Slater Mill Trip

On Thursday (May 5th) we took a trip to Slater Mill in Pawtucket, "the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution". The visit gave us a great walkthrough of historic industrial machinery and processes used in the production of cotton thread. One machine that I personally found interestingly compelling and relatable to my project was the "bailer".

Picked cotton is initially separated from its seeds using a cotton gin:

The bailer is used to compress the freshly processed cotton fibers into shippable, 10-ton bails. Using a mold-like system, the most cotton physically possible is able to be shipped in the most compact and transportable form.

Costa Rica Trip: 3/31-4/1

We woke up early Friday morning and went straight to the developing villages outside of Liberia. These were obviously villages that our projects could potentially impact and benefit, so we were all extremely excited about this opportunity. The outskirts of the city were pretty overwhelming for me. The villages are built upon limestone, so the environment resembles a barren desert more than anything else. One centralized water pump services all of the residents of the village. There is no sewage system in place.

We spent the morning helping some Earth University students working in the community install some sustainable agriculture in the backyard of a local man's house. The amount of impact and good that can be done here is truly massive. I can't legitimately express how excited this makes me to be able to recognize some potential from a designer's point of view.

That afternoon we toured mango and sugar farms surrounding La Flor to gain a better understanding of the initial harvesting, processing, and production of our  eventual materials.

 a functioning bio-digester!

Costa Rica Trip: 3/30

The next day was spent with the students at Earth University. We were divided into groups and given 'community service-like" tasks to do alongside each other all over the La Flor campus. My group consisting of Alex, Jacob, myself, and three Earth students (one from Columbia, one from South Africa, and one from Peru) were given the task of helping to clear a bath through the forest surrounding the campus. Carlos made sure to make us aware of the location of the medical personnel in case of snake bites and other injuries of that nature. We were told to walk around with a sharpened stick for protection in case of snake attacks, because killing animals on property, for self defense or not, is against La Flor policy. We explored Liberia that night a little bit more, and prepared for our long day the next day in the developing desert-like villages surrounding the city.