To our friends and family back in Chicago 🙂

As the first leaders of the group, WE KILLED IT! SORRY YOU ARE NOT HERE WITH US 🙁

Today was a long day… We walked up SO MANY HILLS that got us VERY tired. We first went to visit a coffee farm where we learned a lot about the origins of coffee (where it came from) and how Costa Rica values quality over quantity.  Let us tell you, we learned a lot about a famous coffee franchise! We then came back to the house and had some downtime to relax after our long half-hour walk back. After our relaxing two hours of downtime, we got on a bus to head to the cheese farm! We got to see cows and make cheese. Not only did we get to see the cows, but some of our peers (Pierce and Tony) got to MILK THE COWS and make cheese FROM SCRATCH (Kennethia and Nadia)! SO MUCH FUN!!!!

After our fun competition at the cheese farm, we headed back on the bus when it began to rain, singing Night Changes by One Direction. 🙂 Bonding time together!! Once we arrived back at the house, we went to the deck as a group to reflect on our thoughts and experiences through the tours. As a group, it surprised us that Costa Rican workers only get paid $2 for picking 25 kg of coffee. We agreed that it is unfair and that there needs to be change. Workers should be getting paid more for their hard work that benefits everyone as a whole instead of getting paid half their labor and selling drinks that are triple their pay rate!

We thought that our group really stood out during our cheese farm tour. They were all engaged in learning how to milk cows as well as making cheese from scratch from FRESH cow milk that we had just milked :).  We were all very inspired by Karla, the owner of the cheese farm. She is a very hard-working lady that multitasks between cow-milking and cheese-making. She also keeps her cows healthy with fresh greens and top-tier treatment that gives her cows the best life!

Being Leader of the Day was an eye-opening experience for all of us! It taught us the responsibilities of having leadership as young adults. We had to take charge to make sure we had everyone at every location with everything that was needed to “Attack the day with passion” – Serik!!

We learned to have patience and be flexible with others. Now we know how you as our parents feel about your responsibilities.

Big Love,
Iris, Kennethia, Xiadany