Lilia Bellahcen, Grade 12
UWC Costa Rica
Every year, UWC students are asked to dedicate one week to community service. The school assigns the different activities available to different groups of students. This year, I had the incredible opportunity to spend a week at the Monteverde Children’s Eternal Rainforest with an equally amazing group. Our two guides were no less than Jeff, our passionate expert in nature and the secrets it holds, and Steven, our awesome student counselor who was nominated best staff member of the year in his first year at UWC.
After four long hours on the road, our bus finally stopped. However, we still had a two hour hike to finally reach the station we were supposed to spend the night in. Our excitement overcame our laziness and we found ourselves happy to walk all together surrounded by a plethora of things that were unknown to us. Two hours was a very optimistic approximation of the time that was supposed to take us the ascension, as every twenty meters Jeff would stop to explain the fascinating properties of some plant, insect, or animal.
Once at the station, we learned too late that there was neither a network connection or hot water in this place. However, the group’s energy turned every inconvenience into an adventure and a positive experience. We had the well determined goal of learning more about the rainforest and how they were preserving it and its biodiversity.
For more context, this rainforest was saved by Swedish students in 1987 after they heard about the threat agriculture development was posing to the Pacific side of Costa Rica. These children raised enough money to purchase six hectares of rainforest that are now owned by a non-profit organization named the MCL (Monteverde Conservation League). The organization’s mission is “to conserve, preserve, and rehabilitate tropical ecosystems and their biodiversity." (Burlingame, 2020). The rainforest is now named the Children’s Eternal Rainforest (in Spanish Bosque Eterno De Los Niños) in honor of those who saved it.
Later that afternoon, we ventured into the forest for the first time. This rainforest had an astounding diversity of species and everyone was experimenting with it in a different way. The passionate Gaby, from Spain and France, was capturing nature’s beauty with her camera. Miguel, our indispensable Mexican, was placing camera tracks everywhere with Jeff. Eveline, the lovely german, was studying pipers and counting all of the different species present in the forest. I, on the other hand, was always accompanied with the recorder that Jeff entrusted to me.
I spent my week recording and learning more about bird calls. The lack of network pushed us to bond and connect with each other on a deeper level. This allowed me to have very interesting talks with every single person (especially with my new friend Steven ;) ). Everyone was bringing their own touch to this trip. Tamar’s guitar embellished our time in the station. Guillermo’s hilariousness kept us laughing all day long. And Makena’s angelic voice sang us deep messages.
This experience brought us together and relieved us from everyday life’s stress. It raised our awareness and let us want to protect this ecosystem that has so much to offer. It is my hope that the next generations experiencing this will fall in love with this place as much as we did and that it will make them grow both culturally and personally.
Citations:
Burlingame, L. (2020, January 15). History. ACMCR. Retrieved July 25, 2022, from https://acmcr.org/content/about-us/history/
After four long hours on the road, our bus finally stopped. However, we still had a two hour hike to finally reach the station we were supposed to spend the night in. Our excitement overcame our laziness and we found ourselves happy to walk all together surrounded by a plethora of things that were unknown to us. Two hours was a very optimistic approximation of the time that was supposed to take us the ascension, as every twenty meters Jeff would stop to explain the fascinating properties of some plant, insect, or animal.
Once at the station, we learned too late that there was neither a network connection or hot water in this place. However, the group’s energy turned every inconvenience into an adventure and a positive experience. We had the well determined goal of learning more about the rainforest and how they were preserving it and its biodiversity.
For more context, this rainforest was saved by Swedish students in 1987 after they heard about the threat agriculture development was posing to the Pacific side of Costa Rica. These children raised enough money to purchase six hectares of rainforest that are now owned by a non-profit organization named the MCL (Monteverde Conservation League). The organization’s mission is “to conserve, preserve, and rehabilitate tropical ecosystems and their biodiversity." (Burlingame, 2020). The rainforest is now named the Children’s Eternal Rainforest (in Spanish Bosque Eterno De Los Niños) in honor of those who saved it.
Later that afternoon, we ventured into the forest for the first time. This rainforest had an astounding diversity of species and everyone was experimenting with it in a different way. The passionate Gaby, from Spain and France, was capturing nature’s beauty with her camera. Miguel, our indispensable Mexican, was placing camera tracks everywhere with Jeff. Eveline, the lovely german, was studying pipers and counting all of the different species present in the forest. I, on the other hand, was always accompanied with the recorder that Jeff entrusted to me.
I spent my week recording and learning more about bird calls. The lack of network pushed us to bond and connect with each other on a deeper level. This allowed me to have very interesting talks with every single person (especially with my new friend Steven ;) ). Everyone was bringing their own touch to this trip. Tamar’s guitar embellished our time in the station. Guillermo’s hilariousness kept us laughing all day long. And Makena’s angelic voice sang us deep messages.
This experience brought us together and relieved us from everyday life’s stress. It raised our awareness and let us want to protect this ecosystem that has so much to offer. It is my hope that the next generations experiencing this will fall in love with this place as much as we did and that it will make them grow both culturally and personally.
Citations:
Burlingame, L. (2020, January 15). History. ACMCR. Retrieved July 25, 2022, from https://acmcr.org/content/about-us/history/
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