STORIES
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Ninasi: Burundian Coffee Farmer
“I tell my children to work hard because it is how we will fight the poverty. My children bring me the most happiness- I have seven of them and they…
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Dorothy: Burundian Coffee Farmer
Growing Coffee is like raising a child. You have to wash them, nurture them, and look after them. We spent part of a Saturday at Dorothy’s house on Gaharo hill.…
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Back To Burundi
Our Burundi coffee reminds me of lilacs and saddles. Clearly, that’s not an educated flavor or taste profile. I’ve spent the last 16 years of my life in Africa, but…
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Uprooted: Our Burundi Exit
Our exit from Burundi was like molasses falling steady from a spoon, sticky and slow. Lifting ourselves from the land was a process full of attempts to stay. After several…
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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’…
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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…
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Exploring Nairobi With Kids
Shopping in real grocery stores and speaking English rank at the top of my “reasons to love Kenya” list, but after a recent trip to Nairobi that list now includes…
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Burundi Coffee Farmer: Espéciose Manirakiza
War continues to pulse it’s reaching veins through lives and lands long after the guns stop ringing. For Espéciose, that means being the sole provider for her 6 children in…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
