Sadly, we had to leave Monteverde today but it came with some great experiences. We started off with a service learning project where we got to work with a local school. There we worked with the students to paint the fence around the school building. Talking with the local kids about the things they like and their personal experiences growing up in the are was really fun. A nice bonus was that we somehow ended up with a fun and happy mural/fence.
Once we left we headed over to life Monteverde for a good Costa Rican lunch. We then moved on to a lecture and walking tour about sustainability on coffee farms. We learned a lot about the life of farmers and how they test out new types of coffee trees that will be resistant to things like the change in weather or different types of fungi. We also learned that many farmers work together in what is basically a union to centralize this research and work together to create more sustainable farms. An interesting thing was that they have a very delicate process to create effective organic fertilizers which they can use on their farms. They also use old coffee wood to create charcoal which helps keep the soil in perfect conditions.
Overall it seemed like many farmers seemed to benefit from working with others in the community rather than being selfish and working on their own. They see benefits from learning to make cheaper and better organic pesticides along with being able to sell their beans if they can’t roast them in house. It seems as though many families have been in the business for a while but they are having a hard time motivating the kids to stay. If I were one of their kids I would want to find a way to help out farming through creating new technologies rather than being on the field all day.