Team Photos and Local Coffee

Water Committee posing for a group photo - most even smiled

Some of the crew atop the brand new water intake

For the "no good deed goes unpunished" file: Handing out photos of some village kids created quite a stir. Now, the adults want some, too. I got a call last night to please come and take photos of folks who had worked on the water project in Santos at various points along the waterline and then print them out. So I went. Much as a pain as this

Jose and Marco by the newly painted tank
and access ladder

might seem, these folks really deserve it. Men, women and teens spent hours carrying 40 lb bags of materials up a long, steep muddy path that nearly kills me to hike with no load. They have laid and buried almost 1 Km of pipe, cleaned, cleared and painted the water tank. And they are really proud of what they have accomplished.
So, I'm going all in and printing copies for everyone on slick photo paper this time. They have REALLY earned it.

Natalia wore her best traditional Nogobe dress on the expedition - with rubber boots of course

A bumper crop on the local coffee

Hiking the entire Santos water system today was tiring, yet rewarding as ever. We passed through lots of cacao, of course, but also some coffee trees. The local crop is looking fine. Unlike the local cacao, the coffee is strictly for personal use, as there is no local market in which to sell coffee beans here.

The fruit of the coffee bean tastes like plum to me - dee-lishious

While commercial coffee plantations harvest all the beans (green, ripe or rotten), the folks here will pick only the red-ripe fruit. As a bonus, they will suck the fruit from the bean. It tastes a bit like a plum. Then, they'll dry the beans, roast and pound in a wooden pestle. And enjoy.