Nueva Escuela

Traditional dance of the farmland

Annabella giving the speech she didn't know she had to make. Haha.

Our graduates!

Annabella's Room

The school

        This Friday I got to go to a school inauguration, which something amazing to see. Annabella donated land to a land right next to Juyua called Sachotitan so they could build an elementary school there. The Kindergarten graduated and it was a tear jerking moment. Education is more than lacking in this country unless you have the money to spend on the American or British schools here. The kids each told us there best accomplishment, favorite food and hobbies, then got there "diplomas" and were escorted by the cutest little men back to their seats. They named the computer after Annabella and 25 new, flat screen computers were given to the school in favor of her donation. And that is a huge deal because most of the people in these small towns don't even know what a computer is. It was an awesome experience and I’ll never forget it. It's just good to know people really are out there helping. Every little bit counts guys.

        The rest of the day I had to stamp the freaking Rainforest Alliance papers which take 54798574398578435 hours to finish. I hate them and try to avoid them as much as possible, but they always seem to surface somehow. UGHHH.

Homerun

Walking home from town!

"Jesus said I am the road to the Lord (father)"

City Center

Beautiful Church
Can't get enough of it

On the Street
That's a Taxi

Juyua Market- Only Weekends

The One I WANT

We keep these in the house in case anything happens....
I can't even lift it

          Ok, so we went to a great restaurant for lunch today, Los Patios was the name, and the owner's dog just had puppies so I could not resist putting all my pictures up of them (this isn't even all of them). They have St. Bernard in them and the dad is a mystery but adorable none the less. It took me everything I had and my mother's voice to not take one home. The coffee process is chugging along so I have no new, news for that. I forgot to take a picture of the Patios, but there completely covered in coffee now. Today, we had someone come and bite, literally bite pieces of the coffee to make sure the quality and humidity levels were all up to par.

           I finished the last of my Christmas shopping finally. Today is Saturday and Annabella and I decided to take the night to go to the beach. Salinitas again, where I was two weeks ago. Everything is sailing pretty smooth and time is flying by. We decorated the trees at the San Salvador house and the office/ houses on the farm, which made me, miss home! Christmas is always spent with family and it was strange decorating the trees without them. But only twenty more days and I will walk through Seattle's rainy city probably wishing that I was back here. So I'm going to enjoy every hour I have with this sun...and prices, for that matter :) Have a good rest of the weekend guys! Ill post soon hopefully!

Random

Horsyy!!

Everyone waiting to get there name called

Weighing out the Coffee

Into the Pools to be washed after its collected. Nice and red

Smallest palm tree in the world

Random Guy at the Market
Crazy huge snake

Local Performer

         Ok, so this week was kind of all over the place. Coffee picking started on Monday, which I will start doing either after lunch today or next Monday. Last Friday, I got a chance to go horseback riding. I haven't been in five years or so and it was a little scary getting back up on the horse, but it felt awesome once I got comfortable. I stayed over the weekend in Juyua to do some Christmas shopping; the street market here is amazing, lots of cool stuff to see. Saturday Annabella's brother, Chille and I went to her niece’s bar to see a local performer who he liked a lot. I actually don't remember his name at all, but there is a picture of him! Haha. Sunday, was more shopping and we went to a friends in the town right before Juyua called Ataco for breakfast. The couple there were different...the women made sculptures and the man, well I don't know what is profession was but he collected plants and they had thirty years of a collection in every crack and corner they could find. It was interesting though, lots of really cool plants and flowers.

         The pictures you see of all the crowded people with the coffee bags and truck is the end of the day for the pickers. They weigh each person's/ groups coffee for that day on the oldest looking scale of all time and record it. I’m not sure how they get paid but I think it’s every two weeks, everything accumulated. Anyway, it was really something different to see that and the people that are out there. Aside from seeing the coffee being weighed out, the cloths they wear to pick the coffee let me mouth gaping. The shoes most of all! It's sad but there wearing like "sandals" that are practically broken and shoes with a million holes and horrible looking cloths. I just can't imagine that makes it any easier. Then there was a women with a baby probably no more than 4 months old around her back while she has the basket around her waist. It was really astonishing to see how these people really live.

So next time you take a sip of your coffee (which I'm sure is going to be very soon), enjoy it! A lot of work is put towards it.

Have a good weekend everyone! I’ll see you in a month! Time is flyin'
-Bridge

Tatum and Phoebe

sorry for intruding on your blog. We all enjoyed the blog tonight.
Phoebe and Tatum say Hi....some photos for you......Halloween corn maze in snohomish and a chilly tatum soccer game

Coffee Talk 2

           The coffee process is starting to begin! Mostly this is coffee from other farms. Today, I got to see the first steps of the process, in action and not just empty machines. The coffee is dumped into different pools where someone uses a pressure hose to push it through the tube that mixes the coffee with water, effectively washing the coffee. It’s then sent through the long white tube to the patios where the coffee and water are separated. The dirty water is sent back in tubes underneath the patios to a different pool, so it’s a big circle. The coffee is sent to a doorway; where there is someone waiting with a truck/ tractor that collects it and then drives it to different parts of the patios so it can dry and the pulp (skin of the coffee) is blown away with the wind. Its stays on the patio for twelve days before moved into the next stage of the process.

1. Coffee Pools



2.



3. The tube that sends the coffee to the patios



4. Coffee and water are seperated

 

5. Coffee goes here



6. Dirty water goes under and to the tubes underneath the ground



8.

9. Takes it to the different parts of the patios

10.

11. Dirty water goes back.

12. Coffee is moved every 30 mins

13. Dirty water back at the pools.