November 1st-2nd The Coffee Report: Full Circle at the ECX.

Everything is traded. The ECX is the Ethiopia Commodity Exchange. From the ECX website, "ECX assures all commodity market players the security they need in the market through providing a secure and reliable End-to-End system for handling, grading, and storing commodities, matching offers and bids for commodity transactions, and a risk-free payment and goods delivery system to settle transactions, while serving all fairly and efficiently."

At the most basic level, the ECX is meant to efficiently receive, process, sell and distribute coffee. In reality, the ECX increases efficiency in transacting coffee internationally while decreasing quality and traceability. The system operates when farmers sell to a mill, the mill sells to the ECX, the traders buy from the ECX, the exporters buy from the traders and the exporters sell to foreign buyers. Many of these positions overlap, so traders are sometimes exporters and more commonly mill operators are exporters. Mill owner-exporters have difficultly ensuring the quality of their exports. When he sells his coffee to the ECX, then wants to export that amount of coffee he will have to rebuy a blind coffee lot from the ECX (not guaranteed or likely to receive their coffee). Here is an example, assume you sell 30 bags of immaculately prepared Natural G2 Yerga Cheffe, to the ECX, to export 30 bags of Natural G2 Yerga Cheffe, you would purchase 30 bags of Natural G2 Yerga Cheffe, then wait to receive any coffee graded Natural G2 Yerga Cheffe. There is a way to receive your coffee, although receiving your coffee is not guaranteed, but requires the use of a back door, hand shake, kick back system.

One of the most controversial functions of the ECX is their blending of traceable coffees into single regional offerings. For example, the ECX will receive all natural Yerga Cheffe, grade them and treat them as one homogenized lot according to grade, then add (if they choose) any coffee from other regions "having Yerga Cheffe flavor." (This system is similar to the US commodity system.) No consideration is given to quality of preparation outside of Natural or Washed. This has lead to numerous complaints regarding excessively high grading of coffees and that the lower brand of specialty grade coffee should actually be graded a grade lower. These complaints from abroad and within Ethiopia are very slowly having an affect on a system, which is a mere 1000 days old.

As a side note, the ECX is an open-cry marketplace where traders shout prices at each other and deals are sealed with a High-5! Seriously!

Photos of Photos

I foolishly forgot the camera cord at home so... For those eagerly waiting, here are a few photos of a photo from the trip (quality & colors do not represent actual photo).

November 1st: Back in Addis & Full of Tips for Traveling Remotely

This trip has been another great learning experience on what to bring when traveling to remote areas. For those interested in traveling to Ethiopia or another very rural area here are a few items you should bring from home:

Hand sanitizer + a bar of soap (you will shake a lot of hands and encounter a lot of things. Soap is never guaranteed)
Wet wipes (think baby wipes, water isn't always guaranteed)
Eye drops (the dust is intense)
Toilet paper (you can't find it anywhere)
Bug spray (think Malaria)
Sunscreen, Chapstick w/UV protection
Sunglasses
Flip flops (used for many reasons: toilet, shower, misc..)
Windproof + warm jacket (it gets cold at night & in the mountains)
Sleeping bag (a small one, the beds are iffy, you will get bites without one)
Headlamp or flashlight preferably LED (power outages occur often & street lights do not exist)
Medication (if you're going rural)
Small phrase book (it is likely English may not be understood)
A Sense of Humor + An Open Mind.

October 31st Happy Halloween

As usual MJ wakes up way too early for most humans and attempts (unsuccessfully) to not wake me, but alas he does. So we start the day again during the pre-dawn walking towards the bus station for breakfast. Its a little ironic we would walk towards the bus station for breakfast when at home we would never think of going to the Greyhound station for breakfast. MJ has the stomach of an alley cat, so we eat a lot of street food which I love too. And we both love their Samoas and shai for breakfast, which are best at the bus stations. Samoas are fried triangular shaped dough, encasing brown lentils, garlic, onion and spices. If you've ever eaten empanadas then you have an idea. Shai is brewed from black tea (usually an Assam or Pekoe) served in 75ml (3oz) cups with about 15g (1/2oz) of sugar sitting on the bottom. It could be mistaken for Moroccan tea if mint was added instead of a medicinal herb which settles your stomach. MJ usually refuses to add sweeteners to his hot drinks but I watch him happily down shai after shai every morning.
Today we spent most of the day driving attempting to reach Addis in one day, with a stop here and there. First stop was to see the spectacular rain forests of coffee beans, second stop, lunch - delish as usual. Third stop was in Awasa to enjoy freshly caught fish and a boat ride. The fish is delish and the boat was awesome. 6 of us pile into a hand crafted wooden boat no longer than 18ft. It is painted with Rastafian colors and the flag is waving proudly in the wind. Water is seeping in through the bottom as we buzz by local fisherman also in handcrafted boats, the only difference being their boats are constructed out of reeds (yes, similar to a weed). The area of Lake Awasa we are headed for is a little more than 6ft deep and there in the distance we see exactly what we were looking for, HIPPOS! The is a family of roughly 40 HIPPOS, real live HIPPOS in front of us. We get no closer than 10ft but it was so worth it. The hippos were curious about us and would disappear and reappear every few minutes. One breached completely out of the water, another yawned and a baby just starred for awhile. We stayed for roughly and hour before venturing back as the hippos began nearing the boat, and for those of you that do not watch the nature channel, hippos are one of the worlds most dangerous animals which meant time to go. On our way back we watched birds take off by running on water and searched for the 30ft long water snake that thankfully we were not able to find. Today was also a sad day... After leaving Awasa we bid our friends goodbye as they have an extra week and will be heading South to Omo Valley. Tears came quickly from both Carolina and I as we parted, it is never easy to say goodbye to those you grow close to. But I raise my glass to the friendship we have created and look forward to seeing them in Germany or on another journey somewhere in the world.

October 30th The Coffee Report: At the Source

Akalelu and Dawit run an impressive business. On our journey to and thru Guji we stopped at two wet processing mills and a dry processing mill. The dry processing mill we visited was a small operation, which is ironic considering that 65%+ of Ethiopia's coffee is dry processed. I was struck immediately by the homogeneity of the first pile of cherries. The cherries looked incredible, just incredible. Dark even color, uniform bean size, nearly identical drying rate, and just so pretty. On a larger second pile, children, coming after Sunday school, were sorting the cherries to make some extra money. I asked the children and the adults (separately) how many days the children worked and both answered that the children only work on the weekend because they are in school Monday thru Friday. When I asked Dawit how many passes would be made on the second pile he told me more than five to ensure the quality. Surprised and slightly dumbfounded I asked why. He said this is the Ardi! After the initial surprise subsided he also told me that this was the Tinkish (the Flying Crop or first crop). Then he told me one last thing that stopped me again, "MJ, this probably won't be Ardi because the quality is very good, but not good enough." Those are very high standards you have Samuel.

Before arriving at the first wet processing mill just outside of Yerga Alem, Mother Nature played her hand and let loose a day long rain which set back harvest by at least a week. This wet processing mill was smallish in size, only able to handle around 30 quanto (100kg per quanto), but was actively processing the first harvest. All of the work at the Mill was done by hand except for the pumping of water, which still made this mill slightly more advanced than some others that use a gravity water system. The beans were laying around in almost every state: ripe red cheeries, smooth cream white silver skinned, moisture filled dull olive green, and nearly dry bright green. Seeing the beans in all these states reminded me of how intricate a process is used so I can brew my morning coffee. At this small mill nearly twenty people will touch the coffee. The farmer delivers the coffee (one), someone receives the coffee (two), it's moved to sorting (three and four), sorted (five and six), moved to pulping (same three and four), pulped (seven), washed (eight-nine-ten), drained to fermentation tanks (eleven), drained from fermentation to drying tank (eleven again), drying tank to mesh transportation screens (twelve and thirteen), spreading across raised drying beds (fourteen thru nineteen), off to storage (twenty to twenty three) and finally on trucks bound for the ECX (twenty four to twenty six). But having said all this the most striking image was of two older men. They were sweeping our "garbage" coffee into piles meant only for domestic consumption. By percentage almost no Ethiopian will drink their countries specialty grade coffee (read this as coffees purchased by high-end coffee houses) and for certain the farmers will never drink their crop. For them it's simple, sell the coffee for money to eat, or drink their dinner, clothes and tools.

The second wet process mill was a major operation and the largest of Akalelu's four mills. This mill could process, as measured by drying capacity, 220-260 quanto or roughly 50,000lbs. at a time. Unfortunately, the rain held the coffee on the trees so the mill was on a skeletal. At this size, the mill would have been a sight to see with 300 to 500 people working. Maybe next time.

Lunch and Ethiopian hospitality would not be deterred by lack of coffee or even by an intense but brief monsoon-like rain. Our hosts set out a table with chairs on the slope above the drying tables, then filled the table with roasted goat, injera and beer. Talking coffee, discussing life and having more than a few laughs we allowed the day to slip into the past. Ethiopian people have a kindness and easiness about them that is infectious and beautiful, and their children laugh and smile constantly filling the space around you with happiness. When finally the past returned to be our future we left for Hagermaram to bed down for the evening.

October 29th: To Guji.

Today we woke slowly, which means I slept till 5 and Tiffany woke at 5:15. We layed around for 20 or so minutes before we both could no longer stand it. Out again for a pre-dawn walk we enjoyed watching the city rub the sleep from its eyes. Dawit and Akulelu are scheduledto pick us up at 11 to begin the journey south to Guji. Until today I thought those two worked in the Sidamo and Yerge Cheffe regions but after a long talk over flaming Tibs I learned that they actually work in the Guji region. Depending on who is asked, the Guji region is sometimes lumped into the greater Sidamo area, but the Sidama and Guji people will tell you that neither lies in the other. To my surprise Dawit tells me that three or four years ago the Sidama and the Guji went to war over a vendetta and grazing rights. The war only stopped when the tribal elders worked out the vendetta and the Ethiopian government helped settle the grazing rights. Just outside Awasa we watch our first "African" sunset. From the road the sun's golden orange and red light slowly faded behind a hill topped with a single tree returning the savanna to darkness. We had seen our the Planet Earth sunset. Entering Awasa the streets are the cleanest we have seen. The city is brand new. Bajajs (motorcycle with cart) in the 100s and much to see. We check into a hotel and make our way to a bar. There are 8 of us on this journey, our Captain aka Big Boss aka Akulelu, our Co-Captain Dawit, two coffee geeks + their companions and our kindred spirits from Germany. We arrive at a a classy establishment and start drinking beers and a few order dinner, in the middle of all this the power goes out in the entire city. Apparently this is normal as no one seems to notice and life carries on. For the faranjis we feel blind. Thankfully Dennis was there, he whipped out his headlamp and wore it like a champ. Less than 20 minutes later the power returned another true experience under our belts!

October 28 To Addis Ababa we go

Grandmas house. She lives in a "compound" which in these areas is quite nice. Its a mud, stick and hay house with two rooms. One is grandmas bed and doubles as a kitchen, the other is a gathering room with built in benches just a few inches off the floor. We get out of bed at 4am naturally, we had been laying on grandma's straw floor with an overstuffed pillow and blankets that smelled like animal and in the outdoors it is impossible to a oid bugs. I foolishly turned on the flashlight and on our blankets there were over 100 fleas and other larger bugs. Not being accustom to this it freaks me out a little. However, the hospitality and generosity did not go unnoticed. We walked from the compound onto the street to watch our final sunrise in northeast and enjoy shai and buna. We attracted quite the crowd wherever we went and this was no different. Shortly thereafter we hit the road and journeyed back to Addis Ababa. Along the way we stopped for a coke in a small village and ended up dancing with children and communicating in broken language. It has been really wonderful connecting with so many people. Bidi was clearly excited to be going home as his driving increased in speed and the tires began squealing around the hairpin turns. I jumped in the front seat and held my stomach as though it ached to hopefully save all of of our lives and it was successful. By this time in our travels Bidi finally warmed up, out of nowhere he pulls over to show us a breathtaking view. Taking this opportunity having been in nature and toileting in a hole, we all took to nature when it called. I have found that no toilets view has been as spectacular as Cliffside at 13,000 feet overlooking the Simien Mountains. The best part of this is the moment we stepped out of the car we were mobbed by around 20 men in there late teens to mid twenties selling oregano and sheep mountain hats and having few areas to hide we found a giant rock that hid you from everyone but not everyone from you. Getting mobbed was not unusual but something about this group of people struck me and I was convinced to buy a hat. Back on the road we find ourselves in Addis Ababa and suddenly, mere moments after entering the city Bidi opens up and begins speaking decent English. We have no idea who this guy is and where he came from. This is clearly not the person we began the trip with and little pieces of all of us hope we have opened him up and shown him how to make a fool of oneself. The four of us stay in one room together, the shower is plugged, the bed is gross, the toilet won't flush and the sink won't drain and they call this the Eden Pension. Tired and a little irritated we all go enjoy a delicious meal fireside. Tomorrow we are being picked up at 11am and heading South.