With craziness all over the world — in Iraq, Afghanistan, North Korea and Liberia, just to name a few of the international hotspots — we've been thinking more and more these days about peace and justice. As Americans, we often take our freedom for granted. But for many people around the world, the struggle for independence is a dominant part of everyday life. The situation in Aceh province in northern Sumatra is a case in point. We explore this Indonesian island in this issue of Fairgrounds, examine its war-torn history, and profile the sustainable coffee program that has brought a measure of economic justice to the Gayo Mountain people of Central Aceh. We've also got a Community Caravan update, a customer profile, a Dr. Coffee question, a new trivia challenge and a fantastic recipe for hot summer days. Sit yourself down with a mug of Café Campesino, kick off your shoes, and read on…

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The fifth largest island in the world and the third largest in a 13,000- island archipelago, Sumatra accounts for one quarter of Indonesia's total landmass. With its lush rainforests, active volcanoes, canyons, lakes, Amazon-like rivers, exotic flora and diverse fauna, including the two-horned rhino, the black gibbon, the tapir, the endangered Sumatran Tiger and 582 species of birds, the country is truly an eco-traveler's (and a coffee-lover's) paradise.

Sumatra's population of 40 million people (more than 20% of the total population of Indonesia) inhabits an area roughly the size of Spain and is comprised of more than a dozen major ethnic groups speaking some 25 languages and hundreds of local dialects. Today, some of the main groups are the Acehnese of the north, renowned for their fierce resistance to Dutch rule, the Gayo, located in Central Aceh (pronounced Ah-Chay), West Sumatra's Minangkabau, generally recognized as the intellectual elite and thought to be descendants of the youngest son of Alexander the Great, the Batak of the country's interior and the largest group, the Malays, who descend from Asia's seafaring traders.

In almost every way — strategically, politically and economically — Sumatra is Indonesia's most important territory. With its rich oil and natural gas reserves and extremely fertile soil from which rice, coconuts, rubber, tea, cacao and, of course, coffee is produced, it has the most vigorous export activity in Indonesia. Geographically, the island's large flowing rivers and abundant resources brought it to the attention of adventurers and invaders from the beginning of its history.

Find out more about the history of Sumatra and the peace-loving people of the Gayo Highlands who bring us our Sumatra Gayo origin by clicking here.

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In early March of this year I was fortunate enough to travel to Indonesia to visit our coffee partners in Sumatra. I landed in Medan, the third largest city in Indonesia, and drove immediately ten hours to Takengon, which sits on a tiny lake bordering the renowned Gayo Mountain coffee region. The dry processing plant for all of the Gayo farmers is located in Takengon and referred to as Trimaju.

When we arrived at Trimaju on our first full day, we were greeted with a huge celebration. Over 500 farmers and community members had gathered to welcome our small group of visitors, which included Dean Cycon from Massachusetts-based Dean's Beans (a member of Cooperative Coffees), Mane Alves from Coffee Lab International and Thomas Fricke from Forestrade and me.

For more on Melanee's adventures in Sumatra (plus some great photos) click here.

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Buck's Coffee Cafe has quickly become known for serving only the very best coffee and espresso drinks. It is now the local gathering spot in town, open seven days a week with live entertainment on the weekends. If you ever travel through Highlands, stop by Buck's for a fresh cup of Café Campesino coffee!

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The lazy of days of summer are well under way and after a strenuous week following close to 2000 bike riders around Georgia, Geoffrey, Alan and Victoria are back in Americus.

The three traveled with BRAG (http://www.brag.org) serving morning coffee to over 200 people each day, and iced mochas every afternoon. The response to Café Campesino coffee was overwhelmingly positive, and the "mobile coffeehouse" was a huge hit each afternoon when the bike riders came in from a hot day on the road.

Read on to see a letter from Geoffrey to all the BRAG riders, as well as a list of the “secret” ingredients in our amazing iced mochas!

And here's one of our next events:

Friday, August 1, 2003, 7:00 AM - 10:00 AM – Southface Sustainable Atlanta Roundtable – Café Campesino attends the monthly (first Friday of every month, unless otherwise noted) SART (and serves up coffee) as a Fair Trade representative promoting sustainable coffee agriculture and trade. Bring your own mug to the roundtable and qualify to win a free pound of Cafe Campesino fair trade, shade grown coffee! To register on the Roundtable mailing list/e-mail list, visit: http://www.southface.org/home/sart/sustainatlanta.html

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Think you know a lot about coffee? Then enter our Fair Grounds Trivia Contest. Click here for our question of the month. Entering is easy and it's FUN!

We were shocked last time by how many of you knew that Voltaire is remembered as a crusader against tyranny and bigotry. But we think a lot of you will be amazed at how much he "urned". Our lucky winner for last month's Coffee Knowledge Trivia question is Therese DeAngelis. Congratulations!

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— Thich Nhat Hanh

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