notes about guatemala

Sunday night I returned from a 10-day training trip in Guatemala City through Coffee Corps. I scarcely need to mention that it was truly one of those life-changing experiences. We worked with Anacafé which is a blended word for the Spanish words for "National Coffee Association." The people from Anacafé were totally professional and made the most of our time together. I'm still trying to wrap my head around this incredible experience but also begin posting about it while it's fresh.

While there, we held 6 training sessions and visited a number of local coffee shops and trained about 70 people, all either staff of Anacafé or working baristas of Guatemala City, entirely in Spanish (with help of a fluent speaker when we needed it for vocabulary). I'm happy that my Spanish is better than ever and now includes a long list of new barista-related words that I didn't learn in HS and college (calderas=boilers; lancetas de leche=milk wands) ! Many of our trainees are potential participants in the Guatemalan Barista Championship in August.

Amber and I also visited farms in Antigua and attended the opening of a permanent exhibit at the Museo del Niños (Children's Museum) that Anacafé helped put together. It was so exciting to see the endless coffee forest and trees all along the side of the mountain, sitting in the back of a pickup truck with the farmer whose grandfather started the farm in the 1920s, and then days later experience a country encouraging the next generation of Guatemaltecos in hopes of educating them early about GREAT coffee through an interactive and fun coffee exhibit.

I can't wait to go back to Guatemala sometime and I really can't wait to visit origin during the harvest. It was such an honor for us to be able to have this experience and it was very humbling and a bit exhausting but of course, totally awesome.

It's also great to be home and delight in how easy it seems to explain things in English now.