Wednesday has by far been the most exciting day of our trip so far. In the morning, we visited Tree 4 Hope Academy to deliver the rest of the books we had sorted earlier in the week. We were picked up around 9:30 am and spent about two hours at the school.
The principal gave us a tour of the school, and we had the chance to meet both the students and the teachers. The kids were incredibly sweet, and the welcoming atmosphere they created there is truly remarkable. Each grade, from pre-K through 6th, has two teachers in each classroom—one teaching in Spanish and the other in English. They recognize the value of bilingual education, and as someone who speaks both languages, I fully support this approach.
Each grade performed for us, and we thoroughly enjoyed every performance. Below are some of the highlights from our visit:
After walking through each classroom, we had the opportunity to see the work CAWs did during our spring break. Although the system was currently off because they were cleaning out the filters, it was very neat to see their work. And of course, we couldn't leave without playing some soccer with the kids. Aleesa and I joined them during recess. We were placed on opposite teams, but that was okay because my team secured a 2-1 win!
Later in the day, we returned to Chica Bean and moved down to the roaster to continue our implementation. Josue came back with a bigger sink, and we were all set to go. We began by cutting a rectangle into the table to fit the dimensions of the sink. After cutting the table, we placed the sink inside it and attached a drain to control the drainage of the ethyl acetate.
Next, we added mesh to our bean container to prevent any beans from falling through the larger holes. This container will be placed inside the sink, which will be filled with the EA solution to extract the caffeine. We then moved our table to the designated space and placed the steamer on the other side. At that point, our system was complete. It is simple but effective, and Josue was very happy with the result. We will begin running tests on Thursday!
