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40 barista magazine to Mbale, a mutually agreed-upon trading relationship started if the coffee proved to be of good quality, and we had made some new friends. We were off to a great start! MBALE The two-hour trip from Jinja to Mbale was filled with a life force that was completely different visually than anything that had come before it. Our journey showed how in Uganda, Western culture mixes with people who have little, but still need the same things we do: food, clothing, shelter, and commerce. A little store sells what is needed, not what is wanted. The difference narrows the selections down to what is available to sell. By this time, I was getting excited to visit the Mirembe Kawomera Cooperative. This is a cooperative that consists of Jews, Christians, and Muslims who came together to work in a cooperative coffee system to obtain the benefits of selling into the Fair Trade and organic specialty-coffee export market. This cooperative has an incredible story, and when we started working with them many years ago, Thanksgiving Coffee Company became the storyteller for this miraculous group. We have purchased their entire coffee crop each year since 2004, and their coffee has been certified Fair Trade and organic the entire time. We market this coffee to faith-based groups, churches, synagogues, mosques, and to people who believe in and work for interfaith healing in a troubled world. Each package sold adds 25 cents to a fund that we send back each year for the co-op to use as the in-kind contribution required of them when they seek grants for projects to improve their community. To date we have sent $95,000, which, along with USAID grants, they have used to build a central coffee washing station and started a climate- change adaptation pro- gram. In the works for this year will be an expansion of their central washing station and a cupping lab for tasting the coffees of each farmer prior to export so they all can taste the fruits of the individual labor on their farms. Our supply was running out because the 2012 crop—250 sacks of which was slated to be shipped in December of 2012 and to arrive in Oakland in May of 2013—was eight months late. Why? Our contract required that all the coffee be from the central wash- ing station, and the co-op board told me that they could only produce 110 sacks. The author smells the dehulled and finished coffee that was taken from the paper bag next to the sack of cherry. Paul said the beans were clean and sweet smelling, which foretold, he hoped, a bright future in the cup. B o o k 1 - 4 6 . i n d d 4 0 Book 1-46.indd 40 5 / 1 5 / 1 4 1 0 : 3 1 P M 5/15/14 10:31 PM