Hello From Messiah and Dylan!

Our amazing day beginning with some students waking up at 5:00 AM to try to catch the sunrise! Too cloudy. Later on, optional morning yoga was held with Ms. Sale. After working up an appetite, we had a breakfast of scrambled eggs and ham, hash browns, toast with guava jelly, fresh fruit, orange juice, and most importantly, coffee. Once we all got packed for the day and did our morning mental warmup, we headed out to a coffee processing factory and plantation. Our amazing tour guide Memo lead us through trails and fields, then into the factory which housed rows of drying coffee beans. After having lunch and grabbing some snacks for the base house, we arrived at a dairy farm which was run by Karla, who taught us about milking cows, ensuring they had the best nutrition, and later on how to use their milk to make artisan Turrialba cheese. Both the coffee plantation and local dairy farm taught us about the importance of variety in wildlife and plant life. Many kinds of plants means disease won’t knock out entire businesses and bring along with them a wide range of insects and animals. These foster symbiotic relationships throughout farms to create the highest quality of goods.

Our time at the dairy farm included a tour of the farm, milking a cow, and making cheese–all learned through a series of competitions between two student groups. One amazing discovery was the team spirit and the extraordinary behavior. Unlike the assumed behaviors of most teenagers, Global Glimpsers were well conducted and paid great attention to whatever was being said and whatever was going on. Even though we were teenagers leading the day, respect played a large role in staying on track for our busy schedule and to maintain fun and safety.

The two wonderful tour guides we met today, Memo and Karla, opened all of our eyes to the reality of the products we eat in the US that are exported from other countries, as well as the local businesses we may be missing out on when only supporting big corporations. These individuals truly inspired everyone by their knowledge, work ethic, and care for the impact they make on not only this country, but this world.

Being Lider de Dia was an amazing experience. Although it was quite exhausting, the enthusiasm of the group as a whole was an entire new energy filling the one we lost. As Lider Del Dia, we learned that it’s important to stay aware of our surroundings, time restraints,and to make ourselves flexible for change when necessary. One other thing was that being a leader doesn’t take away the enjoyment and time we get to spend with the ones around us.

Big Love and Pura Vida,

Dylan and Messiah