Tag: Burundi coffee farms

  • From Mrs. Jetlag Crazy-Pants

    Last night I was jet lagged and sad. So sad, in fact, that this is what I wrote:

    Pieces of me are all over the world.

    Right now my life feels like a

    messed up,

    screwed up,

    piece of travel warped craziness.

    32 hours.

    5 Airports.

    A frozen tundra when we enter,

    a tropical heatwave when we exit.

    A DIFFERENT WORLD.

    How can I live so far

    from so many I love?

    When did I get used to

    NOT

    having them around?

    THEY

    are the

    ones

    who

    have been through the most…

    THE LEAVING.

    I’VE put an ACTUAL (insanely large) distance

    in miles

    in kilometers

    in oceans

    between my children

    and

    the people

    who

    love

    them

    MOST

    in this world

    (aside from us).

    We made a choice for a different life…

    but I miss them.

    There is no more audience for my kids.

    They change and grow without much external fanfare…

    aside from our claps.

    Which seem feeble

    when compared to grandparent claps.

    And sometimes,

    at 3am,

    when I have jet lag…

    I wonder if it was the right choice.

    Why do we put ourselves through it?

    Can I handle another night of tears?

    Tears from all of us.

    Tears for grandparents,

    cousins,

    uncles,

    and several awesome aunties in South Africa.

    Is it right?

    Is it wrong?

    Or is it just what it is.

    And then, after some sleep, I looked at the images above and I remembered. Life is not all about me. It’s about the things we believe in. The CHOICES we make to fulfill those beliefs. The ONE above that I have surrendered to, and the JOURNEY that we are on. A journey with a people we don’t yet understand. And you know what? Even though we don’t understand Burundians yet… I bet they will end up teaching us a whole lot more than we teach them.

    Holding onto hope,

    Kristy

    All images

    Hasselblad 501C

    Fuji 400/Portra 400

  • Want $45,000?

    I sure do… to help this community. I’m not going to lie. There have been lots of days (usually the “I’m-not-writing-on-that-darn-blog” days) that I don’t understand or know my purpose here. I know who I am, but not always what I am doing here. I am a wife. A mother. A photographer. A creative. A wanna-be chef. A wanna-be gardener. A wanna-be runner….. we better stop now. My wanna-be list is as long as my arm. BUT it is ultimately Coffee Guy’s purpose that brought us here. Yes, I love coffee. No, it’s not my job to export containers of it or to help farmers… but I care about it anyways. Deeply.

    I need to go to the coffee hills. To bring the kids with. To connect with the reason why I left everything I did to come here. To see the women, to know we are helping, to breathe the air they breathe, to see the communities they live in. To remember WHY I gave up my house and my dog and my friends…. for a new purpose. Those are THE BEST DAYS of this journey. I love our mid-week jaunts to the hills. It’s a time for us to pull the kid out of school, drive through the banana trees and connect. Connect. Connect. With our purpose.

    But enough about me… really. Seriously. There are people right outside my door with no clothes on and I’m whining about my purpose. Uff duh… so far to go girl, so far to go.

    Last week, with the film crew and the nanny all packed into the car…we headed to a new community. Farmers in a new part of Burundi. We drove along the lake and then up and up and up into new hills.

    Being filmed along the way.The following few pics shot out the car windows. Aka: totally incredible images. Just kidding. Try bumpy, blurry ones.Goat meat kabobs anyone? The goat is hanging right there so you can pick your cut of meat. That yellow container probably has banana beer in it. Good combo, banana beer and goat. Not much left, better hurry on down!

     

    Move it cows, we’re comin’ through!

    Burundi is full of people. Wide open spaces? Not without people! Here, there and everywhere.
    In the car… the producer (ahem, Wesley), the cinematographer (see Sunel, I can even spell it!), the nanny (and yes, IT’S TOTALLY AWESOME TO HAVE A NANNY!), the two kids… and the parents.
    Driving alongside the lake and the DRC mountains.
    Arriving at this amazing community.

    The farmers waiting for us.

    They have built this washing station with their own money. Here in Burundi, that’s rare. most exist because of government grants or foreign aid or foreign investment. This one exists because of initiative. Pure and Simple. We were so impressed by this amazing community. They need a $45,000 USD loan to complete their washing station. Feel like investing? Email us! We can give you a breakdown of where every cent would go.

    If you are a coffee shop and invest, they would give you first option on all the coffee they produce and you can garantee we would help oversee the processes as much as possible for as long as we are here.

    They stopped school and brought the students to us so that we could tell them about the importance of education and coffee farming for their community.

    Ever wondered what it looks like to produce a TV show in the coffee hills. Well, it looks like this! Hi Wesley!
    So cute, no?Myles does some cool drawings while the community meets with us about their project.
    When we got there the whole community was waiting and they had decorated the washing station with beautiful hanging flower arrangements (above). They had me hook, line and sinker right there.
    Do they have you? If you or anyone you know would be interested in providing a small business loan to this community, email us! The kids also desperately need some new clothes. I re-tied one boys pants three times… just so that they would stay up high enough to cover his willie. So, if you want to donate childrens clothes… we can talk about finding a way to get them to those kids.
    Love,
    me

  • Long Miles Coffee Project: The TV show

    Long Miles Coffee Project from Cooked in Africa on Vimeo.

    Yeah, I know. I feel like we have some explaining to do. For the last six months, on and off, a film crew has been following us around documenting our journey into Burundi. The show is mostly about our lives, which scares me silly, and coffee. I hate being in front of the camera. Hate. Really, I am using that word. So, this has been a learning experience for me. I am not saying that I love it now, but I sure do love the people behind the scenes. They have come along for the ride and are now part of our family… even though they still bug the crap out of me with their cameras. I didn’t want to tell you. It’s true. I thought you might think we’re vain, or silly or something… anyway, I’m sharing it now. That’s the first step for us in-front-of-camera-haters.

    These guys clearly don’t have my in-front-of-camera phobia. Here’s Sunel, we call her Auntie Sunel around here, getting a good shot. Oh, and by the way, they shoot everything on the Canon 7D, which just happens to be the camera I shoot with too. Confession: before I met these guys I had used the video function on my camera one time.

    Here’s Coffee Guy doing his thing again… talkin’ about coffee some more.

    All while holding a baby and runnin’ around in the hills.

     

    Smelling the beans, always a good thing. I am aware that my children seldom have all their clothes on. I don’t really plan on changing that. Keeping us all in clothes is too much effort… at least I manage to get myself dressed!

    Here’s Uncle Wesley, our creative director, slogging the gear through the hills with Myles.

    World class sound man, right here.

    Hangin’ with the crew, workin’ on some great ideas.

    Wesley imparting age old Mac wisdom to my five year old…

    aaaand to my 1 year old. Neo loves Auntie Sunel… and her Macbook.

    So that’s what we’re up to folks. What do you think about all that? We’d love to know…

    Luv,

     Kristy

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