Samantha's Post Day 3 - July 22nd

Today was our first real day working at La Bio Fabrica and it was so rewarding. I was a part of the solar project team and our goal is to construct a new off-grid solar installation to be able to support the machine they will be using at the coffee farm.

To be honest, I was intimidated by the project at first. I didn’t know if I had all the knowledge to help my team. But I was wrong because that is the best part of the project: we are learning along the way by doing. I don’t have to know everything, and whatever I am missing I can ask questions. I had the building blocks from my education to piece a real world project as awesome as solar energy!

Plus my team was great to work with. Karl and my team mates were patient and helped clarify all my questions. We brainstormed the project together from the mounting of the panels, wiring in series or parallel, how does the wiring effect the other parts of the system, and constructing everything to work together. I learned so much from everyone. I can’t wait to see how good of a job we did on estimating the length of the wire we need and seeing the project through.

After our work we did some activities like a coffee taste class that really showed me what bad coffee I drink back at home. I was surprised the differences in coffee from the elevation, to the roasting, to the grade of the beans.

Being here in Costa Rica and working with the community of Providencia De Dota has been an eye-opening experience. There is no words to describe how grateful I am to be part of this and to be surrounded by amazing people. At the end of the day we got to bond with the kids from the young dreamers program and I loved hearing about their interests and to know that they are being supported in their education.