For four days after the SCAA, five amazing coffee farmers stayed in the Twin Cities with Peace Coffee. They spent this time visiting with our customers, staff & coffee consumers. Together, we did eight store demos at various grocery stores and hosted three panel discussions. The discussions touched on a wide variety of topic such as each farmers background in coffee farming, this years harvest conditions, the future of fair trade and how we can all work together to grow the demand for high quality organic and Fair Trade coffee!

We also had a lot of fun getting to know each other. Elmer and Melanee discovered their mutual love for the music of Prince. She made sure Elmer left with Prince's greatest hits and Keith is going to bring some Cyndi Lauper to Peru with him at the end of May because Elmer loves her too! We debated the relevance of astrological signs with one another. 

Poli is a Gemini, he believes we kept losing him whenever we went out because his "other half" was leading him astray. Jose, though a man of few words, showed us pictures of his ten children, all of whom he is very proud. Carlos, we discovered, is a workaholic, and might not ever find love if he doesn't slow down and "smell the roses." Wilman is an amazing poet. His use of words and expressions are so astounding it was no surprise to discover that before becoming an organic farm activist and organizer, he was a theatrical actor.

We also made sure they saw a few sights. This included a trip on the Light Rail to the Mall of America, a walk along the Mississippi River and to the edge of the "Endless Bridge" off of the Guthrie Theater, a taste of all the ethnic foods of Minnesota at the Midtown Global Market and a behind the scenes tour at the Simon Delivers warehouse facility in New Hope.

The entire Peace Crew felt blessed by their presence and the opportunity to open our homes to them, as so many of them had done for us, over the past ten years. We hope that they or other representatives from their cooperatives will visit us again soon.

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