As you read this, coffee beans are being farmed in rural Uganda. Along with the beans, peace is sprouting from the ground and primitive approaches to life and business are fostering a level of peace we – intelligent, developed, seemingly superior nations – can’t seem to come close to.
Ugandan Jews, Christians, Muslims, and Catholics chose to overcome religious differences in favor of economic development and quality of life in the form of a coffee farm cooperative. Imagine that.
The coffee is sold to the Thanksgiving Coffee Company, and the farmers receive prices four times higher than what they previously earned. The financial improvement allows them to send their kids to school and open savings accounts.
Four farmers from the Mirembe Kawomera coffee farm in Uganda spoke at the place where I work, but I was at my weekly volunteer gig so I had to miss the program. [Insert massive frown.]
The American couple hosting the farmers invited my co-worker to a dinner at their house the next night and said that she could bring a guest. She chose me. I jumped up and down when she told me the news. I was airborne. At least three times.
We pulled up to quite a nice home in Silver Spring, Maryland, and JJ, Sam, Margaret, and Sinina were outside. We said our hellos and shook hands. Sam shook my hand for what seemed like a while. He would shake my hand several times throughout the night. At length.
And so began a one-of-a-kind experience of having a family style meal with farmers from Uganda and Washingtonians who numb me with their intelligence and life experiences. The farmers talked about the co-op, JJ played a variation of the guitar while the others sang, and Sam remained a reliable shaker of my hand (and close-talker).
In their month-long tour of the US – visiting synagogues, churches, and mosques – the farmers have been wowed by snow, airplanes, escalators, elevators, and countless other inventions we don’t even give a second thought.
What does it mean to buy Mirembe Kawomera Coffee? According to JJ, the founder and chairman of the cooperative, “It means that the buyer and the consumer want quality, peace and love, and this can be spread world over.”
So, I urge you – if you have any influence over the coffee that your company orders – order from Mirembe Kawomera, which translates to “Delicious Peace.” And yes, the coffee is yummy.
Upon leaving, Sam shook my hand (surprise, surprise) and said, “Ohhh, I thought you were going to sleep over here with us.”
A Ugandan farmer with nine children wants me to spend the night – a whole new dimension to the story of my life.
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