Coffee Tour by Savana P

Hey everyone, this is Savana! Since today was a Saturday, and the school was closed, we spent the day out and about in town. Today was a late breakfast… 7:30 A.M. After our “late” breakfast, two different groups headed into town. The main part of our morning was to get money with our cards and to have our first look at all the different things we could buy. Some went to small shops full of artwork and others went to a store in town named Reagans. After this we all had a long walk through the hectic town full of shops, people, and crazy drivers. We met up together at Shah’s Industries, which was another art shop, and we waited for our bus to arrive. Because of “Africa Time”, we ended up waiting for a while, then our bus finally arrived an hour later.

Baba Dick decided to go on a new adventure! He decided that we were going to go on a tour of a coffee farm. We learned the process of how to farm a coffee bean. First we took a long slippery trail to the small coffee farm. Once we arrived at the coffee farm, we were guided by a man who looked like Morgan Freemans Brother. He lead us around the small coffee farm, we started collecting coffee beans from a tiny tree. Once we choose the ripe coffee beans we came up to a machine that separated the coffee beans the outer shell. After the machine we smashed the beans with a mortar and pestle. Then we went over to clay pot over a fire and cooked the coffee beans to a dark brown. Once they were down a women who lived in the farm picked the burning bowl up with leaves, which seems like it would be awful, but worked like a charm and poured them back in the pestle. Then again we smashed the beans in the pestle. After the coffee was ground up we went to go and boil the coffee in the small clay pot. We all decided we like strong coffee, which was an awful decision, but we drank our coffee black.

After our coffee, we took our walk back to a little house to eat our meal. The meal the fed us was the most traditional meal we have had all week. Our first course was banana soup, which was delicious, but so filling. After the soup, we were served cooked banana stew, which was also amazing. After we were finished with our meal, we were served a traditional banana drink. The drink was very strong and had seeds in it which were questionable, but most of us enjoyed it.

After our meal we took another walk to a cave. We went down into the cave in groups of five, our travel groups. The cave was small and narrow, so we had to crawl part of the way. A few people experienced bats, including Elizabeth who freaked out because a bat landed on her arm, but to be fair I think anyone would. While waiting for groups to exit the cave enjoyed games, gave back rubs, enjoyed each others company, and Morgan and Sarah had a pretty cool experience. During this time Morgan and Sarah were talking to local kids in the neighborhood and they asked them their name and age, then asked if they knew English and they did not respond. The two of them decided to go and get large water bottles and give them to the children. The smiles on their faces were unbelievable. It was like all their dreams had come true in a huge water bottle. Then we started on our way back to the lodge.

            When we came home we had supper then just hung around the lodge. This whole week has been amazing and a huge eye opener. Our cultures and things that make us happy are so much different. We miss people but we never want to leave Africa. It’s nice not knowing what time it is and hardly what day it is.

             I miss my family but sorry guys I’m having a great time in Africa. Momma and Molly I think about you a lot and I love you but I love Africa. I’m staying here forever I decided. Also I met the most amazing little girl, her name is Clara. I can’t wait to show you pictures of her and everything else. P.S. Can I have some more money? Thank you. Love youJ