“Our first week” or “Nuestra primera semana”

Welcome to FBC

Monday morning we finally officially met Jean, the director. She welcomed us with the official powerpoint for FBC. That day we did some weeding, mulching, trimming, spread compost, wheelbarrow carrying… Back breaking work. And my back definitely broke. I had to take a painkiller Monday night because I couldn’t move without screeching. I’m hoping that my back will get stronger. I was fine on Tuesday!

Yesterday we met the “Tree Guy” who I really hope that I’ll have the chance to work with. He is an autodidact arborist and a fascinating person. He speaks in a constant stream of consciousness from subjects ranging from trees to Celtic history to space travel. We spent the rainy day planting hemlock and burr oak among the reforestation / restoration space in what was an agricultural field. Any time he would speak, I felt like a sponge soaking up as much of the information that he threw at us as possible. Once he felt that we had planted enough trees to appease the director, he brought us into the woods on a nature walk. This man knows exactly how to make me happy! It was great to get back into the woods and oil up my rusty interpretation skills and get a couple of new facts for my bag of tricks. 

He then let us go dry off and defrost in the Greenhouse where we spent the last hour of our work day talking about natural history. In truth, I should say that he spent the last hour of our workday talking about natural history. One of his tangents was about how ocean life sedimented to the bottom, became oil, then coal, then diamonds. So really, diamonds are condensed life. That blew my mind. Last night’s dinner was the first official Spanish night where we all could only speak Spanish. It was a huge success and E and I had prepped by putting up flashcards all over the cabin on the appropriate objects. The mix of Spanish in the group is great. From completely fluent (A grew up in Costa Rica) to those of us who need a lot of practice, we made the conversation work!

Today, I woke up to the smell of pancakes and coffee. Thank god for morning people! Our breakfast crew consists of the E and me, the two girls living at the conference centre across the path from the solar panel and the three boys living in the off-site “Ay-Papi” centre. The other two boys, living in the Cheerio fend for themselves in the morning. At 9am, we made our way the 10m to the conference centre where we had a 3-hour lesson on organic gardening with S, J’s partner and co-bear-hunter. We were all really interested in that part. 

Lunch was in the main house as is the norm on weekdays and then this afternoon we planted some more trees with the Tree Guy. After the trees, J, the intern coordinator/ex-army guy decided to give us a tool care/safety talk. We learned how to bevel an axe, sharpen and use a scythe and care for knives. Once we were finished with him, we had just enough time to learn about biodynamic gardening with one of the permanent staff at the centre.

Now, I’m sitting in my living room writing while two of the boys cook dinner for the nine of us. Four of us are sitting here in comfortable silence, each doing our own thing, and soon we will all assemble to eat, chat and laugh as we have done for the past few nights.

We have initiated a few fun things, including Spanish dinners at least two nights a week and one uniquely Spanish speaking cabin (not this one). We might be having a party this weekend with the staff. I’m enjoying the fact that we already have running jokes and stories. I’m feeling very positive about this internship thus far and I’m looking forward to tomorrow when we will be learning about the alternative energy component of the centre and dismantling a wind turbine.