We sold Nicaraguan coffee again as a fund raiser for
our next trip to Nicaragua this coming year to help install our third Living
Waters for the World water purification system, at a church this time. I picked
the coffee up once again at Fara Coffee, the Nicaraguan distributor’s office in
Austin. When we ran out of Starbucks recently, my husband, John, bought a
package of the regular for him and the decaf for me. Only in America can you get decaf
Nicaraguan coffee. Decaf coffee is an oxymoron to Nicaraguans. This year it
turned out the decaf coffee was whole beans, not ground.
This is a long explanation for why I’ve been doing things
the hard way to make my morning coffee of late: grinding the beans instead of
simply spooning the grounds out and into the little plastic filter for my
Keurig. I’ve realized some things
because of this process. First, grinding the beans takes longer and slows me
down. It takes time to dump the beans into the electric grinder, grind the
coffee to the right consistency, not too coarse, but not too fine either, or
the water will not percolate through the filter. Then I have to brush
the remains out of the grinder. I have to allow more time to make a cup of
coffee, and the process slows down my usual morning rush—a good thing most
days.
I’ve also realized that I love the rich, fresh smell of the
whole beans, much more fragrant than coffee that’s already been ground. And the
brewed coffee tastes richer and fresher as well. Each morning, the aroma of the
beans transports me back to Nicaragua. I see the coffee trees clinging to the
hillsides along the dirt roads in the mountains, and the people climbing the
steep hills to harvest the beans. The most important thing I’ve realized
because of this change in my routine is that fussing with the beans to make my
morning coffee reminds me of those sisters and brothers who
toil long hours in challenging conditions to make my morning cup of coffee a
reality. I know they are not paid a lot for the picking, and they don’t get to
drink the finest coffee because the best beans are exported. They drink what is
left over, the dregs if you will.
As I think of them in this Christmas season, I remember they
are the kind of people with whom Jesus spent much of his time, the poor and
the vulnerable--the ones who were considered unimportant in their culture.
They are still among us today, the ones our culture considers unimportant--the ones who harvest our
food, and cook and clean and do other jobs we would rather not. We who claim to follow Jesus need to see these
sisters and brothers and to do what we can to make
their lives better. For me that’s helping provide them with Living Water
to drink.
Grace and Peace,
Donna
