Author: longmilescoffee

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. Currently it does not. It more closely resembles a bullet train traveling so fast that sides peel away, leaving flailing siding on a skeleton that’s running in the wind. Lots of wind. It is a bullet train that we’ve constructed with our own hands, there is no wishing that it was not, there is only managing what is.

Our first container of the season was supposed to be, by all our calculations and efforts, on the road in July. Then the dry mill, where our coffee is deparched and prepped for export, did not open. When it did open it had no electricity.

Then the labor went on strike.

Then the only forklift broke.

Then there was no electricity AGAIN.

For days and then weeks on end.

Add to this the stress of trying to accomplish paperwork in Burundi (which is less like paperwork and more like jumping through a hoop while trying to spot a needle in a haystack) and, well, hello October. I will not bore you with all the hilariously frustrating details, but I will say that it is hard not to be deflated in the face of such resistance. There have been a lot of moments when we’ve just let the all the air out. Unable to breathe in the face of things out of our control… but there is one thing we can control. Hope. It is ours if we choose it. That’s the thing about hope, it is a choice.

Delay.

Delay.

Delay.

It is probably why so few choose to do business here. Saying that out loud might get me in trouble, but I feel like shouting it. BURUNDI, you are SO DIFFICULT to do business in!!!!!

Delay.

Delay.

Delay.

Our resilience is shaken, we have very little left… but the moment we stop trusting that God is with us, we find ourselves flailing and gasping for breathe in a sea of problems. This creature, this Long Miles, is she more trouble than she is worth? On a day as starless as the current one, it’s questionable.

I DO know what I believe in. I believe that producing amazing coffee in one of the poorest nations on earth and caring about the farmers who grow it CAN BE DONE. I believe in our amazing team and in the God that gathered them on our doorstep (THANK YOU). I believe in the power of an idea and it’s ability to change the world. Amen, do I EVER believe in that. I believe that ALL THINGS are possible when faith is our anchor, although I am not always very good at living as if I believe it. I believe that what we are doing is WORTH it…. and that 1,500 coffee farming families would say so too. So, to the creature that is Long Miles:

You are a dream worth living…

even when the difficulties you bring

hold us at the brink of our capacity.

We will keep pushing like mad to get these beans to your door, but until they reach your door here are some images and video of our coffee being hand sorted at the dry mill. A process traditionally done by women.

Update: we have gotten one of our 4 boxes (containers) on the road! Three to go!

October 7, 2014
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 mark their progress.

Charles Dickens

Our coffee is slowly being moved from our drying tables and being transported to the dry mill. It is always sad to see the crazy beauty of harvest being traded for the fury of coffee cupping and logistics. This season we couldn’t have made it through without the incredible LMCP team. Let me tell you, the people committed to making Long Miles happen, they really are absolutely INCREDIBLE. Volunteers, interns and staff pulled together in massive ways to make harvest go as smoothly as possible. It was still not without it’s major hiccups. Heza, our second station, was only operational half-way through the season as we met delay after delay after delay. Which meant that we were trucking coffee cherries a short distance over terrible switchbacking dirt roads to lay them on the already burdened tables at our Bukeye station.

If Ben and I learned anything this season, it’s the value of celebrating small victories while standing on a landscape that seems to be full of problems and struggles. We didn’t always do it well, but celebrating the small things helped us through the extra rough bits. Do we want to repeat another season like this one? Absolutely not… next year we have vowed not to build ANYTHING. Two babies, err… washing stations… is enough. Honing our coffee’s quality and deepening our relationships in the communities we are a part of is our focus now.

Deeper. Stronger. Calmer. That’s our mantra moving forward.

There were so many amazing moments this harvest that I just didn’t get around to blogging about. Like Brittany’s naturals and honey research, Lauren and Epapharus’ Antestia bug eradication program (employing out of school youth and getting rid of the potato defect in one fell superhero leap), Texas Jake’s triple tier tables, Lori’s rescued owls, and Caleb’s worm farm to name just a few. Most of those moments ended up on our Instagram accounts if you want to have a look.

This week you can find our coffee online and in stores at Stumptown and Coffee Labs for a very limited time. Also, we are so over the moon about this lovely feature on the Artifact Uprising site. They are masters in the craft of printing, and printed a beautiful book for us a little while ago.

July 23, 2014
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 us at the community gathering point on Gaharo hill. It was hot and dusty. The morning light of Africa falling harshly on people’s faces. The community elders sat behind rustic wooden tables. The rest of the community sat on small benches or on the ground. We spent the morning listening to the challenges the farmers are facing, sharing ideas and thoughts about change and the future.

We brewed coffee over a fire, passing it through a small sieve and into cups. It’s about as rustic a brew method as you can imagine and it was amazing coffee. I talked about the meaning of coffee in my home culture. “Sharing a coffee means sharing friendship and community and ideas” I said, feeling unsteady with the words. Does it? Cups were shared around the circle, one cup seeing many lips and hands. Florence, wrapped in a beautiful blue igitenge, griped my hands and thanked us for bringing such a lovely gift. My core was all shaken up at the thought. Coffee is part of everyday living for most people, we “can’t live without it” (my own words) and yet it’s a foreign treasure to this small hill of coffee growers sitting in their town square surrounded by… coffee trees.

Lauren, Long Miles’ Farmer Relations Officer (FRO), drawing out the coffee supply chain it in the dirt to help the farmers understand the journey of their coffee.

July 9, 2014
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 feel like we have been living in those dark spaces for several weeks now, all the time fighting to get out from under the shadows. There are always problems with the start of coffee harvest, and this year’s problems feel even larger than the last. Ben likes to describe problems as opportunities for growth and change. I am slightly less optimistic than that, more like a pessimist who still believes in fairy tales.

Our second washing station, Heza (which means beautiful place in Kirundi), has been a tooth and nail fight to build and get operational. Truth is, we are a bit weary. I stood on the dirt road near Heza last week overwhelmed by the sheer volume of problems in front of us. Water, McKinnon, collection points… all not yet secure while green cherries turn to red on the trees.

Above: Silva collecting coffee cherries near our Bukeye washing station Here: Margadarena, a coffee farmer, and her son fetching water near Heza

Sometimes it’s hard for me to lay our encounters here out in neat strands of thought. Like last week, for example, when we were near Heza discussing all the challenges in front of us. We were having that conversation around our broken down vehicle. A crowd grew. Eventually about 50 people surrounded the car as our friend struggled to fix it. Whenever you think you are alone in Burundi, you are most definitely not. With one of the highest population densities in the world, “alone” is rarely an option.

A child came up to me. He caught me in a brow furrowing worry-drenched moment. “Why do you look at me like I’m an animal?” he said in perfect English. My insides churned. I defended myself. I told him he had misinterpreted me. I told him that we were here doing this thing because we believe in the dignity and value of every person. I felt like I had been on my last leg standing and with one small sentence, he had swept me off it. A shadow grew.

fixing the LMCP vehicle near Heza washing station

I have a friend who says, “There is hope!” like a tick-response to every difficulty. I tease her about it and I probably shouldn’t because I think she is right. Shadows are so lovely because the shapes they cast are temporary. They are only a representative of darkness, morphing and drifting at the mercy of light and matter. Heza is beautiful and so is the community we’ve built it in. Farming families rooted on giant hills surround the station, each hill with a unique micro-climate and personality. On a steep mountainside at 1960 meters, with panoramic views of the Kibira National Forest and the nearest town a half -day walk away, Heza is a beautiful potential laden sight.

We will celebrate Heza’s opening within days and in the meantime, we grasp onto strands of hope as they float by because, as Brene Brown says, “Hope is really a thought.” If I could sear WE DO NOT LOSE HEART (2 Corinthians 4:1) on my skin right now I would. I need to remember every moment of the day that life is a journey that requires courage.

I leave you with more Brene Brown goodness:

“Numb the dark and you numb the light.”

“Wholehearted living is about engaging with our lives from a place of worthiness. It means cultivating the courage, compassion and connection to wake up in the morning and think, ‘No matter what gets done and how much is left undone, I am enough.’ It’s going to bed at night thinking, ‘Yes, I am imperfect and vulnerable and sometimes afraid, but that doesn’t change the truth that I am also brave and worthy of love and belonging.”

“Faith is a place of mystery, where we find the courage to believe in what we cannot see and the strength to let go of our fear of uncertainty.”

“The root of the word courage is cor—the Latin word for heart. In one of its earliest forms, the word courage had a very different definition than it does today. Courage originally meant “To speak one’s mind by telling all one’s heart.” Over time, this definition has changed, and, today, courage is more synonymous with being heroic. Heroics are important and we certainly need heroes, but I think we’ve lost touch with the idea that speaking honestly and openly about who we are, about what we’re feeling, and about our experiences (good and bad) is the definition of courage.”

April 24, 2014
Burundi Coffee Giveaway + Harvest Update

Coffee harvest has officially begun here in Burundi. By the end of our first day on Thursday, we had collected 4,200 kilograms of coffee cherry! The coffee was delivers by 160 coffee farming families. One third of the drying tables at our Bukeye washing station are already full. This time of year is a very special one for us— all the time and effort that goes into preparing for harvest finally pays off when the cherry begins to arrive at the station doors. It is great to see our coffee farming neighbors again as they bring in their crop.

We want to share a little bit of our harvest joy with you, and say thank you for your support. So…it’s giveaway time! To enter, just comment here and you might just get a bag of Three Hills Coffee from Huckleberry Roasters and a Huckleberry KeepCup delivered to your door. I will choose a winner at random and then let you all know who it is. Giveaway closes at midnight Pacific time today. The same giveaway is also running on my Instagram and Huckleberrry’s Instagram and you are welcome to enter all three giveaways.

If you are searching for words to say as you comment, just tell us about your most memorable cup of coffee. I’d love to read about that!

p.s. Giveaway is for our friends with US addresses only, sorry about that international friends ;).

MARLEN EVE, YOU WON SOME COFFEE AND A KEEP CUP!

April 5, 2014
Where to find Long Miles Coffee + Harvest

Our inaugural crop has landed in the States and it is FOR SALE! More roasters will have it in stock in the coming weeks, but here is where you can find it now. Also, if you would like to check out a story I did about Harvest which is featured on Stellar, a great little app for documenting stories, click the Stellar link. Thank you for you support in the past year as we have taken on building a washing station, and now a second one. We really value you coming to this space and giving us your support.

It has been a busy season over here at Long Miles. We’ve had lots of visitors, like our friend Mark who was here last week teaching us how to do sun dried naturals. There is a definite buzz as we prepare for harvest, which begins today. Everyone is busy stamping farmer cards, buying chicken wire, or submitting paperwork. It has been a hard week for us to keep from feeling completely overwhelmed, especially as we look towards the weeks ahead which are even busier. Our second station, Heza, is not completely finished but we are pushing towards opening her anyway ;).

HERE WE GO! Special thanks to these amazing roasters who believed in our vision enough to partner with us. Without their support and love for people, we could not do what we do. There will be more added to this list in the coming weeks, I will try to keep you posted.

Dogwood Coffee, Minneapolis MN

Huckleberry Coffee, Denver CO

Olympia Coffee, Olympia WA

Onyx Coffee Lab, Springdale AK

Tonx, online

Please, go get em! I would LOVE IT if you could hashtag your Burundi beans with #lmcpwashingstation on Twitter and Instagram so that we could virtually see them… that way we can live vicariously through you! There is a giveaway hitting the blog tomorrow in celebration of harvest, so pop back soon.

April 3, 2014
Debunking 5 myths about expat life

I struggle with the idea of comparing lifestyles, because that’s not really what life is all about. That said, I do often feel like the expat lifestyle is easily misunderstood. Most expats have chosen the country they reside in, some landed there by chance, and others were forced through crisis to find a new home. I guess here I am speaking mainly about the expat experience I know, which is moving by choice to a developing nation.

1) Myth #1: Having household help means living a privileged life

There are movies about the allure of colonial life. The main character (a brave rugged British expat) arrives home, puts his hat next to him on the chair and in the time it took for him to cross the veranda and sit down, a gin and tonic has arrived born by the hands of a devoted house helper.

In my experience, it’s nothing like that. People often suggest that we live an opulent life because we don’t clean our own toilets. It’s true, not cleaning toilets is really great, but taking on household staff means looking out for them as well as their families. It means being married to their medical expenses, their family problems, the education of their children, and their dreams for the future. In short, it means adopting them as family. If you are anything like me, this idea almost as appealing as the thought of someone else folding your underwear. Even so, I’ve let our staff into my “inner circle” and they really are part of the family.

Now that we are so busy with our Long Miles, we really couldn’t function without the team of people who run our household. That sounds crazy, but the culture here is different and takes much more time and effort to navigate. For instance, it is not unheard of to spend an entire day waiting to buy more electricity credits to power the house. With frequent shortages of certain foods and supplies, having someone else spend 2 hours tracking down sugar instead of me is really appealing. Next time you want to tell an expat how “easy” they have it because they don’t clean their own toilet, think again. By having staff, they are managing people and taking care of an entire family unit beside themselves.

a rare adventure filled moment with friends

2) Myth #2: Life abroad is one big adventure

Today I am here in Burundi and my mom is getting her second round of chemo as she fights liver cancer. I wish I could be there and I won’t be because of our choice to make a life in Burundi. Expats miss family birthdays and Christmases and funerals. They show their kids pictures of family members on the 30-hour plane ride “home” because the kids have forgotten “which cousin is which” and they can’t remember what the USA looks like anymore.

leaving family behind

3) Myth #3: It’s Cool

For about 30 minutes in a 24-hour day I feel like I sort of MIGHT have myself together. I often sound like an crazy person. My French is poor and terribly accented and my Kirundi is even worse. I am generally a sweaty mess (lucky, everyone else is a sweaty mess too) and there is just nothing cool about sticking out like a sore thumb everywhere you go. As a recovering perfectionist, I am thankful for Burundi. I have learned lessons about vulnerability and courage here that I would not trade for any air-conditioned English speaking country on the planet.

celebrating countless birthdays away from grandparents

Myth #4: Traveling is practically the same as being an expat

The world seems to love lumping “expat life” and “traveling” together as if they are interchangeable. I can tell you one thing I know for certain, I am NOT on a vacation. As my friend Abby likes to say, “You really LIVE there.” There is a distinct difference between traveling to a place and living in it. I think we could all travel to MOST places in the world and find things to enjoy about that place for a short time. It’s when the dust has settled that the bravery begins.

Learning to live life in a foreign land is not really something travelers have to do. They are just passing though. Travelers don’t have to think about where their kids will go to school, how they will get groceries, or if they will ever see a sushi roll again. Travelers beware, when you are visiting expats in a foreign land take caution when throwing out phrases like, “It would be so EASY to live here” or “This is so much nicer than the United States.” Keep up that talk and your expat friend might just throw you to the hippos.

Myth #5: Expats have special powers and ride unicorns

The following phrase is completely untrue and I hear it all the time. Ready? Here goes… “I could never do what you do.” I will agree with the ethos of this statement, which seems to be that choosing the path we chose has not made for an “easy” life all the time. Moving any family half way across the world is not easy. Neither is learning new languages, trying to understand a foreign culture, or starting a business overseas. It’s no walk in the park, but neither are many of the challenges facing the modern day family. A United States dwelling couple working 80 hours between them, raising kids and perusing artistic ventures on the side… that doesn’t sound easy either. We all face unique challenges no matter where we are or what life looks like for us. Am I right? Although, secretly I reserve the right to carry on believing in unicorns.

March 28, 2014
Burundi Coffee Farmer Story: Charles Ndayishimiye

CHARLES

Gahaga Hill

Charles asked us what all the fuss what about, “Why is the white lady (muzungu) here with all her cameras?” he said. I told him the pictures were for me. A project I could not stop shooting, a thing I could not stop doing. Telling his story, I told him, was important to me. Burundi coffee farmers hold treasures in their stories that I think we can all understand or learn from. I am not on some great campaign to change the world, I told him (although deeply I would love to be that stirred), I am just curious about people and I believe each story we capture counts… because these are real people and this is the age in which we are privileged to breathe.

It’s also my way, I told Charles, of understanding Burundi. I understand Burundi very little on the whole… but I feel so much closer to knowing it when I see it through a lens.

>>>

Charles has 6 children and a small plot of land with just over 300 trees. He was born in 1961 while Burundi was declaring independence from foreign rule. Last year he made $169 growing coffee. He has to walk 3 kilometers to get to our washing station. This coming coffee season we will have a collection point near Charles’ home, which will save Charles (and the other farmers in his community) from having to make the long and time consuming walk to our station. When we asked Charles what his hope for his children was, he said he hoped that he could continue to farm coffee in order to feed all of them.

Portra 400 Canon EOS3, Canon 5D Mk III

February 14, 2014

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