Study Abroad In Costa Rica

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Use Your Manure

This morning started by visiting the 5th and 6th graders again. We discussed the questions they had from yesterday but went more in depth with fertilizer and rabbits. We showed them how you can use manure, plant material but more so the sugarcane remains called bagaz and compost and how it is a good fertilizer source to the crops and the soil.

Animal raising is a very well known agriculture production practice here in Haiti. The only thing is that it is much different then how we do it in the United States. Two students today, one of them being myself discussed hog production and dairy goat production practices used in the United States. It was very informational because us teaching them  also gave the opportunity to learn more about how they raise these animals in there own country. Lots of questions were answered by us and the students. After the discussion they thanked us and we're very grateful for what we were doing to help them learn of what is possible for agricultural practices here that they can improve on and we were even grateful that we were able to make discussions and share ideas in production practices.

Next was a little bit of time spent teaching English to the third graders. We taught them some colors and walked them around outside asking them what objects were and how to say it in English and even what color the objects were. We even asked a few students what the word was in Kreyol. 

The campus has got a few goats. They showed us what they do with the goats and we even got to pick up them and hold them and pet them. They told us a way to preg check is they hold the mouth and nose shut and when they start shaking there leg then let go and if they pee then they are considered pregnant. 

After playing with the goats we got to walk on a hike to the bat caves up a mountain. Only a few of us though decided to walk farther into the cave and do some rock wall climbing to a different exit farther up the mountain. It was a very long walk where we saw a lot of bats in the caves and different places that voodoo drawings were drawn at. The hike was a short 4 miles there and back but it was a good workout to help work off my winter fat.

To end our day, we went to a church service. People from all over the town walk to church no matter what day. Religion is a big part in Haiti and they come to sing and pray and have a good time. 

From Garden to Market

We started out on January 4th by going to a market. Everything could be bought that was imaginable. All of the students tried to buy a goat for a family in need of one but when our group was seen as the buyers, the price jumped dramatically. Since the goat purchase was not successful, we decided to go to the local bakery and buy some delicious bread made by hand.

After the market, we took a walk to Saul's irrigation farm that the UCCC students also utilize and plant a variety of crops. The irrigation garden has a cement channel that runs through it with water that is pumped out and used for the growth of crops.

Teaching first graders after lunch was an experience that was quite something with words from the colors to the months to even a dance session.

Feeding centers in the neighborhood are used for children to get a bite to eat two times a week. There are eight of these centers and we got the opportunity to help hand out the food and then play some games with the children. Each child brings there own bowl and spoon and handed us the bowl to be filled with a rice and beans mixture that even though was very hot, it was consumed in a very quick manner.

January 5th began with a morning of teaching 5th and 6th graders about agriculture. This was even a very good experience to learn more about the agriculture used in Haiti. We then took a trip back to the irrigation gardens to take soil samples with the college students that was later tested. While at the gardens we got to hand plant leeks and to give some suggestions to the students on how to better the production of how they were growing the crops.

Later on in the evening we went out to the classroom with the students that pulled soil samples and tested them for N, P, K, and pH. We then described to the students the importance of the nutrients in the soil.

The long day ended with a few games of volleyball and then supper and a few more games with the students and some visitation time to learn more about them.

On the "Level Z" to Haiti

I am a student from Hawkeye Community College studying abroad in Haiti for the week with 2 faculty members and 6 students and then 2 farmers traveling with us. We will be traveling from January 1,2016 to January 9, 2016.

Our trip has been a wonderful time starting with the airplane ride. When getting to the airport in Cedar Rapids, it was mentioned what we were doing and ended up on first class from Chicago all the way to Haiti. Our trip though was long because we spent a few hours in airports starting at Cedar Rapids then to Chicago, then out to Charlotte and then Miami before flying to Port Au Prince. After arriving in Haiti we took a 3 hour road trip up the mountains. According to JeanJean the roads here are not level B they are level Z. We got here and got settled in with a campus tour.

Today started out by going to a Sunday school with the little children and then a church session learning about god and his work preached by JeanJean himself. After that we took a bus that has been shortened out to a feeding center to hand out Christmas presents to little Haitian boys and girls. After the handing out of presents we took a drive out to an irrigated garden where the farmer was growing black beans and while we were there he was irrigating it with a pump and having trenches that he allowed the water to flow down. He mentioned that he irrigates the black beans every 8 days and plantains were every 15 days and it takes about 3 hours to irrigate his whole garden. During the dry season he grows black beans and in the wet season it is planted in corn. The beans take around 1 and a half months and corn takes 3 months before harvest.

The final thing done today was a delicious supper of chicken legs and some noodles made by JeanJean’s sister before finally taking a rest for the day under the shade tree talking to one another and having a guest named Nelson who used to be a voodoo witch doctor who is now converted over to the church.

A Helping Hand

In this blog I wanted to share something that happened a couple weeks into my stay in Kofu that meant a lot to me, Just to give a little background information, there's a grocery store that's located just about a mile from my dorm that I go to often. The major difference between this and any other grocery store that I've been to is that they don't give you plastic bags, you have to provide your own. I made a trip a couple weeks into my stay here and when I was done shopping I realized that I didn't bring any bags with me. The only one I had was from the dollar store that I had just went to. I tried fitting most of what I could in that and then had my arms full with the rest.
I didn't have my bike at this time so I had to walk all the way home awkwardly trying to not drop anything. The bag was pretty heavy since I tried to fit all that I could into it, I probably didn't look like I was having the best of times since I was still trying to get used to my life in Kofu. I was stopped about two blocks away from the store by an elderly lady. I couldn't fully understand what she was saying but she pulled out a couple plastic bags from her purse she had and handed them to me. This was a simple act of kindness but it meant the world to me at that time. I thanked her over and over again trying to hold back tears. This is one of the many examples of the kindness that I've encountered throughout my stay in Japan.

The little things

I've been studying abroad in Kofu, Yamanashi, Japan for about 4 months now and have had many wonderful experiences. I plan on sharing those in the future but for this post I want to write about something that's been happening recently. For the past week our dorm building's boiler has been broken, which means no hot water. This has been a problem since showering in freezing cold water doesn't sound appealing to me and my dorm mates. There are other options available of course, it's not like we have to shower in the cold water, about half of the residents belong to a gym so they've been showering there and the other half have been going to onsens (public bath houses). I do not belong to a gym nor am I comfortable enough to go to the onsen. My solution to this problem is that I've been heating up water in huge pots and carrying it to my bathtub in my room. I've noticed that these baths feel a million times better than others I've taken. I'm guessing it's because I did more than turn on the faucet. My situation could be much worse, I'm not complaining at all, I've just realized this past week that you really shouldn't take the little things for granted. It could be worse.

These are the pots I used, I had to make about 8 trips each.

First couple weeks abroad

After the long flight and traveling halfway across the world, I was pretty tired. One of the first things I noticed when I stepped off the flight was the humidity and heat. I knew Kofu, Yamanashi was hot in the summer, but nothing would have prepared me for this. I landed at the Narita Airport in Tokyo, so it was still a two hour drive to Kofu, where I'll be living in a dorm with other international students for ten months.

My first week in Japan was a lot of running errands and getting things set up, like my insurance. There was a welcome party held at the dorm for me and a few other residents who arrived a couple weeks before me. That was a lot of fun because all of the dorm residents made food from their native countries. I met a lot of other residents and made some friends too.

That night, the dorm residents and I went out for a night of karaoke. I've always wanted to do Japanese karaoke and it was as much fun as I imagined. Japanese karaoke is a bit different than what I'm used to, instead of standing up in front of a huge crowd at a bar, you have your own room with just your friends. It's a lot less nerve wracking that way!

At the welcome party, residents of the dorm and their friends

Picture of me taken by the dorm manager on my second day in Japan

Karaoke