Rewarding Experiences

By Christy Jones

What an amazing day we had on the last day of 2012!

We started our morning off by hiking to a local farmer’s property and helped him plant his crop of beans. Young coffee plants were already growing and we planted six to seven rows of beans in between. We poked a hole in the ground with a stick and placed three beans in the hole.

We were told that there were three reasons for planting the beans in with the coffee. One reason was to add nitrogen to the ground. Beans are a legumes and which are filled with nitrogen, which the coffee beans benefit from. The second and third were  to prevent erosion with a cover crop and to keep the weeds under control. We only did half of the field at first. As a whole we decided to continue and plant the rest of the half-acre. What would take the farmer two or three days to plant we planted in two hours.

It was a lot of hard work but one of the most rewarding experiences I have had thus far. Selfless service is my favorite of the core values. And it was an amazing feeling to know we worked together as a team and helped this farmer. This country has been such an eye opening experience for me.

That evening we all got ready to go to La Fortuna to ring in the New Year with the locals at block party with music, food and dance. It was amazing. My favorite part of the evening was dancing with an older gentleman. I love to dance and it allowed me to feel like I was back in my element. He had to teach me a little of the steps, but I caught on quick. The fireworks at midnight were beautiful. The last day of 2012 was one of my favorite days out of the whole year as far as memories and friendships go. I can’t wait to see what the rest of this trip has in store for us!