Pfunda Tea Field in Rwanda

Imagine my elation when I learned that not only was I going to Rwanda, but that I'd have time to see a tea field while there! Part of my team spent the weekend in the Virunga Mountains, and it just so happened that Pfunda Tea Company had tea fields in the area.  Lucky, lucky, lucky me!  My heartfelt thanks to my teammates who were not only good sports about visiting the tea field, but also advocated for me to ensure that it happened!  (I think they even had fun.)

I hadn't noticed the misspelling of "World's" until the DH pointed it out.  :-)

The tea grown in Rwanda is predominantly made into black tea, though I was lucky to drink some Rwandan green. I'll talk more about the method of tea processing and economics in another post.  For now, I want to focus on the beautiful tea field!

Happy girl! Tea fields are beautiful

We visited the tea field in the mid afternoon, after the day's picking was complete.  We didn't see any tea pickers here, but we did find a weigh station nearby.  I will share that in the next post.

Do you see the fly?

Rwanda's elevation, equatorial climate and volcanic soil make a hospitable environment for growing tea. Over 90% of Rwanda's tea is exported. In fact, coffee and tea combined (in about equal measure) make up nearly four-fifths of Rwandan agricultural exports. If the Rwandan tea market is of interest to you, check out this article.

I was attempting to show my colleagues "two leaves and a bud"

Rwandan tea, to the best of my knowledge, is picked by hand, typically by women. Even thought it's mostly prepared for the CTC market, low labor prices allow for hand picking. I wasn't able to definitively confirm this, but based on conversations I'm also led to believe that tea is picked year-round. This makes sense, given the steady and moderate climate. 

Rwanda is called the "Land of a Thousand Hills." You can see why from this picture. Any direction you look, you see hills nearby and mountains in the distance. 

In another post I will explore the effects of the genocide on the tea industry in Rwanda. For now, please enjoy these beautiful tea fields!

Why I'm in Rwanda

I'm here with an awesome team to help bring computers into schools, and primarily to help teachers learn to use them well from a pedagogical and technological perspective. It's a brave adventure for teachers, this trying out technology to augment lessons and increase student engagement.  We're focused on 21st century skills: communication, collaboration, critical thinking and creativity. It can be a frustrating experience for teachers, learning so many new things at once. 

And then they see the eager faces of their students and they are encouraged. We all are.

Below: a physics experiment being captured on video.

Gorilla Trek in Rwanda

Yesterday, I did something of my dreams. I trekked in Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda to see Mountain Gorillas.  You might know of these gorillas from the work of Dian Fossey. We tracked the Sabyinyo group which is unusual as it has three silverbacks (adult male gorillas).

One of the silverbacks (above) gave us quite a show when we first greeted him.  He stood up and pounded his chest. The guide had warned us this could happen, and that it was a bluff. He was simply saying, "Hey there - I'm bigger than you!" The guide talked to him in gorilla language, and the gorilla simply sat down and then proceed to groom himself and ignore us.

This wise gentleman is Guhonda. He is the oldest and biggest silverback in Rwanda, weighing in at more than 220 kg, 485 lbs. He barely acknowledged our presence and even took a nap.

This is me with the first gorilla. I'm half in awe and half terrified. I'm about 4 feet away.

And below, a 6-month-old baby gorilla climbing on his big brother's back. 

This baby gorilla was just adorable. He was curious about us and I thought might even approach us, but the guide discouraged that. He and his brother tumbled down the hill together.

Our guides, Patrick and Placid (below), briefed us on the gorilla group, taught us how to behave when with the gorillas, and educated us on all manner of things including elephant footprints.  An elephant had passed by within a few hours.

The hiking to get to the gorillas was challenging.  It's at elevation (you're in the Virunga Mountains). It's over slippery rocks, up steep inclines, and through very dense vegetation. The gorillas don't use trails, and so the last bit was through jungle with no trail.  One of the trackers used a machete to cut a path. As an aside, we were very lucky to have had sunshine. It's still the rainy season here and we could have just as easily been drenched. 

In another post I will write more about the porters.  

This experience was just totally, completely, wonderfully awesome! My gratitude to all the people who have influenced my life to get to this point. First, my mom who taught me to be an independent and strong woman.  To my friends and family who were excited about the trip for me. And to my company, for affording me this opportunity.

"African Tea", I'm Hooked!

African tea, similar to Indian chai, but of its own character

OK, I've found yet another amazing style of tea.  In Rwanda, they call it "African Tea". It's similar in ingredients to chai, and yet entirely its own style.  It's made with milk, water, black tea and spices (ginger, cardamom, etc. - variations abound). The locals add sugar or honey. It's really, really, really delicious.  Here is a recipe.

And fattening!  ;-)  I'm pretty sure whole milk is used because a film forms quickly on top as the tea cools.  On that note, I saw a man on a bicycle this morning delivering milk, on a large silver urn. Milk is a big part of the Rwandan diet.

Snacks like this at each break time.  There were small cheese "tea sandwiches"
but they were gone in a flash so I didn't get a photo.

The grounds of our conference facility

Read more about the journey here: http://iescrwanda.tumblr.com/

The Impossibility of Understanding Genocide

Stained glass by Ardyn Halter.  This one is called "Descent to Genocide"

It is impossible to understand genocide. I have been considering it a lot prior to this trip. We visited the Kigali Genocide Memorial. My thoughts are still settling on the experience, and I can imagine a lot of personal journaling in the future. 

The synopsis:  Approximately 1 million Tutsi people (and Hutu allies) were killed in about a hundred days (April 7 - mid July), and another 2 million displaced. The killings were organized and carried out by the Hutu majority. 

For now, 6 key learnings:

1. Oppression so frequently leads to more oppression (and often a flip-flop the oppressor) and violence.
2. The seed of the ethnic unrest in Rwanda was planted when foreign occupation required ethnicity to be added to the identity cards, and then favored one over the other (the Tutsi).
3. The painful reality is that not only were people brutally tortured and killed, but women were raped (repeatedly) and some of those not killed were intentionally infected with HIV.  Imagine bearing a child under these circumstances, and that child being HIV positive.
4. The international community failed to intervene in a timely fashion, despite having been informed of the realities.
5. A system of community justice, gacaca or "justice on the grass", was enacted to manage the logistics of trying over 13,000 alleged perpetrators. This system piques my interest, though it has also come under criticism. Its focus is community rebuilding, truth telling and healing.
    
6. What I'm taking to heart: Always see our common humanity before anything else.

There are many community grave sites like this one at the Memorial

Over 250,000 bodies are buried at the Memorial Center. In fact, we observed a memorial service for a body that had been recently discovered, 21 years after the genocide. It's an important part of the healing for victims to be "buried with dignity".

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See another slice of this story, the "official" blog for this project, at http://iescrwanda.tumblr.com.

Giveaway Winner and Rwanda

First, congratulations to blukats for winning my blog giveaway!  And thank you all for the good wishes on my 10-year blog anniversary!

I am soon departing on a trip to Rwanda!  It's a volunteer service project sponsored by my employer. I am part of a team that will train teachers and technical staff on how to set up school networks and how to use computers in the classroom.  I am so fortunate to work for a company that supports this goodness.  

Over the weekend while I'm there, I'm very happy to share that I'll get to visit a tea plantation, along with trekking to see Mountain Gorillas!  Rwanda produces a lot of black tea, mostly destined for tea bags. The tea fields grow in the misty hills and I can't wait to be there in person.  

As time permits, I'll share photos and my personal experiences on this blog. In addition, you can find the "official" story here: http://iescrwanda.tumblr.com.

Murakoze, thank you!

Tea Bar PDX, a Light-Filled Tea Space in Portland

I am very behind in getting this blog about Tea Bar PDX written, and I offer my apologies to the owner, Erica, for the delay!

I visited Tea Bar PDX on a bright and unseasonably warm spring day, and the space was sparkling with light. It was a Thursday afternoon, and yet the shop was busy! Erica was helping to serve customers and still made time for me as she grabbed a bite of lunch.

I enjoyed a matcha latte (made with agave and light on the sweetness) as I asked Erica about her tea and business journey. She's got an interesting story to tell and you should visit to hear it from her first hand.  

Erica credits Townshend's Tea on Alberta (another Portland tea shop) for inspiring her interest in tea. Add to that: She lived in China at the impressionable age of 16, she speaks Mandarin, she's joined up with her father's business in commercial properties, and Portland is an incubator for all things beverage. The logical outcome is Tea Bar.

I found the space to be peaceful and I'd like to return to with my journal and a good pen. Wifi is available (and I used it for a few work things), but it's also the kind of place where you can sit with a pot of tea and think.

The space is minimally appointed

Erica

Canisters of tea above the magazine table

From the table at the back, I look over my matcha latte

Poem in Your Pocket Day, 2015

Poem in Your Pocket Day
April 30, 2015

The first bowl washed the cobwebs from my mind —
The whole world seemed to sparkle.
A second cleansed my spirit
Like purifying showers of rain,
A third and I was one of the Immortals —
What need now for austerities
To purge our human sorrows?
Worldly people, by going in for wine,
Sadly deceive themselves.
For now I know the Way of Tea is real.
~Chio Jen

10 Year Anniversary and Giveaway!

This photo represents my tea journey: From British to Chinese and Taiwanese, to Japanese. 

The flower represent my husband's always-present love and encouragement.

The photo also represents friendship, family and adventure, as the things here
are gifts from loved ones or treasures from travels.

10 years ago today, I began this journey into blogging.  The little secret is that I did it as a work project, because I needed to develop training on blogging, and first I needed to learn how!  ;-)  What I didn't know is that I would stick with it for a decade and that I would make wonderful friends along the way.

I also didn't know how my tea life would grow and thrive. I started with a primary interest and business related to British-style tea. Over the years, tea took me on a journey of discovery into the leaf itself and its manifestation across many cultures - Chinese, Taiwanese, Japanese. I have had the great privilege to travel to many of these countries in pursuit of tea. I look forward to learning so much more! Truly, tea is a remarkable way to learn about our one precious world.

I am humbled and ever so grateful for tea's influence in my life, and for yours.  Thank you for reading and commenting. 

To celebrate, I'm hosting a giveaway!  Just leave a comment and I will enter you into a drawing for tea, poetry and a surprise!

Happy Earth Day! And Morning Cup of Tea by Walterrean Salley

Thank you to Walterrean Salley for this lovely poem.  It very much captures my feelings about tea in the early morning and fit perfectly with this photo I snapped of a sunrise back in January.

The Tea Party by Jessica Nelson North

The Tea Party

~Jessica Nelson North

"I had a little tea party

This afternoon at three.

'Twas very small-

Three guest in all-

Just I, myself and me.

Myself ate all the sandwiches,

While I drank up the tea;

'Twas also I who ate the pie

And passed the cake to me."

Can you relate?  I think I could eat a whole plate of tea sandwiches alone!

Girl Scouts and Tea - A Perfect Match!

I had the wonderful pleasure of being with Girl Scouts of Western Washington this weekend.  My friend Roberta (shown above, she owns Experience Tea) has put together an amazing program that shines a light on world cultures through the lens of tea.  This program is an outreach of the NW Tea Fest. I was privileged to be a helper.  

The program explains what tea is, and then takes the girls on a journey through four tea cultures: China, Japan, England and India.  It's an experiential class.  Girls taste a variety of teas and practice brewing skills. We held two programs, grades 2 - 5 and also grades 6 - 12, and each group delighted me.  The best part, all of the grownups agreed, was watching the girls come alive throughout their learning journey.

(This photo doesn't show much because I am respecting the girls' privacy)

My role was to explain how tea made it from China to Japan, how it's consumed in Japan today (loose green tea, sencha) and to demonstrate making a bowl of matcha (above).  Both groups tasted the matcha, and I was proud of their spirit of adventure! 

My good friend AM talked about how tea made its way to England, and how the concept of Afternoon Tea was popularized, in addition to other things.  Above, she's showing a photo of Anna, the Duchess of Bedford. She also demonstrated brewing loose tea in a pot.

And we wrapped up the journey by visiting India.  Here, the girls learned about how tea is grown there and how chai is an important part of daily life.  They also go to taste chai and traditional Indian snacks.

Aren't these cool?  I want one!  

I am very excited to have been part of this program, and I hope to see this Tea and Culture program become something offered widely.  These things take time. And yet, I can't think of a better way to encourage an expansion of one's cultural awareness than through tea!  Thank you to everyone who worked to make this happen!  I am happy to support the mission of Girl Scouts, "Girl Scouting builds girls of courage, confidence, and character, who make the world a better place."   

And here's a poem written by Mimi Murray, National Operational Volunteer, GSUSA

Because the Girl

Because the girl
     has a need,
We have an obligation.
Because the girl
     has a choice,
We must be her better choice.
Because the girl
     has high expectations,
We must excel.
Because the girl
     wants to explore,
We must be her guide.
Because the girl
     wants to belong,
We must open our arms.
Because the girl
     is searching for direction,
We must be her compass.
Because the girl
     encounters times of turmoil,
We must be her safe haven.
Because the girl
     is tomorrow's woman,
We must care today.
Because of the girl…
We exist.

Finding Poetry Everywhere

When I'm operating at my best, I find poetry everywhere.

Including on napkins.  

Thank you MJ!

Bottom right quote:

"To slow down and 

take a little leisure

is the happiest

method of living."

ShanLinXi Oolong (Taiwan) and Poetry

April is National Poetry Month. I love poetry! I'm regularly moved deeply when reading or writing poems. I think truth is often best known through a poem, and it takes a brave person to write the truth. And so, I will strive to sprinkle poems liberally throughout my postings this month. Also, plan now for National Poem in Your Pocket Day, April 30th!  It's a fun day that I get giddy about each year.  

This spring finds me busy with work, home and tea life and in addition, planning for a service trip to Rwanda.  I look for frequent ways to bring calm into my life. Tea is always a remedy, as this poem explains:  

"Though I cannot flee
From the world of corruption,
I can prepare tea
With water from a mountain stream
And put my heart to rest."

~Ueda Akinari, 1734 - 1809, Japanese author and waka poet


I recently  had a few hours on a sunny afternoon to drink Winter 2014 ShanLiinXi tea from  Floating Leaves. It's a tea that's very balanced and I appreciate the fruity aftertaste.

I had the good fortune to drink this tea with Shiuwen Tai (of Floating Leaves), and she is helping our tea group appreciate the nuances of teas like this.  In addition to the aroma and taste, we spent time paying attention to the tea broth and how it feels in the mouth.  This tea was described as "creamy" for the way one experiences the feeling of the tea (not the flavor).  

The next time you're drinking an oolong tea, spend some time with the mouth feel.  Is it thick or thin? Does it coat your mouth? Does it leave your mouth feeling dry? Try not to judge, but rather experience and notice.

This burlap fabric, above, is from my China-adventures roomie.  I LOVE it!

This cute little guy was my tea companion.

Notice how much the leaves have expanded.  I used a layer of the dry, balled tea to cover the bottom of the pot and when done brewing, it filled the pot up.

OK, your turn!  Share with me your thoughts on poetry or this poem, on how to appreciate tea, on mouth feel, or on whatever you feel moved to share.

You Never Know What You'll See on a Portland Street...

 This incredible bubble art...

Or maybe two women dressed in Victorian-style clothes, out for a stroll...

To my fellow chanoyu students: Ms. M and I got a big kick out of this photo. Notice our tea hands!

The truth is my friend Ms. M (in blue) is much more practiced at costuming than I.  I was a little nervous to walk around in public, but I am SO glad that we did!  Truly, I have never seen so many people look up from their phones or other occupations and smile genuinely.  I felt like the smile fairy.

All manner of people engaged with us, from children to elderly, across ethnic and socioeconomic groups.  It was fun and made me realize how much this human connection of smiling feels good. 

After our stroll, Ms. M and I visited the Heathman Hotel for Afternoon Tea.  It's a grand old hotel with a beautiful lobby. (You may have heard of the hotel from a certain super popular book/movie. Hint: There's a color in the title.)

Ms. M is wearing a riding hat and a bustle skirt.  I am wearing a top hat with feathers and a walking skirt.

The setting at the Heathman is beautiful.

 The tea menu...  Everything was delicious!

Here's my invitation to us all... take a chance and smile at a stranger, including the ones dressed differently.  It's amazing!

"If you smile at me I will understand
'Cause that is something
Everybody everywhere does in the same language."

~Crosby, Stills & Nash, Wooden Ships

It's a Small Tea World and Steven Smith

Steven Smith, at a cheese and tea pairing 

in August, 2013

"The man breathed in deeply - of rosebuds and mint, of sunny meadows and salty cliffs, of streams in no hurry and the sound of bagpipes."~Ethel Pochocki, Wildflower Tea, 1993

This quote reminds me of Steven Smith, who got his business start with "tea" by selling herbal blends along the West Coast.  He was a major player in the birth of both Stash and Tazo, and most recently Steven Smith, Teamaker.  Smith died this week and obituaries have been run far and wide, including this one in the New York Times and another from Oregon Live.

I am grateful for the small, connected and caring tea community around the world.