Corn and Coffee

Well we haven't actually started planting corn or coffee yet, but we're working on it. Actually it is already becoming more work than I was hoping for. Finding test plot locations has been kind of tricky. I don't think that corn is going to be a problem, however the coffee thing is ending up being a lot harder to find good locations for. For good coffee you want high elevation (which we have) and no frost (which some places have here) and good soil (which other places have). The hard part is finding places that have all three. We're still looking but the clock is starting to tick down. We wouldn't need to plant the coffee until this summer, but if we don't talk to some farmers about it soon they will have already planted things on the land. So hopefully we'll be talking to some guys in the next couple of weeks. My roommate and I are also going to head down far south to the border to help out some other people with their coffee planting. It'll be a good opportunity to learn some things and to help some people out. So that is really about it. The past couple of weeks have been busy with traveling out to villages and when I'm in town trying to keep up with class and other responsibilities. A friend and I have been meeting with some local guys for the past couple of months. Things are going well and two of them are actually going swimming this next week. There are still a couple of other guys in the group who are dragging their feet on some things, but they are asking a lot of good questions. So in looking ahead for this next month I'm probably going to be out trying to find some test plot areas and planting a lot of corn. We've got to plant about six different fields, so that'll take up some time. It'll be good to be out in the villages though. I get sick of being in the city after a few days. Actually I think it is mostly because of the traffic here. There aren't a lot of cars, but no one pays attention to anything so every day I'm dodging someone who almost runs me over. Village life is much safer, with the exception of the occasional parasite. I'll take a parasite over traffic most days. I'll keep everyone posted on the village trips over the next month.