Hello!! First off, I wanted to say that if you’ve been emailing me most dutifully and lovingly and I haven’t been emailing back, I’m sorry! I’ve been really busy and I only have access to the Internet every couple days, and only for short periods of time. So I love you, even if I haven’t been the best at keeping in touch. Anyway, I just wanted to fill you in quickly, because this Sunday all of the ICADS leave on a trip to Nicaragua for a week and a half and I’m not sure how well I’ll be able to keep in touch. The trip sounds really exciting – we’re going to Managua, Matagalpa, and Granada and some other places that I can’t remember off the top of my head. We’ll be staying with families and attending some workshops about immigration (Nicaraguan immigration is a big deal in Costa Rica, very similar to issues of ‘Mexican’ immigration in the US), as well as some workshops about women and development. I’ll be sure to take pictures while I’m there! On Tuesday, we visited an organic coffee farm way up in the mountains (on horrible, horrible HORRIBLE little tiny roads on sheer cliffs) run by a Costa Rican farmer named Egerico Mora who is part of a cooperation of 30 different families. Egerico gave us a talk about his experience switching over to organic coffee – a brutal process. In the first year after he switched, his production fell from 25 fanagas (some sort of bag measurement, from what I understand) per hectare to only 5, and farmers can’t sell coffee as organic for 3 years after switching because there are still chemicals in the ground, so they aren’t even getting the inflated rate for the little that they are selling. At least that’s what I think he said, he was talking incredibly rapidly and using all sorts of complicated coffee vocab. We got to see a processing plant and we all got lots of free fresh coffee, which everyone said was exceptional, but I never have coffee so it tasted pretty much gross and bitter. But I did finish my cup (for you Dad!). After the talk, we all hiked up to his cattle fields, which were quite literally on the side of a mountain – the slope was over 35 degrees! I felt like I could fall right off of the mountain. We did some testing of soil and something with clinometers and pH tests to test land use capacity. I felt ever so scientific, even though I had absolutely no idea what was going on. Nonetheless, I was very proud of my field work. I even wore one of those silly little hats with the brims on all sides that you like to wear, Dad! Who knows, I may be a scientist yet. Just kidding! Ok, hope that you’re all doing well! Love you all!