Tag: long miles coffee project

  • 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

  • Neo on film.

    We are back in Burundi (holy-moly-jet-lag-Batman!) and I have been nervous and excited about sharing these film images with you. We are finally back online, my husband BOUGHT ME A DESK (that’s a huge deal, as I was doing all my blogging, editing, writing, etc. from the couch or the bed or the table), and our “biggest little” is back in school.

    So many photographers are doing it these days. Snapping up a film camera and giving it a go. It is a way to differentiate yourself from the crowd of photographers, to make yourself feel more authentic in the age of  the “self taught” digital photographers crowding the marketplace. Many people also do it because of the amazing success a handful of photographers have had with film (Jose Villa, Jonathan Canlas, Ryan Muirhead, Elizabeth Messina to name just a few). Do mine look anything like theirs? Nope, not at all… but that really wasn’t the point for me.

    Why did I choose to start shooting film? Definitely to feel more authentic. To feel more connected with the art form that I am in love with. To go deeper with it. To understand light in a new way. Truth be told, I was getting a bit bored with digital. Being in Burundi, away from my newly established photography business, I was feeling the need to stretch my legs a bit.

    I will probably ALWAYS shoot digital, especially while we are in Burundi with no processing labs for film nearby. I owe a whole lot to digital. Would I have become a photographer if digital wasn’t accessible and fairly easy to teach myself? Pretty sure the answer is no. Have I begun a love affair with film that won’t end any time soon? You bet-cha! Do I have a million and one things to learn about film? For sure. Do I have a million and one things to learn about digital? Maybe just a million.

    Film is teaching me some great things. It’s teaching me how to slow down. How to take risks (with the high cost of buying and processing medium format film, every frame is a risk!). The challenge of learning something new is ridiculously frustrating and exciting all at once. When I processed my last batch of film, three rolls came back empty. Sometimes learning the hard way is the only way, right?

    All Hasselblad 501C

    Fuji 400

    What are you learning this year?

    I wanna know!

    Kristy

  • In Another Land

    We walked across the sand and the sea and
    The sky and the castles were blue.
    I stood and held your hand.
    And the spray flew high and the feathers floated by
    I stood and held your hand.
    And nobody else’s hand will ever do
    Nobody else will do

    Then I awoke
    Was this some kind of joke?
    Much to my surprise
    When I opened my eyes.

    We heard the trumpets blow and the sky
    Turned red when I accidently said
    That I didn’t know how I came to be here
    Not fast asleep in bed.
    I stood and held your hand.
    And nobody else’s hand will ever do
    Nobody else’s hand

    “In Another Land” by Bill Wyman, sung by The Rolling Stones 

    We are enjoying some much needed family time. It is hard to believe that we are here, and our short time is going sooooo quickly.  We are eating it up (I mean that literally) and Burundi already seems so very far away. Another world. For now, we are enjoying this one. It’s a world full of brothers and sisters and cousins and grandparents and cold and firsts. Our kids are getting some great “firsts” under their belts.

    First time seeing snow.

    First time wearing winter jackets.

    First time ice skating (that didn’t go so well).

    First time sledding.

    First snow ball fight.

    First time seeing their breath outside.

    First time having Christmas with their grandparents and cousins.

    Our poor kids experience so many new things every day that they fall into bed exhausted and wake up late (we are loving it!).

  • A Christmas round-up

    I think our whole family is finally coming out of our “we just got here” coma. We made it home to America in time for Christmas!  In case you are new to the blog or just don’t get a chance to read every post (how could you!) we’ve rounded up a highlight reel for you.

    We began our move by sending the vehicle first. Ben left to drive our South African purchased vehicle from our home in South Africa 5,500 kms through Africa to Burundi. The first day of the journey his traveling companion had to turn back because of visa issues. He went on to do the drive alone (here’s my nifty map of the drive) which scared the crap outta me. The trip was not exactly convenient. I was left alone with two kids and a mostly packed house on our ten year anniversary.

    Then, as Ben drove on, my heart was tested and it was almost more than I could bear. My sweet littlest little got sick, so sick. We were in the hospital, friends were watching my oldest (some of the best friends on earth), and I was just praying that my littlest would breathe.

    Our littlest made a full recovery, and Ben eventually made it back to South Africa. When he did he was feeling pressure that we should have moved to Burundi already because the coffee was rolling in. That made my heart break because I was not ready to leave my lovely South African life. Certianly not before our schedule said so. But then we were there, it was time to jump. Ready or not.

    And we did. We landed with a thud. Into a house with 20 construction workers crawling all over it, a film crew following us around, and a kid throwing rocks through windows. Ben began cupping coffee all day long every day to try and catch up on his job. The boys and I just tried to survive. Every day was a test of my resolve to stay… and we had only just landed.

    Eventually the construction stopped. Not because they were finished, but because they ran out of money. I didn’t care. I was happy just to have them out. We began to make friends. I knew how to drive through all of this and life gained a rhythm. And we found ourselves preparing for a big day. Our biggest little’s first day in a French speaking school. When that day came, soon after so did another. A very unplanned for day. Ben had a potentially life threatening staph infection. We were faced with questions. Should he be airlifted to Kenya or South Africa? Should we risk the care in Burundi and stay? We decided to stay.

    He recovered, but I was tired. Tired of living at a flat out crazy man’s pace. We decided to make some changes. Changes that would ensure we could live life better. We found a nanny, we set some work boundaries, we made time for things that mattered. Then I lost something. Someone, really, who had journeyed with our family for what felt like a century, even though it was just a decade.

    Somewhere in there I got my first medium format film camera. I began to shoot. It was more than just a camera for me. I fell in love with the beauty of slowing down. Of taking time for things that need time. Of appreciating one thing at a time. The list goes on. My kids began to thrive. They made friends. Great friends. We began to see that this decision of ours, to be in this crazy place, might just be a blessing to all of us after all.

    And now it’s Christmas and I am so thankful to be in the land of warm and consistent showers… no matter what the temperature is outside. Merry Christmas to you and yours.

    Love,

    me

  • 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
  • roadside shopping

    roadside shopping

    Shopping in Burundi can be a very stress-full experience. There is a way to minimize it though, just take the road to Bugarama on your way to the coffee hills and let the vegetables come to you. While it’s not an entirely relaxing experience to have twenty people shouting at your window with their produce (as a crowd gathers to see the “mzungus,” or white people), it sure can be fun! That’s our roadside Burundi bounty above. Not a bad haul, egh?

    This is what it looks like when the selling is going one. Coffee Guy loves to barter, so it takes us extra long to get on outta there. He has all the sellers in an uproar by the time we pull away, which brings an even bigger crowd of onlookers. On this trip home from the hills we came back with broccoli, bananas, artichokes, rhubarb, flowers… and we had roasted corn on the cob as a snack on the way. The prices in Bukaye are much lower than in the city of Bujumbura, but this is not shopping for the faint hearted. The sellers are intense and are sometimes practically inside the vehicle, shouting their best prices at us (in French).

    As always, our faithful friend Fabrice was along for the day. He was the guy who helped us get our airfreight out of the airport back here. Fabrice has become a part of the woodwork around here (becoming favorite Uncle Fabrice in the process) and now I’m not sure my boys (our their parents) could ever do without him.

    Roadside shopping (without the need to even exit the car) has quickly become my favorite way to shop in Burundi.

    Pretty great, egh?

    Love,

    Kristy

  • The pig and the giant

    Why is it that sometimes the words just won’t come out? Is it because of the trouble that I sometimes have when I try to see past the bridge of my nose? They do say that when your vision is impaired it can effect your speech. For some anyway, obviously not everybody. Or is it because the words get all trapped up in a big cheesecloth in the sky and, even though I can smell them ripening, they just never make it down to me?

    Maybe it’s because the Wild Word Pig comes running by (squealing as he goes) and snatches them up the minute I open my mouth? If that is the case, it would probably also explain that screeching noise that I sometimes hear running around in my head. He is a very naughty pig (or so I’ve heard, and this is really is all here-say, because I haven’t yet seen him myself).

    Or, possibly, it’s the giant.

    A giant so big that he can reach the moon and turn your head towards it all in the same motion. Haven’t you ever noticed that you can’t say a thing when you’re looking at the moon? It’s his fault. He makes you look and steals your words. And you know, sometimes the moon decides he would rather show up while the sun is blazing… so you really can’t predict when this word stealing giant will turn up. Unless you are really good at following lunar calendars and all that… but who is?

    Or, and this is a really crazy idea (but I feel the need to try it out anyway), some people are just better at taking photographs than saying anything about them.

    Luv,

    me

  • Would you?

    Would you be smiling like this if you were making $1.12 a day? I’m not sure I would, but that’s partially why we are here.  To see that price change. What can you do to help? If we all buy ethically sourced coffee, coffee that we know the origin of, that’s one step towards this woman making more than $1.12 a day. If you are serious about change what can you do? Demand transparency. Demand (nicely) that your coffee shop tells you every step that your coffee takes before it reaches your cup. When you take an interest, people sit up and notice.

    I love being in the hills, meeting the women and men who work so hard for the coffee we drink. This woman was at a sorting table picking out the bad beans, called “triage,” so that the coffee you drink only has healthy beans in it. And get this… they SING at the tables as they sort. I was in complete awe of the beauty of it. Singing, sorting, laughing and sorting some more. This woman blew me away with her giggles… and reminded me that joy can be found in the smallest of things.

    I am not a techie girl at all, so forgive me for this weird audio link (below) that took me half a day to figure out how to save…. but I wanted you to hear a bit of what we heard yesterday. I hope it makes you feel like you are right here with us!

    burundisings

    Love,

    Kristy

  • Nyungwe Forest Lodge

    Sometimes life throws you a breather, a chance to slow down, a minute to reflect. For the past 6 months we have not taken time to breathe. Our lives have just been steaming forward like a freight train. We’ve been zooming past big change after big change and crisis after crisis at the speed of light.

    The lovely people at Nyungwe Forest Lodge changed all that for us. The suggested we come on over, film crew in tow, to experience all that they offer… and boy were we impressed. Nyungwe Forest Lodge is situated on a tea plantation and at the edge of a rainforest.

    The rooms are spectacular, and sleeping in that beautiful bed was like a dream come true.

    The shower and bath WORKED and were beautiful, which Coffee Guy and I marveled at. At one point we stood opening and closing a door with silly grins on our faces. They opened and closed without a “hitch” or a noise. We realized we haven’t opened a door like that in 4 months.

    Coffee Guy went on an amazing walk at 4 in the morning to see chimpanzees (err… I thought that was a bit too early to be trekking about in the rainforest looking for primates. Primates scare me just a little. Or a lot. Maybe it’s a lot.).

    As a family we went on a canopy tour, which scared this little momma to death at one point. Seeing my children high above the trees, swinging back and forth on a cable system almost gave me a heart attack. But it was a beautiful way to see Rwanda and lake Kivu. I had almost forgotten how much I love being in nature. Living in Bujumbura is an amazing experience, but I am a farm girl at heart and I miss seeing spaces that aren’t full of people. Don’t even get me started on the birdlife, or I will end up revealing all of my really geeky hobbies.

    Nyungwe Forest Lodge also gave us a spa experience. I don’t think Coffee Guy has ever been in those fancy robes or been pampered like that ever before in his life. It was fun to be with him while he discovered the joys of a back massage.

    The boys loved the rim flow pool and bothering the lodge staff as much as possible.

    We had the pleasure of being honored guests at an African tea ceremony held in the lodge. What a beautiful experience.

    Oh, and they feed us until we just about popped with the most amazing meals. Salmon for breakfast, burgers for lunch, and fillet for supper. All three meals a day are included when you stay there. How amazing is that?

    We left Nyongwe Forest Lodge with a few less stress lines and a whole lot of smiles. Although it took us 7 hours to get there (we accidentally took the longest route possible), it only took us 3.5 hours on the way back. One of the greatest things about Nyungwe Forest Lodge is that if you reside in East Africa, you stay at a reduced rate.

    It sounds like I am tooting all their horns… because I am. They aren’t paying me a cent to do it either. I just really love this place and I wanted you to know about it. Guys, if you are living in East Africa… get there. You need a break like this! If you’re not, this is a pretty darn good reason to visit. We really can’t wait to get back!

    All images (above the ones of my kids on that scary tight rope thing) belong to the uber talented Sunel Hassbroek of Cooked In Africa.

     

     

     

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