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Wait…. coffee now?

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Hola Amigos.

We began this trip focused entirely on the cultivation and sale of bananas. Our assignment is to work with the farmers of the Cooperativa Todos Hermanos in Zacapa, Guatemala, who are successfully exporting coffee, but are looking for ways to diversify their family income and provide additional food security throughout the year. Some have begun to grow bananas, but without expertise or training, they are producing less than they might. Our hope is to discover ways in which organizational management, cultivation practices, and the marketing of their products can strengthen the existing co-operative.

Though up to this point, our project has seemed well defined, by the end of the afternoon we had discovered some complicating factors. We spent the day in the office of the Bishop of Zacapa y Chiquimula speaking with various members of the co-op administration including the founder, Monsenor Bofelli, his right-hand-woman, Blanca, and the manager and agricultural specialist, Emilio. Since the co-op’s primary crop is coffee, we spent a lot of time today learning about that part.

Emilio holding a coffee bag from the co-op's first export last year.

Some new terms:

Gold coffee: dried out beans with the husk still on. Smells like hay.

Dry-mill: State of the art German machine used to clean and sort the coffee.

“Unfaithful” competition: The members of the coffee-producing economy that have some illegal side-businesses.

After a long day of interviews and a dinner debrief, we ate some mangoes. The result was… sticky….

"This... is very beautiful." -Anton

The Entrepreneurial Spirit

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Today’s meetings and discussions revolved around the concept of “the entrepreneurial spirit.”  What is it? Is it a cultural thing? Can it be taught? Do Egyptians have it?

At most of the meetings we had there was some discussion about how Egyptians did not have the entrepreneurial spirit and that the concept of “entrepreneurship” is new to Egypt.  The team thought that this was quite depressing.  Upon reflection we came up with the following thoughts:

  1. The entrepreneurial spirit is something that is inherent in people; it is not something that can be taught.
  2. Egyptians do have the entrepreneurial spirit, as witnessed by the vast number of fruit vendors, independent taxi drivers, and Coca-Cola cart dispensaries.
  3. The major barrier to the large-scale, formal entrepreneurship are: 1) creating scale, 2) obtaining credit (difficult to do because of lack of credit and inability to get guarantee backing), 3) barriers to legalization (getting permits, paying taxes, etc.).

But we find that these problems are more tangible and can be addressed either by the team (in our recommendations) or CRS and their partners in a large-scale way.  Things such as finance, marketing, and sales can be taught.  Problems such as legalization and obtaining credit can be overcome through innovative solutions.

We met with three different organizations today: the Egypt Works projects (a CRS-USAID cash for work program which has multiple projects, two of which were 1) a public work/construction project in Qeba’a and 2) a production project [made up of women making overshoes and medical gloves]); the American Chamber of Commerce: Egypt; and Nahdet el Mahrousa (Twitter: @NahdetMahrousa).

These three organizations gave us great insight in trying to narrow down our problem as well as to brainstorm some solutions.  More on that later!  Ila al-liqa’!

familiar

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“It’s like Addis” says Lidet. Yes, there is something so very familiar about the streets of Manila. There is something familiar about the vendors on the street selling food, the hustle of the endless foot traffic and the somewhat aggressive taxi drivers bobbing and weaving through traffic. We came to the Philippines to encounter a different world and a different culture but we have been struck by how similar it is to our own countries and how familiar it feels.

We have been in the Philippines for two days now. After an introductory meeting with the people at CRS, we were treated to some delightful Filipino cuisine. Then we had an afternoon to take in the sights and sounds of the city.  We eagerly went exploring, taking it all in, knowing that on Monday, the real work would begin.

Our project is to learn about the impacts of mining on local communities and to develop a set of best practices for sustainable mining. This morning we had our first real interview at the CRS headquarters in Manila with prominent anti-mining activists. The presentation we were given was both informative and compelling. What we read and researched prior to our arrival could not have prepared us for the complexity of the problem. The issues that we have been reading and talking about are their lived realities. This meeting has made us question even our own hypothesis statement… really can mining be done sustainably in the Philippines? The answer to that must wait; fortunately we have meetings with other people that can help balance out the initial picture that has been painted.

After our meeting we hurriedly finished our lunch and then prepared to head off the City of Davao in Mindanao. Our learning continues…

 

 

Welcome Viva; Off to Zacapa!

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Highlights for a Sunday on the Front Lines in Guatemala:

  • Mass at a local church
  • Hola Viva!!!
  • Ana Emilia, our translator, is helping us further understand Guatemalan culture, and more importantly – order food from menus we can’t read.
  • Four hour bumpy, curvy, hot road trip into the eastern part of the country – excellent team bonding time!!
  • Holly is trying to eat platanos at every meal – so far – check plus.
  • Anton was thrilled to see the pool at our new hotel – planning a late night swim as we write.
  • Jia is doing his laundry in the sink, with bath soap – enough said.
  • Dave is on a strictly no sun-screen policy – red nose – check plus.
  • Kathleen has been trying to read for the law classes she is missing this week – not easy with such entertaining teammates!
  • Eddie likes the platanos and black beans, but NOT together.
  • Karla is happy that we now have another spanish speaker (an “official” translator).
  • Chris is doing an amazing job of putting up with us!

(Sorry, picture uploader thingy is not working. Imagine a delectable dish of fried plantain here.)

Today we had great time with our CRS partners during the drive to Zacapa and we are gearing up for a week full of interviews.  Over dinner we divided into three focus teams built around our hypothesis.  Eddie, Anton, and Ana Emilia will be concentrating on cultivation.  Karla, Kathleen, and Jia will be looking at the co-op organization and relationships with external partners.  Dave, Holly, and Chris will be doing a market study and assessing options for processing.  Hasta Manana!

Same Conversation, Different Languages

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Other than the fact that we actually do speak different languages: English & Arabic, much like what we discussed in class, Team Egypt and CRS Egypt were actually speaking two different languages: a business language vs. a development language.

From our presentation in class last week, it seemed like the Egypt project was the most undefined and had the most to do to structure the problem.  So, for our first official meeting with CRS staff, we tried to do just that: define and structure the problem.  However, we were speaking different languages, which made this process all the more difficult.

So, after a series of meet & greets and caffeine this morning, we sat down with CRS staff, went over our agenda for the two weeks.  Then lunch…

Delicious Koshari

After lunch, we met as a team and tried to hash out 1) our objectives, 2) our expectation, 3) our deliverables.  We created a plan which we then presented to CRS staff.  The feedback from this meeting was invaluable! We are one small step closer to speaking the same language and understanding each other.

Us: Hard at Work

Team Guatemala: A Friendly Welcome

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Stepping off of the plane, we were welcomed with a fragrant, cool breeze, the call of exotic birds and a throng of all too eager taxi drivers. We have finally arrived in Guatemala. Our team consists Holly, Karla, Kathleen, Anton, David, Eddy, and myself, along with our counselor professor Christine Cervenak from the law school.

Luis featured on the left

Luis, the friendly gentleman we’ve spoken so many times with over the phone welcomed us and set to work shuttling our group to the CRS headquarters in Guatemala City. The CRS team in Guatemala is truly amazing. We met Anne Bousquet, the director for CRS Guatemala and Mexico. She was about 5’7 in height, but somehow carried an aura of calm and collectedness. She was an incredible conversationalist and soon, we were collectively blown away by the breadth of experience she has had. She’s worked for 19 years, across multiple countries and functions. She and her team of 78 in Guatemala support multiple projects and partners in the region. She introduced us to the project and the legendary bishop Rossolino Branchetti Boffeli who has been a driving force for change in the region. We are ecstatic over the opportunity to meet him on Monday.

 

Aside from meeting with CRS, we also started probing the banana prices in Antigua and Guatemala City. One problem we never expected to have was the local peoples’ aversion towards photography. People feel that photography takes away part of their soul and do not take kindly to it. We were advised to ask first before clicking the shutter. However, we didn’t realize that people disliked others taking photos of their produce as well. So far, we’ve taken great effort to sneak in photos of bananas and plantains.

Bananas in a Farmer's Market

Over dinner today, we were also enraptured by professor Christine’s stories of her past. Apparently, she’s been to dozens of countries for work including India, Jerusalem, Ecuador (during wartime), Guatemala, Chile, much of Europe and countless other places I can’t recall. It’s great to have her give us feedback and advice throughout our journeys.

Street in the wealthier part of Guatemala City. Notice the different architectural styles. This was a trend across the city

Cairo in the Morning

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السلام عليكم (As-Salāmu `Alaykumu, everyone!) Just a little picture of Cairo in the morning from Meghan and my balcony.  We’re off to have our first full day of meetings with CRS staff.

Arrival in Manila

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Team Philippines arrived safely in Manila last night. After 18 hours on airplanes (13 hours from Chicago to Tokyo, then 5 hours from Tokyo to Manila) we were happy to get to our hotel for some much needed rest.

It’s a bright, clear morning here, and we’re getting ready to meet with the CRS country representatives in a couple of hours. After our Skype conference calls with them over the past several weeks, we are looking forward to meeting them in person and learning more about the project we will be working on here for the next two weeks.

Touchdown in Cairo

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This is actually Joe writing from Manasi’s login since mine doesn’t work at the moment. Team Egypt touched down just as the sun was setting over the desert. I’m not sure if the lack of other planes at the airport was due to the time of day or the general decline of tourism in the past year. A lot of the flights from Europe tend to arrive and depart late at night or early morning so our ~6pm arrival was unusual.

We were met by Rosalie and Hanan, two of our contacts at CRS Egypt. They rode with us to our hotel in Zamalek, a large island in the Nile that is in the heart of the city. It’s been almost exactly seven years since the last time I was in Egypt and things felt largely the same. I even managed to recognize a couple of places I had visited the last time on the ride in, including the dorm where ND undergrads used to stay for the Cairo semester abroad. I always enjoy seeing the city at night since many of the mosques light their minarets with neon. It makes for a striking visual. I’ll try to get a picture of it in the next couple days.

The drive itself was plenty exciting with “light traffic.” This entails roads jammed with cars three or four across that are constantly merging and slipping by each other while on a surface that was designed to be only two lanes. It was slower going than I remembered and will definitely be a factor in our general logistics here. After a quick dinner down the street from the hotel, the team is heading off to bed or letting everyone at home know we made it. Our first full day of meetings with CRS starts at 9 tomorrow!

!تصبح على الخير