Monkey Sighting

Happy Father's day to everyone!

June 19
Today was coffee safari day! What a great day we've had. It didn't start out that way. They wanted us to be at the coffee house at 7:00. So we woke up with the man who calls the Islamic prayers at 5:30 in the morning over the loud speaker. At 6:15 we were out the door, and the sun was just coming up. The taxi ride into town was very fast, and so we arrived before the shop was even open.

We started with a breakfast of fresh fruit, museli, yogurt, fresh juice, toast, honey, and coffee. It ended up being just me and Dustin for the tour, and we had a tour guide and a driver. We were very glad to have a driver and ride around in a personal car instead of being crammed into a taxi.

The first place we went to was the Uganda Coffee Authority. Here they taste all of the coffee that gets exported out of the country to ensure the quality and to regulate the price of the coffee. What was so cool is that we were always right in the middle of the work space. It quickly became clear that the tour is more of an impromtu type deal rather than an organized regular thing. Our tour guide, Joan, just always called ahead to let whomever know that we were coming.

Anyway back to the coffee tasting...They were constantly roasting, griding, and tasting coffee. They would taste it with spoons and spit it out to check for defects. They let us taste the coffee right along with them. I felt silly sucking the coffee into my mouth from the spoon and then spitting it out. It was sort of like a wine tasting. All the while Joan was giving us tons of information about the different beans that are grown in Uganda, and what the different varieties look and taste like.

The next place we went was the coffee processing plant. The first thing I noticed was how the potholes were filled with old coffee beans. They had acres of coffee laid out in the sun to dry. They also had a pavilion where women were sorting the coffe and picking our the stuff that wasn't coffee. The chief engineer gave us a tour, and showed us the entire line of production. It wasn't that interesting, just loud and dusty. Mostly just elevators and things shaking. They let us climb on top of the machines and watch the coffee running through. I've never been allowed to stick my hands in the machinery on a tour before. It probably wasn't very safe, but totally worth it.

We learned about the different chemical concentrations in different coffees. The smaller beans actually have a higher concentration of caffeine, but the bigger ones are better quality. There is also natural coffee and washed coffee. natural coffee is dried with the hull still on. Washed coffee is husked, washed, and then dried. The husks are red and coffee is a seed. I never knew any of these things.

The next place was the roaster. The roaster asked us all kinds of questions and I was able to answer them. He was impressed, but it was because Joan was giving us so much information. We stood there and talked while he was doing his roasting. He told us that it releases the carbon in the bean, and the size of the bean almost doubles. He also said that it is best for the coffee to be consumed at least two days after roasting.

Then we went out of the city to the national agricultural research center. There a plant pathologist gave us a tour of the facility. They test the different strains of coffee to test their resistance to different diseases and to help maintain the quality of taste. They had several "experiements" running at the time, but it was really just fields with different plains, and they just waited to see which ones would die from disease. There were mother crops, which were the original strains of plants that could be cut and given to farmers to grow. They were also doing experiments on other crops like coco and palm oil, but we mainly stuck to coffee. I learned that there are several different types of diseases that attack coffee plants, most of them are fungi. It was cool to get a biology lesson, and to actually use the information.

The whole time I was thinking of this one time when my mom was trying to help me learn different scientists. I was having rouble with Gregor Mendel. And mom goes "all he did was cross pea plants, when will you ever have to know this again?" And here it was in action.

The research center was out of the city. I was glad to see some of the country side, and it didn't take us much to get out, but I loved seeing the country. People were making bricks by hand and baking them in large brick ovens. Domestic animals were grazing every where. Children walking home from school. Little babies running around naked. True huts.

We went from the research center to a farm where they grown coffee. This is where we were served lunch. All of the food we ate was grown right there on the farm, and it was all delicious. Potatoes, Matoke and peanut sauce, beef, fish, pumpkin, cassava, sweet potatoes, greens, fresh pineapple juice, local coffee, fruits, and sugar cane. This was the first time that Dustin had ever tried sugar cane, and I was excited for him to try it. He showed us all of his different gardens, and how they graft different plants onto lemon roots so that they produce fruit faster. He showed us a zuchinni he had planted as an experiment, and it had an enormous zuchinni on it. It was funny because he was so knowledgable about so many of the plants, but he asked us if we know when it is supposed to be picked. I told him that it was past due, and showed him the length it should be. I giggled to myself that I would know such information because I'm so bad at growing anything. He said he expected it to change colors. He had so many different crops. He even had vanilla vines, and rice. He also had livestock, and the pigs had just given birth to piglets. He also had guinea hens as an experiment.

The best part was that we walked down to the coffee fields, and he let us plant our own coffee plants. I put a sign next to mine. He said that we could email him and he would let us know how our plant was doing. I drew a sunshine on my sign. The other cool thing was that I saw a monkey in the tree. It was a red tailed monkey. I feel like I have completed one of my major objectives.

I was exhausted by the time we got home, and I went to bed almost immediately.

June 18

Today has been spent writing. Nothing exciting.

June 17

Just work today. We met some new people that work for the program. They were very eager to talk to us and seemed very skilled at what they are doing. It's a little difficult to be working with people that are so much older than I am. The one funny thing, one of the people we were talking to had never seen freckles before. He asked me if there was something wrong with me. It was difficult for me to explain that this was just the way I was, and that as I got older I got more of them. He asked if they itch. He probably thought it was a rash. They also wondered if eventually I would be totally black. =)