So this morning we went to a coffee farm in Antigua. While I visited a coffee farm on Tuesday and learned about the process of coffee picking and processing on a large scale level, today I learned about the farmers and how they live life. I was assigned to work with Andres. We hiked about 30 minutes up Agua Volcano to get to the coffee crops and the picked coffee beans for an hour. At the end of the hour, between 5 people, we had 25 pounds of beans! Then we brought the beans down to Andres's house and we put them in a peeling contraption. It only took half an hour for 25 pounds, but Andres usually had 100 pounds to pick and peel so it takes about 8 to 9 hours. I learned that once the beans are exposed they need to dry for 10 days. They can then be sorted into good and bad beans. The good beans are large and oval, while the bad beans are simply smaller. There is nothing farmers can do to control how many good beans they yield from their crops. All they can do is water and prune them throughout the year. The good beans are roasted and exported while the bad beans are roasted and then sold locally at a MUCH lower price. It's just so shocking that farming coffee beans is so labor intensive and the farmers only get a small cut of the profits.
After saying goodbye to Andres, Melissa and I visited the orphanage we will be working at next week: Casa Aleluya! We are assigned to work with 0 to 3 year olds, but most of the kids are about 3! We were welcomed by screams and hugs. It was magical. After introducing ourselves and bonding a little we had to go, but promised to be back on Tuesday to start our project. It was heartbreaking seeing their sad faces, but I am very ready to begin on Tuesday!
Here are some pictures from today:
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