Yesterday was our first official day in Pacayitas,Costa Rica. After a 5 hour flight from NJ and 4 hour bus travel from San Jose yesterday, we have finally arrived. Unfortunately, one of our classmates, Jack, wasn't able to stay on the trip. Before I begin, I want to dedicate this blog post to Jack. Your presence is greatly missed and we all wish you were here to share in this opportunity!
Today, was a very action filled day! First of all, it was National Women's day. This is holiday not really celebrated in the USA but in Costa Rica, it is a pretty big deal. Everywhere we went people were reminding us of the holiday and praising the roles of women.
We started our one week adventure at a coffee plantation in the heart of Pacayitas. The head head of this coffee plantation was a woman named Rosario. I found this activity particularly interesting because we did a lot of hands-on activities. Everything from, picking the coffee beans, to packaging them in the bags is done at this site and we all got the opportunity to experience each step.
Step 1: Tie a basket around your waist. Then, grab a branch from the coffee plant and carefully yet, efficiently pull off all the ripe berries. Since it wasn't picking season we didnt get the full experience. However, a few of us got to try on the basket!
Step 2: Place the berries in the water to weed out all the bad ones. If they float, they're bad. If they sink, they're good.
Step 3: Dry the berries. This process takes months so we fast forwarded to already dried berries.
Step 4: This was probably the most entertaining step of them all. We all got to check our flexibility skills by climbing on to the trunk of a semi hollowed tree and smashing the berries.
Step 5: Skillfully, sift and blow the beans in order to get rid of the skin. This is much more difficult than it sounds!
Step 6: roast the coffee in a giant pot. This also takes hours so we were presented with already roasted beans.
Step 7: Grind up the coffee beans!
Step 8: Package and distribute. In our case, Rosario prepared each of us sample cups.
I don't personally drink coffee, but according to my classmates it was rich and flavorful! Now, we can all say we produced our very own Costa Rican coffee, sort of.
After a short lunch break, we were all pleasantly surprised with a hike up to the Water Conservation plant. Although, the hike was a bit difficult, we all used our energy from the rice and beans we had at lunch and successfully made it through. The beautiful trees and plants were also inspiration to keep moving. Once we reached the Water Conservation site, we met Hernando. As the head of all things water-related in Pacayitas, he taught us about how he supplies and maintains the communities water supply.
Finally, we ended our day with a meeting with the local community government, The Community Development Association. We learned of each of their roles and responsibilities in the community. It was interesting to learn about how much work goes into this association. We also had the opportunity to ask them questions pertaining to difficulties with their roads, healthcare and national government.
After our meeting, we were given snacks and gifts ( more snacks). We also had the opportunity to purchase local, handmade souvenirs. These souvenirs were especially sentimental because they were created by women in the community. Since it was National Women's day, the males made it a point to praise the hard work and perseverance of these women. Their creations are beautiful and we wish them continued success.
Overall, today was a very educational day! It made us think about how many things we take for granted. Although, the people here have to work extra hard for what they have, they are extremely happy. We can't wait to see what the rest of the trip has in store for us! Please stay tuned.
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