September 27, 2008
Well, it turned out that I did not have access to the web during our trip, however, I wrote about each day.
Monday
Ken and I arrived in Oaxaca late last night. This morning we will meet with the directors of COOP YENI NAVAN, MICHIZA in the central office located in Oaxaca. After our meeting we will all depart for the communities of the “Region Mixteca” where we will have the opportunity to meet with several farmers who are members of the COOP. We are very excited to engage with the coop and the farmers in the coming days and I look forward to give you all an update on these meetings.
Tuesday
Hanna Leah Hall, our translator, met us at our hotel in the morning and we all made our way to the Coops office in Oaxaca City. We had a great meeting with the leadership of Coop Michiza today at 10am. The meeting lasted about 2 hours. We learned much about the operations of the Coop and several of the leaders had questions for us, mainly about Pura Vida and our intentions on this visit. The Coop is striving to find ways to increase the production of coffee and how to diversify their business to strengthen their earnings. The Coop currently has 1033 members and produces roughly 600 tons of coffee. After the meeting we began a 6 hour drive with Hermenegildo, the Coop President to Buena Vista, a small village of about 1600 people of which about 20 families are members of Coop Michiza. It was a long and rough ride through the mountains of Oaxaca State but very spectacular. We were greeted with hot coffee, tortillas, and eggs by a lovely woman who opened her home to allow the three of us to stay with her. In the morning we will meet with the farmers of Buena Vista. We are very excited to see our surroundings in the daylight.
Wednesday
Today began with a lively meeting with the farmers of Buena Vista. After an hour and half of talking about Pura Vida and hearing about the realities of farming coffee in Buena Vista, several ideas arose from the farmers of specific projects that will help increase their production and increase their earning power. These farmers with the help of the leadership of Michiza are going to create two proposals for Pura Vida to consider for funding. The first is a greenhouse project that would allow the farmers to start more coffee plants and allow them to mature which will cut down on the time it takes for new plants to produce. The second is a plan to purchase a coffee roaster which would allow these farmers to begin selling a small portion of their coffee throughout their local area. It was a wonderful meeting filled with much excitement. One of the farmers summed up what coffee means to his community by saying, “Coffee is our life, our livelihood”.
We continued on in the afternoon to another nearby community called Reyes Llano Grande. We sat down with about 20 farmers who were quite frustrated with the state of coffee. Their production has been decreasing over the past 15 years due to old plants and great erosion. We talked with the group for about an hour or so trying to figure out what solutions or ideas they had for solving their production problems. Several members had a few ideas but they were overpowered by the majority who were quite defeated. We encouraged the group to continue their own dialogue and that we were eager to hear ideas that they had agreement on in the future. Hermenegildo, President of Coop Michiza will follow up with them.
The day ended with a short drive to Miramar, a small community of about 3000 people, where Hermenegildo and his family live. He and his wife opened their home to the three us. We learned that no roads go to his home and that we would have to hike about 10 minutes up a trail through a beautiful hillside. It was a great experience and the hospitality was truly amazing.
Tomorrow we will meet with a women’s group in Miramar and then we will return to Oaxaca City for our final night.
Thursday
The day began with a wonderful cup of coffee, eggs, black beans and tortillas all hand prepared by our gracious hosts. After breakfast we made our way on foot to the town center of Miramar. Here we had a very energetic meeting with the women’s group. They were eager to share with us their ideas to help their community. Their list of needs is great: health problems, literacy, eye glasses, etc. They are eager to find ways to increase their income. We expect to see a proposal from them in the near future on how we may be able to help them grow their resources. They also told us about a civil organization that may be able to help with some of their health issues if given new resources. We will make contact with this organization to better understand their role and how we may be able to help.
The day ended with a 6 hour drive back to Oaxaca City where we will spend our last night.
Friday
This visit with the leaders and farmers of Coop Michiza turned out to be extremely informative and eye opening into the needs of these farmers. I look forward to seeing the proposals from the communities and working towards sustainable solutions to their challenges. Hermenegildo, the Coops President, is a very passionate and solution oriented leader and we were lucky to have him with us during our visit. This visit also led us to an outstanding translator, Hanna. She not only translated beautifully for us but her attitude and presence was exactly what we needed. We are hoping that she will be able to join us on our future trips to Nicaragua and Peru.
Thank you for your support.
Sam Snyder – Program Director, Pura Vida Partners
September 20, 2008
-
Ken Kierstead (Pura Vida board member) and I will depart for Oaxaca, Mexico on Monday to visit with Cooperative Yen Navan, Michiza, a cooperative that Pura Vida has been purchasing coffee from for years. The goal of our visit is to expand Pura Vida’s relationship with the cooperative and to better understand the needs of the farmers and their communities with the hope of creating ways that Pura Vida can better support the coffee farmers, their families, and the surrounding community.
-
Cooperative Yen Navan, Michiza was founded in 1985 and consist of 946 members spread throughout 43 communities. Michiza started as a small organization regrouping organic coffee producers from various ethnic groups. Their name, Michiza, is an abbreviation of these five groups: Mixtecos, Chinantecos, Chatinos, Cuicatecos and Zapotecos. The farmers hoped that through the organization they would be able to stop the local intermediaries from manipulating the local price of coffee and exploiting them in the process. To learn more about Michiza, please visit http://www.puravidacoffee.com/michiza.php.
-
We will spend the week with the leadership of the cooperative and visiting with individual farmers. I will attempt to keep you posted about the events of each day right here on our blog. Below are a few pictures from Michiza.
-
Thanks for your support.
Sam Snyder – Program Director
