Today was the most fun I’ve had in Costa Rica. We went to a local elementary school in Costa Rica and helped paint the front wall with the students. Spending the first half of the day with these students was an absolute blast. I spent the majority of my time painting with a 12-year-old boy named Alejandro, who loved NASCAR, soccer, and video games. He also spoke excellent English. Connecting with all these children by making their day and providing them with a break from school was fantastic for putting smiles on their faces. Playing soccer on the playground was a great time as well.

Today, we continued to learn about farming. There are consistent challenges across the country in how to deal with climate change. Introducing sustainable technology to support farmers’ work is a way to be efficient. Farmers look forward to providing for their community by working hard daily. Coffee cherry pickers have a complex and hardworking life. At the start and end of the prime season, they earn a salary per hour because there are not enough cherries to be paid per basket. In the heart of the prime season, they are paid roughly $3-$5 per basket and can fill about 20 baskets a day. Local farms focusing on reusing all their resources can help maintain profits. Letting no items go to waste and reusing items as much as possible to create products such as fertilizer are the little things that are beneficial to the environment and can keep making them money. 

If I were part of a Tico family, I would want to avoid following their line of work with much heavy-demanding labor; however, it’s expected for the children to one day overtake their father’s responsibility and pay their respects back to their community. In nearly every tour we went on, a worker mentioned how they are part of a 2nd, 3rd, or 4th generation in the same field of work with coffee. It appears it’s looked up upon working incredibly hard in the field to produce items for others to eat, and that is the purpose farmers keep going for their community.