Education

Download one of our "Coffee 101" posters

admin — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 01:55:03 -0500

Posters are 11x17 and suitable for printing.... Made by Mr. Moon, graphic design ninja.

Please feel free to use them as you will for edu-ma-cational purposes. We will update in the near future to replace the graphic explaining "where the money goes" to reflect our 12oz. bags.
Thanks!

Los Contratos

admin — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 18:01:47 -0500

La asociación de certificar, Midwest Organic Services Association (MOSA), revisa nuestros contratos para confirmar que estemos usando el sistema de comercio justo. Por si acaso usted quiera ver los contratos, certificaciones de producción orgánica, y otros documentos, éstos se encuentran disponibles en la página web de Cooperative Coffees.
http://coopcoffees.com/what/paper-trail/docs

Si tiene alguna pregunta o comentario, por favor contáctenos a EMAIL

MASA meetings

colleen — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 07:36:42 -0500

I recently met with two city administrators from the Ainaro side of the Madison Ainaro Sister City Alliance (MASA) here in Timor-Leste.

Floods and Tear Gas

colleen — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 00:53:18 -0500

Tear gas. Damn that hurts!

Haitian Diary

mark the spark — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 21:30:23 -0500

The following is a transcription of my Haitian diary:

6Nov.

Disembarking the plane at Port-au-Prince I resist the urge--which I
always get exiting a plane down the stairs onto the tarmac--to wave
Jacki Onassis style. This airport is more like a greyhound bus
station with UN soldiers from Croatia, Brazil, Belize, and all over.
Next we race frantically through the traffic standing in the back of a
truck with all of the luggage. Racing, wind in my eyes, smells. The
electricity is out everywhere except where people have generators.
It's dark and we're going top speed, moving within a couple of inches
of the colourful bus on our right. There are no seats in the bus,
everyone stands, and pedal to the metal. Up dark roads the headlights
reveal canteens and snack shops open in the walls along this curving
street. Patrons standing around, but no electricity. No sidewalks
walls like a fortress line the streets, people, trucks swerve, honk.
This guest house is quite nice. They have a generator. And a pool.
And a gate. We honk about 30 times and someone finally opens up. They
have food. Beans and rice. They have two guards. The guards sit in
lawn chairs. They both have machine guns in their laps. Pointed
either direction. One of them has a clock radio, blinking 12:00,
trying to tune in a station. It is plugged into a 50' yellow extension
cord. Reminds me of Just Coffee before the fire marshal came by (the
extension cord, not the guns).

day of birth ramblings

colleen — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 05:03:36 -0500

I am 28 years old today.

Santa Anita Needs a Bus!!!

matt — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 12:01:30 -0400

In the community of Santa Anita de la Union in Guatemala there are fifteen young people who would like to attend high school in January. The school is located in a city fifteen miles down the hill from their village-- too far to walk..

In 2006 Just Coffee was asked to help the people of Santa Anita find a bus. We enlisted the help of students at Madison's East High School (MESFAP) who answered the call by raising over $1500 to help with the purchase, maintenance, and transport of a bus.

We thought we had found a bus last month when a generous donor offered a used vehicle, but upon inspection it was deemed to not be “road worthy” for the demands of Guatemalan driving.

If you have access to a good bus, or know someone who does, please contact us at info(AT)justcoffee(dot)net. If all works out well we would need to have it in Guatemala by January 1, 2008.

Do it for the kids!!!

first rains!

colleen — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 04:08:30 -0400

Dili's first rains of the wet season have arrived! Thankfully this brings a short respite to the oppressive heat for however short a time. I heard it speculated by some that this year the wet season would come late but much to everyone's pleasant surprise, it is right on time. As the rains come more frequently over the next month the hillsides around Dili, and all over Timor-Leste, will change from barren brown to lush shades of green.

Seed Project: Mana Merita's message from Grupo Romit, Becora, Dili

colleen — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 03:36:30 -0400

ROMIT Group:

From the vegetable seeds that we have received, we organized ourselves in order to prepare a site as a vegetable garden.

1. First we cut/turn the earth.

2. Second we fence the site.

3. Third we plant the vegetable seeds.

One wild ride

colleen — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 21:48:38 -0400

Somehow I managed to get through each of the thirteen districts, or states, of Timor-Leste in just one week! Three weeks ago I traveled first through the western and central districts to the towns of Maliana, Suai, Same, Aileu, Gleno and Licquica. I then traveled through the eastern districts to the towns of Manatuto, Baucau, Los Palos, and Viqueque. To top it all off I was helicoptered to the remote district of Oecussi before coming back to settle in Timor-Leste's capitol, Dili. It was an exhausting whirlwind trip that I wouldn't want to repeat in such a short amount of time, but also a great experience.