Edwin ’27 and Akira ’25, share a recap of the groups first full day in Mamoni, beginning with an early wake up call and ending with a game of werewolves.
Most of us were woken up by a cacophony of howler monkeys in the early morning, in welcoming of their new neighbors. Many of us went to the pavilion in the morning to attend Mr. Bryant’s meditation session (our cabin slept in) before breakfast. On the menu were arepas (fried corn buns, almost like a cross between a pancake and a hash brown) along with omelets and fresh fruit. After a fulfilling meal, Nico, the manager of the reserve, toured us around the facilities. We had a “second breakfast” of herbs and vegetables, which we picked directly from the reserve’s garden. You can’t find a fresher salad than that!
After we packed lunch, which were sandwiches we made ourselves, we split our squad into four groups and embarked on an incredibly bumpy ride through pastures and forests to the local community of San Jose. We visited the local school, with eight students and a single teacher, conducting an interview with the locals about the water quality there. It was a small community that used to thrive on cattle farming, but now most young people have left for the city, it quickly dwindled to the 30 or so people that still live in the community.
Saying goodbye to the teacher and her two very extroverted sons, we found ourselves working unpaid shifts in the nearby bamboo plantation. Well, not really “unpaid”. The parents paid for us to come on this trip. We loved it!! We were also lucky enough to see a sloth just hanging in the canopy, while the bamboo was crashing down beside him.
After that, we returned to the reserve for some chill downtime in the natural pool, featuring the USA vs. Australia open water volleyball tournament. By dinner time we were famished and we enjoyed chicken stew for dinner. The rest of the night was spent debriefing our findings of the water at the San Jose community, and playing a game of Werewolves (a scarier version of Mafia, especially at night) at the yoga pavilion. We definitely saw some friendly banter and some professional debating and denying.
