Wow. Summer was a long time ago. I have been remiss on my updates, but my excuse is a good one, I think. In an attempt to keep my job within better boundaries, I've been making big efforts to not be on the computer (i.e. working or otherwise) in the evenings and weekends much anymore -- I have not been anywhere near completely successful, but I have been a little bit successful. The kids are now in daycare near to where Mike works, and because of his work/drop-off/pick-up schedule, I have longer workdays than I used to, which means I can get more done during the day. And it means that in not turning the computer back on at night, I (ideally) avoid getting sucked into all the rest of the things that inevitably still aren't finished. So the blog has gotten neglected as well. Hopefully as I get (hopefully) more successful at keeping the job bounded, I'll be better at being more regular again with blogs. But for now, here we are. So, one post about the rest of our summer. And then maybe, if we're lucky, another one (soon) about fall.
Last I left you when we had just arrived to Washington State (in July). Highlights included meet-ups with old friends, including a painting birthday party:
and swims in the river...
We concluded, once again, that despite better (albeit way more stressful) job opportunities in Pittsburgh, we should continue to think about meandering our way back someday to what for us has been better quality of life in the greater Wenatchee area.
The other exciting thing this summer was a trip to Costa Rica. I co-taught a two-week "Global Agriculture" class of Chatham students at our partner institution EARTH University (https://www.earth.ac.cr/en/about-earth/earth-facts/). EARTH is a really really neat place, and it was really fun to visit (and to see an old friend from Minnesota and two from Peru who now live in Costa Rica).
If you have ever been to Whole Foods, and if you have ever bought bananas there, they may have been from the campus banana plantation at EARTH:
The course itself was a combination classroom- and field-based survey of tropical agriculture and food systems:
And for me, it was nice, more broadly, to be back in Latin America...
And, at least in Costa Rica, technology and connected-ness in rural areas has changed in the last 10-15 years, even as other things remain more the same (I suspect the dynamic is similar (although probably not totally the same) in Peru and Panama, whence my comparisons are drawn)
We were able to stay on campus at EARTH, so Mike and the kids could explore and hang out at the apartment or the cafeteria when I had to be gone...
Also, it rained a lot.
Traveling internationally all 5 of us was mostly good, a little bumpy at times, but Costa Rica isn't that far relatively speaking, and it was helpful to be with a bigger group of students...
...especially at 4am in the Charlotte airport after we missed a connection, stood in line for 3 hours to get rebooked, found there were no hotels because lots of flights had had problems that night, and slept on the airport floor for a couple of hours before flying to Ohio and then driving (which was the only way to get home the next day).
Travel complications aside, it was a nice way to end the summer. Now, stay tuned (soon) for more recent updates.
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