Pat Foster, The Reserve, and Wilf

On my first day at the Cloud Forest School, we took the third and fourth graders to the Monteverde Reserve. The kids got off the bus and immediately ran off to crowd around this old guy sitting at a picnic table eating a brownie. I asked another teacher, "Who is that?" Turns out, he is Wilf, short for Wilfred, one of the original 11 Quaker settlers in Monteverde. The kids all know him, and he seems to know their parents and grandparents. When the kids finally left him for some instruction, I talked to him for awhile. What an interesting guy. He says in 1950 when they arrived, they bought some land from the government that had some dairy farms on it. They built the Quaker Meeting House and school and raised sugar cane. They also made some cheese and took it to local towns to sell it. Three of his sons grew up and moved to the U.S. and sent money back. Some of that money was used to buy the land that is now the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve.





We saw a Quetzal on our hike through the reserve. It is a beautiful and rare bird. I doubt the kids will ever see one again. We also saw a sloth. Pretty cool.

This is Pat Foster in approprite rain gear at night on the road by our house. Remember I said the road was about a 40-45 degree angle? Pat says I am wrong- that it is around 60 degrees. We decided to get Kaz to figure out a way to measure the angle since he is taking Geometry. (He is in 7th grade at home, but they have put him in 9th grade here).

This next picture shows Pat Foster dancing and singing at the Beatles concert last Saturday. I just want the folks at HHMI to know that I showed her a good time. The picture below shows Kaz making candy from boiled sugar cane juice at the farm. He added some coconut, and we took it with us to share with our dinner hosts on Sunday night. It was both fun to make and good to eat.

This last picture shows Pat and Kaz in an oxcart at the farm. The ox right in front of Kaz pooped a few minutes later while it was pulling us. Kaz had just been talking about how most animals "just go whenever and wherever they want," so we were all pretty amused.