Freshcoffee: 2004-11-07

Wednesday, November 10, 2004

La Tienda

Pulping

All samples must be logged.

Let's use a drip brewer.

El Maestro

Cupping regionals

Groceries are on their way.

Los estudiantes

Sr. Nacho prepares samples

School Time

As I walk out the door I can hear the screaming engine of the intercity bus coming up the mile long incline on the last stretch of the only road linking Santa Fe, a community of campesinos, to Santiago, a prosperous crossways along the PanAmerican highway in Western Panama. It is seven in the morning, I’ll try not to miss the bus today. The next one comes in half an hour. I wouldn’t mind walking a mile or two to town except that it is uphill. By the time I got up there I would be sweaty and I haven’t even had my first cup of coffee. So I run, wave, run some more and hop in.

It is early for the working crowd but not for the learning crowd. Five middle school kids take the front seats, all impeccably dressed in blue and white uniforms. Quietly and well behaved they look out the windows as if enjoying the breathtaking scenery.

Santa Fé is a pueblo. Campesinos tend their farms during the week and come to town on the weekend for groceries. There is a church and school sitting side by side. Then, across the street, a grocery store, shrewdly run by a Chinese woman. Beside it, another store, cooperatively managed by Cooperativa La Esperanza de los Campesinos, a farmer’s coop and my hosts for the week.

The bus makes its final stop at the school. The students dutifully pay five cents for the fare, step out, make a split second flattered stop to pose for my camera and off they go. Free enterprise, cooperativism, education andworship, all is well in this remote community nestled in the dramatic mountains of Panama. They too like me, enjoy pursuit of happiness, hopes of a better future and betterment of their lives. I pay my fare and walk to the grocery store where I pay another five cents to enjoy my first cup of coffee of the day. Coffee, yes coffee. Coffee generates the economy of this community and I am there to help them improve the quality of their coffee. How about a second cup! It’s school time.