Street coffee?As the coffee harvest comes in, every available open space that has a solid floor is used to help dry the beans. This is the second step in the process that brings coffee to your local supermarket. The first step is to remove the pulp from each coffee fruit. Since Paraiso has cloudy, rainy weather in the month of October, it behoves the coffee owners to take advantage of even the few hours between light rains.
Big setback:
The worst economic setback that Paraiso ever suffered came in the breakup of the coffee co-operative. Huge equipment dried the beans in a modern process that left no room for this inefficient system of opening coffee sacks and spreading out the beans on the road, then coming along every few minutes to turn them over. The project went under due to corrupt management and funds that never were recovered. The large manufacturing plant sits down near the ocean, close to the high school. The frame gathers rust and the roof has giant gashes in it.
Association aversion:
When Father Antonio came along to Paraiso, he encountered the aftermath of the coffee debacle. Wherever he went, the small land owners refused to go back into forming associations. Most had lost considerable funds with the collapse of the large co-operative, and they saw no good reasons for coming together once again.
Prime motivation:
Regardless, Father Antonio kept visiting groups and calling the men back into associations. His motivation had little to do with increasing the purchasing power of the individual plantation owners. Rather, he experienced growing alarm over the ravaging of the River Nizao and other critical watersheds in the area. He knew that slash and burn techniques on these steep mountain sides would quickly lead to degradation of the soils and capacity for long term growth in the region.
Little victories:
Deforestation still remains the biggest threat to the long term economic well being of Paraiso and the surrounding towns. But the associations which Father Antonio re-activated had played a part in raising awareness of the dangers to the rivers. They banded together to stop a powerful family from exploiting a natural resource that would have contaminated the drinking water for Paraiso.
Dangerous dependency:
Outside experts who tour the area coincide with observing that Paraiso depends far too much on a good price for its coffee. They recommend that the region diversify into other products such as avocados and citrus fruit. But the coffee truly has an excellent taste and a fresh cup grown, toasted and brewed in the highlands would convert any Starbucks fanatic. Honest, it is amazing how there is no coffee tasting tourist industry coming here. If people will travel to New Hampshire to see the maple leaves, why not travel to Paraiso to taste the freshly picked and roasted coffee? The especially good coffee is called "La escoba". It is not a romantic name, since it means "the broom". This refers to the ungainly shape of the bush. But God blessed the fruit of this ugly bush with fantastic aroma and savory taste!
