Day 3

Written by DJ DAUGHTRY , student
Edited by Mr. Moreland

I would like to say that today was tough. We woke at 5:30 to eat at 6:30, so we can get out and work. Because this is Costa Rica's rainy season or winter it rains a lot, which in turn means they have early and long days. So similar to the average Tico or Costa Rican we got up early and went straight to work. It was amazing. I personally love working with my hands and doing hard labor because it just feels good to me, but this was different because it wasn't just mindless work, it was work that really helped the community. We helped finish a cement road.
Some of the reasons this job really benefits the community:

• La Carpio is what is know as a squatter town, mainly Nicaragua immigrants,
  
• Because it being a squatter town the people have no right to their land, and
  
• The only way they get full access to their land is to build roads, sidewalks, indoor pluming and such

So by doing this we are really helping La Carpio. And we have another early start tomorrow!

Another thing I want to talk about before I catch some sleep. is a CCI or Cross Cultural Incident. In class before we talked about how there are general cultural differences between Latin America and North America. One we talked about and I observed was the fact that here it's more about team work than self glory. In the Dos Pinos factory we were told how they are a co-op or a cooperative. In a nutshell this means that they are not like a corporation who has one main leader, rather the Co-op has many and equal share holders. All these share holders cooperatively provide leadership. They are all equal and make decisions as such. And this is a major change from American business philosophy.

All in all I'm having a great time. Today was no rain which I loved, and the food gets better everyday. Today we had new drink made out of fruit that grows in the back yard!

Lost in Translation, Dos Pinos, and Distracting Ticos

By Jocelyn Mclaughlin, student
Edited by Mr. Moreland

Wake up time. I actually woke up before the alarm went off. I guess we had what you would call an early start. For breakfast we had eggs, bread, rice & beans (no me gusta el beans).

Any way, after we had our meal we headed off to the Dos Pinos company, which in Spanish means two pines. Dos pinos is a dary cooperative, a group of farmers that all own a company. We had a brief tour of the plant, and we got to meet the Dos Pinos mascot, Lula, who was very entertaining. After that we conducted a free trade interview with representatives of Dos Pinos.

One highlight of the trip was waving to Costa Ricans.  Once a man was so distracted by our group that ran into a stop sign while he was waving back.

Well it is our group meeting time!  Talk to you soon.

Arrival at Costa Rica

By: Robert Murphy, student
Edited by Mr. Moreland

Today we left Pittsburgh International Airport and arrived in Charlotte, North Carolina. After a brief layover, we took the plane to Costa Rica where we met our tour guide, Matt Cook. On arriving in Costa Rica I noticed all the bars and gates on the houses as we went to our hotel. Then we got settled in and had a brief meeting and a snack. Then we went to a local grocery store where we went around looking for Dos Pinos products as we are going to go visit the Dos Pinos dairy plant tomorrow. The grocery store was like an American grocery store. Fresh produce, fresh meat and bread. A 20oz coke cost $2 in American money.

I look forward to day two in Costa Rica.