27.06.2013 - Pejibaye, Costa Rica

Another quick breakfast and a ride over to Pejibaye, a small community on the river in the largest district of the province of Cartago. This region is known for coffee and sugar cane production and thrives on agriculture and is a leader in environmental management. They have developed a community cooperative organization to manage key resources and services from the local church and cemetery to the aquifers and community center. This allows them to encourage sustainable practices and provide mutual aid and engagement for community members.

We were brought into the local community center and introduced to three community members who took Kulshan members on three different tours: one to a family farm to learn about sustainable growing and eco-tourism, another to an aqueduct to learn about water quality and community development.
I chose the third option, a trip to Colegio Ambientalista de Pejibaye, a local environmental education high school. Our group took off down the street and around the corner from the community center, led by Ilana, a former student of school and now active member of the cooperative association. We were introduced to the vice principle and the environmental education teacher who talked about the school and its mission. They are focused on changing culture in Costa Rica by changing the hearts and minds of people through environmental education. They focus on theory development for principles of conservation, including the interconnection of humans and the environment, as well as practical skill application. The school has around 350 students in 5 grades and provides standard education required of them as a state school – just like any other high school. Then, they provide additional curriculum and requirements for students, including a senior project in addition to the national exam required by the government to receive a diploma. There are only three schools like this in the country and they have excellent educational outcomes and are highly regarded. 

A tour of the school's garden included an introduction to the paste plant used to produce luffa sponges! 
Walk through community to a sustainable housing project which combines eco-friendly building and energy management with community education for sustainable practices. On our way we found some lovely local people and some giant grasshoppers... oh, nope, those were locusts! We also stopped at a local recycling center where one local has taken on the role of materials collector and initial recycling processor. His pet parrot gave us a warm welcome too. 

We returned to community center to have lunch - a traditional meal of rice, picadillo (another Costa Rican staple, made with plantains in this area), frijoles (beans), fried plantains, a fried egg, and a tortilla, all wrapped in a banana leaf. This is a common meal eaten by local farmers which can easily be transported for long days in the field. It was served with a sugar cane drink with ginger. This was easily the best meal I have eaten in Costa Rica.

A bit of free time was spent napping near the soccer field and the returned to the group to debrief our experiences of the morning with learning from each group. We were joined by a small dog looking for love and scraps of food (aren't we all, really). He was unsuccessful in garnering any bit of the raw sugar cane we were given to chew on - a delightfully refreshing sweet-treat with a satisfying crunch as you chew on the stalk. 

I got up to get water in the middle of our group processing which somehow became a trip to a local bar with Sonja, Alicia, and our birthday girl, Linda! We talked about boys, made funny faces, and tried to get our barkeep to sing a round of karaoke with us (sans karaoke machine, of course). A few toasts and laughs and then we slowly made our way back to the group in time for set-up for the evening's informal concert. 10 songs with one encore and a great response from the community members who joined us. We sang a few of our South African songs including Osiyeza to honor Nelson Mandela who we spent a full day believing had died.

    
After a wee nap on the bus we arrived at our central hotel for dinner and a few laughs and a flaming cocktail toasted to our birthday girl. Some dancing, some singing, some packing for another busy day tomorrow.