Coffee, Cafe, and Cooperative

So on Monday night, As Green As It Gets' San Miguel Cooperative has its weekly meeting with Franklin. After work, Oriana and I were able to sit in, be introduced formally, and learn a little about how coffee production happens with these fellows. They also talked about a giant order that was due at the end of the week. And that Oriana and I would be available to help them roast, package, and apply the labels to the bags. At the request of the farmers, Jessica teaches the English class immediately after each meeting. Some of the farmers' children attend as well.

Oriana and I hung out for the English class also--and I had a ball. We were asking questions like "How are you?" and "How many children do you have?" and "How many daughters do you have?" The farmers had some serious issues with the word "daughter". It was super difficult for them to say. Then we went into what types of trees they have, and how to welcome folks to different places i.e. "Welcome to my fields" or "Welcome to my house".

This was really a blast for me. I think the best part about it is that these guys are all in their 40s-60s and they are so eager to learn English at 7pm. If I woke up by 5 am everyday, I would skip English class.

On Tuesday, all of the farmers trickled in starting around 1 pm to begin roasting coffee. They brought something like 250 pounds with them. Some arrived on foot, some arrived on bikes, some arrived with their kids in tow. Altogether there are seven coffee farmers in the San Miguel Cooperative: Filiberto, Timoteo, Daniel, Fredy, Miguel, Felix, and Alberto. They just brought on four new farmers--but I haven't met them yet.

We roasted around 100 lbs of coffee, three didn't come out well--and they got tossed. Each batch that comes out of the roaster is tasted by all the members of the cooperative before it gets packaged for distribution. These guys are serious about quality control. By the last few tasting rounds our tongues were tired, but it was clear that something wasn't quite right with the last three batches. So, they tossed them and called it a night. We finished around 8:30 pm.

Because they didn't finish until late--and we lost power once, we didn't move into our new apartment until this morning (Wednesday). Bright and early, at 9am the first farmer showed up to roast more, and package more coffee. It's about 6:15 pm. We're still here waiting for the next batch to come out of the roaster.

It's been a long, but satisfying few days. The farmers were telling me that they think technology is advancing really fast in the U.S. Filiberto said that he thinks that with time, computers will replace waiters (we were talking about restaurants). It is interesting to talk with the farmers and get their perspective. We were talking about music while we were packing. They knew a lot of music that I like already. And were giving me all kinds of advice for what type of marimba (typical Guatemalan music with a giant xylophone) band I should hire for my hypothetical wedding.

They like that we get their jokes--thank goodness I'm proficient enough to understand. They really enjoy laughing--and that is something I enjoy doing as well.

So, I'm just finishing this post at 8:10 pm and the coffee farmers just left. We are now, for an order of 200 lbs of coffee only missing 5 bags. So, they'll come back on Friday to bring more coffee, roast it, and pack it up.

For now, it's time to go forage for food and then settle in to the new house.

I just figured out how to add pictures to the blog, so I'll start adding them in future posts!

Hasta luego! Until next time!