Friday, September 6, 2013

Bokaso

Just a couple hours south of Hawassa lies the small village of Bokaso.  Coffee farming is what makes this town tick; most men and women are coffee growers and most children will grow up to farm coffee.  Upon entrance, we got the same welcome that we usually receive when going to small, rural villages: a couple dozen small children flocking to see the white people up close.  That's how disconnected they are from the outside world.

My dad, Debebe, Tesfaye, and I headed to the small office at the coffee plantation to meet with the leaders of the coffee cooperative.  We discussed the matters of education, technology, and business management. All the people there were very friendly and took our ideas seriously.  I could tell that my dad's proposal touched upon their needs perfectly because their office was in complete and utter disarray.  They kept track of all transactions and production patterns in handwritten posters.  The first need that they addressed was technology education; they already had a computer ordered for them, but they didn't know how to use one.

If towns like this had access to technology and technology education, such as accounting, business management, statistics, it would help them become competitive in a global marketplace.

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