Day 3 - Learning about the biofabrica, coffee process, and meeting the young dreamers

Hi it's Lara, this morning we woke up early and had a delicious breakfast. It has been wonderful sharing meals together without our phones, enjoying each other's company and getting to know each other and the host families better. We had a blackberry juice with breakfast that came directly from the Biofabrica we are going to be working on.

We then drove up to the Biofabrica in the back of a truck (with seats and a metal cage to hold on to), it made us feel like we were in Jurassic Park, an experience all on its own.

At the Biofabrica, Jonathan and David with Green Communities had us practice mindfulness to really take in and appreciate Providencia, the forest, and the mountains we had before us. We learned how important it is for the health of the forest and for the health of the people working on the farms. With conventional farming, of course more coffee can be produced, but with organic, and especially ecological farming, the health of the soil, the people working on the farms, and the forest is preserved. The idea is to integrate farming with the forest, without cutting down any existing trees. It is a closed loop cycle, where all material that is used or grown returns to the earth without causing damage. Green Communities uses organic fertilizers on the coffee plants, terraces their slopes to reduce erosion, and mixes different plants species to improve soil quality and shade and moisture retention for the coffee plants.

We also had a very deep discussion about community development, and what it means to be a developed community. In the end, there is no fully developed community, since things are constantly improving and eventually a community becomes so large, it must outsource things such as food, clothing, and many other things. There is also a lot more that we are bringing into our lives that we need, that is very unsustainable. We all need to be more conscious about the things we buy and consume. We had some great perspectives on this, such as "learning to live simply, so others can simply live" (Justice Bailey), and that "life is coming from you, not at you" (Lara Menzer). You can choose every day to be better, every day to make a difference, and every day to live a more fulfilling and sustainable life. 

Meeting the young dreamers was very inspiring: they travel so far and for so long every day all so they can get an education, and they have so much motivation to do so. We did some bonding activities with them which were very fun, and even after a few hours with them, I'll remember them all for the rest of my life 

We then went to our home stays. Gianna and I are staying with a lovely grandma and her grandson. Despite there being a language barrier, we are still able to communicate pretty well with one another, which shows how easily it is connect with someone despite not speaking the same language. We ended up playing Uno with 2 other Abroad members and our host family's son, Wardy. We bonded so well with Wardy and had so much fun with the card game and practicing Spanish together.