Week 2: From Bacteria to Birdwatching

Wow, this week has been an adventure. It began with the loco-ness of formulating a research project and ended with a bike ride through the jungle during a rainstorm in short shorts without bug spray and a tire that randomly detached from my friend’s bike 6 miles in. I love it here. 

(Broken Bike - 06/15/24)

Here at EARTH, students are BUSY, having classes and work experience from Monday to Saturday. But even though the days start earlier (classes typically start at 6:30 AM) and end later (many classes end at 4:45 PM), they fly by because the classes incorporate many engaging, interesting field activities. 

I traveled to a Yuca plantation and processing plant with the first-year tropical agriculture class, and we didn’t just observe the vast fields of Yuca. We felt the sun and sweat (sudor) dripping down our backs (espaldas) and saw the farmer’s passion for their work and each other. At the end of the tour, they all hugged and even called us family. So this field trip gave us a better understanding of the operations and a glance into the life to help us discover our interests and passions.

(Yuca Processing Plant - 06/11/24)

In entomology (I LOVE ENTOMOLOGY), we inoculated bugs with fungus to observe the biocontrol in action (the fungus slowly taking over their bodies). But while my friends and I were observing the biocontrol’s spores with the microscope, one of our pests escaped from the hands of a student, and we all charged for it with brooms and nets. Poor insect (pobrecito), I don’t know what’s scarier, a bunch of giant brooms thrusting at you or a fungus (hongo) infiltrating and degrading your guts. 

(Insect on the Loose in Entomology - 06/10/24)

In Natural Science, we examined different types of cells, using spores from moldy glasses in the lab and real-life blood from students. Each table had to put forth a “volunteer” to draw blood (sangre). 

Mauricio, one of the head administrators and my supervisor, has connected me to so many once-in-a-lifetime, fascinating classes and experiences. Next week he has arranged for me to travel with the fourth-year students to the rice plantations on the other side of the country to understand this critical agricultural system as well.

There is such a strong culture of care throughout EARTH. Even though the staff, students, and faculty are swarmed with work, they always go out of their way to help one another. In my case, Fio, probably the busiest person ever, made time to go to the library and Yoga class with me. Frida always invites me to dinner. My friend Ronal is helping guide me through the research process. He helped me create a monitoring schedule and biked for 20-25 minutes with me in the glaring sun to show me the farm I would investigate. Professor Jaime cleared his schedule for the day to help me improve my project design and answer my trillions of questions. The students call the staff in the cafeteria “ma” and “pa” because EARTH really is one giant family. 

I spent the majority of my week running around to gather ideas and supplies for my project. I am examining the effects of the bacteria Bacillus subtilis on plant growth in lettuce. This bacteria lives in the rhizosphere (zone of soil surrounding the root), and it is especially tolerant (tolerante) to extreme conditions and helps the plant uptake nutrients. Because of these characteristics, these plant-growth-promoting rhizobacteria are crucial to helping plants resist severe climactic events and previously inhospitable conditions. 

Two slight issues I ran into: (1) All of the buildings look the same. (2) Communicating experimental design in Spanish is hard. 

Before my project, I did not envision the most difficult part being locating professors and bacteria. But indeed, there are three IDENTICAL sectors of office buildings with tiny little name labels on the doors. But by trial, error, and circling campus approximately 50 times (by frustration, grit, and sweat), I finally found Professor Jaime. We were able to communicate well in slow Spanish, but I did switch to English a few times to clarify certain matters like the frequency at which I should apply the bacteria. 

My design is straightforward. It features five treatments of the bacteria at different concentrations, including a control group with no bacteria. However, the ultimate challenge of my project so far has been locating the bottle of Bacillus subtilis from within the depths of the isolated, well-camouflaged organic banana farm. 

Originally, I thought this farm was intertwined with the other banana plantations on the outskirts of campus. I rode my bike out to the plantations and walked through the rows of trees searching for 10 minutes until I found someone. BUT, he did not know where the organic banana farm was and could not speak English. So we kept walking along until we found another worker. He could speak English but did not know where the organic banana farm was. So we all kept walking until we found someone who knew, and he told me the dirt path leading to the organic banana farm was, in fact, right next to my dorm. So, I went back and found the hidden path (camino) leading up to it, but the workers had left by then. I looked around at the bananas and laughed at myself. Story of my life. 

My biggest takeaway: Don’t go in blind or unsure. ALWAYS ask for help sooner rather than later. 

This past Saturday, I did go to work experience in bioinputs (bioinsumos) with my best friend Fhernando. I wanted to familiarize myself with the materials and processes I will need to create my own specialized, natural fertilizer for my lettuce (lechuga) plants. 

Fhernando and I had a wonderful time shoveling animal dung (caca), stomping the dung off of our boots, rotating compost piles, and tasting liquid fertilizer with a pH of less than 4.2 (containing a ton of live microorganisms). We built up our microbiomes together. 

Right after we got back, I insisted Fhernando come bird-watching with me, but as soon as I met up with him and a few other friends, it started pouring. We grabbed our raincoats, besides poor Tatiana, who got thoroughly soaked, and zoomed into the path leading through the forest. Unfortunately, there were no birds out, but even better, we saw monkeys, red poisonous frogs (ranas), and snakeskin. The path was extremely hilly and extremely rocky; so much so that Matthew’s tire decided to quit and leave the bike, Tatiana’s phone flew out of her pocket on the way there, and I got a few mouths full of mosquitos. We also used a collapsed log of bamboo to play Limbo. The “fun things to do in your free time” list here at EARTH remains unmatched. 

(Rainforest Limbo - 06/15/24) 

EARTH University is heavily characterized by its sustainable and eco-conscious outlook. Its hands-on classes teach students how to utilize sustainable alternatives like natural pesticides and fertilizers in their future careers. The campus lives in harmony with nature, welcoming biodiversity from the rainforest into the campus tree canopies (I still haven’t seen a sloth, but I know I will!). Nearly all of the classrooms and the cafeteria are partly outdoors (they don’t have walls). There is no hot water because it’s not needed here, and everywhere I look, there’s a notice reading “Cada gota cuenta” (each drop counts) to remind students to be conscious of their resource usage. All of the food is locally sourced and extraordinarily fresh (fresca). EARTH University perfectly models the sustainable living we should all engage in and it passes this wisdom to its students. 

As I adapt to the wonderful life here and learn how to nurture this planet, I feel endlessly thankful. I’ll end this blog post again with “Pura Vida” = pure life. 

(Fhernando and I - 06/15/24)