NICARAGUA:
Pour Justice to the Brim

January 5-12, 2009

Study tour participants visit Solcafe, the dry mill of one of LWR’s coffee partners, CECOCAFEN.	Sarah watches as beans are dried under the sun on large cement patios. Workers carefully rake the piles to make sure each one stays intact and dries evenly.
Host mom Emelda (center) shares a morning cup of coffee from her farm with LWR’s Rebecca Phares (left) and Sarah (right). Study Tour participants stay overnight with host families to experience a taste of campesino life.	Javier explains how coffee is profiled for flavor. Study Tour participants learn how to “cup” coffee and detail its unique characteristics, much like wine tasting.
Equal Exchange representatives Hope and Lisa pose with their host sister, Nilda, who is also a tour guide for La Renya’s eco-tourism project, sponsored by Lutheran World Relief.	KD examines parchment coffee to see if it is dry enough to be processed for export
Study Tour participants visit sites such as Lake Nicaragua, Masaya Volcano, and downtown Managua. Above, several women enjoy Lake Nicaragua.	Janet picks coffee in the town of La Renya, Nicaragua. Study Tour participants see first-hand the work that goes into getting coffee gets from the crop to your cup.

Below is an overview of the Study Tour.

NICARAGUA:
Pour Justice to the Brim

January 5-12, 2009

Program Overview

• Receive orientation on the social justice issues of the coffee trade including historical perspectives on the fair trade movement and the roles LWR and Equal Exchange play in this movement
  
  
• Visit and stay overnight with families from CECOCAFEN, a coffee cooperative who trades with LWR and Equal Exchange and with whom LWR and EE jointly support an ecotourism project
  
  
• Meet with large coffee plantation owners, representatives and workers
  
  
• Worship and visit with local Lutherans and Lutheran leaders
  
  
• Dialogue with local economists and historians
  
  
• Visits with local LWR staff and partners
  
  
• Participate in a coffee harvest and cupping (taste testing)
  
  
• Engage in group discussion to process the experience and plan for action upon returning to home and campus

 

Who Should Participate?
Higher education and seminary students, faculty and administrators; campus or parish pastors and lay leaders; fair trade advocates; Women of the ELCA, Lutheran Women’s Missionary League; and people who seek to educate about, advocate for, and institute the LWR Coffee Project at home campuses or parishes.

Accommodations
Participants will be housed two or more to a room in modest local hotels or guesthouses, with bunk beds and shared bathrooms.  One or more overnights in a rural home are anticipated.

Note: This trip will require a high level of physical and emotional stamina.  Coffee grows on steep mountainsides, accessible by hikes up and down hilly and sometimes muddy terrain.  The home-stay with coffee farming families also requires foot-travel on steep terrain.  Though friendly, safe and likely the most memorable part of the trip, the home-stay conditions are very different from most U.S. homes.

Resource People
You will be well cared for with triple accompaniment.  The Center for Global Education will provide language, learning and cultural translation.  Staff people from LWR and Equal Exchange will join the group as a fair trade technical resource, and pull the whole experience together helping to link the trip with faith and day-to-day life, as well as giving concrete ideas on how to take the experience home.

What is the LWR Coffee Project?
The LWR Coffee Project ensures that more of the money you spend on coffee reaches the farmers who actually grow it.  Fair trade coffee is a simple solution that means a difference between surviving and not surviving for many small scale coffee farmers.  For more information on LWR fair trade projects:

www.lwr.org/coffee
www.lwr.org/handcraft
www.lwr.org/chocolate

These seminars are being planned in coordination with the LWR Coffee Project partner, and Equal Exchange, a worker-owned fair trade organization.

Cost
The cost of this travel seminar is approximately $1,325.  This includes pre- and post-trip resource materials, in-country programming, language interpretation, honoraria for local resource people, all meals and lodging, ground transportation, and fees for activities included in the program. This price does not include airfare to and from Nicaragua.

The program price does not include passport and visa application fees or entry and exit taxes.  Your entry and exit taxes may be included in the cost of airfare.

To Apply
We hope you’ll join us for this educational adventure!  

Your application and deposit must be received no later than October 20, 2008. In some cases, space may be available after this date – please contact the Center for Global Education for more information (globaled@augsburg.edu).

Final payment for the travel seminar will be due November 19, 2008. 

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Nicaragua Trip Application Instructions Download the PDF and fill out application. Send the application and the $250 deposit to: Coffee with a Conscience/LWR Center for Global Education 2211 Riverside Ave. Minneapolis, MN 55454 Fax: 612-330-1695 Phone: 800-299-8889 Email: globaled@augsburg.edu            Deposit checks should be made out to “CGE.” Wait one week to receive confirmation that you’re application has been accepted. If you don’t hear from us within two weeks, please contact Rebecca Lange Thernes at 410-230-2737. Once you receive word that your application has been accepted, please continue the process by going to CGE’s website and registering for the trip http://www.augsburg.edu/global/its/its-register.html

 

Click here to learn more about the Center for Global Education