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.

Costa Rica Trip: 03/29

The 29th was our planned day of relaxation and rest. We traveled about an hour and a half to a beach town known as La Playa Grande. We were able to meet a few wildlife conservation workers who were focused on maintaining and protecting the town's wildlife (specifically sea turtles), mainly from tourism and enterprise. We spent some time picking up trash on a beach that is typically frequented by tourists, had some lunch at a local surfer bar, and headed to another beach where we spent the rest of the day. Let me make sure I point this out, this beach was in no way our driver Johnny's favorite beach. Due to time restraints, this was our only option. He made sure to stress that. There's not much more I can write here that the images won't convey.

Costa Rica Trip: 03/28

La Flor is about 15 minutes outside of Liberia, a relatively small 'city' in Guanacaste. Earth University acquired La Flor as a gift from a past president. It was apparently a presidential vacation complex that he had dreamed of turning into acres upon acres of farmland. Earth had transformed the complex into a really nice learning environment. The campus was complete with a pool, a few dorm rooms, open lecture/dining halls, and everything else that you would imagine would exist in a small campus surrounded by miles upon miles of unscathed jungle. Early the first morning we had a presentation from Carlos Murillo, the director of La Flor.He eloquently spoke about Earth's mission and future goals, as well as how important he felt the information RISD has been contributing was to the university. We were then able to present our recent material samples to Carlos and receive his feedback. His opinions were incredibly insightful and he was able to really give us an idea of how our material's could potentially be of use to Earth and the surrounding communities.

After an afternoon of hard work and perceptive discussion we were able to make it to the nearest beach to watch the sunset. I'll let the images describe that for me.

Costa Rica Trip: 03/26-03/27: San Jose - Santa Rosa National Park

After two seemingly endless flights, we landed in San Jose, CR at around midnight on March 26. We exited the airport after dealing with surprisingly minimal baggage drama, and were immediately mobbed by very interested potential cab drivers. Fortunately our transportation was previously arranged and a man was waiting patiently with a sign with Patricia's name on it. We piled into two vans and drove through some of San Jose's intimidatingly dark streets and reached our hotel at around 1:30. We were all pretty exhausted after a full day of transit and fell asleep soon thereafter. We woke up early the next day to a beautiful morning that would eventual turn into an excruciatingly hot day. The area around where we were staying was really elegant, somewhat of what I imagined a tropical hotel made for Americans to look like. At around 8 we were greeted by our driver for the extent of the trip, Johnny, and began our 5 hour drive West across the country to La Flor. I hate to keep using the same adjective to describe the country, but it is really going to be difficult not to. The landscape that I witnessed as soon as the bus reached the outskirts of San Jose seemed to be an impossible precedent for the rest of the country. The perfect assimilation of relaxation, decisive culture, and layers after layers of breathtaking landscapes was absolutely astounding. Needless to say, the outskirts of San Jose were by no means an impossible precedent for the rest of the country I soon found out.

The trip across the country did end up taking about 4 and a half hours, which wasn't too bad because I easily slept most of the time. About halfway through we made a bathroom stop at the rural Costa Rican version of what we would call a 'rest stop.' There's happened to be teaming with exotic birds and giant lizards. This was our first exposure to Costa Rican's wildlife, and I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say that every single one of us was completely taken aback.

By the time we reached Santa Rosa, the temperature was probably nearing 95 degrees. Well, we had just left a night of a New England wintery mix, so we were all literally basking in the opportunity to not be freezing. The basking ended up turning into frying, and then quickly into melting, but what did we expect? Santa Rosa was great. It was the sight of one of Costa Rica's only battles. This one being against a small Nicaraguan army and only lasting 18 minutes. We were able to see the historical buildings that the soldiers stayed in, as well as get an idea of what life and culture was historically like in rural Costa Rica. We then embarked on a nature walk through the 'dry-forest' surrounding the area and were exposed to wildlife and nature that I truthfully had no idea existed. The environment was straight out of Jurassic Park.

We left Santa Rosa after our walk and drove to La Flor, a satellite campus of Earth University where we would be staying the rest of our time in the country.