Patrick's Blog

 A Day Spent Back on Campus (Throwback to the beach trip!) After a long travel back to the homeland of Andover, New Hampshire, River and Duffy slept in their familiar beds once again. Today, they didn't do much, since they were only required to work on their final Senior Project reflections. Both enjoyed a sleep in for the first time in a while, something much needed after yesterday's travels. For breakfast, Duffy had a classic egg sandwich from Jake's and his first iced coffee of the season. Both River and Duffy agreed that it felt weird to be back at Proctor and they wished that they could stay longer in Costa Rica. However, they are glad that they went and they are excited to graduate! Hours worked today: 1-2 (spent on reflection) Total hours worked: 77

 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...

 Newcomers Arrive at Calandria (Bobby McTaurantula III makes a cameo!) After a much-needed two-day period of rest, River and Duffy continued their quest to reforest Monteverde into the second week. After picking up Wyatt and Alida, the fab four made their way back to Calandria once again to do various tasks for the triumvirate of Victorino, Lorenzo, and Rigo. River and Duffy split ways with Wyatt and Alida in order to help Lorenzo fill people's trucks with trees while the other two filled more bags. During their work, a van full of middle-aged tourists from England and the U.S. entered Calandria with the goal of helping out. First, Victorino gave them a presentation about what the institute is doing and how their work will contribute. Apparently, Randy wanted River and Duffy to listen to the conversation but they were busy helping Lorenzo. The group of tourists split in two with one half filling bags and the other rearranging saplings while River and Duffy finished loading trees in...

  My First Week Back Returning to Costa Rica for the first time in two years was both oddly strange and familiar in many ways. I could feel the emotions of excitement and ecstasy that I once felt as a younger, slightly shorter sophomore right as I left the airport. Unlike our first trip to Monteverde, however, River and I had a lot more responsibilities that we had to deal with ourselves. The first thing was acquiring a rental car, a process which was made much more stressful thanks to the fact that River’s credit card didn’t have enough money so we had to use a debit card but the rental car guys wouldn’t let us pay for the standard insurance package with a debit card for some reason so river and I had to use both out debit cards to pay for the most expensive insurance package, hence why I keep referring to our car as the “overpriced blue Toyota” on my blog. When we finally got our car, I was in charge of navigating to Monteverde, a task that I took for granted when Proctor’s Mon...

River and Duffy Conquer Calandria (River puts soil into a bag with a tree in it) With the eggs in questionable condition and the motivation to cook their own breakfast nonexistent, River and Duffy started the day by acquiring breakfast at the local café. Instead of working at the Monteverde Institute, they were escorted to the Calandria tree nursery where the five thousand new trees were unloaded the day before. Many of the saplings outgrew their bags or didn't have enough soil in their bag to sustain them. Therefore, River, Duffy, Wyatt, and Alida spent all morning filling bags to the brim with extra soil and replacing worn out bags in some cases. During their free time, the four heroes admired a nearby army ant colony as it marched across the parking lot and devoured any bugs that came near. Wyatt and Alida once again decided that working in the morning was sufficient and took the afternoon off. For lunch, River and Duffy returned to an old favorite, Choco Café, and reminisced ab...

 River and Duffy Go on their Biggest Quest Yet (Duffy attempts to take a nap after a long days of work and traveling) During his slumber in the night, a vision came to Duffy. The legendary Mark Wainwright spoke to him and told him of a hidden tree nursery with thousands of saplings, perfect for the war effort against deforestation. Duffy asked Mark, "Where should I go to find these trees?" To which Mark responded, "You must travel to the village of Tronadora, next to the grand Lake Arenal. But hurry! Every second counts!" At five in the morning, River and Duffy rose from their beds, made sandwiches for the journey, picked up Wyatt and Alida, and arrived at the institute at six. From there, our four heroes crammed into a Toyota Land Cruiser from an era in which Duffy's parents could proudly say that they were full of youth. The drive from Monteverde to Tronadora took two gruesome hours as we sat in the back on the bench-like seats that made us look like soldiers ...

 River and Duffy Bring New Life to This World This morning, Duffy walked downstairs only to see River still in bed, half asleep, and in a worse mood than Duffy's sister most mornings. River did get up earlier to attempt to cook the beans but according to Google Translate, ten hours were required for the beans to be sufficiently soaked before cooking; chicken and rice for lunch once again. Once at the Monteverde Institute, River, Duffy, Wyatt, and Alida were assigned to weeding and trimming the plants in the medicinal garden, a mythical, eden-like garden with plants that could cure sunburns to plants that made one's soap smell good. After spending all morning revitalizing the forgotten part of the institute's property as well as filling more bags of soil, Wyatt and Alida decided to take the afternoon off since they didn't have an egregious 80 hour work quota to achieve. Left to their own devices, River and Duffy spent the rest of the afternoon planting seeds into empty b...

 River and Duffy Prepare for Battle (River attempts to use technology, something he struggles greatly with) A long first day of work tired our heroes so much that they fell into a deep slumber at just 8 o'clock at night. In the morning, a debate over how to properly prepare chicken and egg fried rice put River and Duffy in a time crunch. However, thanks to the speed of the noble steed, the blue, overpriced Toyota, they reached the Monteverde Institute on time for work. Today, they were once again joined by Alida and Wyatt and together, the four of them spent the whole day filling bags with soil and relocating saplings to different locations. Thankfully, Wyatt brought his speaker which allowed the quartet to enjoy River's rock playlist while they filled bags of dirt. After work, Duffy got word from an old friend, Kathia, that she and a group of fellow Proctor students wanted to reunite with him and River. They set off for the center of town and, after two years, finally got to s...

River and Duffy Return to Old Roots Two years after a horrific pandemic put the world to a stop, our two heroes, River and Duffy, made their return to the breathtaking scenes, astounding rainforests, and affable locals of Monteverde, Costa Rica. The two boys acquired their noble steed, an overpriced blue Toyota, and swerved up and down the windy roads of the Costa Rican countryside before making the trek up the magnificent mountains to the mystical Cloud Forest. Once there, River and Duffy were eager for a new quest and discovered that there was work to be done at the Monteverde Institute, a bastion of environmentalism and rainforest protection. The institute had been spearheading reforestation projects for over twenty years and needed the help of two exceptional people to make a push for their final goal: reforest a corridor from the mountains down to the Pacific Ocean. With the guidance of Sir Randy of San Jose, River and Duffy reorganized two tree nurseries, preparing saplings for t...