On Tuesday after Spanish classes we got out of the city and into the countryside where we visited a farming cooperative composed of 24 campesino families. This is one of the few farming cooperatives left from the 1980s when the government had sponsored an agrarian reform and helped the cooperatives with credit and technical assistance. The campesinos spoke of the difficulties keeping the cooperative going without credit.

Most of their income comes from coffee. Because they can’t afford synthetic pesticides or fertilizers, the coffee is organic, but they don’t have the necessary equipment to sell the coffee to buyers who pay premium prices for organic coffee. They also grow a little corn and beans for their own consumption, but they have to let much of their land remain fallow because they cannot get loans from the bank. On a tour of the farm we saw coffee trees, banana trees, a small pineapple patch and some other fruit trees. Then they invited us to come back in a few weeks and help plant beans!

On Wednesday we had our weekly Coyuntura meeting at the Unit House and celebrated the birthday of Karla S with chocolate cake and a stirring rendition of Feliz Cumpleanos a Ti (Happy Birthday to You). After the worship service we took our weekly quiz and had a group discussion on what it means to be North Americans in the midst of the poverty we see around us. We shared lots of questions and observations; the answers are harder to come by.