A letter for you from Cambodia from .pepper..field

After two hours of exhausting motorcycle travel at noon and in 38 degrees, we arrive at the farm of our farmer Tav Bora. It is one of the 203 farms we support. We are welcomed with a hug and a broad smile. "Look, the whole family is smiling and has beautiful teeth, " I notice immediately, as this is not a given in Cambodia, quite the opposite.

Healthcare – especially dental care – is extremely expensive. For us, this is a sign that our work makes sense. To help you understand – healthcare in Cambodia is costly, and therefore we try to motivate most of our farmers to invest the money from fair trade purchases into three areas – healthcare, school fees for children, and farm cultivation.

But now about that smile.

Our colleagues Aleš, Tom, and Lukáš came to the Kampot farms for the first time. They decided on their own and bought tickets because they wanted to experience Cambodia firsthand. The farmers are a bit shy; I am teaching them how to bow and greet properly.

Farmer Tav Bora is cheerful as always and is preparing coconuts and fruit from the garden for us. Her husband, father, and three other daughters help her. "We are doing well, " she describes. "I have six children – three daughters and three sons – all of them are at university, just imagine! I am most proud of my daughter; she wants to be a doctor, look, she even goes to school on Saturdays, " she points to her daughter who is dressed in more festive clothes.

We sit and talk. Our two Cambodians, Ajaa and Nicky – the heart of the project – who know the farmers very well, translate for us. Young people who themselves come from the street and now help us with this most beautiful project.

This year was terribly difficult, and the war in Ukraine and its consequences at many levels have also affected our project, we agree with Tav Bora. She understands the situation well and that we are doing our best, and she confirms to us that just as she could always rely on us, so we can rely on her.

She simply does not want to cooperate with anyone else. "You are the only ones who pay us official fair trade prices and the only ones who have always cared about us and been interested in us. There are others now who would like to buy our pepper, but we will only sell to them what is left, " she describes the situation.

For us, this is extremely important because we feel that the support for the project also comes from the farms. We talk for about an hour about what troubles them. Our colleagues run around the farm and see for the first time the beautifully grown pepper trees.

They join in picking the green peppercorns with the young farmers who are currently on shift. "This can't be possible, I never realized that picking peppercorn by peppercorn is such crazy manual labor! " complains colleague Tomáš, who has only been working for a few minutes. :-)

Colleague Aleš is playing Czech memory game with the girls and explaining to them what kind of animals we have in the Czech Republic. The girls are excited and keep the memory game. They taste Czech dried apples and plums and completely forget about the time. Colleague Lukáš got lost on the farm and enthusiastically runs between the pepper fields and animals. The animals fall in love with him. The sunset slowly arrives and we all gather for departure.

Klárka has black fingers from picking fresh green pepper, “just like Czech walnuts! ” she laughs. Lukáš wants to adopt a dog, Tomáš is nibbling fresh green peppercorns, David and Aaja are taking notes from the meeting with the farmers to keep improving. We sit sweaty and dirty on the motorcycles and at sunset we leave for the two-hour trip back to the city.

We are tired but full of euphoria. Full of enthusiasm and love for the project, which when you see it on site, fills you with great happiness. And it doesn't matter if you are a graphic designer, event manager or take care of customers on the e-shop at .pepper..field.

This goodness is then passed on further even in the details – to our customers – who know that the real and truly fair project with Kampot pepper is called .pepper..field. :-)