Entry 1 - It all begins

San Francisco, 10 August 2007, 9:15 pm.

Well, this is it.  I’m leaving for Costa Rica in a few hours.  I decided to take a red-eye so I could sleep on the plane and get to San José a full day before the expedition begins.  It’s my first time in Costa Rica, so I want to have the chance to see some of the city on my own time.

Even though Earthwatch sent reading materials, and there was a conference call with some of the participants who went on last month’s expedition, I still really don’t know what to expect.  I’m definitely a little bit nervous, but more than anything I’m just incredibly excited.

I have my sunscreen, bug spray, Lonely Planet guide, and big goofy hat (we’ll be spending 13 out of the 14 days we’re in Costa Rica in the field, so we gotta have the hats—and even though it’s the rainy, or “green,” season, it will still be plenty sunny from the time we start working in the fields until the early afternoon rains start)—so I guess I’m as ready as I’ll be.

So far the thing I’m most impressed with is all the preparation materials we’ve gotten from Earthwatch and Starbucks.  This is not just a trip to Costa Rica we’re going on—it’s a full-fledged research fellowship.

Some of the materials include historical readings. I read about Costa Rican history, about coffee’s history in Costa Rica, and the history of the region we’ll be working in, Tarrazú.  I also read information provided by the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment about the grave impact humans have had on the environment, and what needs to be done to stop (if possible) some of the deterioration of our planet.  All that information will provide a great context for the expedition—we won’t just be studying soil erosion; we’ll be studying it with a global perspective.

They also included a workbook, which gave us an opportunity for some pre-research reflection activities—and tons of reading materials, including an awesome book they sent us called Coffee by Luttinger and Dicum, which I had previously read but loved revisiting.  The workbook asked some questions I thought at first were kind of hokey, until I did them.  Like, “How do you define individual?” and “How do you define environment?”  They sound easy until you really stop to think.  And how we define these important concepts determines how we act.  The idea is that we’ll take all this pre-reflection, and then everyday during the project, we’ll have discussions and start to see how our perspectives shift once we’re actually working in the field and meeting the farmers.  The final part of the workbook is for us to take home so we can document what we learned and what impact that will have on our lives.

I know that it’s nearly impossible to begin to address complex issues like organic farming, fair trade, and environmental sustainability from reading about it.  You have to see it first hand, talk to the real stakeholders, get your hands dirty.

So what am I expecting?  More than anything, I’m expecting to change.  One of my best friends and mentor Toby emailed me the day before I left and said simply, “Stretch higher and dig deeper.”  That will be my mantra for this trip.  I can’t go back the same person; that much is for sure.  And along the way, I hope to make some friends with the other participants and the Earthwatch guides.  And then be able to take home this information and experience and put it to good use, by making changes in my own life and then talking about what I’ve learned to people around me, and hope they make changes too.

This is the way small groups of people begin to change the world.

Return to the Travel Blog Homepage to read more stories >
Read my other posts >