Guatemala
Trip Dates: February 1st – 8th 2021 and June 21st – 28th 2021
Partnering with Mission Impact in Guatemala gives us the opportunity to build relationships with the coffee farmers and their families. These are the coffee farmers that Crossroads Coffee & Tea supports through our missional coffee. When you purchase a cup or a bag of coffee, it translates back to direct financial support to these families at a fair wage. Working out of the small Mayan village of Santa Maria de Jesus as our hub, we participate in providing clean water in remote areas, make and install safe fuel-efficient stoves and directly support and interact with some of the village girls that attend Proximos Pasos (a small Christian school in the village).
The team will split into serve groups that include the fuel-efficient stoves, preparing the school for the beginning of their school year and spending activity time each day with the students, as well as a group that spends it’s serve time in a more remote location. This remote group may build clean water filters, stoves or dry compost latrines. We will also spend time with our head coffee farmer, Julio Cuy as he teaches us about coffee farming, takes us to a field to pick the coffee cherries and observe the labor-intensive process of preparing the beans for market.
The team will also experience some of the Guatemalan culture and build long-term relationships with our farmer families. One evening is spent preparing a traditional Guatemalan celebration dinner in a host home. The team also hosts a dinner for the coffee farmer families at the school. On Friday afternoon, there will be some down time to experience the picturesque city of Antigua, which is just down the volcano from Santa Maria.