I forgot to mention in the last post that before we left Luna Nueva for Las Cruces, we took a day trip to Guatuso in the Maleku indigenous territory. We heard from the cacique of the Maleku people and learned all about their history and culture. We toured their medicinal plant garden, saw a reenactment of a traditional Maleku dance, and even got to try our hand at some archery!
Once everyone was settled into Las Cruces, the data collection began! Everyone in the program broke into groups of 4 to conduct their specific research. My group researched the loss of traditional knowledge of wild edible plant species in an indigenous community. Here is the abstract for those interested:
Wild edible plant and fungi species are invaluable resources for indigenous communities because they provide nutritional value, dietary diversity, and an opportunity for food security. Studies suggest that increasing acculturation in some communities has resulted in the loss of traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) regarding wild foods, a trend that may lead to decreased nutrition and diversity in indigenous diets. In the Brunka indigenous communities in Costa Rica, no research has been done to assess this suggested trend of a diminishing wild food cognitive domain. This study aimed to determine the differences in wild food knowledge among informants of varying ages and genders in Boruca, a main Brunka community. Free-listing was used as a method to evaluate individual knowledge. A species informant curve revealed that approximately 59 species comprise the wild food cognitive domain of adults in Boruca. Our results also indicate that there is a direct linear relationship between age and number of species mentioned.
Non-jargon translation: We found that traditional indigenous knowledge about edible plants in the rainforest is being lost generationally. This was my first experience with field research and writing a scientific paper about my findings, so it was a stressful and tiring couple of weeks (especially because we were studying for finals on top of all the research) ... but the stress all paid off in the end. All the work got done, I did really well on finals, and I gained valuable research experience. Here are some photos from Boruca and our poster session - the presentation of our research and findings to our peers and professors.
Thanksgiving fell in the midst of all this studying and research, however Thanksgiving is a purely American tradition and is not celebrated in Costa Rica. So we passed the holiday writing our papers, studying for finals, and missing home. Much to our astonishment, our professors had been plotting for weeks and surprised us all with a huge Thanksgiving dinner - turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, sweet potatoes, pie ... the whole nine yards! It was a lovely surprise and was arguably the best Thanksgiving I have ever celebrated. After spending the whole day missing home, this surprise dinner helped me to be truly thankful for my wonderful experiences in Costa Rica and all the life-long friends I made in the program.
After Thanksgiving, finals and our research presentations, we were preparing to enjoy our last weekend in Costa Rica at home in the station. But our sneaky professors had another surprise in store ... they told us to pack up all our belongings and took us to a "mystery location" to enjoy our last weekend together. We arrived at Tortuga Beach in Osa on Saturday, and spent the weekend enjoying the beaches and pool. It was one of the best weekends of my life (second only to my Welcome Back Weekend ... more to come on that later!) ... the beach we discovered was totally deserted and was hands-down the most beautiful beach I have ever seen. We spent the nights dancing (salsa with the locals and some American dancing too!) and the days relaxing at the beach, playing in the surf and exploring the sea caves. Here are some pictures from this awesome weekend (sorry there are so many!):
After that unbelievable weekend, we traveled to San Jose. We had our last dinner together, had one last night on the town, said our goodbyes and headed off to the airport.
(My professors and I)
It was a super long journey home (14+ hours in airplanes and airports) ... but I finally made it home! I have been back now for a week, and am so happy to be home with my mum! I also made it down to Providence last weekend to catch up with my friends at PC. It was the best weekend ever!!! My amazing friends threw a surprise welcome back party for me, and it was SO great to be back with my friends!
I think my face in the last photo says it all ... I'M HOME! :)
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.