In 2019, Long Miles bought a plot of land 10 kilometers from the Bukeye Washing Station. Seated at 1,900 m.a.s.l. and flanked by the Nkokoma River, this became what is now the Ninga Washing Station, the third washing station to be built. After realising that coffee farmers in this region were traveling far and wide to reach washing stations with fair scales that paid a fair price for coffee cherries, the idea for Ninga was born. Although many small rivers run through this region, the communities here have limited access to clean drinking water and are far from electricity. To say Ninga is remote is an understatement. Even the glass bottles of Coca-Cola that usually find their way into tiny roadside shops are hard to come by in 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 had to scatter into the surrounding hills and forest areas with no established place of refuge to run to. During these times, the coffee trees have stood alone, waiting for their owners to return. Eventually, farmers return home and try to combat the effects that years of neglect have had on their land. Yet since its first season, Ninga Hill has
produced elegant, complex coffees with layered, clean flavours. Long Miles’s commitment to working more closely with this Hill has never been stronger.

A long stretch of 15 kilometers of dirt road lies between the Long Miles Bukeye Washing Station and Giku Hill. You have to cross over two rivers and pass by two provincial borders to reach here. Although many small rivers run through this region, the communities here have limited access to clean drinking water and are far from 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, loom for forty-four kilometers in the distance.