i´m currently in the dominican repubilc for the coffee harvest. i knew i might arrive earlier than the ripe coffee, so it is a good thing i have other things to do.

coffee tends to produce a lot one year and a little the next. this is a big year. antonio, claire and i picked all the ripe cherries. it only took an few hours becasue there were only few and all of them had ´la broca´or bean borer. we boiled the cherries for a couple minutes (to kill the la broca) and then depulped them. that coffee will probably be roasted over fire wood and drunk here in los frios.

today i purchased a few tiny house lots of land in town so that i can have a space to build some drying tunnels and an earthbag construction house. when i leave the house will be used by the eco-tourism mountain guides to store gear, have meetings and host tourists. if claire decides to move here, she will also use it as a house and a center for a public health trainings.

claire is intersted in development work and has decieded to travel with me for the next 5 weeks. i really enjoy teaching or guiding people through this country. half the time i´m translating spaish for her the other have i´m translating culture. claire loves los frios and the farm. she has a great attitude and doesnt´mind the rough conditions. i have two more friends coming down in the next weeks. first is gray reilly, who wants to work in sustainable agriculture then max an old friend of mine since child hood.

if you heard about the storms they weren´t that bad. just lots of rain.

this trip has been great so far. it seems it will be a test of balance. most of my education has taught me one thing (go organic, make money, business isn´t charity) and yet everything else seems to be currrently against these theories. agro-chemicals save a ton of money and time, do they do that much damage? with current labor costs, even our bumper crop of black beans didn´t cover its own costs. should i keep investing myself into this? if these harvests (coffee included) can´t cover its own costs is this charity?

i have no answers, just more questions.