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 :)

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.

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..

Start of 2nd Month

2 months, wow i can not believe i have been in uganda for two months already, time does fly by when your busy. These past couple of weeks have been uneventful, im just learning the company and getting ready to move into my new office building, finally Nile Coffee will have its own office and i will be running the company :) yikes... its a lot of responsibility, specially now that i am studying the company and realizing how out of date their systems are, for example everything i done by cash here, no credit cards, no checks, well the banks take checks but only the main ones and it they have strict protocols about cashing checks, its not like the US where you have identification and drivers license and all sorts of other methods of checking the ID of someone. Then there is the issue of their books not matching, i have been stuck in edmunds old office for the past 6 days trying to sort out what the hell is going on here, we balanced and were short like a $1000 which in uganda is a lot of money...to give you an idea most salaries are about 400 to 500 a month and that is a good pay. So you can imagine $1000 missing is causing chaos. There is no structure because the coffee part of the company is only 5 months old and they do not have and procedure or structure in place, thats why im here trying to set a certain structure and foundation so that when i come back to USA everything will go smoothly hopefully.

On a bright note, saturday UCDA had ceremony of giving out certificates for R grading robusta coffee, and your truely have passed all the test and i got my certificate and not i am an expert cupper, inspector, and coffee analyst. in one week, all this in one week but it was a hell of a week, but i passed and now i am an robusta expert. Next week on monday i will start barista training for a week, once i finish that im done with training, so next week is gonna be a crazy week too, but atleast it wont be as boring as the robusta training. The barista is actually hands on and we will be learning how to make everything from espresso's, cappuccinos and all the other drink that coffee makes...The ceremony was in a 5 star hotel, you cant imagine how nice this hotel is. 5 star and they mean 5 star, i took some pictures of the inside so check them out. i really dont have anything else to write about for now, i do have alot to say but not yet i got somethings in the works  and once they are final i will write about them.

End of 7th week

Wow what a week, i know i wrote about this training course in my last blog but holy mother %^$^##&^%$,  there was point on saturday that i almost lost it and was just gonna cry....i find out today that this training session is suppose to be a month long class, we did in 1 week, not even a week cuz i missed half of monday and saturday so it was like 5 days, can you imagine 30 days worth of information and testing done in 5 days? nobody passed...i mean there are people who have been working at UCDA for years that didnot pass this freaking class.  The problem is that UCDA can not pay these people to stay in uganda for a month but then everyone suffers, out of the 22 test you have to pass to get certified, i passed 14, which is not bad considering i passed more then almost everyone else in the class. But i still would of loved to passed and get certified, the good thing is the tests i have passed are good for 18 month so i have a year and a half to pass the other 8. I am guessing when i get back state side i will pursue the certification. I have learned so much about coffee and its complex attributes that i am glad i got a chance to participate in this course. But man i sooooooo glad its over.

On sunday i was surfing the satellite dish that edmund has and was sorry to find out they dont show football, especially not the redskins games, i have been watching football since 1986 and was planning not watch and just see the highlights but as 1 pm approached (which is my 8pm) i couldnt take it anymore and thanks to the NFL channel and network i ordered the full season and watched the game on my labtop, and boy oh boy i was glad i did cuz our boy RGIII shined big time. Star in the making.. i could not believe that the redskins, i mean the redskins were playing good football and on offense. To my fellow redskins fans and football fans in general i have to ask, when was the last time you remember redskins playing that good on offense and have star QB? when was the last time redskins scored 40 points? holy &%$# the redskins scored 40 points and won a game. i gotta tell you i was in complete awwwwww last night and this morning but i had nobody to talk to about it, i couldnt text abdullah and talk shit to him cuz his giants lost and he has been texting me since they won the superbowl. i dont want to say anything premature but come guys i think there is a star about to shine here, well there in washington,  i have to admit i was a little skeptical about drafting him but after that performance (even though saints D is not among the elite) for a rookie QB to throw for 300 yards and 2 touchdowns and control the game the way he did, that was impressive. i have to say i slept very well last night, as my family knows how much the redskins stress me out, but finally we won and we have a QB. Hail to the REDSKINS. cant wait for the skins and dallas game.


 here are some pictures of the dreadful course. what you see is a cupping section of the test where they put 6 different coffees on the table and you have to pick the best and worst by a grading system, 10 criteria's, aroma/fragrance of dry and wet coffee, aftertaste, mouthfeel, bitterness, sweetness, saltiness, balance and overall. we did this 15 times. can you imagine, after a while everything starts to taste the same. anyways ill write more later now its law and order svu and bed time.

Mid 7th week

OMG, i get a call from Edmund monday morning during our weekly sales meeting telling me that UCDA is doing R grade training and testing to get certified, not this certification in the coffee world is a huge deal...basically if you pass all the tests which are 22 test total, you are a master coffee cupper, roaster, and inspector. All i have to say is OM fucking God, i have been in training none stop since monday 10 am everyday till 630, and let me tell you its no freaking joke, its class for an hour then the test and the test are sooooooooo hard... i have been only been learning for a month now, there are people in our group who have been with UCDA years and still have not passed this test, so far out of 10 test we have taken i have managed to pass 2, which is very disapointing but edmund is telling me i have done better then alot of other people who have been there for a while. so i guess im not doing too bad but man its crazy and so much information. The organization  who runs this program/test/certification is world wide know and are called COFFEE QUALITY INSTITUTE, apparently they train all coffee experts all over the world, and man they are tough. So as you can imagine my week has not been pleasant, i mean 10 hours of coffee coffee coffee test after test after test is starting to wear me out, everything is starting to taste the same, coffee is so freaking complicated it is unbelievable. there are things about coffee that scientists still havent figured out, that is amazing to me. this little fucking bean is as complex as our brains.. every aspect of it we are getting tested on, taste color, acidity, bitterness, roasting it, brewing it, i can go on and on but most of you would not even understand the complexity of this little tiny miracle. anyways i thought i should write about this experience, ill have more on this on the weekend when i have more time to write and take pictures.

6th week

I am really starting to miss being in the US, dont get me wrong uganda is great but my home is in the states, i miss my car, i miss driving on the left of  the car and  driving on the freaking right side of the road and not left like these idiots are doing. I catch my self 3or 4  times a day trying to get into my car and im on the wrong freaking side. GRRRRRRRRRR, no rules and regulations, no lights, no nothing. I mean its good in a way but everything and everyone needs some kind of system to follow.. i mean come on fix these roads already... im gonna take some pictures of these roads so you guys can see how fucked up they are....most of the roads are not even paved unless your down town kampala which is completely different..imagin you are in dc antd you are on your way home and all of a sudden the road turns into a dirt road with fake me out speed bumps that are so freaking huge, normal sedans cants go over them with out scrapping the bottom of their cars. Its just madness, so much poverty that makes me think of how rich i am and how much we take for granted.

Still have not had any kind of meat, except for some fish i had today, i mean the tilapea is freaking awsome, but everything else like chicken, pork and beef i have not touched. But despite of it all i feel great, i eat salad twice a day, beans everyday and sundays is fish day, Edmunds favorite food, oh and alot of fruit which is very expensive...apples and oranges dont grow here so they import them, oh btw i forgot to mention that i found this tuna in a can with sunflower oil that is amazing so i plan on eating that 4 or 5 times a week if i can afford it, anything that is imported in soooo expensive...can of tuna in the states cost what? like a dollar, well its 10000 shillings here which is about 4 dollars, for one small can of tuna! i mean thats crazy i dont know how people here afford to eat? if you dont eat local food, which is rice, beans, chapate(tortilla) you will go broke, a meal at  local place will cost 4000 shilling thats with a bottled water...thats not even 2 dollars. but a can of tuna cost 4 dollars....im gonna have to import some tuna from the states :)  anyways, the weather is amazing. never hot during the day and very cool at night, i havent had to turn on the ac since ive been here...which is a good thing cuz my body is like a furnace and produces alot of heat on its own. so im pretty happy about that.

On a different note, i need to get coffee to the states, and we dont have anybody on that side since im here and atrac is in new zealand...we are starting to get some orders but cannot full fill them due to the fact that i have no one there to ship it for me, so if anybody is reading this and know of someone who wants to make some cash, which will not be alot at first but once we do get a steady demand for it, it could be a very easy and alot of money, basically im looking for a logistics person who can go to the post office and send a package, its really not that hard and if the volume gets too big i would rent a storage unit and keep the coffee there. Once the coffee is roasted and packaged it has a shelf life of 2 years, so please if anyone knows anyone or even if you want to make some extra cash hit me up and we can talk about it in more detail. think about it like this, once i bring this company state side we are gonna blow up. we are planning to have a warehouse to store coffee and a shop to sell...and if things work out we will open up a distribution center somewhere and then the possibilities are endless. people are always gonna drink coffee and i have a superior coffee here, coffee is the second most commodity sold in the world next to oil. there is so much coffee trading that the coffee industry had to split up the arabica and robusta, arabica is traded in NYC and robusta in London..its amazing how much volume is sold and consumed by people. so people think about it and let me know... i havent taken any pictures this week because i really havent been anywhere, but when i move into my own building/office then i will add some pics. i made a huge mistake by not bringing my dress shoes, pants and suits, cuz now i need them, im starting to approach alot of cafe's and all i have to wear is jeans and tennis shoes...so automatically im not respected, but once they hear me talk and see our product its all over, dont judge a book by its cover and we are all guilty of that. pictures to come soon