Hi guys. It’s Kim and Rhianna. As the Lideres Del Dia (Leaders of the Day), we had a pretty good schedule. So for our morning, we had to wake everyone up at 6 am, but since we do wakeup call we were up by 5:30. We had an early breakfast and the usual mental warm up (obviously a different topic everyday). For our first trip of the day, we had to go to a place called Invernadero in Tireo Abajo, a green house run by the guest speaker Jose Ramon Candelario (also known as Yadiel). Then, we learned how to properly wrap Persian cucumber plants in order for them to continue growing and keep the crop process going. As the day progressed, we got to speak to several of the workers about their experiences in the field and asked personal questions which they willingly answered. Many of them explained how they loved their jobs and had so many opportunities from working in the greenhouse. After a couple of hours, we all came back to the hostel for lunch, consisting of white rice, chicken, veggies and beans with flan as dessert.

For the second part of our trip, we went to the World Agro Marketing where they packaged the cucumbers and had a tour guide give us a look around. It was amazing to see the entire process of cucumber packaging. We learned that all of the cucumbers produced must fit a certain shape and size in order to be imported to the U.S. As a result, about 49% get thrown away as waste. Also we learned that workers work about 10 hours a day just for most of the products to be thrown away. In the end, we received a bunch of stickers and a box of cucumbers. They were fresh and crunchy. On our way back, we had free time for about three hours before we had to go to English Prep to get ready for tomorrow’s lesson. Afterwards, we ate dinner. It included sweet plantains. For our self-reflection, each of us had to talk about personal objects that we had brought with us for the trip and what they truly meant to us. Before ending the night, there was a daily night meeting where we discussed today’s events and “pass on the torch” to the next Leaders of the Day.

Kim and Rhianna