Tropical Forest Adventures

We recently spent a week in the forests of tropical Belize.  This was fitting, as it was our Tropical Forest Ecology course.  In fact, professor Jeff Port (Bethel University) took this quite seriously and made sure that we spent as little time in the building classroom, and as much time in the forest classroom as possible.

Learning about the strangler fig, a parasitic plant that grows around and smothers trees

Between the Chiquibul Forest Reserve (part of the largest national park in Belize) and our own 17-acre campus, there was no scarcity of things to explore, discover and learn from in the wilderness.  Thankfully we also had Jeff's expansive wealth of knowledge to help us focus our lenses and teach us the things that nature couldn't overtly tell us.

Gallivanting about in the forest with notebooks and binoculars in hand, we got to do and see some pretty amazing stuff.  For example:

See the dewlap of an anole (a male anole will display his brightly-colored dewlap to assert territorial dominance or attract a mate).

Try a taste of a termite (yes, you can eat them!  They taste like carrots or mint, depending on whom you ask).

Marissa grabs an unsuspecting termite off its mound

Have class literally in the middle of the (beautiful) bush,

Learning about relationships and adaptations in the forest

Eat lunch at the mouth of a cave.

Rio Frio cave in southwestern Belize

See Christmas plants in 80-degree weather.

Taylor discovers that we have poinsettia trees on our campus

And if you're lucky, you may even get the opportunity to push Harvey, our 15-passenger van, through some mud.

Handprint aftermath

One of the favorite activities of the week was mist-netting with birds.

Mara, Eric and Taylor scrutinize a Spot-breasted wren

Jeff, who has professional training in catching and banding birds, showed us how to catch some birds and hold them (without harming them), study them a little bit and let them go in a short enough time so as not to stress them out.

A Tawny-crowned greenlet

The stunning Blue bunting

Some of the students even got the chance to hold a bird in their open palms when Jeff was ready to release it.  Many times, the bird would lie there resting for a few moments before it realized that it was free to fly away (which was quite amusing).

Ren enraptured by the Ochre-bellied flycatcher

Rachel overcomes her fear of birds with the help of an adorably
 oblivious Dusky antbird

We certainly learned a lot from our adventures, and as usual the Belizean forest did not disappoint!

Dreams of A Better World

Part 2 of our God & Nature course was nothing short of inspiring and thought provoking.  Professor Corwynn Beals (George Fox University) invited us to try on different lenses for the week as he presented theological and philosophical questions surrounding issues such as good, evil, and humans' place in separating and judging things as such.

He also led us through a bit of self-exploration to uncover some of our core beliefs that affect why we choose to live the ways that we live.  Once we uncovered these, and analyzed the deception and/or truth in them, we thought about what some of the core beliefs of our culture are, and how these may be hindering us from achieving the dreams that God has for his world.

There were several incredibly hopeful moments throughout the class.  One powerful instance was when the students all sat down together and brainstormed about dreams for how to create a better world, based on the discussion and reading they had been doing all week.  They also thought individually on the matter and presented papers with practical, first-step solutions that they could carry out back home.

A theme woven throughout the week was having class in outdoor settings, whether that was on our 2nd floor deck, walking along the Mopan River, standing in the water at Monkey Falls, or hiking to the place where the Macal & Mopan rivers meet up to form the Belize River.  True to its title, this week was certainly one that more deeply informed our relationships with both God and nature.

Hanging out at Monkey Falls after class

foot bridge over the Mopan river

Many thanks to Corwynn for leading such an influential and valuable week!

Food & Faith & Volleyball

During the first week of our God & Nature course, professor Uko Zylstra (Calvin College) took us through some pretty tough issues.  We thought a lot about food ethics, how nutrition relates to our faith, and the interconnectedness of ecological health, human health, economic health and community health.  We also took a look at the Bible through an agrarian lens, with the help of Ellen Davis' book, "Scripture, Culture, and Agriculture."

In between classes this week, we found many opportunities to enjoy our jungle campus.  Among other things, we cooled off in the river a few times,

and played some volleyball in the garden.

Lauren serves it up

It was supposed to be a friendly, relaxed event, but professor Uko brought his game face and it quickly became competitive, as he had warned us it would.

Canadian vs Canadian

Besides learning about Uko's volleyball skills, one of the main points that students ascertained from this week is that how we eat connects very closely to (and should thoughtfully reflect) our faith as followers of Christ.  This is something that we will continue to explore and put into practice throughout the rest of the semester here at CCSP.

Classrooms With Currents

We recently got our first taste of tropical ecosystems here at CCSP Belize by studying streams.  Belize is a country full of rivers, streams, creeks and other various waterways.  It is easy to see here (perhaps easier than in the States) that people rely directly upon these freshwater sources for everyday needs.  But it is not only Belizeans who depend on the health of streams - the health of the whole world depends on the health of its freshwater sources.

The Mopan river

With the help of Gordon College professor Dorothy Boorse's positivity, encouragement, excitement about streams, and vast amount of knowledge, we learned a great deal during our Stream Ecology course: why are streams so important?  How can we find out how healthy or unhealthy they are?  What other web of factors affects streams (and what other web of factors do streams affect)?  How can we better protect our streams?  In addition, we learned about some of the different critters that live in the streams, such as snails, fish, tadpoles, and macro invertebrates.

Not only did we learn about such things in the classroom, but we also got into actual streams to observe them for ourselves.

Lauren & Marissa search the bank for macro invertebrates with professor Dorothy

Mara, Taylor & Rachel battle the current to measure the dimensions of
the stream bed

Jeremy & Eric go upstream to hunt for more critters

One great thing about Stream Ecology week is that having fun is inevitable while immersing oneself in all the different streams.  At one particularly beautiful location, we stayed extra long to get a little recreational swimming time.

Monkey Falls, a popular local swimming hole

Exploring the pool at Monkey Falls

"For all things sing You..."

"...at times we just hear them more clearly." - Rainer Maria Rilke

We started off our Environmental Literature course with a little extra "environment" immersion to go along with our literature immersion.  Big Rock Falls (in the Mountain Pine Ridge Forest Reserve) is always a favorite place for the semester, and a place that "sings" God more clearly for us to hear.

Given all the rain we've had in the recent past, the waterfall was mighty and roaring.  We swam in the pool at the base of the falls, sat up on the rocks, and marveled at its magnificence.

The rest of the week professor Fred Bahnson helped us marvel at some of the great authors that American literature has to offer: Annie Dillard, Wendell Berry, Edward Abbey, Henry David Thoreau, Rachel Carson, John Muir, Aldo Leopold, and more.  We discussed their works, questioned them, did our best to comprehend them, disagreed with them, opened our minds a bit more, and allowed them to inform our world views.  They have seen a lot of different versions of America than we have, and there is much to be learned in their writing about both our past and our future, and what sorts of things we should be asking and doing in the present.

During night class, we spent time around the campfire, reading shorts stories and poems from Jane Kenyon, Billy Collins, William Stafford, Scott Cairns, Hafiz, Rainer Maria Rilke, and Wendell Berry.  It was an atmosphere advantageous to getting our minds into a different frame for a few hours.  Although poetry can seem cryptic and daunting for some of us, Fred did a great job guiding us through some very thought-provoking and enjoyable works.

Thanks for a wonderful and formative week, Fred!

Big Rock from afar

Reading Week: A little work, a little play

It has been a full week here at CCSP Belize.  The students have been doing a lot of reading for upcoming classes, but we have also found many ways to break up some of the work.

We had our first celebration of the semester for Rachel's 20th birthday.  Going with the theme of Rachel's love for (and vast knowledge of) superhero movies, we hosted a Superhero Trivia Night.  Regular citizen contestants came dressed as their secret super identities, and, like The Avengers, worked in teams to gain the most number of points through their knowledge of superhero cinema (fueled by an abundance of cookies to snack on).

The birthday girl trying to keep a straight face as Batman

It was a close battle, but Batman's team ultimately won the tie-breaker!

(Back): Flower Power, Batman, Thor, Catwoman, The Flash, Aquaman, The Hulk,
Jamie Oliver, The Jolly Green Giant, Young Adult Mutant Ninja Turtle (Front):
Wonder Woman, Trunks, Wolverine, Steve Irwin/Indiana Jones

Also this week we did a little gardening for our friends at a local high school, Sacred Heart College.  They keep a garden to help with their feeding program, which helps out kids who can't bring a lunch to school every day.  We spent a few hours clearing out some beds and turning soil to prepare them for new seeds.

A fearsome team of weed warriors

Eric "big farmer" Grootenboer living up to his name by wielding a pitchfork

Continuing the theme of staying active and getting to know our Belizean neighbors better, we also found time for some good old-fashioned football in the village of Succotz.  The soccer field is like the center of town there, so kids old and young joined our game at their leisure.  Not all of us are soccer players, but we all had a great time regardless.

Derek casually plays soccer in Central America.  No big deal.

Little Omar challenges Gellie, as Taylor and Johnny wait for a pass

Before the dry season is completely upon us and most of the local ponds dry up, we wanted to go on a nighttime hunt for some tree frogs.  They are nocturnal, noisy, and can be hard to spot; but once you do they are easy to catch and fun to hold.  This particular evening we found 4 different species of tree frogs!

The yellow tree frog, also known as the small-headed tree frog

We are looking forward to more adventures during next week's class: Environmental Literature, where we will get to discuss all the reading we've been packing into our heads!

Developing Lenses for Development

What a great week we had with professor Robert Pelant (Pacific Rim Institute) for our Sustainable Community Development course!  This was the first part of SCD, and Robert wasted no time in stretching the students' minds.  He challenged them to think about what development really means, how to critically analyze development projects, what the natural world can teach us about crafting sustainable systems, and more.  Teaching from his many cross-cultural development experiences, Robert not only had a wealth of knowledge, but an abundance of great stories as well!

We traveled to a few places around Belize to learn some of their stories of development, get us out of the classroom, and give us a chance to test out our new analytical lenses.  One place we visited was the Mollejon hydroelectric dam, where there are many costs and benefits to think about in solving Belize's increasing need for energy.

For a completely different type of development, we also visited the San Antonio Women's Co-op.  This women's group is in the mountain village of San Antonio and was started by our friend Timotea.  They raise chickens and pigs, grow vegetables, and practice traditional Mayan embroidery, pottery, and cooking.  A few of the women showed us how to grind corn the old fashioned way, make our own tortillas, and try our hand at some pottery.

Miss Josepha approves of Ren's corn grinding form

Mara & Eric race to shape their tortillas in record time

Taylor, Jeremy and Derek learn about molds from Timotea

At the end of the week we even found time to check out another local Maya archaeological site, Cahal Pech, just for fun:

Ren, Rachel, Marissa and Taylor in (and on) some of the royal residences

Thanks again to Robert for a great first class!!

Cahal Pech group photo by Robert Pelant