June 26th-Sustainability

Greetings from the sunny beaches of Puerto Viejo! Once again, I am Kendra Gibbs from Bethune Cookman University. We began our day very early this morning with breakfast at our hotel, Namu Woki, and then a trek to Manzanillo, which is a small town near Puerto Viejo populated primarily by Afro-Caribbean Costa Ricans. Our plan for the day was to begin with cooking lessons, followed by interviews with locals about their life in this part of the country. Today was really exciting for me because we got to cook! Miss. Luba a local lady who taught us how to make “journey cakes” ( in patois sounds like “johnny cakes”) over an open flame! I’m not sure that I’ve ever had bread with lard in it before this trip, but it was awesome.

During the cooking lessons, we also got mini-lectures about Afro-Caribbean culture. We learned that the people in Miss Luba’s neighborhood were currently battling local government for the right to stay on the land they’ve lived on for generations! If allowed to move forward with there plans fifteen homes including Miss Luba’s home will be the first to be torn down. The government plans on kicking people out of their homes to create nature preserves. I commend the government for wanting to preserve Costa Rican land. However I question if the government knows the indigenous and Afro-Caribbean peoples customs they waste nothing and produce the least amount of synthetic waist possible. An example would be the lunch we were served in banana leaves, most Americans would have provided paper plates for such a large group. We also learned that Miss Luba’s children and the neighborhood children speak English, French, and Spanish in school. That was truly amazing to me that here I making feeble cave man attempts at Spanish and Miss Luba’s 9th grade daughter is trilingual!
After our cooking and culture lessons, we broke down into smaller groups to have one-on-one interviews with some of the other locals. This was designed to help us learn more about their life in Puerto Viejo. We actually devoted a whole class period in San Jose to developing interview questions for this wonderful learning opportunity. One thing we have learned is that there are three distinct cultural groups in this country, and this really came to life when we arrived here this week.

Elyse, Ryan, and I, had a chance to take a walk along the beach while interviewing our guide Andy. Andy was a character. Just to give you a little background, Andy is a Afro-Caribbean Puerto Viejo native and he is also Miss. Luba’s brother. Andy informed us that he does catering work similar to his sister who sells journey cakes in town; they both love cooking. Andy kept the group laughing as our new canine friends followed us along the beach while we asked him questions about growing up in Costa Rica , specifically the Pacific region, and his family. Andy told us that he loves the simplicity and sustainability the land offers (a concept very different from the American way of life). After all , if the food doesn’t come from a supermarket/grocery store, then we usually don’t have it in our kitchen, and rarely do Americans grow crops unless we’ve taken gardening up as a hobby. We discussed with Andy that most Americans didn’t know the first thing about growing “produce” and that we had many people in the US that went hungry at night. Being that Andy has visited the US before he knew what we were talking about. He laughed at the notion in Puerto Viejo, one would have to really work at being hungry in Puerto Viejo with bread fruit, plantain and citrus fruit aligning the streets. I couldn’t help but wish we had the skills and resources to in the US to help families that struggle.

Our time with Andy was quite informative and educational. In addition to learning about his way of life, we also came to know the general culture of Puerto Viejo, which is very different from San Jose, the capitol of Costa Rica. I really appreciated spending time with Andy. I am sure I learned a lot from our “interview” that I probably couldn’t capture from the things we have been learning from our course work. Even though both are very important,, there’s nothing like speaking to someone from a particular group or culture to truly understand what it means to be a part of that community.

Once we completed our walk with Andy, the class met for lunch at Maxi’s. The restaurant was near the beach, and it seemed as though everyone enjoyed his/her meal. Since we had a break in schedule, several of us caught the last rays of sun the day had to offer, and others planned to go snorkeling, courtesy of Andy! As for a few others and me, we just threw in the towel and fell asleep the moment we sat still. We returned to the hotel for some rest, and then gathered around 6:30 to depart for dinner at Johnathon’s Afro-Caribbean Restaurant.

So far, spending time with Luba has been one of my favorite activities! It’s not every day you learn to bake with no oven! We’re more than half way through our study abroad program. Luba is waiting to give cooking lessons and the people in Puerto Viejo are some of the warmest people we’ve met on the trip, I hope some of you are clearing your schedules for next summer to join Dr. Harris on her annual study abroad trip! Well, it’s been a pleasure Pura Vida!!!!!!!