An exciting new adventure!

It’s all happening! We’re leaving Davao and moving to the Perrine farm in Manolo Fortich, Bukidnon, where we will be spending the remainder of our time working side by side with coffee farmers and community leaders. This couldn’t have come at a better time and we’re so excited that God has opened this door for us. We can’t wait to get started!

So here’s how it all went down…

As you may have read, we spent three days on the farm a couple of weeks ago and had a wonderful time (the farm is owned and operated by John and Renee Perrine). We were there to inspect their coffee farm and see how they process the beans. As it turns out things were far worse than we anticipated and it became very clear that the farm was in some serious need of a major overhaul. During one of the meetings with Renee, the leadership from the farms and the PBCI staff, the idea was proposed that Jenna and I, and possibly Ate Kriz, would move to the farm and help get things turned around. We leave on September 10^th! The plan is that we will begin rehabbing the main farm, which is located on the same land that we will be living on. By focusing on this farm, it can act as a model for the other locations (there are 5 different locations that need to be addressed). We can use this farm as our pilot project as we try to learn more about the best ways to manage soil, trees and the harvesting/processing process. We have broken our tasks down to three major groups; things we can do immediately, things to be done once the harvest in completed; and things that we can do to interact with the community.

Here is a section I’ve copied from the “Plan of Action” Jenna, Kriz and I submitted to the Perrine’s. It might be easier to just show you this list, rather than try to describe what it is we’ll be doing.

Current Harvest:

• Improve Harvesting Techniques

• coaching the VFO’s and farmers on berry selection

• determining the right berry color for harvesting

• knowing when to pick berries

• Work on tree health

• cleaning the trees - removing anything that affects the health of the tree, removing the moss

• identify the current number of trees at JPP Farm and each varieties

• tag trees for sampling

• identify coffee tree diseases and pests

• pruning techniques

• organic pest control

• Wet mill restructuring (with the proper procedure)

• implementation of proper procedure

• monitoring each step of the process

• determining ways to improve efficiency

• Develop a grading system for green beans – grading tables, etc

• training workers for coffee classification and sorting

• developing a big visual grading sheet (tarpaulin)

• developing a classification area with tables and lamps

• develop proper storage area

• Make visuals for berry coloration (bean defects and discoloration)

• produce a laminated color spectrum to serve as a guide for the farmers in picking ripe berries

JPP Farm Rejuvenation

• Soil testing to determination fertilization needs (get the right PH level) this can be started immediately

• soil sampling (3 coffee farm locations) – determine the amount of macro and micro nutrients present in the soil

• making compost pit for each location

• monitoring ground maintenance (grass clipping, mulching, etc.)

• identifying pests living in the soil that affects coffee trees

• Phase 2 of tree health (2^nd quarter/post harvest)

• heavy-duty pruning,

• gradual removal of excess trees

• Testing: monitor how long fermentation takes place after the beans are harvested

• berry sampling

• Monitor how long the yellow berries take to turn red

• daily monitoring in the farm

• Set up test areas and properly document what has been done to each tree

• tagging coffee trees

• daily visitation and recording of observation

• development of monitoring sheets for Keith, Jenna and Kriz

• create master map of the farm with tree locations and test detatils

• Continuation of ground management

• second soil sampling (after 6 months of soil maintenance)

Community Involvement

• Continued PAR & Value Formation, specifically focusing on peace theology/shalom theology

• holistic vision

• Relationship-building

• attending the morning devotional meeting (5 am daily)

• household visitations

• Fair-trade Principles Development

• observe practicality on the ground

• fuller explanation and development of principles (include COSP – Cost Of Sustainable Project and FT MP – Fair Trade Minimum Price)

• Partnership with Coffee for Peace

• CFP purchasing process and first right of refusal

• exporting logistics

As you can tell, there are a lot of things that need to be addressed, so we’re excited to get started.

You may be wondering how it is that we know what in the heck we are talking about. If so, you’re in the same boat that Jenna and I were a couple of weeks ago. We are, by no means whatsoever, experts in this field, but we feel like we have a good idea as to how we can address these specific issues and that in doing so, we can greatly increase the quality and quantity of coffee these farmers are able to produce. In the past few weeks, Jenna and I have been doing a lot of reading, watching videos and other kinds of activities to learn as much as we can about the processes involved in coffee farming. The good thing is that because the locations that we will be dealing with are pretty far off the beaten path, their methods are not terribly sophisticated. In fact one of the main objectives of Fair Trade farming is that the technology used needs to be simple, affordable and environmentally sound. We’re trying to learn as much as we can before we go in order to maximize our effectiveness once we get there.

Another thing we are doing to prepare is taking a trip to Mount Matutum on Monday to get some more hands on experience with all the different tasks we’ll be asking other to do. At this time the community on Mount Matutum supplies most of the coffee for Coffee for Peace and is what we sent to Canada a few months ago. It will be a great chance for Jenna and me to get our hands dirty and test what knowledge we think we have.

PBCI and the Perrines, known as the JPG (John Perrine Group) in all our official documents, will be partnering on all kinds of cool things over the next year. There are seemingly endless opportunities in this partnership and working with a group that has a vast amount of resources means that we can possibly achieve all the things that we’ve been dreaming about. The Perrines' energy and excitement to partner with PBCI is a welcome breath of fresh air. I could probably write another 5 pages on all the cool things that are being talked about within this partnership, but I honestly just don’t want to spend that much time writing.

Things are really shaking up in the Philippines right now. Tensions are high between the government and the armed forces of the Muslim and Communist communities. It seems like things must change at this point and people of authority seem to be taking their responsibilities very seriously. It’s cool to be a very small part of an organization that is trying to make things better and the new partnerships that PBCI is forming are very cool and will hopefully make a major impact in this wonderful land. It’s easy to feel like the cause for peace is a hopeless one, but God refuses to give up on his people and his presence keeps popping up in all the right places and at all the right times. Being a part of this adventure is humbling, scary and awesome. We are so blessed.

So that’s what’s up for now. Stay tuned…