Wednesday, February 10, 2010

10 February 2010


Return to Central America

Almost three years to the day after studying abroad in Costa Rica, I will be going back there as a teacher on March 17 2010. I am volunteering my services to a small rural community in Colonia Libertad, in the northern reaches of Guanacaste. I will be staying in a house on a sustainable macadamia nut farm that was carved out of the rainforest some time ago by settlers.

State educational resources in the area are lacking, creating the necessity for programs like Project Ganas -- a situation similar, but not identical, to what I discovered among rural indigenous groups during my 2007 study abroad. I am hoping to discover a new sense of solidarity within this community and examine their ties to one another and to the land as I continue to explore the concept of Traditional Ecological Knowledge vis á vis "sustainable" communities.

This will be an opportunity to do a lot of reading, a lot of visiting old friends, perhaps a couple of border crossings into nearby Nicaragua, and some much needed character development. I'm scared as hell to be in charge of my first classroom. Wish me luck!



http://www.projectganas.org/home.html