I woke up today very sore! But it’s one of those types of soreness that you know comes from a good days work and fun.
For breakfast, Juan made us eggs with rice and beans with a plantain. We drink the coffee from the Bio-Fabrica every morning. I am for sure going to bring at least 5 bags home with me.
I am on the project for the tanks that sort the cherries of the coffee plants. Today my team (Luki, Angel, And Daniel I) worked on measuring the parts from steel to make the stands for the tanks. The project is coming along and we are excited to see how it will turn out. Our design should make it easier for the coffee beans to go into the de-pulper.
The exciting part of today is how the whole abroad team helped bring soil up to the top of a hill where the new worm bins will go. We created a pulley system so that people could help pull a wheel barrow full of soil up a hill that’s practically vertical. It was tiring work and everyone was breathing hard. But in the end we all got it done :)
For lunch today we had Doña Flora’s food. She prepared an awesome lunch that filled me up for the coffee tour of the first farm that became part of Green Communities.
We were taken to Juan’s (the amazing cook) farm. Jonathan (our guide) had separated the group in half. On the same hill side, we could see a conventional coffee farm and the ecological coffee farm. The groups were sent to the different farms and tasked to find things that we could find in each farm that we felt represented it.
Once the groups came back together, Jonathan gave us a journal prompt about how we feel about the farms.
Jonathan then gathered all the items and compared them. He told us about how the top soil of conventional farms are very hard and don’t absorb water which causes run off.
He told us about that at the beginning of this organization it was very hard to convince farmers to transform their farms because it affects how much coffee the plant produces. Organic farming definitely has a stigma but in the long run it will save our natural resources.
I am learning so much about how we can start to industrialize organic farming and create a future that benefits the people and farmers.
P.S.
Hola ma!! Im okay!! Haven’t seen a sloth because they are found more towards the ocean. Pero maybe. The food is delicious and I will bring coffee home. I am learning cool skills. Miss you :)
I also put a butterfly on my nose.
