Finale

Probably no one's reading this anymore since I haven't updated in over a month. Anyways, my program ended a couple of days ago. In Costa Rica we worked on two projects. One was birding. We stayed at a scientific center a mile hike up a dirt road for almost two weeks with an amazing indigenous family and learned how to band birds and to count raptors. We also helped carry cinder blocks and 50 kilo bags of concrete of this 1 kilometer road. After that we spent a couple of weeks collecting turtle eggs. We worked two shifts in the evenings, one from 8-12 and one from 12-4 walking up and down the beach waiting for leatherback turtles to lay eggs which we would collect and carry to a hatchery.
I spent some time with some of my friends from the trip traveling in Puerto Viejo and Bocas del Toro. Now I am all by myself for a couple days in Panama City. I'm planning on going to see the canal tomorrow and some of the old cities.

Costa Rica

We just arrived in Costa Rica last night. The last couple of weeks in Nicaragua were amazing. We worked on a museum exhibit at a rainforest for 2 weeks and then went into one of the original Spanish cities for a couple of days. We`ve been studying various animals and trees and piecing together ecosystems for visitors. In the Spanish town, Granada, we walked to the lake and took a tour of the city while preparing for our departure to Costa Rica. In a few days we will leave for another rainforest and then the beach to work with sea turtle conservation. I will most likely not have internet more than once during this time. I´ve also been working on planning what I´ll be doing once the trip is over, I´m currently thinking of travelling to some islands off the coast of Panama that the tour guides have been recommending.

Sin Senos No Hay Paraiso

The title is of our favorite Nicaraguan soap opera.
This week so far we have completed our solar cookers and begun building solar powered battery chargers. We are also working on problem solving for the space the Solar Center is located. The women with whom we work are hoping to build a restaurant and kitchen on site so we are looking at the best possible location and layout for the building. I´ve become a fairly good translator although I don´t think my Spanish is really improving all that much because my families don´t correct me when I speak. My homestay mom here has talked to me a lot about life in Nicaragua and some of the people she knows who have crossed into the US.
In a few days we are leaving for our first trip to the rainforest where I´ll be for 2 weeks with no access to e-mail or phones. The trip is going by really quickly as we´re almost half way done. Some of us have gotten parasites at our most recent location, me not included.
I have a younger brother and sister here who play cards with me almost every night and my homestay father takes care of a coffee farm for a living. I´m enjoying the cheapness of Nicaragua because once we get to Costa Rica prices will be much higher.

Nicaragua

I responded to all the previous messages so you can read those now. Also I am now in Nicaragua and have more time at an internet today although not to a phone. We are working with Grupo Fenix which is the one I am most excited about. We are learning about renewable energy sources specifically solar dryers and we will be making our own solar powered battery chargers. We are also starting to have more class time this week with almost daily discussions on our readings. I am staying with a new host family for the next 15 days. They have a baby kitten, a dog, many chickens, two female sheep and 3 baby sheep. They all stay relatively quiet until about 5:30 in the morning which is the latest I´ve encountered so far. Our leader here is from France and speaks Spanish in a French accent, it is awesome.
I was also accepted into an research internship position at Argonne National Laboratory about 25 miles south of Chicago, so that´s most likely where I will be spending my summer.

Killer Bees

Hi. I will respond to messages eventally but I never have much time. I worked with Sustainable Harvest International and Heifer International over the past week. We helped flatten land for a community to continue their bee production. We had a run in with the bees and I was the only person not stung. One girl pulled 35 stingers out of her head. We helped make signs to identify tree in an ecotourism park they´re building near the south of Honduras. Tomorrow we leave for Nicaragua and probably our first public transportation experience.

Soccer is THE International Language

I unfortunately don't think I'll be able to post pictures. I have a memory card that's incompatible with most computers, but if you check out the first blurb above me blog, there's another blog that contains some pictures of my trip.
Yesterday we went on a canopy tour. We swung through the trees on around 15 different cables some of which were a kilometer long. We didn't see any animals, but soaring past the trees was still amazing. We had a cold front come in a few days ago that's supposed to stick around for a while. It's no where near snowing, but it's been raining the past few days.
Tomorrow we leave Copan for Trinidad, Honduras where we'll be working with a group called Sustainable Harvest International and living a little more roughly than we have been so far. My Spanish has improved a lot but I still have trouble understanding people. Oh, and I can't roll my r's.

¿Que ave se pone los huevos mas grande?

I´m happy to find out that at least one person is reading this while I´m away. Since last time I´ve gone horseback riding, watched a Mayan ritual, and visited a watermelon farm. I´ve also played with a few three week old puppies that are extremely adorable.
My family started to open up to me and one of the girls played spanish scrabble with me the other day. I was too lazy to explain the instructions which were in English so we played a pseudo version where you could put new words next to other letters that didn´t make words. I had the help of another girl that wanted to play in English. There is a bilingual school that many of the younger children attend.
Tonight I am going to learn some of the Mayan language and learn to make tortillas. Until next time.

Hola from Honduras

Hola from Honduras. I arrived safely on Sunday and have now been with my homestay for several days. I live with an older couple but their are always many people around the house of all ages. I think they own the entire block and then different families own different houses. This is typical in this pueblo, Copan. I´ve also started Spanish lessons. We are receiving 4 hours of one-on-one tutoring for the next week.
For the classes I am taking we are reading the book Plan B and I am reading Hot, Flat, and Crowded by Thomas Friedman. Everyone is reading a separate book and giving a presentation at the end of the program. So far everyone is extremely nice and getting along, however, no one is fluent in Spanish.