One thing that we have failed to mention is that each
morning begins with a daily prayer and reflection called Lectio Divina
(“praying the scripture”) This provides
us with time to reflect on our experiences here in Guatemala and how these
experiences relate to scripture verses in a personal way. It is a great way to begin the day. The passage today way from Luke 8: 22-25, Jesus
Calms a Storm. This was such an
appropriate scripture reading for this morning after being out on the boat
yesterday.
Breakfast consisted of scrambled eggs, black beans, yucca pancakes,
cookies and juice. Just kidding from the
previous post. We didn’t return to the
school work site today but took the opportunity to tour a coffee co-op in the
village of Tzampetey - San Antonio, Palopo.
The co-op means that several families from this specific region join
together and bring their beans to this central location to be processed. Our guide was very informative. The co-op began informally in 1983 with 18
families participating. It began as a
formal co-op in 1993 with 38 families. Currently
there are 124 families who participate.
Individually, the families wouldn’t be able to sell their own beans, so
they all cooperate together. They must
be members in order to use the co-op and they share all expenses. Their mission is “to grow and market high
quality coffee respecting the environment and contributing to achieve
sustainability, social and economic development of its member communities.
“Café Tzampetey handout”
Four varieties of coffee plants are grown here at an
altitude of 1830 meters above sea level and are shade grown. That means that the beans must be grown with
60% shade and 40% sunshine. The taste
of coffee is determined by the properties of the region. and the properties
that are brought out from the beans in this region include lemon, cashew,
cantaloupe, and bitter chocolate. A
little tidbit I picked up is that really good coffee should feel great across
your tongue. (Who knew?) The coffee
plants take 3 years for the beans to mature.
Processing the coffee beans involves 71 activities from the planting to
the drying and roasting. There are 85
workers involved in all these steps. Just
one of the things that they are very proud of is the tile floors that are used
for the drying of the beans rather than concrete. Because of the tile, the drying time takes
about 6 days rather than 8.
This co-op is involved in “direct trade” rather than “fair
trade”. Fair trade has too many rules
and regulations and profits are taken away from the families, which is their livelihood
and income. Just one of the regulations
is that the children must be of a certain age to work. However, it is the culture of this region for
the families to work together so that would prohibit from this happening.
We are very fortunate and excited that Rolling Hills Church
is going to begin a partnership with the co-op in this region and we will be
serving it at our church and also have it available for sale possibly by the
end of July. On our return trip from the
co-op, we stopped at one of the most beautiful views I have even seen. We were overlooking Lake Atitlan with a view
of the mountains and volcanoes, a village, and just more of God’s grandeur than
can be described.
We returned to a delicious rice soup with potatoes, carrots,
and corn. Marbila also cooked our two chickens that were presented to us
Tuesday evening at the church service. She
said they took 4 hours to get tender. Not only did we have the basic chicken
parts, she also cooked the feet and head.
She asked for takers and Linda and Will actually tried to eat them. Several people expressed that they felt
guilty eating the chicken that we had killed, but Geraldo said that to feel
guilty is to have bad “ju ju”, so we quickly forgot that!
We spent the afternoon sorting our donations that were
brought with us to give to the families at the dedication on Saturday. Wow.
That was quite a process! Our
evening activity was going to the home of a family that makes beautiful wooden spoons. They use 4 different kinds of wood to produce
these. They demonstrated how they make
their spoons and even let us try it. It
really was fascinating and of course we had to bring some home. When we got back to the hotel, Marbila had
prepared us a delicious spaghetti dinner with garlic bread, and then is was off
to bed!
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