Notes from Nepal

Notes from Nepal

Dearest tea friends,

In June last year, just before Nepal’s monsoon season, a team of 4 of us—my 14 year old, Sevi, two of her tea factory “aunties,” and I—boarded a flight to the other side of the world.

We were each on our own personal cusp:

For Sevi, this would be the global adventure I’d promised as her coming-of-age celebration ever since she was a tiny little thing.

Both Allison and Taryn had worked alongside me from the earliest days, and were now on the precipice of new chapters in their personal lives and careers.

And I was turning 40.  Two years previous, during my first sourcing trip to the country, I learned that in their culture people see more value in what a person gives than in what they have. In this spirit, I would celebrate arriving at 40 by taking three people I cherish to Nepal. I wanted to share the strength of heart the place had imbued in me.

Metolius Tea’s vision is to make restorative social, environmental, and economic impacts through sourcing partnerships. Our partnership in Nepal is one of our strongest impact-oriented sourcing relationships. Their mission is to eliminate poverty in their region, fund education scholarships for kids, sustain the biodiversity of the tea mountains, and support women in leadership.  

Our group flew into Kathmandu and joined up with one of the company owners and several of their employees who would be our guides for our week in the tea mountains. We took a short flight to the very northeast corner of Nepal.

We piled in a van at the base of the tea mountains. We bumped along the steep, twisting dirt roads, higher and higher and yet higher. The quality of the tea increased with elevation. We visited tea factories along our route, noticing that operations got smaller, more family-oriented, and more hands on, as we climbed. At these elevations, only very nimble people can pluck the new growth of the tea plants and carry them in baskets slung across their foreheads or shoulders and deliver them to be processed in smaller batches. Along the way, we took in firsthand the incredible biodiversity of the land. The tea plants are sheltered by large, old trees, and the mountain is speckled with small farmer homes with their one or two cows, a dozen chickens and small plots of subsistence crops.  Amongst the crops grow turmeric, ginger, mint, and tulsi they harvest and bring to a central factory to be shipped to Metolius Tea.

A frequent sight along the roads and paths in the mountains are children in school uniforms. It was not so long ago that girls here were not allowed to go to school. The second generation owner of the original organic tea garden was the only son born to his parents with 8 older sisters.  Because there wasn’t a school for girls, his father built one. And then another. Now the roads are lined with girls and boys in their uniforms walking to school.

The tea gardens are currently sponsoring education for 22 children, from early years through college, all children of their employees. About three years ago, they asked us to take on twin boys in the community who were abandoned by their parents who were being raised by their elderly grandfather. Because they no longer had a family member working for the company, the boys would potentially lose their scholarship. Ever since, we’ve paid for their books, school fees, pens, pencils, shoes and uniforms. And every September we send them a box of toys for their birthday.

We visited Shisir and Basanta’s school and got to meet them in person for the first time. They stared at their feet with their hands folded behind their backs, digging their toes into the dirt of the school yard. The headmaster left and returned to the group with a soccer ball. The boys lit up, unclasped their hands, and we enjoyed the universal language of passing and receiving a ball, laughing, stumbling, and clapping.

As we traversed the mountains day after day, we participated in several profit share ceremonies.  Every year the company distributes 1% of their revenue directly to the tea farmers. Since Metolius Tea became a partner, they are distributing the largest shares of the region. We got to hand out envelopes of cash and honor the workers with Khata’s (golden scarves). At one of these ceremonies we met the twins’ grandfather. With tears in his eyes, he gave us a deep Namaste and thanked us for our role in his grandchildren’s lives.During my first trip to Nepal I had the honor of meeting the first woman in leadership in this tea region. This time around, we met three young women apprenticing in teamaking roles. We had a language barrier preventing us from connecting as much as we wanted to, but we shared immeasurable warmth of presence through our mutual appreciation. One evening as the sun set on the mountains, the children set a speaker out on a rock and showed us their traditional Nepali dances. The young women tea makers pulled us into the grass and painted our nails and then their own. We sat crosslegged with our knees touching in the grass, clapping for the children.

While we say Metolius Tea's mission is to make restorative impacts in our sourcing countries, I want to clarify: ours is the simpler role in the relationship. Our role is partnership, friendship, and values alignment. The farmers are the ones making the impacts in their communities, empowering women, fostering education, and repairing their economies. We choose them. We pay them appropriately for their work. We align with their vision.Thank you for your partnership with us in this work. You make tea more than a lovely thing. You make tea a means through which hundreds of people rise out of poverty, provide education for their children, and teach us Westerners what life is really about.

With Love,
Amy, Allison, Taryn, and Sevi
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