Global Business Day was quite the day if I must say. We not only explored a coffee plantation, but we also presented our ideas for the CAP Project to Norman, the Hope Project representative, and on top of that, we had English tutoring! Quite the hectic day to say the least. So now diving into deeper detail, the group and I all woke around 7:00 AM (I technically woke up at 6:30) and an hour later, we had a delightful meal of watermelons, pineapples, and cereal. After, we played a highly competitive game of Steal The Bacon with the team Shrimp Grandes and Salchichas. Team Salchichas was eventually declared the victor with a score of 7-4 and I promised  to buy them a treat as a reward. At around 9 AM, we began our academic seminar about Global Business and microfinance. For many kids, it was their first time even hearing about what microfinance is, so we all at least got a nugget of knowledge out the seminar. During the lecture portion, we learned about how important supply and demand is within not only a country’s economy but also with the global market. After all things were said and done, we left the hostel and ventured on to the coffee plantation.

After about a 20 minute bus ride, our lovely group of travelers finally reached Beneficio, the coffee plantation. The plantation is actually owned by Juan de Dios Castillo, who is a cousin of Roxana Blandón, our Program Coordinator. Before I get into what actually happened, yes parents and friends, the kids did have the opportunity to buy the coffee to bring back for you guys to try. So anyways, as we first arrived, a guest speaker gave us a tour and showed us gargantuan piles of countless coffee beans. He explained to us that their coffee was made of some of the finest beans and that the coffee made was very, very tasty. We eventually got to try the coffee too, and I must say, it definitely gets my seal of approval. The speaker showed us the various stages of coffee bean farming and harvesting, along with all of the heavy machinery that is required to produce such exquisite coffee. The whole group seemed to be very into the tour, which, personally, filled me with a lot of joy. We were also told that the plantation exports Chia seeds as well, which is considered by many to be “the food of the future”. We were later given the ability to buy the actual product, which multiple students took to their advantage. After, we went on the bus back to the hostel.

When we arrived back, Norman was here on behalf of the Hope Project in order to deem our project pitches (a Mural to inspire kids and concrete flooring for the kids) worthy. The group proceeded to have a lunch of fried chicken and rice with him, and the meeting started. We successfully convinced him to approve, and then after he left, we all went to work on the logistics and designs of the project. We also used this given time to plan out our tutoring lessons in order to kill two birds with one stone. We began dinner at around 5:45, and dinner consisted of ham sandwiches and French fries. Directly after dinner, we left directly towards tutoring, and I’m not going to lie, it was extremely enjoyable. The class I teach is so much fun, and that is coming from someone who is terrible at teaching. We even made a song called “Vamos a conjugar” which means “we are going to translate” in Spanish.

Overall, it was an extremely enjoyable and fulfilling day yet again in the beautiful city of Matagalpa. The whole group can’t wait for the following half of the trip to proceed smoothly.