Teaching with Tim

Costa Rican Coffee Fields

At some level, I was unwilling to believe that my trip to Costa Rica was actually going to happen until I had all the logistics out of the way—plane tickets purchased, bags packed, anti-diarrheal prescription obtained, etc.  So it wasn’t until I stepped off the plane in San Jose that it dawned on me I would be spending the next week in Central American coffee fields.  Earthwatch, a major environmental non-profit, organized the trip, and the Louise H. and David S. Ingalls Foundation funded my particular trip with an “educator’s fellowship”; the idea is that I will take what I learned about sustainability, biological diversity, and fair trade back to my classroom and share it with my students.

Costa Rica has a population of 4.5 million people, 80% of whom are Catholic.  The country has no military and has historically chosen to invest in education and healthcare instead—citizens are justifiably proud of this fact, and it was explained to me no less than five times by everyone from cab drivers to coffee farmers.  There are two well-defined seasons in the country: rainy and dry.  We came during the rainy season, which meant at least one explosive downpour every afternoon.  We worked in the Los Santos region in the central highlands; Tarrazu county (pop. 15,142) has been home to coffee production since colonists arrived from Spain in 1850 and started planting.  Worldwide, coffee is the fifth-most widely traded commodity and is second only to oil in the global futures market–crazy, huh?  Currently, coffee production in the Tarrazu region is very “instensive,” meaning heavy use of fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides.  Earthwatch organized an ongoing research project in the area in order to help address some of the problems this poses.  For example, in part because the coffee in the region is planted on extremely steep grades, about 70% of the fertilizer used in the area is washed into local rivers and streams, and Costa Rica’s coffee growing regions have some of the highest rates of cancer associated with pesticide use.  Furthermore, the farming practices currently used by many farmers in the region are degrading the soil and contributing to wider environmental problems that are affecting local mammal, bird, and insect species.  The conflict between coffee fields and forests in the region has serious implications for the long-term environmental stability of the area. 

So that’s the big picture.  But a typical day for me in Costa Rica went something like this:

6 AM: A knock on the door of my cabin.  Shawn, a teacher/triathlete from Pittsburg wakes me up for a morning run through the small town we’re staying in.    

Showerhead of Doom

6:30 AM: I get back to our cabin and my roommate announces that our electric showerhead shocked him.  I take my shower extremely quickly.

7 AM: Breakfast with our Earthwatch team leaders (Sebastian & Natalia), two University of Washington researchers, and ten team members.  When it came to meals on this trip, there were three constants: they were always homemade, they were always good, and they always involved beans and rice. 

7:30 AM: We get ready for a day in the field with 100% deet, 45 SPF sunscreen, and duct tape around the ankles of our pants to keep the bugs out.  At the beginning of the trip, one of our team members warned us about “chiggers”—bugs that crawl under your skin and stay there until they’re done eating—and duct tape became a popular fashion accessory for the rest of the week. 

8AM: We pile out of the Earthwatch Land Cruiser (nicknamed The Tortuga for its tortoise-like shape) and into our first farm.  By the end of the week, we had our data-gathering routine down pat.  The goal of the research was to determine how productive and healthy each farm was and then cross-section that data with information about how the farm was being managed (fertilizers, pesticides).  The researchers would usually pick three “transects”—15 meter x 15 meter sections of farmland—for us to study.  In pairs, most of the team was occupied measuring plant productivity.  To do this for one large coffee plant usually took about ten minutes.  First, we measured the height and circumference of each “axle” (vertical trunk), then we counted every bean on every 10^th, 11^th, 12^th, 15^th, and 17^th “node” (branch) down from the top of the plant for at least three plants per transect.  The rest of the group took soil samples and collected mulch in plastic bags. If that sounds tedious, I can assure you that it often was, but we had a great group of team members and the time usually passed pretty quickly. 

3 PM: In a daze, we stumble out of our last coffee field and into the Tortuga.  First, we drive back to the Earthwatch lab to sort all the organic matter (earthworms, sticks, etc.) out of our soil samples. We drive over to the Coope Dota coffee processing plant, where we learn about how coffee is prepared for export. 

5PM: Back at the cabins, team leaders Sebastian and Natalia give us a lecture on sustainability and fair trade.  One fascinating fact: a single centimeter of good topsoil takes over 100 years to generate naturally (underlining the importance of discouraging farming practices that exacerbate erosion). 

7PM: After dinner, it’s time for Gin Rummy and Texas Hold ‘em.  I lose all my colones.

10PM: Collapse into bed and get ready to start the whole process over again in 8 short hours. 

That was a typical day, and it was definitely exhausting at times, but the unique combination of people and place actually made this week one of the best experiences of my life.  Unable to really “summarize” my days in the field, I was often reduced to jotting down bullet-point lists of things from each day that I wanted to remember.  Here is a typical example: 

• Today I realized anew how hard so many people work for so little. 
• Sebastian: “Hey guys, I had trouble getting through airport security the other day” (Why?) (flexing): “Because of these guns and this six pack.”  
• Dinner at Natalia’s home.  Her dad’s dog is trained to find his wallet no matter where he puts it.  Once, he puts it inside the wheel hub of his truck and it still manages to scramble up the tire on all four hot-dog-length legs and grab it.    
• Discussion today after watching a film on fair trade.  I think I will remember it as the soul of the trip—people from all walks of life and all generations essentially in agreement that the system of incentives in our culture needs to be changed, and that education is a major part of the solution.  If only there were a similar spirit and awareness among more people worldwide. 
• Sebastian, while sorting through piles of dead leaves and mulch: “I think the whole purpose of this is knowing a little bit more… learning how to work in this unknown universe.   Although it’s a little bit philosophical, I really believe that.  It’s strange to think that we’re all just part of the carbon cycle.” 
• Natalia on why we should use the bathroom in the field: “Go Green!” 

There are plenty of specific messages I would like to share with my students from the trip about fair trade and the importance of sustainable agriculture.  But one of the hidden messages was that working hard for something you believe in is extremely satisfying.  This was evident not only in the positive energy of our team leaders, but in the positive energy of our group as a whole.  Spending a week counting beans turned out to be a lot of fun.   

Here’s the video I made to commemorate the experience.

And finally, a delayed addition to my last post:  HERE is the goodbye video I made for my students in June.