Today was the ninth day of our journey in the Dominican Republic led by Sandy and I Citlalli. We began our day with an early wakeup call at 6 am followed by a delicious breakfast made by our wonderful cooks here at Rancho de Campeche. Our topic of today was on Global Buisness, and our question was how does a simple and common act like drinking coffee affect the lives of people in the developing countries. As a group, we discussed the relationship between global businesses and local communities. Each of us had similar ideas and perspectives on this topic, especially because of how we live in a country that has standards on working conditions and marketing. The big global companies are taking advantage of the workers in the developing countries due to how the employers in these local communities aren’t getting the rights they deserve. After the Academic Seminar, we took a 1 1/2 hour drive to Los Cacaos, where we met with Refino a member of a local coffee colaporative where we learned about the history of the colaporative and the sustainable growth of the coffee buisness. We were given the opportunity to tour the warehouse and learn about the process of making coffee. We then visited the coffee plantation, also known as a finca, where we were taught how to plant and grow a coffee bean. We shared a wonderful lunch with the members of the coffee collaporative  and bought some delicious coffee to bring back home to our family. Overall, today was a busy and exciting day learning about coffee and the positive and negative impacts of global businesses on local communities. We can’t wait what the next day will have in store for us!

 

Shouout to the Orozco Family everything is going well I love you guys!

~ Citlalli Orozco

 

Shoutout to my parents I miss you guys, can’t wait to see you and tell you guys everything happened in this trip!

~ Sandy Chen

 

Shoutout to Isa’s sister she misses you guys!