"Each day I look forward to my cup of Hada Del Cafe coffee simply because it’s the best darned coffee I’ve ever tasted. Taste comparisons are fun too as Hada inevitably comes out on top!"

Poor Kylie, stuck at that particular time with Jason Donovan, no wonder she was singing in the conditional, I can sing that very same line in the simple present because I do feel that I am incredibly lucky, times four. Ok, before I turn into Pollyanna, who, let’s face it was far too sanctimonious for her own good….I need to explain the whole lucky lucky lucky thing. Please be patient, I have an appalling tendency to digress.

As my time here is limited everything has needed to be programmed down to the very last detail to make sure that we could fit in everything in that we had planned. On our to do list were desks to be ordered, school resources to be bought, water filters to be found and ordered, paint to be bought as well as meeting the coffee producers plus untold amounts of film footage for the schools back in the UK. In short, loads to do.
Now, those of you familiar with my previous Nica trips will know that ‘programming’ ‘planning’ and ‘timetable’ are all non existent words in the Nicaraguan dictionary to be replaced with the more familiar phrase of ‘vamos a ver’ or ’let’s see’ which should send me into a somewhat demonic sense of a loss of control…but in fact I’m finding more and more that I can actually cope with the ever changing rules of this place…and sometimes, (don’t tell anyone) i quite enjoy the challenge.

My initial nugget of priceless information was the news that we would not be able to buy water filters in Esteli, why? Simply put, the man who used to supply them had died a few months earlier and as no one else did them that was it, no more water filters in the entire town…..I am trying not to sound heartless here, I did, sort of, extend my heartfelt sympathies to his family, but how totally and incredibly frustrating that no one else saw that this would be a great business opportunity to start their own water filter business… perhaps there is a mourning period between someone copping it and others cashing in on the potential enterprise that this sad passing could offer.

We put that one on frustrated hold for a while to see out what we were able to achieve. The paint was important because we wanted to change the pre-school classroom and make it as beautiful as the classroom we had painted last summer, there didn’t seem to be an issue there, easy enough to buy the paint and we had two more volunteers turning up to give us a hand with the painting, although more importantly with the preparation, always the worst bit especially when you are picking off super glue from bare walls. Ordering desks seemed pretty straightforward too, as did buying the rest of the stuff for the schools, this wasn’t just going to be a piece of cake it was going to be an absolute pleasure, no wonder I felt lucky. Little did I know…although I bet Pollyanna would have had a good idea.

¡Hola!

I thought I’d send you an update and let you know how they are all getting on.

All four of us arrived on Saturday night, considering some of the hellish journeys I’ve had in the past this one was relatively straightforward.

Yesterday I went to Managua and came back in the early evening with Marlon, it was a surprise. I had business with the customs agent up there and had arranged to meet Marlon who is part of my Nica family and is my man here in Nicaragua. He adores the coffee project and helps me co-ordinate stuff. He is also a mini celebrity at Dunhurst school where they have seen videos of him speaking in English about the project.

We arrived here at the laguna to see everyone here chatting away and I just said “well, I thought it was about time you met Marlon” I honestly did not realise that Jo could move that fast. She screamed, leapt off the sofa and almost ran to a shocked but happy Marlon and enveloped him in a massive bear hug. It was truly lovely, Will and Maddie also scrambled to come over and they both hugged him and he was beaming. I don’t have any kids but I can say that was the closest I’ve come in a long time to feeling almost parentally proud. Jo was almost in tears and Maddie and Will were just grinning their heads off. Eat your heart out Cilla……

So that evening all three of them finally got to meet one of the most important elements of the Coffee Fairy puzzle and asked him loads of questions about the community and what it’s like and stuff blah blah blah. Now it’s real and they feel comfortable and happy about the fact that they have met Marlon and had the chance to know him before actually going up there. We leave for Esteli tomorrow, you will be relieved to know that we are taking a mini van to the bus station ; )

Thursday we are heading up to Miraflor for one night to take the clothes up, have a look at the toilets they are building and see what paint we shall buy with the money you raised!

So far so good, we haven’t thrown punches…….yet……and they genuinely seem to be loving the entire experience which makes me very happy indeed to have them here.

Hello,

I figured as I’ve been here for about ten days it was about time I let you know how it’s all going.

Some of you will be more than aware that I left for this trip absolutely worried sick because I was turned down by the bank at the 11th hour for a loan extension. Probably the worst preparation for a trip to come and buy coffee is not having any money to buy the coffee, however in terms of a weight loss programme I could highly recommend it.

I won’t go into too many details, I’ve had the biggest learning curve ever, last year was difficult for me to get to grips with how this business should work, it’s lonely, – I wish I could follow that with ‘on the top’ but I’m still very much on the bottom – however I do know how to climb up and that is my intention. I need lots of significant orders, from restaurants, shops, offices and even school staff rooms, otherwise no amount of positive thinking is going to help. I have plenty to do and I will do it, it’s just going to be a little tougher than I thought…… what a load of bollocks, it’s going to be ridiculously hard work and frankly I cannot wait.

So, I was turned down by the bank, fair enough really, my pre-Christmas fairs had been brilliant in terms of finally making some money and some great marketing but it was nowhere near enough to convince the underwriters of the loan that I knew what I was doing…I did wonder if they knew that I had been working my way through the tins of Quality Street I had bought as gifts for the Nica kids.

I don’t know why I’m making light of all of this, I honestly didn’t know what to do, I had maxed out every credit card possible, withdrawn all the funds I had and still I knew I didn’t have enough, not just not enough for the coffee, but not enough to ship anything back to England.

I have been more than a little close to the edge…whatever that means, I know ’it’s only money’ it was more the feeling of being entirely out of control that terrified me. By the time I met with Marlon I was all out of tears and felt more as if I was in shock as I told him everything. At one point I looked at him and said “I will find a way to do this”. He just looked at me and said “I know, I trust you”

I’m in a job that involves international travel, meetings with all sorts of people, different languages and an ability to sweet talk myself in and out of any sort of difficult situation. I have to come up with thousands of dollars, change travel plans at the last minute, reassure, trouble shoot and organise. Now try and tell me that James Bond and I don’t have loads in common.

Ok, agreed, I wish I had his expense account, time and clothes allowance not forgetting a dry martini waiting for me every time I step out of the (cold) shower although he can keep the birds in the swimsuits, still, I think I could give him a run for his money in the nail biting stakes after the couple of weeks I’ve just had.

Following my last blog I thought I was pretty much on top of things, I never for one second thought that I was in control, but I reckoned I was managing. I delayed my flight by eight days so that I wouldn’t be stressing out in England about what was happening over here. I had also organised with the Dutch film guy to come up to Esteli on Monday so we could go on up to Miraflor together to film. I had even managed to take out a large lump sum of money from the bank to pay for the coffee (instead of lots of smaller withdrawals) and finally in my master plan I had checked with Marlon to make sure that it was ok to come up to Esteli on the Saturday to hand over the money so he could pay the farmers. Of course that would be fine, and I, briefly forgetting every lesson learnt here, believed him.

Of course it wasn’t fine, handing over $3000 to someone and asking them to take it on a bus, walk 6 miles and pay some farmers would not only be unfair it would also be stupid and irresponsible of me. That amount of money is two years salary here and if anyone knew that Marlon had the money the risk would be huge. No, I am not being melodramatic, although if you add into the mix that this was late Saturday night and I had to get the money up to Miraflor the next day by 7.30am or the coffee would leave the farm and be sold somewhere else – well borderline hysteria just about describes it…..

Fortunately my friends who I stay with in Esteli came to the rescue, they immediately called a friend of theirs who has a truck and he agreed (for $25) to pick me up at 6am to take me up to Miraflor. That has been the best £13 I have ever spent, we picked up Marlon and Mayra on the way there and drove to the farm, and there they were; sacks and sacks of coffee fairy coffee, it was incredible, we weighed it all, counted out the money and paid the farmers and still it kept coming, one of the farmers had heard I was at the farm and had turned up with more sacks of coffee strapped onto a horse. I was told stories of how much money it was saving the farmers because they didn’t need to transport the coffee by bus to the nearest town, nor did they lose an entire days work doing so, beat that Mr. Bond.

That was the first time I had come even slightly close to really seeing how the project could work, it wasn’t that I hadn’t believed in it up until then, it was that I hadn’t allowed myself to. It was a very lovely feeling.

But it was shortlived…..I mean come on, it was never going to be easy was it?