Ninga Washing Station

"Seated at 1,900 masl and flanked by the Nkokoma River is Ninga Washing Station. After realizing that coffee farmers from this region were traveling far and wide to reach a washing station with fair scales and that paid a fair price for coffee cherries, Ninga Washing Station was born." There are three main hills in the Kayanza Province that Long Miles producers work on, Giku Hill, Bumba Hill, Ninga Hill. Bumba Hill "You have to cross over three rivers and pass by two province borders to reach Bumba hill. The farming communities that call Bumba home are far beyond the reach of clean drinking water and electricity. Coffee is the most important crop grown on the hill, closely competing with corn and beans. Step closer to the center of the hill and you’ll find a local market where people sell baskets full of freshly harvested crops and trade other household essentials. Only one primary school stands tall on Bumba hill." Ninga Hill "Two rivers and a province border lie between Bukeye Washing Station and the hills of Ninga. The community is far beyond the reach of electricity. Even the glass bottles of coca-cola that usually find their way into tiny roadside shops are difficult to find on Ninga. Coffee trees occupy any space they can on this hill from the edge of the single track dirt paths that weave through the hills to the doorsteps of farmers’ self-made mud brick houses. With every violent conflict that has broken out in Burundi, Ninga farmers have scattered into the surrounding hills and forest areas with no established place of refuge to run to. During these times the coffee trees have gone into hibernation mode, waiting for their owners to return." Giku Hill "A long stretch of fifteen kilometers’ dirt road lies between the Long Miles Bukeye Washing Station and Giku hill. You have to cross over two rivers and pass by two province borders to get reach here. Although there are many small rivers running through this region, the communities that live here have little access to clean drinking water and are far beyond the reach of electricity. Coffee is the most important crop grown on the hill, closely competing with corn and beans. The fringes of the Kibira Forest, Burundi’s only indigenous rainforest, looms fifty-four kilometers in the distance."