Coffee

Listening to: Cada color al cielo (by Laura Pausini)

I’m not a coffee drinker. Guatemala is a big coffee country. Ranked 3^rd in quality (after Ethiopia and Kenya) and 7^th producer of coffee in quantity, Guatemala produces coffee in seven different regions, which produce different levels of acidity. The USA is the #1 consumer of Guatemalan coffee. Next are Japan, Germany, and Canada.

My host family owns a coffee finca (farm) and the women (my mother, grandmother, and two sisters) pick the red coffee cherries, which are then sold to a beneficio. There, the cherries are washed, pealed, and sorted. Each cherry contains two coffee beans, one’s of good quality while the other’s of lesser quality. These are separated. Then, the coffee is dried, fermented for 48 hours, washed, dried again, roasted, and ground up. One coffee tree produces an average of 40 cups of coffee per year. It’s a very long and complicated process with hard, physical labor.

Guatemalans, most if not all, are huge consumers of coffee – in fact, I went to a family dinner with tias and tios. A 9 year old prima drank coffee, just like everyone else in the family. I was shocked! My sisters say it’s custom to drink coffee every night, especially because it gets really cold. So, I don’t know much about coffee but I know enough to have seen my friends use “French presses” or coffee makers and to see fancy ways to prepare coffee on television. Here, most of the families use instant coffee. They simply boil water and add the coffee and lots.. LOTS of sugar. I wonder why they don’t prepare the coffee differently – supposedly, beans are better than instant? Just some thoughts though.

Experiences:

• We gave our first charlas (presentations) to the employees at the Municipality.. Got good feedback from staff who came and watched.
• Met and talked to both PCVs who lived with my host family before me! I really love talking to PCVs because they have so much to share, both about their projects and insider info… ddun ddun ddun.
• Visited La Azotea Centro Cultural. There’s a coffee farm/museum and a traditional Mayan music museum there. Got to see how coffee is processed and the different types of instruments Mayans used for music.
• Watched and participated in a traditional Mayan ceremony. During the ceremony, we gave thanks to 20 different spirits. Unfortunately, I don’t remember any of them because the priestess was talking in a Mayan language and Spanish and my Spanish really isn’t good enough to focus for 3 hours (yet). Made me think a lot about Christianity while the ceremony was going on.
• Even though it was for the slightest moment, talked to a few friends from back home. ^__^ Miss you guys a lot and I do think of you!!! haha

Goals:

• (Almost) delivered my presentation smoothly.
• Still cannot understand a song in Spanish without actually having the lyrics. But working on it!
• New goals…… that preterite and imperfect will just ‘click.’ Heh heh heh…

Prayer requests:

• Next week is Field-Based Training! This means doing awesome charlas with kids, ziplining, and talking to a lot of PCVs.  Of course it also means a lot of travelling and sleeping in tents in really, really cold weather.  Please pray that our group will stay safe and healthy (perpetual prayer request) and that we will learn and see a lot.
• Spanish… I am at an ultimate plateau on my learning curve. And I feel like I can’t get any closer to my host family and other Guatemalans until I get the Spanish down.
• Patience. I´ve passed the honeymoon stage of living in a new country. I´m feeling frustrated at the things I don´t understand and at my limited communication. I´m frustrated at a lot of things here and need to chillax.