Friday, Oct. 7th
Day 8: The Coffee Source Meeting with Kids Share Workshops
After a refreshing hike Friday morning, Lorena, Sister Schools president, and I traveled to San Jose to meet with Arnoldo Leiva, manager of The Coffee Source. The reason for this meeting was to discuss how Kids Share Workshops (KSW) could facilitate a week long visit with Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (GMCR) Source Employees in Costa Rica with Arnoldo’s coffee community members. Arnoldo was introduced to me through Winston Rost, GMCR Farmer Relations Manager in Waterbury, Vermont.
Our meeting went very well as I tried to navigate the jigsaw puzzle I was visualizing with The Coffee Source connection, GMCR, KSW and Partners of the Americas (Sister Schools). Arnoldo explained to me that he was to bring 13 of his community members to Waterbury, Vermont, November 17. He asked if I would join them at GMCR, share my program and discuss how it could fit into their time with the employees. Arnoldo seemed to like the idea of Kids Share Workshops helping to bring community children together with the adults, through cross cultural sharing, during a short visit. Additionally, Lorena explained that Sister Schools & Partners of the Americas volunteers could assist in facilitating this cross cultural connection.
Lorena and Arnoldo made a connection with Escuela Santa Cecilia located in San Pedro de Poás, the province of Alajuela. We also recently discovered another GMCR source, Escuela El Socorro, Piedades Sur de San Ramón, which is called a unidocente because there is only one teacher with 12 students. Lorena will try to organize other unidocente schools to join us, allowing up to 40 students to participate in the program with GMCR employees.
I explained to Arnoldo what I was visualizing with GMCR for the week. I understood that we are to visit a handful of communities. Some if not all I would give a 1-2 hour program with the employees and youth. A recent example of this was in Oregon at the Bienestar Community School. Adults and children enjoyed a 1.5 hour program painting and decorating recycled containers from their newly created tissue art. The activity was so much fun, and it can be used on many different objects to create beautiful pieces of work. It also brought us all together and created a special friendship. Later I was to receive beautiful thank you cards from all the children!
In addition to creating art I hope to organize in a couple of community’s environmental exploration, where the children take the adults on an adventure, approved by me but a surprise to the adults. That activity would have to be carefully considered depending on the adults endurance. One such surprise was recently in Guatemala when I announced to the children that we will play on a zip line and draw the rainforest in our newly made journals from recycled material.
Bringing adults and children together through playful, fun activities like these are thrilling for me! Wish us luck as we work with this idea for the first time in Costa Rica! I am excited to bring smiles and fun to not only the children’s faces but the adults who may have never been to this beautiful country!
About Arnoldo Leiva, quoted from National Coffee Association’s Website
“As General Manager of The Coffee Source, Inc., in San José, Costa Rica, Arnoldo Leiva is not only responsible for all aspects of sourcing green coffees from Latin American countries and exporting them to Europe, the United States and Asia, he also manages the import and sales division for the U.S. market. Mr. Leiva is also active with several coffee associations both in Costa Rica and the United States and is currently President of the Specialty Coffee Association of Costa Rica and Sintercafe and sits on the Specialty Coffee Association of America’s International Relations Council representing Costa Rica. Mr. Leiva received a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from the Universidad Autónoma de C.A. in San José and an MBA from the National University of San Diego.”
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During my three-week stay I visited a very successful food security project in the Monte Alto Mountains outside of Nicoya. I felt this was a very important project for me to see and share with others. We began our trip with visiting the feed store to pick up the Tilapia pellets for the artificial ponds we were to visit. As we drove up into the mountains and farming communities the views were amazing, the best I had seen thus far in Coast Rica! Along the way I was shown an earth oven which was successfully being used to bake bread. Howler monkeys with their babies were curious about our presence or annoyed. The journey was rough and long and barely a road. I enjoyed a native dish for lunch and wonderful company with a family we visited. I was so impressed with how well each family was living off the land, so remote and isolated. It was some adventure I will never forget!
Kids Share Costa Rica, Oregon & Vermont 