Have you ever miked a cow? Day four afternoon

Have you ever milked a cow? This was our first time.  It was wet, gross, and warm.  But, some of us thought it was fun!  Today we had an activity where we met local neighbors and worked on our team work. It was kind of like The Amazing Race, Costa Rica style.  The goal was to complete four challenges and earn bands.  

Our first challenge was a river challenge.  We had to flip over a raft and all climb in it.  At first Fox got on top and tried to flip it, but we didn't have the right technique.  Then Caleb tried another way and it worked.  After we all got in, our second challenge was to hold our breath and go under the raft.  It was hard because we had life vests and we had to push off the bottom of the raft.  We earned three bands!

In the second challenge, we had to interview a local family using our Spanish skills.  Russell and Cole asked the questions in Spanish and we all helped translate the answers. We learned that she has five (cinco) people in her family.  At night she drinks coffee with her family.  She milks cows as a living.  The house only had four lights in the house.  We learned from this interview that we are much more wasteful than many people here in Costa Rica.  We only earned two bands at this challenge because we stumbled on one question!

Our third challenge was to milk a cow.  At first we were a little disgusted and shy to milk the cow.  Jerry went first and got a reasonable amount.  We were trying to get a whole cup, but it was hard!  We worked together to get 1/2 cup and earned two bands!  A few funny moments were when milk sprayed Caleb in the face and a couple of us stepped in manure!

The last challenge was a cooking challenge.  We met a lady named Mayra who taught us how to make tortillas.  We had to make ours look like hers to earn three bands. Jerry's was more star shaped, but it still tasted great!  After that we were able to grind sugar cane to make juice.  It was really tough at first.  The juice tasted really sugary like an energy drink.  While we were there, it started pouring down rain.  We got to stay there longer and the really nice lady served us more food like homemade cheese, pudding bites, cookies, and sugarcane sticks.  Finally the rain calmed down and the man wanted us to walk his baby cow.  We took a picture with him. We earned all three bands at this challenge.

Our team, the Neon Hairy Sloths, walked back to the Eco Lodge in the rain chanting our team's name.  We were soaked, but had a great time!  Unfortunately we lost by one band!

Written by Caleb, Fox, Russell, and Jerry