Life in the Highlands

Life has taken a turn for the strange. I started my independent study project roughly a week and a half ago. So, Wednesday morning I took a bus from Managua to Matagalpa, not really knowing where I was going to sleep that night or who was going to be my principal advisor for the study period.

I take a taxi to CECOCAFEN, which some of you might know about already. Suffice it to say, it deals with fair trade coffee initiatives, as well as social development programs in the areas that grow coffee. There, I'm met by a woman who tells me my advisor couldn't make it. So, we go to a bread store and buy a quick lunch, then she drops me off at the bus stop, giving instructions to the ticket vender to make sure I get off at El Roblar. Before she leaves, she tells me to ask for Mayra when I get there.

I got to enjoy the next couple of hours, bemused, watching the Nicaraguan mountainside roll by. The bus looks vaguely familiar, and eventually I figure out it is the exact same but Rachel and I used a month before when we lived in the campo to go to La Chocolata, that elementary school in the middle of nowhere. Even later, I figure out El Roblar is the last stop on the line, meaning Rachel and I indeed walked through the exact same town in which I was now going to spend the next three weeks of my life. Life is too weird.

Mayra turns out to be a very energetic woman in her 30s, who directs her son to take my bag and myself to Don Wilfredo's. Don Wilfredo turns out to be a 45 minute uphill walk from El Roblar.

He is also probably the luckiest landowner this side of Estelì. His farm is atop a mountain overlooking the surrounding area. It's absolutely incredible. Wilfredo himself is an outgoing sort of guy who is more or less willing to talk about anything. His life story is a bit like this: a coffee picker, he traveled all over Nicaragua (here I disbelieve his story a tad) to find the best farm land. It happens to be here, conveniently where his wife's father owned a substantial amount of land. He was also a guerrilla fighter during the Somoza dictatorship, and taught himself to play guitar. Please try and picture yours truly on a mountaintop, listening to a 60 year old ex-guerrilla coffee famer play ranchero music on his slightly out of tune guitar, illuminated by lamplight, crescent moon behind his left ear. Yeah, hard.

Anyway, I stayed with him and his family for a week, learning the ropes of coffee farming. More or less. So, you never know, some of your future coffee may carry the sweat of my fingertips. I did some coffee picking, and helped de-pulp and wash the beans. By help, I mean in some touristy kind of way, I partook in their daily routine. Nothing special by any means, just a way to get an idea of the way coffee is a part of their life, and who takes part in what stages of coffee production.

Every day, something new surprises me. The people here are generous with their time and knowledge, and I can turn nearly any misfortune into something worthwhile.

This past Wednesday, I moved to a new house, Doña Dionysia's. Her house is more typical: the husband abandoned her for a new wife, tons of family living with her, a bit less picturesque surroundings. But this is for the best: Wilfredo wasn't going to talk much about machismo and its effects, and that's really the heart of my investigation. She also has some incredible trails through her coffee fields. Coffee grows best under shade, so it's like walking thtough some jungle which just happened to grow a lot of coffee. Which I think I said about the finca I visited last time I was in the campo. So yes, that indeed is the norm.

I should probably say something about the cooperative. It's name El Privilegio. It got that name because the women who formed it believe it is their priviledge to empower themselves by leaving the kitchen (at least part of the time), becoming wage earners, and otherwise increasing their capacity as human beings (which sounds better in spanish). The cooperative holds a collective savings fund, which was started in part thanks to the above mentioned CECOCAFEN. They use this fund as collateral to make loans in order to produce coffee, grow basic food necessities, or fund small businesses. The cooperative makes funds through UCA San Ramon (where my advisor works), an organization that provides loans for 18 other cooperatives in the area (Yasika Sur). The UCA, whose mission emphasizes gender equality, also provides workshops and other programs to address problems prevalent to the countryside. Topics include sexual and reproductive health, women's rights, self esteem, literacy, how to grow crops, how to manage credit, etc. It's a wide range. The UCA also provides student loans to the children of cooperative members.

Everyone I've talked to has nothing but good things to say about the UCA and El Privilegio. I doubt I'll find anyone willing to critique the two organizations, expecially since they know I'm writing a report on the cooperative. There are some improvements El Privilegio is hoping to make, such as increasing membership (there are only 28 members), and garnering support from their children, especially their sons, as they empower themselves.

There's also an interesting twist: a new cooperative law passed in the national assembly of Nicaragua basically requires small co-ops to unite. The all male cooperative in El Roblar is therefore going to unite with the all woman co-op, so they can save overhead costs. However, the women from El Privilegio were originally the wives of the male co-op members, who decided to create their own organization because of the exclusion experienced in the male dominated one. So...now they're re-uniting, in a way. And of course by now all the men have new wives, which makes the situation a bit more tense. This is another topic few are willing to talk about openly. And I doubt it has a place in an academic work anyway. In the end, the only thing theý'll have in common is an accountant and board of directors--they will continue meeting separately, hold seperate savings accounts, etc.

Hopefully all this info will turn into a 30 page paper. Hard to tell at this point. In the meanwhile, I will continue to enjoy the crisp mountain air, the views, and everything else that will make everyone at home jealous.