Day 3 of Classes

 This morning we had the opportunity to work with EARTH students at the organic farm that is on their campus.  Our task was to work with the compost.  This consisted of bagging up all the compost ready to go into the field and then we had to move all 4 piles of compost into its next location to help mix it and expose it to air.  We had a great time but got really dirty and are probably not going to be able to lift our arms tomorrow, but it was worth it!

 Me, Orlando, and Sean after we worked in the bean field for awhile.  Orlando is the older gentleman and all he talked about was taking a picture with me so he wanted me to run back across the field to get my camera which I did.  So I got one picture with him and then Sean joined the picture, he wanted to stand on the other side of me but Orlando didn't want him to "touch me" even though you can see his hand on my shoulder!  Orlando has been working at EARTH for a long time and taught me all about beans and how to harvest them and Sean is from Kenya studying here at EARTH.

 Still at the organic farm standing in the patch of sugar cane.  Many of the students at break cut pieces off to suck on at break but none offered and I didn't have a machete like they all did to try a piece.

 This afternoon we went into EARTH's forest reserve on their property where they have some virgin forests with some HUGE trees.  We also were able to see spider monkeys in the canopy but I couldn't get good pictures.  We also had a pit viper that was on the walking trail that 3 people walked over before we saw it.  After that I really didn't want to remove my eyes from the ground!  The forest here is beautiful with so many unique aspects and creatures!

After we got done on our hike through the reserve we jumped in the river and swam around for about an hour before dinner.

Overall today was a great day and I learned a lot at both the organic farm working with EARTH students as well as in the forest reserve learning about the tropical forest ecosystem.  Tomorrow we are leaving early yet again to go and tour a pineapple and black pepper production field and facility as well as a lecture in the afternoon about conservation of tropical forests.