Coffee Conversations
Coffee consumes the minds of people around the world. Whether you are buying it at your favorite coffee shop or selling beans from the harvest, it’s an important world commodity. Kera Halvorson ’09, a social work major from Belgrade, Minn., learned first-hand how important the coffee market is to growers through a program sponsored by Lutheran World Relief.
Halvorson participated in the LWR program “Coffee: With a Conscience,” Jan. 4-13 in Nicaragua. She was one of 20 participants and two leaders from different parts of the United States who learned about the Nicaraguan coffee industry, with an emphasis on fair trade and its effect on farmers. A large portion of the program took place in the capital, Managua, where speakers discussed various aspects of Nicaragua — politics, economics and history.
“It’s impossible to just focus on one issue. It sounds ridiculous but drinking a cup of coffee is a political issue and politics is directly related to history. It’s impossible to look at all of the aspects,” Halvorson says.
A valuable component of Halvorson’s trip was a homestay with a coffee farming family located four hours from the capital. In a small village Halvorson and three other Americans manually picked coffee beans alongside the farm family. They got a taste of what consumes the farmers’ day.
“In their house there is a mesh tray with beans and they are always sorting,” says Halvorson. “So there is always this continual work going on.”
The funding for Halvorson’s trip was jointly sponsored by the Concordia organization Students for Social Justice and a Lilly Vocation Research Scholarship. Halvorson cemented her desire to volunteer in the Peace Corps or ELCA Global Missions after graduation, but says the program made her realize there is work to be done in the United States as well.
“You don’t have to leave the country to help other people,” Halvorson said. Her experience strengthened her desire to learn Spanish, especially for a career in social work in the Midwest. Halvorson thinks traveling can also produce changes on a more personal level. “There is always personal growth…can I name it? Probably not,” Halvorson said. She can see a spiritual aspect to her trip that she experiences every time she travels.
“When there is a group of people traveling together for a common goal, God speaks to me through other people and visiting God’s country. Meeting other people from other countries, that’s when I can feel a higher power connecting all of us, transcending religion or political ideologies.”
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