Thursday, October 16, 2008

La Carpio

While I currently am on somewhat of a vacation, as I have no class until November 5 when Conservation and Development begins, I have been keeping plenty busy with D.C. job and internship searches for the spring, and more than anything with advancing on the projects that I am coordinating in La Carpio with my UPEACE classmates.

I've been involved in La Carpio (a poor marginalized community outside San Jose, at the site of the national dump) since visiting it the first time with my Food Security class in January. A group of us from the class decided that we should follow up with the community after conducting interviews with a number of families who left quite an impression on us, due to their determination, spirit, and willingness to share their sometimes heart-breaking and often inspiring stories, and also for the extremely challenging conditions in which many of them lived, dealing with extreme poverty, lack of services, issues with migrant status, and the environmental hazards of being surrounded by two flood-prone rivers and a dump that receives over 700 tons of garbage a day. Since March we have been holding meetings with CODECA, La Carpio's community development council, with the goal of collaboratively developing a number of initiatives aimed at addressing some of the community's key issues, such as environment and health, stigmatization by the national media, and food security.

As the only student from that group remaining at UPEACE this semester, I have been working on getting together a group of motivated new students who want to commit to working in La Carpio throughout the academic year, and to advancing with the food and environmental security initiatives which are the projects that I am heading up. Having recently contacted an environmental consulting company that is very interesting in lending their services to our projects, and having finished writing a proposal for a grant that would fund much of our work over the next year, things are really starting to move along. Yet there is much work ahead...

In addition, I recently published an article on La Carpio as a paradigmatic case of the structural and cultural violence that exists in Costa Rica in UPEACE's Peace and Conflit Monitor.

Please check it out:

http://www.monitor.upeace.org/innerpg.cfm?id_article=547

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Swimming hole

Swimming hole
Nate, David, and me at the local swimming hole

Climbing

Climbing
David climbing at the swimming hole near our house. This is the location of my first rock-climbing lesson.

Beautiful Miraflor

Beautiful Miraflor
a home in Miraflor with the nature reserve and mountains beyond

Waterfall jumping!

Waterfall jumping!
sweet swimming hole in Miraflor

Catching chicharras in Miraflor

Catching chicharras in Miraflor
We spent half the day in Miraflor catching bugs in the trees with this awesome kid

Parasite tree in Miraflor, Nicaragua

Parasite tree in Miraflor, Nicaragua
this parasite killed the tree inside it over 200 years ago, now you can climb it inside and out, as David and these Nicaraguan kids

Sunset

Sunset
sunset at Las Penitas, Nicaragua

Howler monkeys

Howler monkeys
a family of howler monkeys on Omotepe

Omotepe

Omotepe
Concepcion, one of the volcanos that makes up the island of Omotepe in Lake Nicaragua

In the jungle...

In the jungle...
with Nathan and Crystal (visiting from Michigan) in the jungles of Claudio Barillo National Park

Hammock time

Hammock time
Crazy photo of Andrea and me hanging out in the hammock at my house

Charging in Dominical

Charging in Dominical
After getting worked I went after some of these smaller waves which turned out to be a lot of fun

Gotta love waterproof cameras

Gotta love waterproof cameras
taking surfing pics in the water at Dominical

Attempting backside in Dominical

Attempting backside in Dominical
I'm attempting to work on my backside here in Costa Rica

The "Cool Bus"

The "Cool Bus"
Chilling in the Cool Bus in Dominical

La Selva Biological Station

La Selva Biological Station
Venturing into the jungle

Ladro Ladies!

Ladro Ladies!
In Manuel Antonio with Andrea and Sheena

David and Lynn Manuel Antonio

David and Lynn Manuel Antonio
David and me hiking (and swimming) though Manuel Antonio National Park

Volcan Poaz

Volcan Poaz
Posing with the smoking crater of the beautiful Poaz

Cute huh?

Cute huh?
David and me having a couple of beers at a surfers bar in Playa Hermosa

Surfing accident #1

Surfing accident #1
A minor bruise from getting Sheena's leash caught around my arm while she was learning to surf at Jaco

Surfing accident #2

Surfing accident #2
2 days after the incident in Jaco I broke my board in half trying to surf at low tide in Manuel Antonio

Surfing Playa Cocles

Surfing Playa Cocles
my first time out surfing in Costa Rica. I was pretty pumped