The baskets and fermentation boxes finally arrive in Pante Kera

For those of you who live in a place where most if not all of your daily necessities are available within walking or driving distance, and for whom the concept of a “delivery” means a pimply kid with a pizza showing up at your door on Saturday night, I’d like to show you some photos of JMD’s Field Officer Robert and his recent trip to Pante Kera, Aceh Timur, where he was delivering (with a lot of help) baskets, drying racks, and cocoa bean fermentation boxes to our group of women cocoa farmers, courtesy of the Local Community Fund grant from the Embassy of Finland. Bravo, Finland

So first, Robert has to take a 13-hour bus ride to the "big city" of Kuala Simpang and get all of this equipment, which he has already ordered. Then he arranges for its 5 hour transport from KS to the river at Simpang Jernih, via many brave little trucks

and then put it on boats.

Some of the women from Simpang Jernih are kind enough to help ferry it across the river to their colleagues.

Then the women farmers (and some helpful community members) offload it and transport it to Pante Kera village

Then it gets lined up and counted

And posed with

Then Robert has to explain a little about how to use certain things—like the weedwackers.

These will be indispensable when it comes to maintaining the area around the trees. If weeds grow wild in farms they can quintuple the amount of bugs that can get in a tree, and pests, my friends, are responsible for about 80% of a cocoa farmer’s losses.

Then there is a question and answer session.

Robert loves this area and knows it well—and it shows.

JMD is very lucky to have him—and so are the cocoa farmers.