Today we spent time with jungle mike who is an expert with insects and gave us a good insight of how insects interact in different climates, we also went on a jungle hike in which we were able to see how different species interact with the environment around them. We were also able to eat some insects that jungle mike told us had lots of protein in them, they tasted a little bit like a leaf or like black pepper, apparently the bugs taste like what plant they just ate. We were also able to buy some honey, apple cider, vinegar, coconut oil and much more from the store that jungle mike offered us. Jungle mike took us to the big tree as well that had small bats in the tree and they made these chirping sounds. Overall, we were able to see and learn a lot of cool and interesting facts about insects and how they interact with not only the area around them but with each other. After jungle mike we were able to go back to the house but on the bus our instructors reminded us to work on reflecting a lot more and looking out for the group more than ourselves. That advice was very insightful and made us think a lot more throughout the day and how to have more impactful thoughts. When we got back from jungle mike we were able to have some down time before a good lunch, some people went for a walk and saw some cool things, some went to the beach and some people took naps. It was a good rest before heading to the station and painting signs to put on the beach. We had to paint most of the signs in Spanish, which made us all use our Spanish knowledge a lot more, but we also got a lot of help from Juan and Alba to help correct some things. We were able to listen to music and talk as we painted and because the instructors decided to take a step back we had a lot freer range which contributed to having a lot more fun with each other. After the painting session we went back home and had some more downtime before dinner, we got to play card games and do other activities. To end the night, we had a group circle, but this group circle had a lot of harder questions than usual, we were all really pushed to the max of our thinking and really had deep conversations not only about problems in this world but about the problems we face internally and how we should go forward and fix them. This circle really made us move more out of the comfort zone of not talking and it made us all think and have ideas and want to share them, the circles seems to steadily be breaking the ice around the group and making for more impactful discussions. Throughout the day we learned meaningful lessons and facts not only about the bugs that surround us but we maybe even learned something new about ourselves.
-Trinity and Eva and Erin