Just Coffee Cooperative

Hurricane Matthew stormed through Central America this week, causing heavy damage throughout several communities as rivers grew, mudslides fell, and many communities were evacuated. We recently heard from our friends in Nicaragua, who were frantic to provide aid to many of the women organized under La FEM. As heavy rains dumped throughout the northern highlands, the saturated land began to fall, stirring up landslides and mudslides throughout the country. One community, los Colorados, where many of our producer friends live and work, had to be immediately evacuated. Each of the members of this cooperative lost their homes and all of their belongings. They were evacuated to a nearby community where they are now living in tents. Roads and bridges are out to other communities as well, isolating these highland communities from access to aid, food, and other resources. Pick up trucks cannot get in and families cannot get out. La FEM is working hard to figure out how to transport them out of the communities (rounding up horses is one alternative) as well as to bring food in since the local pulperias are running out of their food supply. The city of Esteli was also isolated as bridges on the Panamerican Highway collapsed because of heavy flows of water.

For a while I thought there as no better way of getting to a coffee farm than riding in the back of an old pick up truck, cheeks blowing in the wind and taking in all the views….until I tried a motorcycle. After three days of being cooped up in a cute little hostel in the charming town of Alegria, El Salvador thanks to some friends (read: Amoebas) that found their way into my intestinal tract, I caught my breath again after an intense two weeks on the road.  Sebastian strolled up in his sporty ride, his light green eyes twinkled as he greeted me with a “buenos dias, Julita. Lista?” Si hombre! I replied. Sebastian is known by many as the pioneer of organic agriculture in the area, serving as an agriculture technician to many small coffee farmers around the eastern part of the country. Ten years ago when he began introducing the idea of organics, many thought he was crazy. Now his expert advice is priceless.  Today his shirt read “Organic Agriculture. The future is in our hands.”