Dyeing My Clothes in the Wild

Okay, so appearance doesn’t really matter after your clothes have become caked in mud and covered grass stains, you have begun to smell like a moldy rag, your skin is a darker shade (from dirt, not sun), and your hair no longer resembles that of a human. But, let’s say, near the end of your trip, you would like to wear your permanently-stained clothes in public. This is what happened to me after a hike, and I told some friends that I wanted to dye my favorite sweatshirt. “Oh! Here! Take my indigo plant! If you really want to dye it, this will never come out,” was my friend’s response. I had no idea what she was talking about, and then she pulled an indigo plant out of her backpack after returning from a course. I held it in my hand, wondering how to properly use it before turning my skin the color of Violet Beauregarde’s in the “blueberry scene” of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

After a little research, I learned a few things:

-Natural indigo was the only source of dye until July 1897

-Indigo is the primary dye used in blue jeans

-Indigo is also used as a food coloring

-Indigo is hard to use because it is not soluble in water; to be dissolved, it must undergo a chemical change. When a submerged fabric is removed from the dyebath, the indigo quickly combines with oxygen in the air and reverts to its insoluble form

Therefore, to use it, follow these instructions

1. Fill a pot with about 1 liter of urine – yes, urine - or water (with water, it’ll fade, but with urine it will create a more permanent dye)
2. If you dare to use urine, cover the pot with a secure lid and let it ferment for 6 weeks in a warm place
3. Cut up the leaves and berries into pieces (about 1/5 kg of it), and stir it into the pot
4. Let it sit for 3-4 days (in either urine or water)
5. Put cotton inside pot for a few days (the longer it sits, the deeper the color)
6. RINSE, RINSE, RINSE.

Bottom line: dyeing your clothes naturally can be a dangerous and smelly process. But it’s a great story.

Colorado Seniors Make a Difference in Central America

By: Shawn Pendergrass

SAN JOSE, COSTA RICA April 7, 2009 – Ten feet and four inches—that’s the depth of the hole a group of 11 high school seniors from the Denver area dug over their spring break on the remote island of Solarte in Bocas del Toro, Panama, inhabited by the indigenous Guaymi people. The hole that was more than three times as deep as it was wide was excavated so that the school children would have an outhouse to use during the school day. The group of seniors took on several other projects in preparation for the first day of classes on April 6 such as painting the school, cleaning the classrooms, collecting school supplies and picking up trash in the community.

While one group was impacting a small community in Panama, another group of students was devoting efforts to environmental concerns in Costa Rica at a sea turtle conservation site on the Pacific Coast. Some of the efforts included beach patrols, planting trees, clearing nesting areas and constructing a dock.


The trip, however, was not all work and no play—while not building privies or saving sea turtles, these young world-changers enjoyed activities such as rafting, snorkeling and surfing, as well as interacting and making friends with the locals.

Reflecting on the course, high school senior Anthony Vanicek says, “The trip was marked by good people and good times, but more importantly by life lessons that cannot be learned in the classroom, leaving me with a greater sense of global citizenship.” Everyone returned home refreshed and energized, with a new perspective on the world and the beauty it holds.

The students who participated in the project represent fourteen high schools and are all part of Leader’s Challenge, a Colorado based non-profit organization that promotes leadership development among high school students through experiential education programs.

George Brown of Leader’s Challenge organized the trip through collaboration with the Costa Rica Outward Bound School, an organization that encourages character development, leadership, and self-discovery through challenge and adventure. Costa Rica Outward Bound has differentiated itself from other Outward Bound schools by offering a wide array of wilderness adventure courses that enhance cultural and global awareness throughout Central America.

For more information about Leader’s Challenge, contact George Brown at (303) 243-3105. For information about the Costa Rica Outward Bound School, contact Shawn Pendergrass at 1-800-676-2018.

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Spanglish: Me Encanta Espangyol

Six years of Spanish classes, visits to Spain and Mexico, and perfecting my paella recipe did not prepare me for conversational life in Costa Rica. Nearly a year ago when I landed on the CRROBS base I was lucky that I could even utter hola with the proper pronunciation instead of greeting someone with the famed “holla.”

I would stand in silence surrounded by Lopezes speaking at me in Spanish and respond with looks of sheer horror or an occasional head nod that really meant nothing. From that point on, I not only knew that I needed to learn what they were saying, but I also wanted to learn.

Learning a language has never proven easy for me, so my best way to go about this was by making words up. I began by using the same Spanish verbs repeatedly to form random sentences (querer (to want) and poder (to be able)…you know the drill) intertwined with English words pronounced like Spanish words. Some of them had to be real words…right?!

That was, until the trobulo incident. We all know how common it is to use the phrase “I’m in trouble” about an array of topics in the states and I wanted to be able to say it in Spanish. Instead of making the word up I decided to ask a friend and was told that the word for trouble was trobulo. So I walked around base for a week saying esoty en trobulo numerous times to several people and didn’t really acknowledge the smirks or giggles, until one day, a nice Tica told me that trobulo was not a word, not even close. And my “friend” had actually wanted to mess with me and teach me an underlying lesson that I should use the resources around me (converse with Ticos, go to classes, look in the Spanish/English dictionary) rather than make up my own language.

It was the push I needed to actually learn real Spanish from real Costa Ricans. Now rather than staring at the Lopezes blankly I can joke around with them like family. Que suerte.

But, don’t get me wrong, I still love my Spanglish.

We found our base from space!

It may be hard to believe that it's possible to find our CRROBS base on Google Earth, given that we are in the middle of the rain forest covered by trees, but we did it. This is proof to the world that we do, in fact, exist.

For those of you who have not been to Costa Rica, it is not as easy as you may think to find places on a map. For example, here's our official base address:

San Ramon de Tres Rios, de la ultima parada del autobus (the last bus stop of the San Ramon de Tres Rios bus)
350 metros subiendo la calle al Pizote (350 m up the street on your way to The Pizote Bar)
Mano derecha, porton negro con rosado (right hand side, black and red gate)

Yes, that's right. You did not mis-read that address. There are not many street names, nor are there numbers. "Official addresses" include landmarks, bus stops, and meter measurements from those places.

So in conclusion, this search took some effort, but we found it... for you.

Living with a Mestizo?

Many of us did a "homestay" at a "Mestizo" village. But most of us did not know what that meant until we got there. Now we understand that a "homestay" is staying with a local family to better learn the local lifestyle. And "Mestizo" is a term for a culture of people in Latin America who come from a combination of European, American, and Indian ancestry. Actually, about 94% of the Costa Rica population is Mestizo/white combination! Another word we heard a lot was "indigenous" culture (referring to the Mestizo people), and we found out that it is a way to describe the original settlers in an area. The best part about learning all of this was that we were not in a classroom. The knowledge came from hiking there, meeting the families, helping them on the farm, playing on their land (in the river, down the waterfall, or on the soccer field), cooking the food, and sharing language. Your perspective changes a bit when you come from a city where you can ride to the grocery store in a few minutes to grab a snack, then go to a village where it takes 2 hours by jeep then 3 hours on foot. You think twice before you say "I want some milk." But you definitely appreciate that milk more after you slaved for hours to acquire a few drops of milk from a cow (while the indigenous people squeeze out a bucket-full in no time). Maybe my lack of skill came from the 4:30am rooster wake-up calls. There's no room for exhaustion when you have clothes to clean, waterfalls to repel, sugar cane to cut and carry, and rivers to swim. Mestizos make it look too easy.