Patrick's Blog

 River and Duffy Return to Proctor :( (River and Duffy drive down the mountain to get to the airport!) It was our last day spent in Monteverde and in Costa Rica as a whole. In the morning, Duffy spent his time packing up his belongings while simultaneously  watching his favorite soccer team, Brentford FC play against Leeds (the sadly lost, but the Leeds coach is American so Duffy wasn't too upset about it). River and Duffy did some cleaning around the house, emptied out the trash, talked to the owner of the Airbnb and said our goodbyes, and left Monteverde at around noon. River and Duffy wanted to take the toll-free route to the airport to save some cash, but when Duffy clicked on the no-tolls route, Google Maps decided to be an idiot and completely ignore what was commanded  of it by making them go the way with tolls. Not to worry, though, for the tolls turned out to be relatively cheap and the different route gave us a nice view of the beach. When River and Duffy made i...

  Patrick Duffy Kelly Griffin-Brown Senior Project May 22, 2022 Weekly Reflection #2 While last week was spent adjusting to adult life and fitting in time to cook and get groceries, this week was when River and I finally got into a routine. Between the end of the first week and the start of the second week, River and I got sick of cooking and went out a few times, especially when we went to the beach. Eventually though, we went back to cooking our own lunches and eating breakfast at the house in the morning to save us some money. Aside from more adult problems, I learned a lot about myself through my work at the Monteverde Institute. I learned that I can put a lot of effort into my work when I really put my mind to it and I learned that my help can have a large impact on a community. Overall, I was surprised by how much work I actually did at the Institute and that I came super close to reaching the 80 hour requirement in just ten work days (although as of now, the requirement ha...

 River and Duffy's Final Day at the Institute! (Awesome Land Rover spotted! (Shoutout to Dad!)) River and Duffy had one more day left working with the institute, a day that would turn out to be on the challenging side. Thankfully, reinforcements arrived from Winthrop University who were visiting Monteverde to do community service and leadership training. The Winthrop folks started by helping form a fire line to reorganize some of the beds of plants, a tactic that proved to be very productive. Unfortunately, the students decided to opt for the less physically demanding task of filling bags while River and Duffy were left to fill wheelbarrows full of bags and move them everywhere. Today, a lot of cars and trucks came to pick up trees so River and Duffy spent the entire morning loading plants into these vehicles of all shapes and sizes, coming to satisfy their reforestation cravings. After noon, their work at Calandria was done and our heroes returned to the Monteverde Institute ...

 River and Duffy Finish Entering Data! (Duffy hard at work entering data) Today was the first day in which significant rainfall was observed throughout, quite strange how it took this long considering that it is the wet season in Costa Rica. Just like the day before, River and Duffy sat outside, under the cover of the roof, of course, and typed various numbers into a massive spreadsheet. As they worked tirelessly throughout the morning, they lost track of time and realized that they were an hour late for their usual lunch time when they finished! At one o'clock, River and Duffy finished all of the data and happily moved on to other tasks that didn't involve staring at a computer screen for hours. As per usual, they didn't do anything special today as their afternoon was spent packing bags once again. Even though Wyatt and Alida weren't at the institute today, River and Duffy only had one sack of soil that they needed to empty out which made it easy for them to complete ...

 What a Wonderful Day... To Do Spreadsheets (007 James Bug sneaks around in a sneaky disguise) "Boy I can't wait to fill data into spreadsheets all day!" said absolutely nobody at any point in the history of mankind. Unfortunately, the work was necessary and Randy wasn't in town today so it was the best time to deal with it. The first half of the day was pretty productive since Wyatt and Alida were there to help fill in data. In addition to filling data in, Alida and River finished laminating the cards for Daniela before they joined in on the data-entering. Unfortunately, Wyatt and Alida left the institute after noon which left River and Duffy to continue doing work on their own. After Lunch, River and Duffy sat down for three hours straight, mindlessly typing in numbers and letters until their eyes hurt from looking at a computer screen and their legs hurt from sitting so much. Even though they got a lot done today, there is still a good amount of data from paper tha...

 The Institute Thanks River and Duffy (River, Duffy, Wyatt, and Alia listen to Daniela's presentation about her thesis on a special avocado tree) Today, Randy gave River and Duffy a nice sleep in and let them arrive at the Institute at 9 in the morning. Of course, Duffy decided to be an idiot and stay up until midnight watching Youtube videos which caused him to feel tired the next day (when will he ever learn). Regardless, some bowls of cereal and a cup of coffee at the institute helped them start the day right as they began with a lesson from a guest named Daniela about workshops she had done in the past on endemic trees. The fab four then went to Calandria to fill sacks with soil to bring back to the institute to fill more bags (one day they'll actually plant trees into the ground I swear). They didn't just fill bags today, however, and also spent some time helping Daniela by laminating paper images of various trees and birds with plastic. After that, the institute gathe...