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Casas Rio Chiquito: Casas Río Chiquito is not simply a Spanish school. It is a community initiative dedicated to a sustainable future. ‘Casas’ - means the houses, or rather the homes and families of the community that the project benefits. ‘Rio Chiquito’ means ‘Little River,’ representing the both stream that flows through La Flor, and the central idea of the project - that through it, the community will grow and evolve as it moves forward towards sustainability.
Casas Rio Chiquito is the inspiration for the Cultivating Communities program. Our gran amigos Alvaro and Gustavo, the owners, developed their programs out of a desire to improve community life and to generate careers in their chosen field. We work with Alvaro and Gustavo by supporting their home-stay program, their projects, and of course the Spanish program.
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Grupo Ecologico: The Ecology Group of La Flor promotes environmental consciousness and ecological protection and conservation in the community. They maintain a small recycling depot and vermiculture program as well as the community gardens in La Flor. They also give classes in local elementary schools on environmental issues. We work with the Grupo Ecologico to maintain the recycling depot, vermicompost, and the community gardens, as well as on beautification projects in La Flor. Our educational program includes workshops given by the Grupo Ecologico on vermicompost and a product called bocashi as organic fertilizers. One of the goals of the Grupo Ecologico is to make and sell these fertilizers as a source of revenue. Participants contribute to this by providing the workforce needed to make larger quantities of the fertilizers.
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Humberto’s Botanical Garden and Forest Reserve: Humberto Castillo planted the first tree on an old chayote field (trellised squash) in 1990. Since then, the bare field has grown into a forest of incredible diversity, and the neighbouring land, owned by his brother, has been developed into a park-like botanical garden and citrus grove. Forests and plants are Humberto’s passion, and his work over the years has made him a self-taught expert Botanist, Permaculturist, and Organic Horticulturalist. He will share his knowledge with participants as we tour the garden and forest and work with him on his projects. Our work with Humberto includes trail-making, tree-planting, seed-gathering, and eventually the construction of a cabin on the land.
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Roots Farm Community: Juan and Lara McDonnell, their children, and Alejandro Morera live on a 6 hectare farm near La Suiza, Turrialba, about 1 hour from La Flor. There they garden and grow root crops, bananas, pejibales (palm tree fruit), and various other crops, as well as pasturing three cows on the steep mountain slopes. A working farm, there are a variety of projects that participants may assist with; building garden beds, weeding, harvesting and many others. Discussion topics are always changing. Informal lunchtime chats might range from global agriculture issues to local customs and traditions, to how to bake bread in a wood stove.
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