Thursday, March 08, 2007

coffee season, and its aftermath

Hi Everyone!
    I know its been a while since I have written, especially since I have been getting emails from people asking for updates, sorry guys!  I'm not really sure where I should begin this email.  I originally meant to write this about a specific incident that happened near my site because of coffee season.  But right now I'm sitting in Zamorano - a Honduran agr university that actually does a lot of work with UGA.  I'm waiting to meet with a Doctor on campus who works with chickens, but he is in a meeting as I type so I got lucky and was shown the computer lab! with free internet!  I am the only person here in the lab and the lab guy, i have no idea what his job title is, really wants to carry on a conversation, so a saber if I'll get to finish this email today or never. 
     I guess I'll digress a bit and go back to right before our project reconnect - the 3 month in site meeting.  I went to Danli, a big city in the opposite direction of Teguc from my site, to run some errands and catch up with friends for the day.  To get there though, I was going to take a ride down the mountain and catch an early bus direct from Teupacenti to Danli, it turned out that one of the coffee farmers from San Isidro was going all the way to Danli and offered to take me.  Peace Corps volunteers rarely give up free rides, especially from people they trust. On the way, we stopped in Teupa at the secadora so he could clear up some business and we left from there to Danli.  Later, around 6 PM, I got a text message from one of the coffee farmers in my site saying that the owner of the secadora had been killed.  I wrote him back and asked how.  He texted back and said they robbed him.  My friend the coffee farmer was concerned and so was I. 
    In Teupacenti there are 2 large secardoras - or coffee dryers.  This is the place that people take their "wet" coffee to sell.  There they have large machines that they put the coffee through to dry it more rapidly or they lay it out on cement patios to dry it by the sun, which takes more time.  There is one dryer that is right next to the salida, o sea the exit for San Isidro.  And thus everyone from my area sells their coffee there.  I have frequented the secardora on several occasions with farmers who have given me a jalon, o sea a ride, to town.  None of them have been to show me around the place or explain exactly what happens, because I'm a female and why would I care.  So in passing I knew the owner of the secardora, I stand out, its very hard not to standout.  Anyway, so I was genuinely upset when I heard this news.  At first I thought someone had broken into the office of the dryer late at night and robbed him and it wasn't until the next day that I got the whole story.
    The next I went to the bus station in search of the Tiupa bus, which as it turns out, was not there.  So I took a bus that would pass by the desvio (or the fork in the road) that goes up to Tiupa, from there I waited for t a car to pass or from a jalon.  Luckily the bus came.
   It wasn't until I was on the bus on my way back to Teupacenti when I got the whole story.  I realized that the man sitting next to me was reading an article with some very gruesome photos.  After about 15 minutes I decided to ask him if it was about the guy who was murdered.  It was and in the article it said that the ex-diputado was carrying 500,000 limpera with him and was ambushed by 4 men with AK 47s and shotguns.  In the car with him were 2 body guards, a worker and 2 women to whom he was givings rides to from the desvio- o sea where the main highway meets the dirt road that goes to Teupacenti. Only he was killed, but as we passed the  spot on the road everyone got up and looked out the side of the bus, the blood was still visible on the road.
   Rumors say that these men were tipped off that he would be traveling with this much money.  His wife said he was carrying so much because he needed to pay workers.  The reality of the situation is that there is a small bank and several cooperatives in Teupacenti but I don't think any of them are large enough to manage the amount of money that they use.  So he might not have had other options for traveling with this money.  Another unfortunate reality is that many coffee farmers are traveling with more money and because of the high traffic of cars traveling through the mountain, the bus has become less and less regular.  And that leaves less options for me to travel away from site. 
   After this happened, I didn't really know what to think.  Was I in danger living where I am, if I had tried to go home the day before like I had planned and waited for a jalon where I waited the day before, would I have been in the car with them? I didn't know.  So I made a meeting with the Safety and Security director of PCH, the day before we left to go to another city for several days for our conference.  After explaining everything to the SS Director his immediate reaction was that I needed to change my site.  And all I could do was stare at him, I was afraid I was going to freak out more.  Me, who was the least gunho about their site from the beginning, me who was scared to death to go to site, was now scared to death to change sites.  I told the man that the very LAST thing I wanted to do was leave San Isidro.  After more conversation, we decided that I would only travel in buses and avoid people in the community that may be traveling with more money.  And that I should take a break for the weekend and hang out with friends and enjoy myself. (!)  All of this is easier said than done of course.  But I am trying my hardest.  And don't worry the minute I ever feel unsafe where I am living I will be out of there.
   Since I have come back from my trip to the states 8 people in my side of Tiupa have been killed over money made during coffee season, almost always something about people owing other people money.  For a while it seemed like every day the police were driving by in the mornings to another village and in the afternoons with people in the back in handcuffs.  At least the police are doing something, but the fact remains that people are still killing people.  And the best I can see to explain this a little better to explain exactly the way coffee season runs.
   Although in all parts of the country coffee season begins and ends differently.  In my region, November begins the season and should end in mid March.  Coffee berries ripen at different times so usually the coffee farmers have to make at least three cuts.  The people who actually pick the coffee are the poorer people in the community and surrounding communities.  And after the second cut many of these people don't want to cut anymore, so a lack of workers is a common complaint among the farmers.  Thus forcing them to pick the green berries, which sell for practically nothing and produce coffee that is awful.
   But the reason why the workers get tired of picking is because the farms are all on very steep slopes, it is still the raining season and fairly cold where the farms are located because of the shade needed and the altitude.  Another huge factor is the amount the owner's pay the pickers.  For each lata, a 5 gallon bucket, the owner will pay 20-25 Limperias (about $1 US).  An average adult, picking all day (from 6am-4pm) can pick between 3-6 latas.  So the average coffee picker is making between 60 and 150 Limperias a day (or about $7.50 US) in 10 hours.  I can sympathize with these people.  And from experience of picking, it is not a very easy task, although one does get better with time.  The trees are often very high and the berries do not just pop right off, and if you break part of the stem that part of the plant will not produce berries again.
   On the other side of things are the growers.  Which have their share of problems as well.  Many coffee farms have been planted and replanted for decades without much fertilization, thus leaving the soil poor and the production poorer.  Many farmers lack very specific technical knowledge of coffee and therefore cannot benefit from improvements with the new technology.  But they are still producing and still selling, but because of something in the past, Honduras' coffee product has a bad reputation and cannot be sold for the same prices that some farmers get in say Guatemala or Columbia or even Africa.  Some people in Nicaragua will even cross the boarder and buy Honduran coffee for less and take it back to Nicaragua and sell it for more, because they have a better market.  So recently the coffee market has dropped, but the price for a lata at the beginning of the season (in Tiupa) was 210 Limpera (now it is 180 Lps.) in one manzana an average farmer can get about 60 latas of wet coffee.  The farmers have no choice but to pay very small wages.  And the average coffee grower only has 3-5 manzanas.
 
   Anyway, enough about coffee season and the extremely depressing reality of Honduras.  We went to reconnect in Siguatepeque for 4 days, this conference was for all the current volunteers in my project and we talked about common problems and also had a few technical sessions on topics we didn't not cover in-depth in training.  It was a lot of fun to be with everyone, especially the volunteers that live on the other side of the country that I hardly ever see.  After the conference a bunch of us headed over to the lake, Lago de Yajoa, for my birthday/to hang out.  The lake was awesome.  We stayed in some ex-pat's (from Britain) hotel that has cabins and a bunk room, access to the lake, a restaurant, and boats to rent.  We ended up getting there late on Friday because a few of us stayed behind in Seguatepeque to go to a seed storage place that was providing the seeds for the Trees for Future projects that a few of us are involved in (myself included - hopefully my community and I will be planting over 5,000 trees!)  By the time we got to the lake it was nearly sun down, so we hung out, got dinner and relaxed and watched the sun set.  Later that night, some friends broke out there instruments ( a guitar and a cello) and jammed for us a little bit, I went downstairs to use the bathroom and when I came back up everyone sang happy birthday to me with a cake!  There were about 20 of us in all.  And then the ex-pats and his family.
   The next morning we got up late and hung around, went and walked down the street to check out the little shacks that sell fried tilapia and came back in the afternoon because the owner told us he'd take us out for a swim in the lake.  We went swimming for about 30 minutes and came out covered in green algae.  We got showered up, grabbed a cooler from the restaurant and went on a "party cruise" to watch the sunset on the lake.  The next morning we got up and all parted ways. 
   I left and went back to site and arrived much more relaxed.
   Well I'd love to write more right now, I still haven't covered the latest on the chicken project, but my friend Ashley is flying into Honduras today and I'm leaving to go to the airport to get her.  She is definitely in for some surprises, we have to go back to my site, because on Saturday I have my very first chicken workshop with my women's group.  And I want to start mapping the watershed with her help.  So after she leaves I will have much more to write about, more adventures and more gripes I'm sure! 
    I hope this email finds everyone well!
 
PC Amor,
Bridget

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Bridget Kathleen French
954.650.5084