from home.