The Village

Rainy season is winding down, although thunderstorms still pop up a few times a week here.  With the weather becoming better, Luv-Luv and I have started to go out to villages more and spend time with coffee farmers.  Two days ago, we were able to go out on our first remote village trip since I've moved here.  It involved a couple hours of driving, some bush-league mechanic work on the car, and then hiking another half-mile to the village.  The walk should have only taken about ten minutes, however we were caught by a thunderstorm as soon as we got out of the car.  Thankfully I had my raincoat with me.  Luv wasn't so fortunate.

We found  a wooden hut in a coffee field to wait out the storm.  It only took about twenty-minutes and then we were able to visit our friends in the village.  Luv has known this family for years and they graciously invited us over to spend the afternoon with them.  Of course, like all good hosts here, as soon as we showed up they killed a chicken and prepared it for lunch.  I'll be honest, in general I'm not a huge fan of the food here, but our friend's wife was an amazing cook.  It was a simple meal of rice, chicken soup and this dipping sauce that would have been less spicy if it had been made of habaneros.

The thing that always sticks out to me in the village is how simple life is.  If people aren't starving, they're usually happy.  Even though they didn't have running water, electricity (although they said they do have it, it just never works) or pants for their grandson, they were incredibly gracious and thankful that we had come to visit them.

While there we were able to pray over the meal with them and spend some time looking at their coffee.  Luv was able to give them some agricultural advice on their vegetables and they sent us home with a few banana trees to plant in our yards back in town.

We're currently seeking a village that we can find favor in and set up some coffee projects.  This will allow us to be there and spend more time with people and improve their coffee quality.  Please pray with us that we would find this village and local people that we can work alongside.