On Thursday, we took a field trip to Rwanda Trading Company, in Gikondo. My friend, James (native of South Carolina!) invited us to be the first class to tour his factory. It was incredibly interesting; seeing all the coffee brought in from all over Rwanda, and learning about how it is cleaned, dried, sorted, packaged. I never knew what a long, hard process it was just to make a cup of coffee! It was so neat to see the entire process. Even though, I seldom drink coffee, I definitely appreciate where it comes from now! The only thing I didn't appreciate was James allowing all my kids to taste-test all the coffee, and THEN giving each of them a huge cup of coffee, complete with sugar and cookies, as they left. They were bouncin' from the ceilings when we got back to school, and we still had half a day left!! I know he did that on purpose! :-)
Coffee that has arrived at the factory, waiting to be graded and marked for quality. The farmers get deductions for things like beans with the cherry still inside, and coffee that is still partially wet or messed up in some way. Then the coffee is weighed, seperated by big machines, and mixed and sorted in a big silo.
RTC employs almost 350 workers (mostly women) to sort the coffee beans and pick out the bad ones that the machines miss. James pays the workers 30% more than other factories, but their daily wage is still only $1.50. While we might think these conditions are poor working conditions, this is a GREAT job for these women, because they get to talk with each other and encourage one another. They also are provided with proper shoes, and they get a hot lunch every day. Many of these women are the sole providers for their families.
Happy to be working!
Drying the coffee beans in the sun. They also have a machine to dry the beans, but it is more costly to run. However, when it rains, they are forced to use it!
A heavy load
Naomi, helping to sort the coffee. We had a race between the boys and the girls, and the girls won! :-)
Coffee!
Madelyn, in the coffee "laboratory"
Kang-Hee, observing the careful process of "cupping", which is removing the film from the top of the roasted coffee, and getting it ready to be tasted by professionals!
James, demonstrating the art of cupping. It's so neat to watch! They have to go around the table, with their silver spoons and slurp each cup, and then spit it out in the other cup. They actually have to slurp it loudly! It's funny to hear them. They are looking for consistency and quality among the coffee, and also trying to discover any unique tastes like a chocolate or caramel or fruit flavor that would make the coffee stand out. They slurp hot water after each "round" to cleanse their palate for the next round. Very neat to watch!
Jonathan and Azarias taking their tasting turns.
Sam, enjoying the tasting. It looks like he already had too much coffee! :-)
Trying to perfect my slurp!
We had a wonderful visit. I'm hoping to take my kids to a washing station in the springtime, where they can see the coffee being picked from the trees, and washed before brought to the factory. That's a neat process to watch as well! Rwanda Trading Company has really improved the coffee business in Rwanda. They operate by taking out the "middlemen", and actually going to pick up the coffee from the farmers themselves. This allows the farmers to earn more money. RTC exports most of their coffee to buyers in Europe and the USA. They just opened a new roastery in Little Rock, Arkansas. Check out their website!
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