adventurer

My post-G!ro time saw me travel to Sierra Leone to lead a group of British and Sierra Leonian volunteers as part of the ICS programme. Working in Freetown's slums with at-risk youth, sex workers and the unemployed, the work was challenging but rewarding, and in many areas did indeed lead to positive, sustainable changes  //   Which is all well and good, but what does this have to do with coffee, I hear you ask. Sierra Leone has long grown and exported coffee, never in any great volume, or to much acclaim. Post civil-war, there have been great efforts to make the production ethical and beneficial, with examples such as this clearly pointing to a positive future for those in the eastern, coffee production areas, which were most devastated by the war. However, this has not lead to a domestic market for the stuff, with coffee in Sierra Leone, if you can find it at all, guaranteed to be a weak cup of Nescafe, lots of sugar, and powdered milk. Despite the large Lebanese community (and NGO workers), tea, or the plentiful cheap beer are far more popular.