Today, we spent our morning and afternoon at Life Monteverde. We started off the day by helping with a service project at a local elementary school. For this project, we worked with the students to paint a mural on their outside wall. Talking to the kids was slightly difficult since my Spanish is not great, but I was still able to play Simon Says and tag with them!
In the afternoon, we toured Life Monteverde and learned more about how they run their farm. Life stands for “low impact on earth,” showing that their main goal is to grow and produce coffee in a sustainable way. Engineering, especially environmental, plays a large role in producing quality coffee while still being sustainable. For example, they like to create their own fertilizer so as not to introduce any chemicals to the coffee trees. So, the bananas and other plants growing on the farm are not for consumption, but to help make the fertilizer. In addition, we learned that calcium is one of the coffee trees’ most important nutrients. Old trees are turned into charcoal, which is a great source of calcium for the existing plants.
Our guide spoke a lot about the life of a farmer in Monteverde and how it has been affected by modern life. All farmers at Life Monteverde are family and friends from Nicaragua. When they come to Monteverde to pick the coffee cherries, they are provided with housing and food, and they are paid $4 per basket of cherries. One challenge that Tico farmers face is the possibility of being attacked by an animal, such as a snake, while working. However, those at Life Monteverde keep this in mind and provide their farmers with medical insurance in case anything happens.
Unfortunately, the largest issue with the upcoming generation is that they no longer want to be farmers. If I was the child of a Tico farmer, I do not think that I would want to grow up to be a farmer either. However, I would still want to pursue a career that benefitted my community in some way, such as becoming an environmental engineer and investigating sustainable methods of farming. I think that staying a part of the community is important because it gives you a sense of belonging and purpose. As I mentioned before, we started off the day by painting with children from a small school in Monteverde. Even though I just met everyone today, by the time we left I already felt included in the community, and it made me feel like I belonged there.