Let’s Build A Coffee Washing Station!
We are beginning something that makes our family pretty close to giddy. Giddy is really not my thing. I’m the Midwestern American stoic type… (with a strange leaning towards living room dance...
View ArticleFocus: Building a Coffee Washing Station in Burundi
There is a reason why this coffee washing station matters. There is a community here in Burundi whose lives are on the brink of truth and hope and all things good in this world. Not that this coffee...
View ArticleLand for Burundi Coffee
Following @kristyjcarlson on Twitter and Instagram gets me excited about being part of this family of four that has their hearts set on helping a community in rural Burundi produce amazing coffee. I’m...
View ArticleWe Own The Land + Dukomezi Bikogwa
Dukomezi Bikogwa Means “Keep Working Hard” in Kirundi. Writing has been such hard work for me in the last few weeks, as anyone following this blog may have noticed. We have been consumed with the...
View ArticleDay 1: Building A Burundi Coffee Washing Station
We are too tired to move or write much after today, but WOW what progress in our first day building this coffee washing station here in rural Burundi. Thanks for all the well wishes friends, we FEEL...
View ArticleHappiness Is My (New) Old Beat Up Land Rover
I’m not entirely sure why buying a car with only one working door, a ridiculously torn interior, a Flinstone-esk floor, a broken backseat and the roar of a tractor has made me so happy. This week,...
View ArticleA walk around town and a washing station update.
We took a walk around the town of Bukaye, the closest town to our coffee washing station site, (which is now less of a site and more of an ACTUAL station) a few days ago and let the kids roam the...
View ArticleEarly Payday For Burundi Coffee Farmers
We ventured out into rural Burundi as a family last weekend to make early payments to the coffee farmers who are delivering coffee cherries to the new washing station. For weeks, the farmers have been...
View ArticleBehind The Scenes On Coffee Farmer Pay Day
It was an amazing day at the LMCP washing station last week because we were able to pay all our Burundi coffee farmers months before they anticipated it. The whole LMCP team was at the washing station...
View ArticleOur Burundi Coffee Has Hit The Road
Last week our small (and growing) LMCP team had some amazing victories. We have been pushing hard for many months to export our farmer's Burundi coffee. It has been a loooooong road here in Burundi, my...
View ArticleDirt Roads And Bonus Pay Day
It was a long dusty day and we all collapsed at the end of it. We traveled from small village to even smaller village. As we did, I had one of those moments. You probably know the kind of moment I...
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Focus: Building a Coffee Washing Station in Burundi
There is a reason why this coffee washing station matters. There is a community here in Burundi whose lives are on the brink of truth and hope and all things good in this world. Not that this coffee...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Dirt Roads And Bonus Pay Day
It was a long dusty day and we all collapsed at the end of it. We travelled from small village to even smaller village. As we did, I had one of those moments. You probably know the kind of moment I...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Our Struggle For Hope
I woke up thinking about the way the equatorial morning light moves around the dense matter of humanity. Long shadows on the ground serve as evidence that there are spaces the light cannot fill. I...
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The Gift Of Coffee On Gaharo Hill
“How many of you have ever tasted coffee from your home hill?” I asked while requesting a show of hands. One person raised their hand. One person. Just one. Over 200 coffee farmers were circled around...
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Portraits of Coffee Harvest + Links
Nature gives to every time and season some beauties of its own; and from morning to night, as from the cradle to the grave, it is but a succession of changes so gentle and easy that we can scarcely...
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Hand Sorting Coffee + Thoughts On Export
Don’t give in to your fears. If you do, you won’t be able to talk to your heart. ― Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist It’s been a mad expedition. Sometimes, I daydream that our life resembles a lazy river....
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Mothers. Wives. Farmers. Fighters.
Rain is falling gently on the banana leaves outside my window. School kids are shouting and laughing. Motorbikes are whizzing past piled high with boxes, goats, people, bananas, grass, and even entire...
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Unlikely Heroes Fighting The Potato Defect
The Antestia bug From far off, the Burundian countryside is a vast expanse of green carpeted rolling hills. Each hill is a distinct geopolitical unit known as a ‘colline’ (‘hill’ in French). Get closer...
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Behind The Scenes On Coffee Farmer Pay Day
This post is sponsored by Disney Story. To find out more about this brand-new story-creation app – and how it puts the power of storytelling in your hands – click here. It was an amazing day at the...
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