Chili Picante

2 Immodium and 2 Peptobismols. Is it okay that I take them simultaneously? Too late, down the hatch. You expected this but... but why me, why now; better now than later I suppose. Just like chicken pox. Hey you!... ya you! Either you are another CAN intern or I gave you this link in confidence that under NO circumstances will you tell my mother about my late night discussions with the toilet. Unless it is your inention to give a lady in her mid fifties a heart attack. With that said I will now try and explore the origns of my ailment.

I believe it all began with a very very spicy chili. It was my first night with my host family. William and Guiselle have three children: Adreína is the oldest and is in her last year of highschool which they call colegio. Justin is the middle child and is 11 years old and Maria is the youngest with six years. At dinner William pulled out a bottle of chili which is basically white vinager that has soaked in a bottle of whole chili´s for some time. The chili juice was hot but I could handle the temperature with ease. It was not until William offered me a whole chili that I began to sweat marbles. The fact that the chili was small and red should have been my first warning sign but I proceeded to cut off a small piece about the size of a black bean while William chuckled softly to himself. I should have stopped their after discovering that the chili was packed densly with seeds but I proceeded to consume the chili with a spoon full of rice. Chew, taste, swallow and within moments the heat I experienced from the chili juice was magnified tenfold. Sweat began trickling from every pore of my body as the heat slowly dropped to my belly. Laughing and crying histarically at my misfortune with the rest of the family I managed to ask for a cup of milk. Lets just say that after that night, which was 2 days ago, my poops have not been the same. But does a piece chili the size of a black bean have the ability to disrupt my gastro system for that long? According to the interwebs "Capsaicin" is a a substance that is present in some peppers and can trigger diarrhea. Since this has been happening for the past 2 days makes me think that it is not capsaicin but possibly a bacteria of sorts. Aside from the stomach issues I have been learning a lot about the coffee cooperative and would like to let you know what I know so far.

The CoopePueblos Coffee Cooperative is composed of over 50 different farmers. They sell their coffee to the cooperative but usually do not recieve the full amount for their coffee becuase some of the beans are infected with Broca, a tiny black insect that eats the bean. The way that the cooperative is able to test for Broca in the bean is by taking a 250ml sample of all the beans and placing them in a bucket of water. The beans that float have either been infected or have simply dried out (dried out beans are also consisered inferior for making coffee). The beans that float are placed back into the 250ml graduated cylander and measured. The fraction of beans that float to beans that sink is created into a percentage. For example if 10ml of beans float that is 10ml/250ml which is 4%. In this case the farmer will only recieve money for 96% of his total crop. The cooperative measures coffee in units of "cajuelas." A calquela is a box with the length, width, and height of about 1 ft. Twenty cajuelas will fill another much larger rectangular box called a "fanega." 20 caljuelas or 1 fanega is worth roughly 55,000 colons to a farmer. The current exchange rate is 582 colones to one US dollar so 55,000 colons is about $95. If this farmer lost 4% of his crop he would be loosing 2,200 colons or $4. But over the whole coffee season (September - December) when a farmer would fill 100 fanegas a total lost of 4% would equate to 200,000 colons or $344.

The other day I went to a farm just up the road from my house with my coordinator Merlin and another student, Kerry. The farmer, Francisco, and his sons showed us around the farm and what they were growing. Coupled with his passion for farming and the speed at which he spoke it was difficult to keep up with what Francisco was saying. Though his emotion made it clear that he was upset about something. Everything on his farm is grown organically and he incorporates a lot of worm compost to the system. He seemed to be having problems growing his lettuce without the use of pesticides. All of his lettuce has aquired these brown cirlces with smaller and darker brown cirlces in the middle, giving them a very unappealling look for anyone buying them at market. It is the job of the other student, Kerry, to find a solution to this pest. I know that the desciption about the pest is vague but if anyone has any information about how to grow lettuce free or with minor infections let me know so I can relay the information. Currently Francisco is monocropping the lettuce, in which may lie the problem. Besides the lettuce Francisco has a few qualms with how the cooperative accepts its coffee. He says that the cooperative needs to better inspect coffee rather than considering all floating coffee bad. Remember the two types of floating coffee are the ones infected with Broca and the dry beans. Dry beans are not ask good as fesh but are still usable. The problem is that the coopertive believes that here lies a difference in opinion. The cooperative name needs to represent quality coffee and if they are accepting inferior dry coffee it makes the cooperative as a whole look bad. But by doing this they are neglecting to reach an agreement with their farmers which could lead to unforseen consequences down the road.

That is all for now but I will write again soon.

Con mucho amor!

Mike D