Rwanda Coffee Now on Sale in the U.S.

The 2010 coffee crop from Rwanda is now on sale and two of the roasters have called out TechnoServe in their marketing efforts.

• Intelligentsia Coffee: Zirikana, Rwanda: Kirezi - Intelligentsia is a high-end coffee roaster that has bought a significant amount of coffee from TechnoServe cooperatives in Rwanda.  The Kirezi cooperative that is highlighted in the coffee's "story" is a new group that received a ~$13K loan to finance a washing station because of the work that I am doing here.

• Peet's Coffee and Tea: Uzuri African Blend - Peet's has been a key buyer of TechnoServe coffee in East Africa for many years and views the Coffee Initiative as a valuable partner in Rwanda and Tanzania.  This year's Uzuri blend has been released and the reviews are pretty solid (check at the bottom of the first link above).  The page above also includes links to a slideshow with another TechnoServe cooperative Abangakarushwa and a video that I've included below.  The employees in the slideshow that do the sorting and drying at coffee wet mills in Rwanda make 500 Rwandan Francs a day (~$0.84), a very good wage in rural areas where cash wages are virtually non-existent.

These types of stories are the best way to explain what the Coffee Initiative is all about...

Happy Thanksgiving to Everyone!

Lucy made delicious pumpkin pies, and we have just returned from a Thanksgiving feast (after work of course).  Lucy is cutting the desserts with some friends below.  We are sorry we cannot be with our friends and family in the U.S but have been thinking of everyone.  Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

On a related note, I haven't gotten a lot of feedback on a certain issue since being in Tanzania so thought Thanksgiving gatherings might be a good time to survey the crowd.  This issue concerned me during the last election and continues to be in the news quite regularly.

What would you do if Sarah Palin became President?

Let me know what you find out!

Africa & Coffee Articles V

Another installment of things that interest me!

Africa:

• NYTimes: In the Footsteps of the Museum's Gorillas (11/21/10) - Lucy found this interesting article linking the American Museum of Natrual History in New York to the Virunga Mountains in East Africa.  Apparently the scenes in the Hall of African Mammals are depictions of actual places from the 1920s and a curator from the museum is returning to the site where the gorillas scene originated.  Below is a picture from one of our visits to the Virungas last year with the same mountains from the museum behind us.  

• NYTimes: When Donations Go Astray (11/20/10) - Not a new thing but everyone should check how efficient charity organizations are before donating.

• NYTimes: Lost Boys of Sudan Fill in the Blanks of Their Past (11/20/10) - 20 years later resettled Sundanese find a link to their former lives. 

• WSJ: Banks Exit From Embassy Business (11/20/10) - Embassy banking is big business in Africa with so much aid money needing a home until it can be spent (or siphoned off to the government!).  Apparently in the U.S., the banking regulations have gotten so hairy with anti-money laundering rules that major banks are just walking away from embassy business.

• WSJ: Putting Cap on Bad Juju Conjures Up a Good Business (11/19/10) - Welcome to Africa!  You should read this article if you want to begin to understand how challenging it is to get things done here.  Also, the effects of this ride on Lucy's juju are currently unknown (but her driver is ready for the long winter!).

Thanksgiving in Tanzania

Jon and I are going to a Thanksgiving potluck tomorrow evening. Tomorrow is not a school or work holiday for us, so we'll head over for dinner.

This is one of the three pumpkin pies I made to contribute to the party. We don't have a pie pan, so as you can see, I improvised. I used this recipe from King Arthur Flour for the filling and one from smittenkitchen.com (have I mentioned how much I like her recipes??) for the crust.

Because you can't buy canned pumpkin here, I roasted 2 pumpkins in the oven and then scooped out the insides and pureed them in our blender. The blender is a big development for us--last year I had to mash the pumpkin by hand with a potato masher. Then I added spices, cream, milk, eggs, sugar etc. to the pumpkin, poured the filling into the pie crust, baked it, and voila!

Please notice the very appropriate tablecloth. I bought it last weekend at the fabric market downtown. I was quite excited!

I am very thankful for all of my friends and family, both near and far. I'll be thinking of you tomorrow. Happy Thanksgiving!

Ozymandias

Ozymandias

by Percy Bysshe Shelley

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

In sixth grade, I was lucky enough to have Mrs. Taliaferro as my English teacher. Under her expert guidence, we studied and memorized this Shelley poem. So, when I found myself in Luxor, the Brearley girl in me couldn't pass up the opportunity to visit the statue that (supposedly) inspired the poem. My friend Ruth and I even had a dramatic reading of the poem while overlooking it.

This is taken from the opposite direction as the picture above. Here, you can see what remains of his head and torso.


While there are no "trunkless legs" to be seen, both of his feet remain. This is me standing on the one that you can see in the top picture. Imagine how big the statue once was!

Egypt

I rode a camel by the pyramids of Giza,


visited the "bent" pyramid in Dashur,

saw the world's oldest boat,

sailed the Nile in Luxor (on a somewhat newer boat),

wore a headscarf,

saw too many tombs and temples to count,

and so much more.

Egypt is amazing!

Cinnamon Rolls

Cinnamon rolls (and a Rwandan potholder). What more do you need on a day off from school? For those of you who are interested in making your own cinnamon rolls, I used a recipe from my favorite food blog, smittenkitchen.com. Happy Eid!