Day 8- Enviornmental Justice Forum

HEY FAMILIES!!!

Today was a very chill day, there wasn’t too much on the agenda but here’s a start to finish to recap. We woke up early at 7:00 with some music and got ready for our day. The agenda was very simple, so it made it easy to get through. To start we had a delicious breakfast of gallo pinto (rice and beans), eggs, bread, sausage, and cheese. After breakfast, we had our mental warmup which was a game called One Word Story. After this, we had our 3rd Community Action Project Seminar. During this seminar, we answered several guided questions and talked about the logistics of our upcoming project.

We are very excited to end up building a Skate Park for the community! After spending so much time in Costa Rica we’ve grown very fond of the place, and it feels great. Right after the seminar, some people went into town to shop for clothes at a local thrift store and buy ice cream and snacks from the market. We also got Julia’s glasses fixed after they broke this morning!! When everyone arrived back, we had a lunch of fried chicken with rice, beans, and salad. We had a bit of downtime after lunch which we used to have some house meetings just checking in on everybody’s general mood and well-being.

Around 2 pm we had a special guest speaker named Andres “Fofo” Zuniga. Fofo is an expert on Environmental Justice and a consultant. He taught us about sustainable development as well as the meaning of environmental justice. He specifically told us about the negative impact tourism has on Caribbean countries. We did an activity where we had a fake scenario that involved the building of a luxury hotel in a wetland environment. One group acted as the government, another acted as the developers in support of the hotel while another acted as the locals who opposed the development of the hotel. Both groups presented their opinion on the matter while the “government” ultimately decided that the locals were correct. It was so funny seeing everyone get passionate about debating, if everyone reading saw this, I know you guys would’ve cracked up. After the activity, we said goodbye to Fofo ? then also had some downtime. At around 6 pm we had a great dinner of steak with vegetables, rice, and plantain. We had our nightly meeting after dinner and talked some more about our questions of the day surrounding environmental justice and tourism. After a recap of the day, we passed the torch to Lolita and Elizabeth who shared their talents. We learned that Lolita had the talent of being a polyglot, she speaks English, and Russian and understands a bit of Georgian. Elizabeth told us about her impressive running skills and how she can run a mile in 5:50 minutes!

From Saniah: Hi Mom, Dad, and Micah! I’m missing you guys a lot and I’m really excited to see you again very soon.

From Emma: HI MOM!!! I’ve been waiting to be the leader of the day to write to everyone. Dad, Ma, and Lily (I guess…) I miss you guys so so much <3. I can’t wait to see you guys and yap away about the whole trip. I love you guys so much and I’ve been holding it down while I’m here to make y’all proud. I can’t wait to see you again and tell you everything. To my friends who read this, GUYS!!!! I’m literally out of the country… This is crazy!!! I am missing our long calls and our hangouts, and I miss you. Love you always, and I promise I’ll tell you everything.