What's up guys?
Another day another fun experience at EARTH University! I woke up bright and early around 5:30 so I could make my way down to the cafeteria. For breakfast I soiled my one day record of eating something without rice by eating, you guessed it, rice. It was a yellow rice with meat in it, so that's a bit of a change! After gulping down breakfast, I put on some working pants and boots and made my way to the farm!
This was the first time I walked to the farm on my own since I've been here, so needless to say I was a little nervous about getting lost in the rainforest with nothing to defend myself besides sarcasm and a bottle of water I had in my backpack. I pass through a lot of landmarks on my way to the farm so I've started to remember them. I go through a mechanic shop that services the EARTH vehicles, pass the futbol fields and the pool, head up the hill with a sign that says "Animal Production Unit" (this sign was my saving grace), cross the pipes that go over the river, and just go straight until you see the farm. This walk takes around 10-15 minutes which can either be brutal or pleasant depending on the heat.
When I got to the farm I realized that I was the only non-EARTH staff there. The other students only have to go to the farms wednesdays and saturdays. I'll be working on the farm for the rest of the week so I'll be the only person under 18 tomorrow. I spent another day at the pig farm which was quite eventful!
I worked with Don Luis's co-worker Don Jorge all day. We mucked out the stalls, emptied the bathing areas, hosed the stalls down, fed the pigs their regular food (mineral powder), fed them fruit from breakfast's leftovers, swept the halls, and then re filled the bathing area with new water.
Towards the end of my time at the pig farm Profe Moro stopped by to talk to me about my schedule and what's going to happen while I'm here. We talked about a lot of interesting projects and activities that I could help with in addition to the cattle welfare project. I'm so excited!
There's a grazing system project that was started by a senior that I could help with. A grazing system is basically dictating where and when grazing animals (mostly cows and other ruminants) eat.The grazing system that was created by this student has split up a few acres of land into several subsections separated by electric fences. Cows are allowed to eat one plot of land for a full day or until the grass is basically trimmed to the ground. Once the cows have eaten that they are put into a different plot the next day. The old plot is torn up so that new grass could be planted in it's place. The system goes on and on. It's sustainable because you can have a small area of land and maintain it easily.
There's a composting project where we breed worms in these big compost containers (which are basically lanes separated by cinder blocks) in order to keep up with the amount of manure that needs to be composted or made into biofuel. This is sustainable because learning how to compost waste quickly and how to breed worms more is great for eliminating future waste. Farmers in small developing countries often don't have specific garbage areas, so they let garbage stay around or dump it in the river. It's easier, gives nutrients back to the soil, and eliminates a lot of waste.
Another thing Profe Moro talked to me about was selectively breeding certain cows in order to create ideal cows that could be used at EARTH. We would breed to get traits such as a higher udder, shorter nipples, better legs, and easy to breed. These cows need to produce milk well while also being comfortable in hot and humid conditions. This is important and sustainable because picking the right genetic breeding line will enable farmers in the local area, EARTH students, and possibly people abroad to see which breeding combination gives the most ideal traits.
I'm going to be doing even more fun things these next few weeks or so. Saturday I'll be monitoring cows with Profe Moro to see which ones are lame and to monitor which cows would be ideal to breed. Wednesday I'll be castrating piglets with Don Luis, which is going to be super exciting. After this week I'll be all over the farm! One week I might work in the milking parlour, the next I could be taming calves, after that I might work with sheep, and many other things!
After I finished work at the farm I took a quick shower and got lunch, pork chops with veggies and bread (sorry pigs!). I went to the library to hang out and work on part of this post and some of my paper. I went for my spanish lesson with Profe Villalobos which went a lot better! I found out that there were better ways to say things, learned past tenses, and talked about my schedule in spanish. Profe Villalobos invited me to a pizza/movie party with a few of her "chicas" from africa. Oh, and I'm going to be teaching English! I'm going to start tomorrow and help students study for their English midterms. I'm so excited!
I watched part of the game (Japan vs Greece aka nobody can score for their lives) and then went to Profe's classroom for the pizza party and the movie. There were 8 other girls there, all from africa, who were Profe's chica's and students. We watched most of 127 hours and talked about it. It was nice to talk around these girls because they struggled with spanish too!
Well, I better go to bed! Another early start and day at the farm!
Bye!
-Allie
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