*this post is a day late because we could not get wifi access last night

Hi my name is Jennifer, today I had the honor of being El Lider Del Dia. After struggling to wake up early(big shout out to Elizabeth for waking me up)we went to ASOCAES in Las Cacaos. It was raining on and off during the day, but it didn’t get us down. We got the wonderful opportunity to visit a coffee farm and see the production in process. It was fun to touch the molino(coffee ground)and smell the coffee, but there was  one machine that the coffee beans had to go to before being distributed, sold, and exported. They had to go in a machine to get rid of the molino, they went in to get roasted, cooled off, and then grounded. We also learned that ASOCAES is part of a Fair Trade structure, that provides the producers and workers an ethical working condition and livable wage which is seven times the wage than those for who work for a Conventional Commerce structure.  We also were able to taste the delicious coffee!!! We went to see the vivero(green house), but unfortunately we didn’t get to go inside, so we had to admire it from afar.

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After eating lunch at ASOCAES we went straight to Escuela De Dios Dira to teach our students English. We were sort of went over time asking questions earlier, but all was good, we got to the school early which was a plus considering that we were coming back from the mountains. It was raining so not all the students came due to the rain, but we could tell that those who came really wanted to learn and you could see it in their eyes. Thanks to Kristian for drawing a four-legged chicken on the board so that Elizabeth, Yoko, and I had a fun start to our class by having our students describe what a chicken looks like in English. As one class was getting ready to leave, there was one of us who was teaching that didn’t let the students leave until they pronounced words in English, which was a good strategy. The day was pretty packed, but as usual it was fun and everyone had a good laugh. My highlight of the day was when Jessie asked one of the workers if he got his eyebrows done. Now it’s time for me to sign off, and hats off to our next El Lider Del Dia.

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P.s. Keep the blog comments coming! Reading the comments during our nightly meeting has become our favorite part of the evening, these kiddos love hearing from you -Abby