December 9, 2011
Well, I survived the holiday in Nicaragua, barely. The last 20 hours of my time in Jinotega were very rudely interrupted by a constant stream of fireworks and the intermittent wailing of fire trucks and ambulances. Warren and I (non-celebrating members of 
the town) spent the day at the office and the coffee-receiving warehouse, although the day was pretty slow due to the holiday and the lack-of-harvest going on right now.
There is some interesting trouble brewing in Nicaragua right now. There were recently presidential elections in Nicaragua, and Daniel Ortega, the infamous Sandinista from the war/revolution, won by a stunning 60% of the vote. Many are calling fraud. The general sentiment is that he would have won anyways, but he rigged the vote to make sure that he got a majority of the congress as well, allowing him to make changes to the constitution. Ivania and Warren seem to think that there is trouble brewing in the mountains, groups arming themselves for the next revolution. Only time will tell, and for the moment the country is safe.
Today I set off with Ivania to the dry mill Soppexcca that processes all of Aldea Global’s coffee. This is also the same group that I cupped with to determine last year’s Direct Trade cupping scores. We toured the mill and then were able to speak with the man in charge of receiving and organizing the warehouse. Working out the details of how we will 
organize the receipt of various separate lots is an important process, and was a major stumbling point in our Peru venture last year. Now we are well prepared before the harvest and know how we will organize the coffee before it starts pouring in during the next couple of months.
From Matagalpa I headed back to Jinotega, only to get picked up and head back down the mountain again. A little failure in logistics in my part, but hey, every day is a learning experience. One quick car nap later, I was stuck in Managua traffic, trying to fight my way through the congested streets to the offices of Café Don Paco (a.k.a. Roberto Bendaña) where I met with their traffic person and expressed our desire to have containers shipped ASAP!
Roberto picked me up from his offices and we set off towards INCAE, Nicaragua’s premiere business school started by the Harvard Business School. I met with a professor who is interested in writing a case study on Direct Trade, both from my point of view as a buyer and Roberto’s point of view as a producer. The campus was beautiful, and it is basically the only theoretical business school in the region, and it was very reminiscent of the universities that I am familiar with in the US (which made it stand out A LOT in Nicaragua…) I am really excited to move forward with them to get out the message of Direct Trade from a theoretical business standpoint, and I think that the collaboration is going to be excellent!
Well folks, that’s all she wrote. Tomorrow I am leaving the nice humid 90-degree climate to cool off in Portland. Hasta Pronto!
