Coffee Farm/Cooking Class Day

Today was full of dichotomies. Team 2 spent the morning learning how coffee is produced by visiting individual farms of a co-op and attended a cooking class in the evening with Team 1. Each activity we did during the day was a demonstration of the tension between the relative comforts we experience in the United States versus the challenges the average Guatemalan faces. 
The average coffee plant takes five years to produce quality fruit. The farmers spend the harvest season plucking around 100 pounds of coffee fruit from their plants for each person helping harvest. One farmer, Marta, said a typical harvest day for her farm is around 10 hours of picking coffee beans and they bring around 500 pounds plus down to the city. Once transported, they place the fruit in a bike-powered machine to separate the outer husk from the green seed inside. After the seeds are separated they have to dry and be rotated so that they do not spoil during the drying process. Once completed, of the 100 pounds each person plucks only 12 of the pounds remain of dried coffee beans. We had the opportunity to roast and grind mature coffee beans to drink with lunch using traditional Guatemalan tools. Still, I couldn’t help but notice that the coffee we drink at home is the culmination of hundreds of hours of work for her and her family.

Later on that evening, we went to El Frijol Feliz for a lesson in traditional Guatemalan cuisine. There, we prepared a typical dinner dish called pepián which we paired with a chocolate and black bean stuffed banana dessert. Both turned out incredibly well! I am thankful for that experience because until the cooking class we had not had much time to connect with the other group, so being together for dinner helped to forge a bond during this incredible experience.

When I thought of the daily experience of the people we met I couldn’t shake the privilege I felt. Marta and her family spend months to produce enough coffee to make enough money to get by and yet I never thought about that when I paid $5 for my coffee drink at a big coffee shop chain. I couldn’t believe I never considered how much time and work went into something I take for granted. To be welcomed into her home and her world, even though it was only for a moment, is something I will carry with me. I’m grateful for being able to observe her because I think it will help me think more critically about the choices I make and my consumption because my choices have very tangible effects for people like her.

And while I was happy that I was able to build deeper connections over dinner, the next day I kept thinking about how much work it would take for Marta to be able to afford a dinner like ours – or if she had ever had one. I just didn’t (and frankly still don’t) know what to do with that. What did I do to deserve the privilege I have? What choices can I make to be more thoughtful in how and what I consume so that I can help empower others? I don’t have any answers right now, but I won’t forget what I saw. For now, the only conclusion I have is that I need to live in a way that helps leave people and the community I visited better than how I found it.