Coffee harvest

The picking has already started up here in Jinotega.  This morning I passed a coffee drying plant on the road to Managua (un beneficio seco).  There was a large crowd frantically pushing against the plant's front gate.  Hands were waving with emotion for a chance to work.  The scene made me think of photos and movies that depict the depression era in the United States.  The bosses would pick the workers needed for that day...perhaps at random.  Well, this economic reality is here today in Nicaragua.  The coffee harvest provides lots of work, but it seems, without looking up the numbers, that unemployment is still a huge problem.