Coffee Bean International's Bruce Mullins and His Coffee Journey to Kenya and Ethiopia
March 1, 2008
Kenya – Chapter Two:
Flying from Portland to Nairobi isn't easy – especially when working with a limited volunteer travel budget. Door-to-door travel time was about 27 hours, and I have never been able to relax enough to sleep well on airplanes. The one advantage, I think, to the length of the journey to East Africa is that by the time you get there, you are ready to sleep at bedtime, regardless of what your biological clock is telling you! Since we had given ourselves Sunday to acclimate, Tracy and I decided to hire a car and driver to get us out of Nairobi and into the countryside for the day. We had heard that some great wildlife spotting was possible not too far outside of the city, and it turned out that those reports were not exaggerated. We quickly got into the bush, and before long we had spotted wild giraffes grazing on the leaves of trees, herds of zebras, gazelles, warthogs, and even an ostrich. We even came across an orphanage for young elephants that gave us a private behind-the-scenes tour and opportunity to be nuzzled by a couple of rambunctious babies that were more curious about us than even we were of them!
Monday morning found us entering the 20 story building in downtown Nairobi that houses the Kenya Coffee Board's offices and cupping room, where we met the group of 20 Kenyan cuppers that were ready to spend a week honing their skills and taking the incredibly challenging Q Grader tests. The beginning was less than auspicious – as our arrival coincided with a fire and evacuation of the building. Luckily enough, no one was injured – but it did remind us that traveling in Third World countries requires some mental and emotional stamina and flexibility! With a hustle and influx of humanity in Nairobi that rivaled similar cities in India, we were on sensory overload for most of the week – sometimes overwhelmed into silence at the intensity of what life there is like.
While I have known Ted Lingle for several decades, this was the first opportunity I have had to work beside him outside of the SCAA. To say that he is greatly admired and honored by the government and coffee experts we met in both Kenya and Ethiopia is an understatement – one readily understands why he was honored in February, 2007 by being awarded the 'Bwana Kahawa Lifetime Achievement Award' by the Eastern African Fine Coffees Association (EAFCA). My job in Kenya was to assist Ted and Tracy by helping administer the Q Grader certification tests, and meet with government, exporters, and cooperatives to help them understand more about the Q Coffee System and how the program represents a new opportunity to realize higher incomes for their top quality coffees. Two of the highlights of the week included a day spent training at and then touring Kenya's Coffee Research Foundation, where Dr. Omondi and Dr. Kimemia graciously spent too much of their time allowing us to tour through their coffee 'museum' (actually a living genetic repository of acres of different coffee species and varieties, started in the 1940's and meticulously maintained to this day) and answering scores of coffee questions about Kenyan coffee, and an evening celebration at our hotel for the 18 successful cuppers that passed their exams and have joined the other 200-plus cuppers from around the world that are similarly talented, motivated, and licensed to grade Q coffees.
Previous Month: Chapter One | Following Month: Chapter Three
