Farm Tour/Stella's Bakery

We have only three days left, it’s so sad. I have a mix of emotions of excited to see my dog and my friends at home and also very sad to be leaving my amazing host family here in Monteverde. I wrote them a long letter today thanking them for everything. Today we went to the coffee fields to experience how people work on a field. I thought what we were going to be doing was just going and planting seeds and working. Our tour of the coffee plantation was much more interesting than that however. The man who worked at the farm told us that it was much better than a company farm but also it wasn’t owned by a company. The farm was owned by ten people I believe he told us, by aunts and uncles, brothers and sisters, basically all owned by local family and friends. All of the family worked together to help the forest and help the farm grow. The farmer told us that ALL of the farms affect each other. He spoke about how children need to learn to care about not only their farm but their neighbors as well. This theory could easily be applied in the classroom when you have two children fighting and the way to resolve the conflict was within them and not just go to the teacher to resolve the problem. He was saying that children need to think about the effects of others, outside things like the environment. I think this is an excellent concept to teach our children, also this is somewhat of the same concept that the Cloud Forest School was teaching us. Costa Rica as a whole is trying to preserve the primary forest and rebuild what has been lost or torn down. We can learn so much from Costa Rica as a nation. I don’t know of five people in my head that recycle. My own mother does a horrible job of turning lights off and conserving energy. A lot of children were not taught growing up to conserve energy and grow up in the mind set of “It’s not really hurting the environment.” The effects of our pollution is going to affect our kids, our kids, kids and so on. We need to educate our children about this and much more. I loved our tour today I learned so much. We were also taught how the planting of the trees work and why it is good to rotate the crops, because in the long run the soil is going to be more beneficial for the crops. I thought that Guillerme was very wise in his ways and very knowledgeable. He has had students in his home for more than 15 years now he told us and has such long term relationships that he taught a student’s 20 years ago and now that student has come to stay with him to study the farm. I loved the tour I learned so much about coffee, and about the land! Also for you future students who may want to travel to Costa Rica you must eat at Stella’s Bakery, it’s a must. It’s small and adorable and the perfect quite place to get some work done. Awesome day and looking forward to returning home to the states soon!