Mastatal Part II for me

then the next weekend was the long weekend we got to spend with our friends from Eugene! We started off in Mastatal! Always sooo wonderful out there. Its such a great example of a successful intentional community/non-profit. everyone is simultaneously so motivated and laid back. lots of creative people who are working in a myriad of avenues in sustainable development are in the groups that come as well as are volunteers.
we spent valentines day playing with poo. no seriously, we did. we made a batch of cob---which is the style of natural building that Jared is learning out there that makes a cement like material from sand, cow poo, clay, water and straw. we helped red with his bench that he is making for people to sit and admire the view as they visit his garden that he and others pioneered :)
we also played in a waterfall and participated in a valentines day party themed Cowboy-Reggae-Lingerie. they have boxes full of props and endless creativity, the night was pretty funny.
the next day, red played in on the local community's soccer team against another village. it was definitely a cultural experience for us. learned some new spanish swear words. Mastatal won 4-1-- red scored 1. then we played horseshoes at this spot overlooking these amazing green jungly mountains. it looked like a movie, LOVE this place!!!

fuNKY reGGae pOOL partay for emily, kerri and bob marley!

i forgot the most important one, our invitation pic---thanks to polina (and bob for making an appearance!)

happy birthday to you, you, and you (and you and you and me)

mandolin, guitar, harmonica, voices, lighter toss, swimmin, bbq, reggae, cupcakes and daddy daughter dinosaur dancing!!!


The next day was my BIRTHDAY!!! halloween and birthdays are really the only holidays i get into and i am completely unafraid of shamelessly promoting my own birthday. not only that but it was my good friend, Kerri's birthday too! we got together and decided to have a reggae pool party celebrating my birthday, kerri and bob marley's bday since his was the day before mine---it was fabulously fantastic! then we found out it was a couple of other people's birthdays too so it was celebration all around.

lots of people came, including our good friends from oregon: Jess and Jordan!! They were on their way to Chile and stopped in Costa Rica to travel for two weeks. so we got to see them in between their little adventures while i was in class and then we got to travel together for a few days when i had a long weekend! but thats later.

i think these pictures pretty accurately guage the level of love and silliness that went down on that birthday of mine. heck ya.

That night was European night! As you have seen in the pictures about Asian night, the students from similar regions of the world get together to host a night of culture every couple months. Feb 6th was European night. The night included european snacks, drinks, a play, German Poetry, songs, and a very bizarre lip synch by my icelandic friends...... and

Ross and I!!! we opened the night with some Irish jigs and reels. my first real mandolin performance (besides Ty's wedding where no one could hear us!)actually my first time playing for more than 2 people--oh man. i was so nervous my legs were knocking while i was playing and my lip curled up in this fancy unattractive way. sweet. but on the flipside, it was some people's first time EVER seeing or hearing a mandolin and/or irish tunes.

ross and i play together a few times a month since october. he is a great fiddler---his father is from Ireland and his mother is from Kentucky--so you pretty much figure that he was born to play the fiddle and drink whiskey, right? we had a fake band for a long time before we started playing together. having a fake band includes: band name discussion, band drama (accuse each other of going solo, etc, and band pictures. now that we play together we call ourselves "not a band." good times. we also have a dulcimer player that comes when she doesnt accidently nap through practices.

Education for Sustainable Development

wow. so i have been hinted at that its been a while and i should let ye olde friends and family in on what has been shaking down here in Costa Rica. it has been a while.

january was really intense, i was taking a double load at class for a while and it was not pretty. nah, it was fine. just really really busy. however, i was involved with some classes that will indefinitely further this challenge i have set for myself: designing the summer camp.

The first class was Entrepenuership in the Social Sector and it was amazing. inspiring. empowering. and brilliantly taught! the final paper for it was to write a business plan for our idea. its a work in progress, but the process of it was really enlightening. all my other classes have been aiding in the development of my curricula, pedagogy, and vision--but at this point i've got vision out the wazooo and now i need some more practical tools to help me along! that is what i got in this class. i tell you what, i am really proud of it. once i get it finished (post comments from the prof), if you would like to see it, let me know, feeback is key!

yeah so, its even got a name now (at least for now): Project Ahimsa. Ahimsa meaning active non-violence in sanskrit.

my other class was a fundraising course. also essential.

in february, we had a short course on education for sustainable development. i assumed that it was going to be about the environment, but it really wasn't. i mean, it was a bit, but one huge take-away i got from it was that when we think about sustainable development we need to balance the environmental factors equally out with the social, cultural, and economic factors.

these are pictures from the field trip Peace Education took to a little sus. dev. education project in rural costa rica. there was a little dairy farm, a biodigestor (turns cow poo into methane for gas for your stove), and a group that is managing the local water in a sustainable fashion.