The Farm

What a great experience, to have the chance to go to a coffee farm and work for a day along side the farmers. To see first hand how they live and work in their own community and as a family unit. Those are the reasons we decided to do exactly that. Unfortunately for us, the coffee harvest had just finished so when we arrived at the farm and said "put us to work, where do we start?" the work was all done. The farm director set Eloisa, Roger, Ken and I up with accommodations in a guesthouse on the property and told us lunch would be at 12 then we could relax for a few hours and later that day he would give us a tour of the 67sq hect farm, after which we could relax a little before dinner, at 6, and then we would have time to relax a little that evening. I guess there isn't too much work to do after the harvest! We ended up spending the day mingling with the locals, Ken and Roger played a little volleyball, Eloisa took some amazing photos of the kids and I played a game something like pickup sticks with one of the small girls. It was great. The tour of the farm was very informative and the walk around the fields was great, seeing as the farm is at about 1000 mts the temperature was much cooler than that in Pakse and didn't seem a humid. Our meals were basic but good, the same as the Lao people, rice with vegetables and little meat and more rice. It was an early evening (after such a hard day) and we spent it playing 10,000 (a dice game, Ken and I taught Eloisa and Roger). Ken and Roger played a little chess and later we kicked up our heels a little to some tunes Eloisa had on her iPad. The next morning it was up early for breakfast at 7am...eggs and rice, before our return trip into Pakse, but not before I had a chance to help setup a little for Christmas. The majority of people here are Buddhist but there are some Christians, either way they take the opportunity to get together and celebrate their good luck.

Later, back in Pakse the four of us were all smiles and enjoyed the experience, (however it turned out) we still had dirt on our shoes but maybe not so much under our fingernails!

Bolaven coffee, the name of the cafe and coffee coffee farm that we visited in Pakse.  It is good coffee!

Roger, Eloise, Me and Ken hanging out in the coffee field.

Ken and my digs at the farm.  We were very happy to be using a tent because we had the BIGGEST spider in our room that night!

A happy family of farmers riding in a farm truck...tracker?  After three years of working a plot of about 1.5 sq hect on the farm each farmer gets the chance to buy a small parcel of land for themselves, a great opportunity for them.  Most of the farmers working at the Bolavan farm are from the north around Luang Prabang. 

After the harvest the work slows down so the farmers have a chance to enjoy a slower place of life, like this get together.

Life on the farm is busy so they don't have time to drive the 75 km to Pakse to go shopping..so the store comes to them!