I have been following the weather on the east coast, wow you guys are in trouble..just kidding i dont think its going to be that bad, its only a category one hurricane. but i hope all is going to be ok with family and friends. keep safe and stay indoors and keep me informed please (for those of you who actually read my blogs). For now this is all i have to write, pretty boring week.
Monday, October 29, 2012
13th Week
This week has actually been kind of slow, im waiting on my new office to be finished, we were suppose to move in Oct 15th, it is now 29th of oct. This is how slow things are here, people say ill be there in 30 minutes and show up an hour later, just doesnt make any sense, time to some people is not important but to others its very important. We had very long weekend, to my surprise the muslim population here has had a dramatic effect on the government, to those that know, friday was Eid Qurban, and for those that dont know this is the day god commanded Ibrahim to sacrifice his young first born son as an act of submission to gods command and his sons acceptance to being sacrificed, before god intervened and provided ibrahim with a ram to sacrifice instead, so friday everything was closed, from government to schools and even some shopping centers. any ways i had to mention the reason for the holiday.
Sunday, October 21, 2012
3rd Month
This is my 3rd month here in Uganda, and so far it has been very exciting, time is going by fast and i cant believe its been this long already. This blog im writing will be divided in to 2 parts, I will explain why. On thursday night Edmund told me to pack a bag for a 3 day travel to the source of where our coffee comes from, which is east of Uganda on the border of Uganda and Kenya, a 3 hour drive from Kampala. Ed informs me that there will be a short meeting and then we will visit some of the factories that produce and manufacture coffee as well as the farmers and their farms where the coffee grows. Naturally i was extremely excited, i mean to learn about coffee is one thing but to actually go to the source and interact with farmers and traders is another thing. That night i packed a small bag, i was so excited i couldnt sleep. but i think eventually i managed to fall asleep and woke up around 6:30 am, Ed had arranged a driver for us but as usual he was late so we didnt get to leave till about 8 am. Now, i said earlier that this story was going to be divided in to 2 parts, here is why, first i am going to tell you about the business part (with pictures of course) then i will tell you my personal experience of beauty that i saw.
After a 3 hour drive we arrive to a town called Mbale, this town is on the foothills of ugandas, highest mountain and africas 17th tallest peak called Mt. Elgon. (which i will get to in the next part), this town is know for its coffee trade, because Mt Elgon was a volcanic mountain, the soil, cool climate, and the constant rain creates the ultimate conditions for growing and harvesting the coffee bean. This particular region is called the BUGISU region and it is why this coffee is known around the world as a one of the best coffee beans produced (the Bugisu AA is the highest value coffee traded on the market today), but last seasons crop was not up to standards as far as UCDA is concerned and that is why we are here, to discuss these issues, the bugisu is known for certain traits and UCDA is seeing that trait starting to slip. I would like to explain more but it is very technical, for those of you who dont care skip this part and go to then next. Coffee is very complex and very delicate at the same time. Bugisu coffee is know for its mild acidity and bold chocolate taste, but recently this acidity has been going down, now why is acidity so important? when i say acidity most people refer to the acidic taste from a lime or orange, sort of a sour, salty taste, but in coffee it also has to do with the sweetness. if an orange did not have a a sweetness to it you would now eat right? so acidity goes hand to hand with the sweetness of the coffee. This acidity comes naturally from the phosphoric soils of Mt. Elgon, but during processing ( and i mean not processing the raw coffee properly) if the delicate bean is not handled properly it will lose its characteristics which makes this particular coffee special. Anyways, me and edmund enter the town hall and there was about 50 people there waiting for edmund, farmers, traders, and exporters, i was just there to observe, even though im there to purchase 2 tons of coffee to bring back with me in December. Basically this meeting was about a warning that UCDA was giving to everyone regarding harmful practices coffee farmers, traders, and exporters where involved in. I wont get into details but Edmund clearly stated that if the procedures where not followed UCDA has the authority and mandate to shut down operations of a certain factory if standards are not met. It was nice to see the government actually taking steps to protect its most precious commodity which is the Bugisu AA. After the meeting there were alot of questions and concerns which was understandable, but Ed handled it very well. After the meeting we had lunch and ed wanted to make a couple of suprise visits to some factories that he had heard were not up to par with their standards. So we went to a couple of factories and he gave out warnings about some drying methods and told them next time the factory will be shut down. by this time it was late so we decided to find a nice hotel and get some rest because the next day we wanted to visit the actual farms, we ended up staying at a very nice hotel (which i have pictures of) woke up the next day and headed to the mountains. Now this is where i get excited, these mountains are freaking beautiful and we where going to a town called Kapchorwa (11000 ft above sea level) on the way to kapchorwa edmund saw a coffee factory and told the driver to stop, we approached the gate and a security guard inercepted us and would not allow Ed to enter the facility, even after he introduced him self and showed him his government ID card and demanded to open the gate, the guard refused, ed returned to the car grabbed his UCDA lock and placed it on the gate and ordered the factory shut down, panic started, managers came out pleading and begging to forgive their security guard for being ignorant, so ed removed the lock. i had to tell that story to show people the power that this humble man has. We then proceeded to the city and the peak of the mountain (check out the pictures), man what an nice area, cold, breezy, exactly the way i like it. we talked to a couple of farmers and walked through a farm because i had not seen what a coffee plantation looked like. i took a bunch of pictures and hopefully i can download them. but the real exciting part of the trip was being able to walk through the forest and get on an area where they call Sipi Falls. I put the a couple of pictures up of the place but it does you have to be there to fully enjoy the beauty, its like niagara falls and grand canyon at the same place but not as extreme, but while your walking through jungle you really start appreciating the beauty of nature and how untouched this place really is. When i got to the falls i was just in shock at first, and its not just one, from what ive been told there are many falls but this particular one is the most famous. everything is green the soil is very fertile, anything could grow here, i picked an avacado from a tree and it was the best avacado i have ever had in my life. being in a place like that changes you, nothing is important anymore, you sit and just enjoy the beauty and calmness of the area. The hike was not easy, we were deep in the mountains, full jungle getting through it all was a challange, but to my surprise, people actually live by this area, no electricity no gas, just nature and water. anyways redskins are about to play and i have to work out so this part for now is over but there are alot more i could write but then it would just be too long to read :)
After a 3 hour drive we arrive to a town called Mbale, this town is on the foothills of ugandas, highest mountain and africas 17th tallest peak called Mt. Elgon. (which i will get to in the next part), this town is know for its coffee trade, because Mt Elgon was a volcanic mountain, the soil, cool climate, and the constant rain creates the ultimate conditions for growing and harvesting the coffee bean. This particular region is called the BUGISU region and it is why this coffee is known around the world as a one of the best coffee beans produced (the Bugisu AA is the highest value coffee traded on the market today), but last seasons crop was not up to standards as far as UCDA is concerned and that is why we are here, to discuss these issues, the bugisu is known for certain traits and UCDA is seeing that trait starting to slip. I would like to explain more but it is very technical, for those of you who dont care skip this part and go to then next. Coffee is very complex and very delicate at the same time. Bugisu coffee is know for its mild acidity and bold chocolate taste, but recently this acidity has been going down, now why is acidity so important? when i say acidity most people refer to the acidic taste from a lime or orange, sort of a sour, salty taste, but in coffee it also has to do with the sweetness. if an orange did not have a a sweetness to it you would now eat right? so acidity goes hand to hand with the sweetness of the coffee. This acidity comes naturally from the phosphoric soils of Mt. Elgon, but during processing ( and i mean not processing the raw coffee properly) if the delicate bean is not handled properly it will lose its characteristics which makes this particular coffee special. Anyways, me and edmund enter the town hall and there was about 50 people there waiting for edmund, farmers, traders, and exporters, i was just there to observe, even though im there to purchase 2 tons of coffee to bring back with me in December. Basically this meeting was about a warning that UCDA was giving to everyone regarding harmful practices coffee farmers, traders, and exporters where involved in. I wont get into details but Edmund clearly stated that if the procedures where not followed UCDA has the authority and mandate to shut down operations of a certain factory if standards are not met. It was nice to see the government actually taking steps to protect its most precious commodity which is the Bugisu AA. After the meeting there were alot of questions and concerns which was understandable, but Ed handled it very well. After the meeting we had lunch and ed wanted to make a couple of suprise visits to some factories that he had heard were not up to par with their standards. So we went to a couple of factories and he gave out warnings about some drying methods and told them next time the factory will be shut down. by this time it was late so we decided to find a nice hotel and get some rest because the next day we wanted to visit the actual farms, we ended up staying at a very nice hotel (which i have pictures of) woke up the next day and headed to the mountains. Now this is where i get excited, these mountains are freaking beautiful and we where going to a town called Kapchorwa (11000 ft above sea level) on the way to kapchorwa edmund saw a coffee factory and told the driver to stop, we approached the gate and a security guard inercepted us and would not allow Ed to enter the facility, even after he introduced him self and showed him his government ID card and demanded to open the gate, the guard refused, ed returned to the car grabbed his UCDA lock and placed it on the gate and ordered the factory shut down, panic started, managers came out pleading and begging to forgive their security guard for being ignorant, so ed removed the lock. i had to tell that story to show people the power that this humble man has. We then proceeded to the city and the peak of the mountain (check out the pictures), man what an nice area, cold, breezy, exactly the way i like it. we talked to a couple of farmers and walked through a farm because i had not seen what a coffee plantation looked like. i took a bunch of pictures and hopefully i can download them. but the real exciting part of the trip was being able to walk through the forest and get on an area where they call Sipi Falls. I put the a couple of pictures up of the place but it does you have to be there to fully enjoy the beauty, its like niagara falls and grand canyon at the same place but not as extreme, but while your walking through jungle you really start appreciating the beauty of nature and how untouched this place really is. When i got to the falls i was just in shock at first, and its not just one, from what ive been told there are many falls but this particular one is the most famous. everything is green the soil is very fertile, anything could grow here, i picked an avacado from a tree and it was the best avacado i have ever had in my life. being in a place like that changes you, nothing is important anymore, you sit and just enjoy the beauty and calmness of the area. The hike was not easy, we were deep in the mountains, full jungle getting through it all was a challange, but to my surprise, people actually live by this area, no electricity no gas, just nature and water. anyways redskins are about to play and i have to work out so this part for now is over but there are alot more i could write but then it would just be too long to read :)
Sunday, October 14, 2012
10th and 11th week
I am combining these two weeks together because i did not have time to write last week. Last week was a very important week for us and i will explain, every year in kampala there is a Manufacturers Trade Show first week of October over 3000 companies from all over africa come here and try to introduce their product to the public, Kenya, Egypt, Sudan, South Africa, Rawanda, Congo, Even Iran was here. It seems Iran and Uganda have very strong relationship as far as trade and manufacturing goes, ill get to that later. We as Nile Coffee had a small booth to sample our coffee to the public, and the reaction i got from the local people and other outsiders was amazing, my original estimate was to serve about 1000 cups of 6 oz coffee to whom ever wanted to try our coffee, with sugar and milk, i was no were nearly prepared for the reaction we received. Here are some final numbers, we ended up sampling over 20,000 cups, using 80 lb's of sugar, and about 25 gallons of milk! it was madness in a good way ( i have pictures and video for those who are skeptical) for 7 days straight we served and sold our coffee from 9 am to 8 pm everyday. The reaction to our coffee was amazing, i mean i already knew our coffee is one of the best in the world but did not expect this kind of outcome, i had Egyptians and Sudanese making me offers left and right, i even had the Iranian Government approach me regarding our coffee.
On Saturday morning i had group of Iranian come by my booth and try my coffee, and purchased about 30 lbs from me, and ofcourse they hassled me for price, then out of no where a gentleman named Reza Savari Chairman of the Iranian-Ugandan Economical Co-operations Office came by and tasted the coffee and asked me where i was from, naturally i always tell people im from the US, but this guy had a strong iranian accent, so i told him my name is Kave and i am iranian but i was born in the US. He asked to speak to me and we went outside, he basically wanted the take Ugandan's coffee raw which means green to Iran and process it there (roast and package) i told him very nicely that i can not do that, our #1 goal here in uganda is to make sure uganda that the ugandan people get their monies worth for their products, which means producing, roasting, and packaging is all done here so they can get paid for it. Europeans have been exploiting this countries resources for decades and it has to stop, 77% of ugandas coffee get exported to europe! they buy a small percentage of very high quality arabica (my coffee) and a very large percentage of very very low grade coffee mix it together, roast it very dark and sell it, what people dont know is when coffee gets roasted very dark it loses alot of its characteristics that make coffee what it is. anyways let me not get too technical about coffee, but there is so much that regular people dont know. So during our conversation with this iranian, 5 Mercedes Benz S500 pull up and the ambassador of Iran steps out of the car and i get introduced to him, let me tell you one thing i hate is when someone shakes your hand like a dead fish, this freaking guy shakes my hand just like that, who the fuck does this guy think he is, i was told later that his salary from the iranian government is $10,000 a month! can you imagine the poor people in iran are starving and struggling to make ends meet and this fucker is getting paid that much money? 10000 is some people yearly salary if you have a good job. any ways i basically told the iranians to go fuck them selves in a nice way. ill put some pictures up so you guys can see what was going on. for now thats all im gonna write, hopefully ill have time next weekend to write more, this week im moving into my new office which is kind of exciting and scary at the same time.
On Saturday morning i had group of Iranian come by my booth and try my coffee, and purchased about 30 lbs from me, and ofcourse they hassled me for price, then out of no where a gentleman named Reza Savari Chairman of the Iranian-Ugandan Economical Co-operations Office came by and tasted the coffee and asked me where i was from, naturally i always tell people im from the US, but this guy had a strong iranian accent, so i told him my name is Kave and i am iranian but i was born in the US. He asked to speak to me and we went outside, he basically wanted the take Ugandan's coffee raw which means green to Iran and process it there (roast and package) i told him very nicely that i can not do that, our #1 goal here in uganda is to make sure uganda that the ugandan people get their monies worth for their products, which means producing, roasting, and packaging is all done here so they can get paid for it. Europeans have been exploiting this countries resources for decades and it has to stop, 77% of ugandas coffee get exported to europe! they buy a small percentage of very high quality arabica (my coffee) and a very large percentage of very very low grade coffee mix it together, roast it very dark and sell it, what people dont know is when coffee gets roasted very dark it loses alot of its characteristics that make coffee what it is. anyways let me not get too technical about coffee, but there is so much that regular people dont know. So during our conversation with this iranian, 5 Mercedes Benz S500 pull up and the ambassador of Iran steps out of the car and i get introduced to him, let me tell you one thing i hate is when someone shakes your hand like a dead fish, this freaking guy shakes my hand just like that, who the fuck does this guy think he is, i was told later that his salary from the iranian government is $10,000 a month! can you imagine the poor people in iran are starving and struggling to make ends meet and this fucker is getting paid that much money? 10000 is some people yearly salary if you have a good job. any ways i basically told the iranians to go fuck them selves in a nice way. ill put some pictures up so you guys can see what was going on. for now thats all im gonna write, hopefully ill have time next weekend to write more, this week im moving into my new office which is kind of exciting and scary at the same time.
Friday, October 12, 2012
9th week
Today i had my first taste of corruption in Uganda. I have been told that there is corruption everywhere but had not seen it first hand. Here is the story: driving back this morning from playing soccer evidently i ran a traffic light, there is no traffic light first of all second, if there was one i was following others. As soon as i make my right hand turn a police officer jumps in front of me and waves me to the side. Im like holy shit here we go, officer comes to the window and asks me if i like my life and if not to i want to die? I am now alittle nervous, i replies no sir i love my life and want to live, what did i do? officer says i ran a red light (mind you there is no light) before i could say anything he asks for my permit, which is a license. I take out my wallet and show him my Va license. He looks at it says well im gonna have to write you a ticket for traffic violation you have to come to court and pay a fee of atleast 100,000 UGX ($40), i smile and say what can we do about this tapping on my wallet at the same time, he looks and says give me 100,000 and i will let you go, i said 10,000, he said 50,000 i said 20,000 he blinked i gave him a 20,000 UGX bill and i wan on my way. I was thinking to my self imagine if Fairfax County Police was the same way, there would be chaos everywhere. When i get home i told the story to ed and he said the fine for it was 40,000 and i they got me. LOL thats all i could do.. freaking cops here are making a killing of these poor people. Any ways i had to share that story of corruption.
This past week i have been back in training again, this time barista training, for those of you who dont know what that is, it the person at the coffee shop making espresso and cappuccino's. So now i am officially a certified barista. The test was so hard, you have to make 4 shots of espresso's and 4 cappuccino's in 10 minutes, it is not easy i tell you, specially when there are 15 others watching and 4 judges evaluating your every move. Everything has to be perfect, timing of the espresso shot to have a good extraction of the coffee, cleaning the machine, grinding the proper amount, tamping correctly, flushing the machine before every shot, pouring your milk, heating up the milk and making sure its not too hot or cold and it has a lot of foam when making a cappuccino. It took me two attempts and i passed, first time it my espresso was over extracted (it went beyond the time limit of 30 seconds) and i didnt clean the steamer. but then the second time it was perfect. I got to work and train with Uganda's current Barista champion which was very cool, i mean to learn from the best is awsome, very young guy 23, but very sharp and a great teacher.
Time is going by very fast, its already october, couple of months and i will be back home, i cant wait. life here is not bad but its boring, i miss a lot of people, you know who you are. Every Friday and Saturday night i get that feeling of i should be back in DC doing something with the boys or that other person, instead im sitting or playing some pool, there is nothing much to do here, dont get me wrong these people party big time, i think i have mentioned how the music is blasting from thursday night to monday morning, but they drink too much, plus i cant even stay awake past 11 pm anyways...i drink this beer called nile beer which is pretty good, but nothing like our beers, man i miss a good Sierra Nevada right now, or a blue moon with a slice of orange..
This past week i have been back in training again, this time barista training, for those of you who dont know what that is, it the person at the coffee shop making espresso and cappuccino's. So now i am officially a certified barista. The test was so hard, you have to make 4 shots of espresso's and 4 cappuccino's in 10 minutes, it is not easy i tell you, specially when there are 15 others watching and 4 judges evaluating your every move. Everything has to be perfect, timing of the espresso shot to have a good extraction of the coffee, cleaning the machine, grinding the proper amount, tamping correctly, flushing the machine before every shot, pouring your milk, heating up the milk and making sure its not too hot or cold and it has a lot of foam when making a cappuccino. It took me two attempts and i passed, first time it my espresso was over extracted (it went beyond the time limit of 30 seconds) and i didnt clean the steamer. but then the second time it was perfect. I got to work and train with Uganda's current Barista champion which was very cool, i mean to learn from the best is awsome, very young guy 23, but very sharp and a great teacher.
Time is going by very fast, its already october, couple of months and i will be back home, i cant wait. life here is not bad but its boring, i miss a lot of people, you know who you are. Every Friday and Saturday night i get that feeling of i should be back in DC doing something with the boys or that other person, instead im sitting or playing some pool, there is nothing much to do here, dont get me wrong these people party big time, i think i have mentioned how the music is blasting from thursday night to monday morning, but they drink too much, plus i cant even stay awake past 11 pm anyways...i drink this beer called nile beer which is pretty good, but nothing like our beers, man i miss a good Sierra Nevada right now, or a blue moon with a slice of orange..
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