Cultural exchange and cheese farm – by maddie, clarise, and franCisCo!

Hi everybody! Today was fantastic. For breakfast, we had empanadas that were delicious. Then we walked up the big hill (for the last time, thank goodness) to go to a local school for a cultual exchangeThis local school is ages 5-12. When we got to the school we had to wait a little bit because the kids were taking a test. We broke up into three groups: art, language, and sports. Maddie led the art group, Clarise led the language group, and Francisco led the sports group. The kids were so sweet! They were really excited to do the activities we planned. In the art group, we made friendship bracelets and folded papers into hearts to decorate. We all saw parts of ourselves in the kids. We tried to be the best leaders that we could be for them. Everyone did their best to communicate with the kids (especially those who don’t know Spanish)! The language group planned games to give them an idea about objects, colors, and numbers in English. At the end of our time, each student individually hugged each one of us. It was so heartwarming. An sweet impact was made, and we created a space where they felt comfortable to advocate for themselves.

After lunch we went to a cheese farm. Carla, the owner, makes Turrialba artisan cheese and walked us through the process. She explaind the process and showed us the benefits that cows have on the environment when they are maintained sustainably. For example, she makes her own bio gas from their poop, and she cooks with it. We were split into two teams (the milkers and the moo moos) so that we could learn in a fun and competitive way. Leah and Clarise each got to milk a cow (it was really cool). After milking the cow, Alani and Alexia volunteered to make fresh cheese. The moo moos ultimately won the competition, but in the end we were all winners because we got to spend the afternoon with cows, Carla gave us hand made bookmarks, and we got to walk away with a lot of knowledge about running a sustainable farm.

For the best part of the day, we all got dressed up to go to Fratelli for dinner. We took a bus (so no big hill) down to Turrialba. The pizza and pineapple juice were delicious! It was so fun to be one big family at the restaurant. We took SO many pictures (there were lots of flashing cameras)! It was so much fun that we cancelled karaoke to stay longer to savor the time together on one of our last evenings together. Once we got back to the base house, we started signing each others travel journals (like yearbooks, but better). Then we all went to bed :(. We packed our bags because tomorrow we had to San Jose.

Per usual, we can’t fit all the photos in the blog, so feel free to see more here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/mQKy5UQVSdVjCkgeA

While we are excited to see you all soon, we will miss our little home in Turrialba.