Coffee Bean International's Bruce Mullins and His Coffee Journey to Kenya and Ethiopia
June 2, 2008
Ethiopia – Chapter Three:
After our week of work in Kenya, Tracy and I headed north to Ethiopia – a journey for me that felt similar to what I imagine a trip to the Holy Land must be like for a religious pilgrim. All of my adult professional life I have read and spoken of the land that first gave us coffee, and here I was seeing it for the first time with my own eyes. It was nothing like I had imagined. Gone was the manic traffic and congestion of Nairobi, replaced by a more reasonable ebb and flow of people and goods. While as densely populated as Nairobi, Addis Ababa seemed much more laid-back – one could clearly sense the ancient Arab influence in the day-to-day lives of the people. The only country in Africa that was never colonized, Ethiopia has seemingly maintained more of its own personality than its Kenyan neighbor. As an example, Ethiopia still follows a calendar based on the ancient Egyptian and Coptic system that was abandoned by most of the rest of the world centuries ago. The Ethiopian year has 12 months of 30 days each, and a 13th month with 5 days for three years and 6 days every fourth year. The cumulative error over the centuries with this ancient calendar means that they began to celebrate the year 2000 – our new Millennium – on September 12th, 2007! Additionally, local time is often expressed with the new day beginning shortly after sunrise at 7:00 am – so in Ethiopia 1:00 am is our 7:00 am, and continues until 12:00 which is our 6:00 pm, with 1:00 pm starting at 7:00 pm our time. (If you think about it, the first hour after sunrise being named 1:00 in the morning actually makes more sense than our system, which labels 1:00 in the morning as happening in the middle of the night!)
We spent the week meeting and learning more about the Ethiopian coffee auctions, touring mills, meeting with growers, exporters and other stakeholders – all the while educating them about the Q Coffee System and how those of us in coffee consuming regions appreciate their hard work and want to be able to buy more high quality coffees from them at fair prices that are linked to the quality each coffee possesses in the cup. Cupper training and testing in Ethiopia was to happen after we left, with Ted and a team from Willem Boot arriving in Addis to carry on the work that we started.
As exhausting and stressful as the trip was, it was the fulfillment of a dream to visit the coffee lands of East Africa, and in my own way return something of value to those that helped make my life's work so fulfilling and interesting. I hope I have partially repaid my debt to the hands that grew that incredible pound of Kenya AA coffee that so influenced my life!
In case anyone is wondering, my bags are packed, my passport is ready, and I'm eagerly awaiting my next Coffee Corps assignment!
Bruce's Next Journey: Colombia
