Here to learn about medical systems in Costa Rica, six nursing students from Peninsula College in Washington arrived at EARTH today.

They have been traveling the country for about a month to see how medical practices and social security works in rural Latin America.  This week, these students will gain hands-on experience in EARTH’s health clinic and also visit the medical centers in nearby communities.

The Office of International Academic Programs welcomes intern, Asmaa Abdel-Azim, who is studying Biosystems Engineering at Michigan State University. Her goal while at EARTH is to convert the practices of a local town, El Carmen, to be more sustainable.  She will use ideas from her Biosystems Engineering classes and from what she learns through visiting EARTH’s peri-urban farm to create a community garden in El Carmen.

Asmaa demonstrates to community members how they can use recycled plastic bottles to create a garden bed

Right now, El Carmen is divided by the north and south sides, which rarely interact.  People are even isolated within each neighborhood, since they don’t feel safe enough to leave their houses to visit neighbors. Asmaa believes that by working together in a safe environment to harvest practical crops that they actually will use, the people of El Carmen will share a sense of unity with their neighbors.

Another part of Asmaa’s project is to research the lifestyles of rural Costa Ricans in order to figure out ways to improve their living conditions. While spending time daily with the people of El Carmen, she will ask about their form of income, how they spend their money, what they do on a daily basis, and what they hope for El Carmen in the future.

We are happy to have you here and know that you will succeed in aiding these communities!

Interns Lulu Loquidis (CO) and Vanessa Ruiz (FL) have officially engaged the town of El Carmen in their community construction project.  The plan is to create a sculpture near the highway that separates El Carmen Sur and El Carmen Norte which symbolizes peace and unity between both neighborhoods.

Active community members as well as high school students will participate in creating the sculpture. The involvement of these students is especially important, since the purpose of the project is to motivate the youth of El Carmen to take part in a prideful community event.

On Tuesday, participants began clearing the brush near the site.  Today, they began to pour concrete and install the supporting materials for the structure.

The project is funded partially by the town mayor and also by local businesses, which Lulu and Vanessa visited last week to ask for donations.

Intern Alison Pankey (MI)

Graduate student, Alison Pankey from Michigan State University, is interning at EARTH to get hands-on experience in the field of ethnobotany and to learn how plants can benefit humans as food, medicine, and as other materials.

The two main plants Alison is focusing on are the uncommon chaya and chicasquil species.

Alison’s EARTH mentor, Professor Jorge Arce, finds these plants to be important in Latin American countries, since they are especially rich in protein, calcium, vitamins, iron, and antioxidants.  However, knowledge of these plants seems to be continually declining, and so does the existence of the plant itself.

“Farmers around here just don’t know much about it anymore,” explains Alison, sharing information she gathered from local farmers.  “They say it’s something their ancestors used, but they don’t really use it themselves.”

Alison and Professor Arce hope to discover the reason for the declining use of this plant through personal interviews and through lab experiments.

Last night, EARTH interns Lulu Loquidis and Vanessa Ruiz met with Pocora’s women’s group to brainstorm plan for creating a sense of community for El Carmen del Sur.

Vanessa and Lulu aim to bring the town together by instilling pride in the people of El Carmen through architectural artwork.  The goal is not only to unite both sides of El Carmen, but to make the people proud of the name El Carmen.

As Vanessa explained the situation, “Right now, they have no name; they need their own identity.”

In fact, as the girls learned at this meeting, El Carmen used to be named “Destierro,” which means the “exiled or displaced”.

As many of the people of El Carmen are from different troubled backgrounds, some immigrants escaping war in Nicaragua, others just lacking a sense of purpose without being able to find a job, the name fits, and signifies separation even more.

The criteria for these projects is that they be made of recycled materials and that they symbolize the unity of El Carmen.  Also, as agreed upon at the meeting, the monument has to be easy to maintain.

“EARTH students have helped  in the past, but nothing seems to last,” said Doña Jacqueline, one of the local women at the meeting.  “We don’t have enough people to help maintain [these projects] once the EARTH students leave.”

A Field of Nothing. A year ago, this field was a beautiful park made of recycled materials where children would play and families would meet. The park was created by EARTH interns, but has been overgrown with grass ever since. This unsuccessful attempt to change the community prompts current EARTH interns to make their project long-lasting.

As far as what exactly this sculpture will be, or how these benches will look, the girls will be meeting with members of this women’s group daily for the next week to discuss what sort of objects or symbols will have the power to make the people of El Carmen to appreciate their community.

Intern Ashley Asdal (MA)

Ashley, of the John F Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, came to EARTH to help professors and students better understand the context and effects of rural underdevelopment in Costa Rica. She is exploring how to promote micro-enterprises and entrepreneurship and to learn about rural producers and markets with Professor Julieta Mazzola and Audy Vargas, of the Community Development Program (PDC).

So far, she has been working with a producer of coconut fiber, an association of farmers marketing an eco-agro-tourism business in Las Delicias, and the Asociación de Las Mujeres of La Florita, to find out what exactly each potential business needs and how to execute their goals.

She also will be studying the overall theory of sustainable agricultural development in rural communities and conducting personal interviews, in order to better engage with these micro businesses.

This bridge separates El Carmen Sur from El Carmen Norte. Interns Lulu Loquidis (CO) and Vanessa Ruiz (FL) believe that getting both neighborhoods involved in the beautification of the area can unite both sides of El Carmen.

Intern Lydia Vanderbilt (MI) is joined by Lulu Loquidis and Vanessa Ruiz,, architectural landscaping students from University of Florida, in assessing El Carmen, another town near EARTH, in order to better help the physical and social conditions of the community.

In preparation for the project, Dona Jenny, who has lived in El Carmen for almost thirty years, introduces Lydia, Vanessa, and Lulu to other members of the women’s group that meets to solve issues of El Carmen.

At the sight of unpaved roads, poorly built houses, and the men without work and youth skipping school wandering the streets, Vanessa and Lulu realize they can use their architectural talents to create a healthier, cleaner, and safer environment for this community.  They believe they can do this through the development of paved roads, a waste management system, and some sort of structure for community gatherings or activities.

“When a town doesn’t look well, it’s hard for people to feel well,” says EARTH intern Vanessa Ruiz, after chatting with some of Dona Jenny’s friends in El Carmen.

After their day of conducting interviews with Dona Jenny’s friends, Vanessa and Lulu return home thinking about the basics these people need and what they can do to help.

Intern Lydia Vanderbilt (MI) learns first-hand about the poor living conditions in Pocora.

Driving through the dangerously unpaved roads of Pocora, a town close to EARTH University, intern Lydia Vanderbilt (MI) sees unemployed men and youngsters hanging out on the streets during the day, most of which are involved in drug deals, participate in violent gangs, and are alcoholics.

Most of the women, who are said to be the “heart of the community,” are hidden insides their homes all day, partly because they want to take care of the house and children but also because they are afraid to leave their property open to burglaries.

The town in general looks rundown with people discouraged and tired from the stresses of unemployment and the fear of a dangerous life for their children.  However, these are just regular people who have a high expectation for a better future, just like anyone else.  Fortunately, some of the town’s members have already taken the initiative to improve the town’s condition, simply by addressing the issues at hand.

Meeting in one of the member’s houses in Pocora, a group of eight local women gather weekly to discuss women’s issues, such as teen pregnancy, and to attempt to solve other problems their people face, such as a high number of high school dropouts.

The main goal the women have is to have a place to host community gatherings, after-school programs, or sporting events to bring the community together in a peaceful manner.

“To have a building is our dream,” said Miria, a 30-year-old mother who escaped Nicaragua with her family to avoid violence and war twenty years ago.

The women are always looking to a brighter future, but at times they feel powerless.  They feel as if a change in their community is out of their hands, and this is where EARTH intern, Lydia, steps in to help.

She faces the challenge of understanding where these people are coming from and to assess their needs in order to develop a way EARTH can help the community.

Through meeting regularly with these women, Lydia aims to answer the following questions:

• Why don’t youth in this town finish high school?
• Why do these women want to get married so young?
• Why can’t men find any form of income?
• Why do they turn to drugs and violence?

The project is only in it’s first stages, and EARTH interns know there is much work to be done and many challenges that will be faced.  However, knowing that their service can bring a life-changing outcome to a struggling community, EARTH’s interns are driven to pursue the project even more.

EARTH acknowledges students Callie Gesmund and Rosemary Gay from the USA, Thea Foslie and Kaia Bing from Norway, and Samantha James from Canada for all the contributions they made at EARTH during their time here during the first trimester of this year.

These interchange students joined us in several activities, sharing with us their own enriching educational ideas and their experiences with the community.

We were pleased to have them in our institution and feel proud of their valuable contributions and accomplishments obtained here.

Thank you for being part of our program.