The View is Worth it (Group 1)

We started the day bright and early at 4:30 this morning. We drove to a nearby mountain and hiked up it. The hike took around an hour to complete and was moderately strenuous. But once we got to the top, we were able to see the sun rising over the mountains. We enjoyed the scenery and then headed back down the mountain. According to our group member’s Fitbit, the hike up and down the mountain was 2.6 miles total and the equivalent to 76 flights of stairs. 

We then headed back to the mission for breakfast. For our morning service, most of he group went to help at a stone house tying rhubarb and making a concrete floor. A few members of our group went to a nearby school and did some lite construction work there. After this, we headed back to the mission for lunch. 

In the afternoon, we learned about the process for making coffee from locals. They showed us how coffee gets from the plant into the drink. The process was more in depth than we expected. We learned that dark roasted and medium roasted coffee get roasted at the same temperature, but for different amounts of time. Most of the group was surprised to learn that dark roast coffee has less caffeine than medium roast coffee. As part of the presentation, we each got to try a sample of the coffee that we had just watched be made from start to finish. After the presentation, we headed next door to sort coffee beans for an hour. 

Later in the evening, we attended mass for Ash Wednesday with Fr. Kesicki as the celebrant. Those who wished to receive ashes had the opportunity to do so. There was a large group of people crowded outside the back of the church, as Ash Wednesday is an important day in Latin American culture. From mass, our group picked up pizzas from a local shop that we had preordered earlier in the afternoon. We took the pizza back to the mission to share with the other Gannon groups present. The fourth floor, or roof, of our hotel has a fire pit on it. The staff at the hotel started a fire for us as we sat around and enjoyed each other’s company. Since we had been awake since 4:30am, our groups headed the bed relatively early.