During his first two years of service, Bryan taught coffee producers about sustainable organic agriculture techniques and began developing contacts outside of the region with the Specialty Coffee Association of Panama (SCAP).

The SCAP producers, whose large coffee plantations are in the fast-developing highlands of Boquete, understand that the indigenous producers can be a major engine for growth in the high-priced specialty coffee market. With the support of SCAP members, they designed a 10-week curriculum that convenes for one week each month over a 10 month period, allowing participants to learn about organic coffee production from the planting of the seed to the pouring of the cup.

Bryan currently has 8 Ngabe coffee producers participating. Each of these producers comes from a different community and is a counterpart of another Sustainable Agriculture System (SAS) Volunteer that lives in the highlands of the Ngabe-Bugle indigenous area. Volunteers work with participants in their communities to share what they have learned with other local producers with the goal of producing high-quality coffee that can be sold locally and for export. In October 2006, the Peace Corps/Panama Country Director and new SAS APCD Aimee Urrutia visited the Coffee School participants as they learned planting techniques at 2000 m up in the cloud forests on the side of Volcán Barú outside of Boquete, Chiriquí.

The coffee school is part of a larger initiative to increase local income generation through coffee production with Panama's poorest indigenous group.

Bryan Richardson (center Blue baseball cap and
beard) together with Ngabe producers, PC Panama
staff and Volunteers. (Click photo for full-size view.)