Just Coffee

Here is a video diary of my recent trip to Venezuela.

The song in the clip is by a fellow named Luis Llaneton Sandoval. It is called "Las Cachos Suben y Bajan".

I'll post more stories and photos about VZ soon.

Hello from sunny VZ. As you can see from this photo, I am having a great time. I have been here for a week-- mostly in the state of Lara in and around the city of Sanare. Lara is west of Caracas and is a great foil to the complete insanity of Caracas.

Actually, that is probably not fair to Caracas. I stayed with two very lovely people from the Communal Councils in the heart of Caracas and I met some incredible activists who are working overtime to organize in their community. In a place where, had I been alone, I would have felt pretty vulnerable and ubergringo-like, I was treated with incredible respect and kindness.

My brother Jim (aka Juice or Baby Hook on the court) and I are both from Lexington, Kentucky. Being from Kentucky, we are basketball addicts. Even though we both grew up railing against the mainstream and taking pride in being freaks, we still could not avoid the hoops. Many a Saturday was spent counting backwards from 10 and throwing up last second circus shots to win imaginary crowns. And the crowd goes wild...

In KY basketball is a religion. No...seriously, it is a bona fide religion. And if it came down to Sunday service or the 'Cats vs. the Cards (or Carolina, or Florida, or Indiana, or K-State Tech A&M, or whoever), you can bet that the churches would be empty. Sorry God, but unless Jesus is a 6'8" power forward wearing a blue jersey and dropping 3s from NBA range, he must wait.

This is a picture of one of the thousands of butterflies from the coffee fields of La FEM. Butterflies are an excellent indicator of how healthy the ecosystem is.

In this case, it is clear that these women's fields are super healthy and organic.

So, we've been telling you about La FEM, the amazing organizaton that, among other things, is the umbrella group for the 4 women's producer co-ops that we visited recently in Nicaragua.

Maybe our best day with them consisted of leaving the FEM meeting house in the little village of Los Llanos on horseback and riding through the mountains for most of the day visiting growers. This was probably the most impressive grower visit that I have ever had the pleasure of experiencing.

I'll leave you with this picture and follow up with more. This will be the theme of my next few blog entries.

Well we are home.

Went back to the JC today to chase down wire transfers, pay bills, and get caught up in the shop.

Good to be back, people.

Check out the home page for more on La FEM...

We are now in the Best Western across from the Managua airport.

It is quite strange and a little depressing to be back in this environment. We could really be anywhere. This is not Nicaragua.

We visited CECOCAFEN today with our compa from Madison Steve Herrick. Nice visit and a neato tour of SOLCAFE, the place where all CECOCAFEN co-ops process their coffee. Found out we missed our friend Cesar from La Esperanza co-op who was looking for us on Sunday in Matagalpa. Not very cool, but we could not get a bus from Esteli Saturday evening.

Anyway, we had a great day and an amazing trip. We have many pictures and thoughts to share with all yáll. If anyone wants to pick us up at Ohare tomorrow, we get in around 345. If not, we fly into Madison at 745.

Okay.

Miller and I had a hilariously terrifying experience last night at a lil bar-restaurant here in Matagalpa.

Let us just say it involved an overly fiendly guy named Rolando and the Abba song "Chiquitita".

Seriously.

More when we return tomorrow...

-matt

Anyone know a good place to stay in Managua. Maybe fairly close to the airport?

Post a comment here or write matt@justcoffee.net if you have some direction.

Thanks!!!

-matt

Hey There!

Incredible trip so far. I cannot tell you how refreshing and great it is to meet a group like La FEM. They are incredible women and they have an incredible program.

Yesterday we woke from sleeping in la casa de La FEM in a community called "Los Llanos" and took off on horseback into the mountains to meet several growers and check out their fields and communities. The highlight may have been riding up to the digs of a collective of 5 productoras called ¨Las Estrellas¨. They were growing food, had a depulper and collection station, a drying patio, a casa for meetings and 5 cows for milk, butter, cheese, etc. When I get back Tuesday I will post the pictures here. Anyhoo, they served us up some arroz con leche and coffee and we talked for a while. After we rode out to meet the president of their larger co-op. I will never forget this experience!