Coffee For Sale (Or: So Many Wins!)

So my exams are done and there are only 68 days until I leave, which can only mean one thing: time for more fundraising! I mentioned selling coffee a while ago, but now I've got enough of the details sorted out to actually tell you about it. Basically, I'd like to sell 340g bags of coffee from an Ontario-based company called Equator Coffee. The four roasts I'm selling are are : Bolivian Yungas (bold), Columbian Fondo Paez (smooth), Nicaraguan Matalgapa (mellow) and Peruvian Decaf (mellow).

Hey, look - they're all from Central/South America! That's not by accident, you know. Here are three reasons why I'm really excited to be selling this coffee:

1. It's fair trade. 
Normally, coffee prices can fluctuate on a monthly basis, much like prices for other kinds of crops. Because it's harvested (usually) annually, a lot of farmers have to take out loans at the beginning of every year to cover their costs until the harvest. If the price of coffee is no good when the harvest comes, it can be hard to pay off the loan and pretty much impossible to make a profit. Additionally, most of the money consumers pay ends up in the pockets of importers and other people in the middle instead of actually going to the farmer. With fair trade, farmers are guaranteed a minimum price that never falls below an established number, which provides them with a lot more stability and opportunities to invest in the improvement of their standard of living. The fair trade system also involves democratically-run farmers' cooperatives that allow workers to collectively own equipment and facilities. (This info is from here and here.) When you buy this coffee, you're really supporting the farmers who grew it.

2. It's organic.
This means no chemical fertilizers and no ucky pesticides. For a lot of people, this is a priority; for others, it's a bonus. Either way, it can be nice to know that the farmers put fewer chemicals into the environment so that you get to put fewer in your body.

3. It's shade-grown.
I had never really considered where coffee was grown until I started looking into selling it. Basically, coffee tastes better when it's grown in the shade, but it's easier to harvest when it's grown out in the open in neat little rows. Unfortunately, neat little rows mean cutting down a lot of trees, which in turn means destroying a lot of habitats for birds. (This is why shade-grown and "bird-friendly" go hand in hand.)

In case that giant pile of text scared you, here's the gist: buying this coffee is good for farmers, trees, birds, your body, my fundraising and your coffee cravings! There are so many wins!

Would you like some? Do you know an office that would like some? I don't want to do the fancy order form thing like I did with the cookies, so please just send me an email letting me know how much of what kind and I'll have it all in the next 2-3 weeks! (Regular is 12.15/bag and Decaf is 12.85/bag.)

Travel on the Brain

Last night, I dreamt that I was in Cold Lake, merrily going about my business, when I realized that my departure date had been changed to June 26th. (It's a dream. These things happen.) That would have been just fine and dandy, except that it was June 26th, and my friend's mom (again, anything can happen in Lalaland) was driving me to Edmonton in only 20 minutes. But I hadn't packed, I didn't have my passport photocopied and I hadn't cleaned my place! I tore apart my washroom looking for things for the first aid kit I hadn't put together and woke up, thoroughly stressed out.

What's really unfortunate is that this is actually the third time I've had a dream like this in the past little while. In one, I was doing some last-minute packing before leaving for my flight at six (it was three) when I realized - horror of horrors - that I was in Cold Lake and wouldn't make it to Edmonton before the plane took off, let alone in time to go through security! In another, I was on the LRT headed to the airport (logical transportation is clearly not a priority for my subconscious) when I started thinking about homework and realized that it was March and I would be missing the rest of the semester!

Hopefully this is just end-of-term stress, because if my brain is already this keyed-up over the trip with two months to go, I don't want to know what kind of scary dreams it'll come up with by the end of June...

Hitting the Bottle [Drive!]

Remember that slow-motion bottle drive? It's still on - even at my place! In fact, my dear roommate has recently made a selfless commitment to drinking more* in order to help our own personal collection along. Thanks to her (and two beer-drinking Davids), it's up to $5.30!

If you'd like to add to this already-astronomical sum, I'd love to have your recyclables. This is especially true if you'll be leaving Edmonton at the end of the month, in which case I can come see you the week after Easter. Send me an email and we can sort out a convenient bottle-stealing time. For those of you who will be sticking around - and those who are in Cold Lake - I'll do my best to get to you in May. You, too, can  send me an email.

In other news, I spoke to a fellow Facker on Friday who mentioned that he tried to make a donation on the blog, but it didn't seem to go through. If something similar has happened to you - that is, if you've made a donation with PayPal but haven't heard from me about it - please let me know. I try to send thank-you cards to everyone who makes a donation, so if you haven't received one, it could be because I didn't know you tried to make a donation!

Finally, in roughly nine days I should be done with school and will be able to get back to fundraising. I'd really like to have another event - in Cold Lake, ideally - but I'm having trouble coming up with something. I'd love to hear some of your ideas!

*Juice and milk!

Blog Neglect - I Has It

This post will not be a masterpiece anything special. It's just a reminder that I haven't abandoned my blog or the project - but since I haven't abandoned school either, that's where all my energy is these days. Instead, here are Five Fun Facts*.

1. Boyfriend and I participated in the 5K DOT Dash at Victoria Park yesterday. I say participated quite deliberately because while I did run quite a bit, I also walked a slightly smaller bit. But I ran more than I walked, which I consider a success given the tiny, tiny screams coming from my irritated bronchioles the whole time. It was almost fun by the end, though, and it was nice to see Charley! (Bonus fun fact: Cold-induced asthma and running in April do not mix well for me.)

2. A friend of mine who spent some time in Ghana a few years ago mentioned that while she was preparing for her trip, she went to MEC once a week to buy just one more new thing. I think this is a brilliant plan! I've been window-shopping - if you can call it that - at mec.ca for weeks, but it'll be extra satisfying to make several trips throughout May and June. I've got my eye on a sweet sleeping bag, but I'm also pretty excited to build my first aid kit with my dad.

3. I applied for two scholarships at the end of last month to help fund my trip. We'll see how things turn out - I'm trying not to have high hopes and instead focusing on the fact that I managed to write a giant essay for one of them without too much stress. I also had to submit a resume for the other, so I spent some time fine-tuning mine at CAPS and really learned a lot!

4. I'm working out the details of my next fundraiser! It won't be until the beginning of May, but if you're a coffee aficionado like my roommate - or a regular coffee drinker, or a person who works in an office where people also drink coffee, or at all interested in buying some coffee - this is for you: Organic, fair-trade coffee made with beans from Nicaraguan farms and sold by a Canadian company. Get excited!

5. Don't get too excited, though, because it's April, which means that there are many hours of studying, projects and exams between us and said coffee. (And freedom.) Despite all the window-shopping, guidebook-reading and extraneous research, my main focus is supposed to be school right now.

There you have it! Now I can at least say that I've written a post in April and that I haven't left the poor Nicaragua Notebook floundering in cyberspace for weeks.

*These are true, but I don't know if I'd call them facts. Also, the "fun" part is relative.