Ruli Mountain: Coffee, Worship, and Goats

Day Three (Saturday) What a wonderful, wonderful day today was!!! All of us from The Well kept thinking to ourselves that we wished all of you out there were here with us to be able to see what we were seeing. We started off our day by heading up Ruli Mountain. This mountain produces much of Land of a Thousand Hills' coffee, and there is a washing station located on the mountain as well. Washing stations are where all the farmers bring their coffee cherries. There the cherries are weighed, and the farmers are paid. From there the cherries are sorted, de-pulped (to get the two coffee beans out of each cherry), sorted in the floating current, fermented to get all the residue off of them, hand-sorted to determine the grade (A1, A2, A3, A4), dried on drying racks for a few weeks, and then bagged up to ship to Atlanta to LOTH. We got to see the whole process. Get this: for one average cup of coffee, it takes 500 HAND-PICKED cherries that go through that entire process. Enjoy that next cup of coffee a little bit more. Savor it. It went through a lot of hard work and close inspection to make it to your cup! When we get back, we'll be creating a photo book that shows pictures of what each step looks like at Ruli Mountain's washing station from start to finish. While we were there we got to meet with Alex, the manager of the station, and Amay, the head of fermentation. Amay was an orphan whose nearest relatives had mismanaged all his assets, and LOTH gave him a chance to work for them. Ever since he's lived at the station, showing tremendous work ethic. Both Alex's and Amay's faces lit up as all this was explained to us and they were introduced to us. They are developing a growing sense of pride and dignity in WHO THEY ARE- they no longer just exist, now they have purpose, they see that they have self-worth, that they have gifts and talents. It was a great thing to see! After the washing station, we got to go to Mbilima Village, high high up on Ruli Mountain. We had met with them last year as they were just beginning to form a partnership with LOTH, committing their crops to LOTH's washing station. These men (and some women too) are known all over for having the best coffee crops around. The reason they decided to commit to LOTH and not to another washing station that's a lot closer is actually quite simple. We came to see them. Last year, LOTH's visit was the first time in 50 years that outsiders had come to their village. They couldn't believe we had come such a long way to just visit with them. And just like last year, the pride on the farmers' faces was incredible to see. They rushed us straight down behind their village to see their plantation. They explained details to us like how many trees they had, how many acres, when the crops grew the best, and how they decided to space the trees apart. These farmers were in their element, and would have kept us there among the coffee trees all day if we would have let them. We picked some coffee cherries, tasted them (not bad, by the way), and told the farmers over and over how impressed we were with their crops. Two men in particular (I put a pic of them on Facebook) are the top two producers in Mbilima. If you've ever drunk coffee or espresso at The Well, you've probably benefitted from the cherries they grew, tended, and picked with their own hands. They are so, so proud of the fact that their life's work is something so valuable that it gets a bunch of foreign visitors to travel to the other side of the world and up a VERY LONG AND BUMPY mountain ride just to come say thank you and that we're of them. I think about how my gifts and talents are affirmed often through feedback from students, promotions, and just American culture in general. We reward and motivate by nature because that is normally what our workforce is striving for- rewards and motivation to do a good job. What if you did what you were good at, and never ever heard from a single soul that they appreciated what you did? Never heard that you were good at it, never heard that it meant something to someone somewhere? Today these farmers were loved on, appreciated, and even given LOTH shirts to as appreciation for their work ethic and excellent quality of work. Our last stop of the day (by this time it was night) was to stop in at Pastor Fidel's church. Oh my goodness. As we turned onto the dirt pathway that led up to the church, we could already hear the music. Fidel, anticipating our visit, had called a special worship service. The villagers had gathered in their Sunday best, and were already inside the church building singing and dancing. And I mean DANCING! The pastor met us in the front of the yard and asked for us come inside. We did, and as the sun set outside we threw our backpacks onto the small wooden benches, joined the crowd, and danced our hearts out in worship to God. The pastor then thanked us for coming, and they brought in crates and crates of glass Fanta sodas to let us all celebrate together. And as the last speeches were being made, a renegade baby goat escaped and ran into the back door of the church, bleating its little heart out. The goats we had delivered had arrived! With that, we went into the courtyard, and there were the goats! The pastor read the names of those in his congregation who would be receiving them, and they were SO surprised and grateful! The pastor earnestly spoke to us then, not in the usual formal speech of thanksgiving (which would have been sincere in itself), but this talk was more personal than formal. He said that these goats may not seem like a big thing to us, but it will make a big difference for their community. He said the way they do it is as the goats have babies, the people who today receive the goats commit to bringing the babies to the church and letting the pastor then give those new goats to someone else. So the gift keeps on giving. His earnest thanks was something I wish I had gotten on video, but goats were still escaping off the truck, little kids were trying to play with my iPad, and the man was so sincere that I felt it would have ruined the moment. So you'll just have to take my word for it- those of you who bought goats- you changed a community and greatly encouraged a sweet pastor who needed that today. Praise God who is so all-powerful that he uses people in Shreveport to partner with a village on Ruli Mountain, Rwanda. He is truly a God who sees all, knows all, and takes care of us all. With that, I am going to bed. I can't wait to worship Him tomorrow at a church service alongside my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ in Rwanda.