The Beach!

Well, finally I have a great reason to update my blog. Last weekend we went to the beach, and it was super fun and relaxing, a great break from 6 day work weeks and less than 2 hours away! Here are a few pics:

The view from our hotel, "Hotelita Lupita." Gotta love the name!

So aparently we were the only fans of the beach - not going to complain

Fisherman bringing in the boats

How lucky am I, my host brother Mario likes football

(unfortunately he's a Packers fan)

I'm not quite sure what we're doing here - maybe

contemplating another swim?

The boats

The beach was too rocky for surfers, and a little dangerous to swim, but still a great time with the Perez family. I'm still wondering why PAC doesn't have a regional office out here...

Coffee anyone?

Recently my time has been spent developing and trying out the new system for gathering information from coffee producers for the database. I am working in Ocotal, an office of PAC near to the Honduran border. Here are some images to capture the last few weeks:

The bus ride between Granada and Ocotal is a total of about six hours.

Which leaves plenty of time for the already

struggling buses to break down!

Discussing the new plan to gather data with

managers and technicians.

Las Sabanas, a high (and cool) town, on of the most ideal places

to grow coffee in Nicaragua.

Interviewing a coffee farmer to try out the new system.

My church on the weekends back in Granada.

My 20 year old host brother, Mario, sharing in church. It's

great having a brother like him, we get along really

well and have great times hanging out!

The Project

So if you've been following my blog, you have probably been thinking, "Wow, Greg is having a great time vacationing while I'm freezing here in the US." While there might be a little truth to this, most of my time here is actually not spent climbing volcanoes and exploring jungles.

In fact, here in Nicaragua the official work week is 6 days a week, 8 hours a day without siestas (yes, I was definitely a little disappointed).

Anyways, as far as my work with PAC goes I feel both challenged and excited about the next several months. The project that PAC has asked me to do is a little complicated, but I will give it my best shot to explain. Basically, over the last several years PAC has collected information from farmers and small businesses (like acres, yields, prices received, etc.) However, there is no standard for gathering this information and it is kept in numerous formats on numorous computers in numerous different databases.

This information is extremely valuable for PAC because it can be analyzed to obtain what are called "indicators." These indicators can be used both for PAC as an organization and farmers or small businesses to make more informed decisions.

So my job is to create a stadard way to collect and analyze the information. It has been an interesting challenge, as I have had the chance to interview and work alongside farmers, technicians, managers, IT guys, and everyone in between, trying to figure out the best way to do this. It's cool because in many ways my education fits right into this project and I feel like I am contributing to PAC's overall mision. I am also of course learning a ton along the way, and if you happen to be an expert in this field, feel free to contact me!


Aside from work, I have had the chance to help out with sunday school at my church, kids ages 5 to 7. The kids are so much fun, always very happy and energetic!

Thoughts on poverty

But first I just have to say that one cool advantage of living in Nicaragua is that there are so many volcanoes, lakes, oceans, and jungles to explore. I am happy to be taking advantage of it whenever I get the chance. Check out Mombacho Volcano that some friends and I climbed over Christmas break:

At the beginning...

There was a coffee plantation halfway up with free samples, so good!

Check out the view from the top, Granada is in the background

The top of the volcano is a cloud forest


It was so green, with moss and ferns covering everything

What is poverty?

After living in Nicaragua for almost two months I am beginning to get a clearer sense of poverty and the different approachs used to fight it. Here are some thoughts on what poverty is from the book, When Helping Hurts, as well as from talking to people working in development organizations, and talking to the poor themselves:

• the lack of education
• money
• clean water
• food
• medication or access to any form of healthcare
• aduquate shelter

BUT, it's more than the physical, it is also

• powerlessness
• humiliation
• inferiority
• fear
• and depression

It can be caused by both personal choices as well as the system (government, economy, social, and religous) that surrounds the poor. It is interesting because people's view on the cause of poverty directly affects what they do about it. I feel honored to work for an organization that understands the complexity of poverty, recognizing that change requires long term work. I guess thats why they call it development! More thought on this later...

A waterfall that was in the backyard of a family that sometimes struggles to feed themselves.

And we raise hogs???

Not that I dislike pigs or anything, but why aren't we raising cacao? What would it be like to take pounds of chocolate to market every week? We could even make a river of chocolate! Although we would really miss the hog roasts, right Dad and Chris? And the sausage, bacon, and pork chops. Hmm, maybe we could do both.

PACs newest project over the last 3 years or so has been to increase the production of cacao in Nicaragua. The climate is ideal here, it's just that farmers lacked the knowledge and marketing skills. Cacao has very quickly become a great cash crop for 100s of poor farmers, with much hope to expand. Here are a few snapshots of the process...

PAC's agronomists breed the most productive type
of cacao tree to sell to producers.

Farmers bring in freshly harvested cacao.


It's weighed.


And the producer gets paid by the collector. This farmer receieves about $50 a week, a considerable
amount considering average income here is around $20 per week.
Of course he has a family to feed as well.


Finding out more about cacao from producers--there is
a definite excitement about cacao here!

Cacao in crates for the first 8 days of fermentation.


Then moved in a super hot green house to ferment another 8 days.
Wilmur, a cacao producer himself that collects cacao from 15
other local producers in order to ferment it, then resell it.


PAC takes pickup loads of cacao ready to be exported to their storehouses where
it is then sold to an exporter. This pickup load is about
1500 pounds, worth about $1500.
(In comparison, coffee at this stage would be worth about $900).

Colorado Coffee

Masaya Volcano, with lava from the last major eruption in
1772. However, it continues to be active with
minor eruptions as recently as last year.

Notice the parking lot to the right. Cars are required

to park facing the exit!

Masaya volcano has two craters, this is the inactive one.

The typical landscape near Ocotal, women applying

fertilizer to tobacco plants by hand.

One of the producers houses, in the peaceful mountains.
Notice coffee beans trying in front of the house.

The view from behind the house: a tropical Colorado.

Another front porch view, and corn drying in the sun.

Interviewing Luis, a small coffee producer from the high hills near Ocotal.

Learning how to pick coffee...its very labor intensive.

This past last week I´ve had even more opportunities to see different parts of Nicaragua. On Tuesday while the entire country celebrated Purisima, the most important Catholic holiday of the year, I took the day off as an opportunity to climb Masaya Volcano, one of Nicaragua´s active volcanos.

The rest of the week, I was able to visit another regional office of PAC, north in Ocotal where they grow some of the world´s best coffee. As you can see from the pictures (although they really dont do justice) the area looks a lot like Colorado with pine trees (which they say give the coffee a distinct flavor), cool clear streams, and mountains (minature Rookies). The temperature is just like Colorado in summer, except here it is mild all year around.

While in Ocotal I had the opportunity to travel for two days with an American and two Nicaraguans doing research on child labor on coffee plantations in the area (for an international Childrens Rights organization). We had the opportunity to interview 5 different farmers, all small coffee growers and members of PAC. We asked them about their different labor and environmental practices, and then asked them how PAC has influenced the choices they make. One of PACs desires is to encourage farmers to be "socially responsible" which of course entails a variety of things. It was all very interesting and I got my fill of home brewed coffee and the sweetest bananas I´ve ever tasted!

All of this is preparation for the purpose of my internship which I am learning is this: to strengthen the relationships between PAC, farmers, and their communities.

From the boonies

My host family: Don Mario, (CEO of PAC), Josefina, and Mario
Alejandro. They are a great Christian family and I feel
very blessed to get to live and learn with them.


Granada, known for its ancient colonial achitecture.
(notice Masaya Volcano in the background)


Some MK´s I have had fun hanging out with, Will and Amelia.


The end of the road...


The marketplace.


A clothing store, only open one or two days a week
when all the farmers come to town.


Weighing a pig by hand. I will never complain
about loading hogs ever again!

Flat tire number one.

So it looks like I have a lot of catching up to do! This past week I had the opportunity to travel to the southeast part of Nicaragua, an area with sparse population known for its diverse agriculture. That is what the marketplace is all about. Farmers travel on horseback up to 4 hours one way to delivery their goods to buyers-cattle, pigs, cheese, bananas, and root crops (like potatoes). They use the cash to purchase necessities like clothes, sugar, medicine, and of course treats like ice cream and pepsi!

Then the goods are taken 2 hours on rough roads (we had 2 flat tires in one trip!) to the nearest town where they are either processed for national consumption, exported (with the help of PAC) or sold in the local market.

PAC's main objective in this area is to offer small loans to farmers and rural businesses. For example, many farmers, desparate for cash, will sell a two month old calf. PAC offers farmers an alternative by providing a small loan that allows the farmer to keep the calf until maturity to obtain a much better price. PAC also offers technical assistance to farmers to improve yield and quality of crops while using more sustainable farming technics.

I am still in the orientation phase of my internship, with plans to travel north this week to learn the process of coffee production. I am learning a ton everyday, especially about the complexity of development, and am trying to figure out how I can contribute!