We, Ali and Lucy, are American physicians living and working in South Kivu, in the eastern part of Democratic Republic of Congo. Ali, born and raised in eastern DRC, grew up with memories of his grandparents drinking their own locally grown coffee. Lucy, born in Hong Kong, had never had the experience of drinking freshly harvested coffee until they moved to Congo.
We met years ago while working as doctors for a humanitarian medical organization in Congo, responding to an outbreak of cholera deep in the jungle. We later married and after several years in Seattle, relocated with our three kids to South Kivu, where we founded a community health nonprofit organization, WA-Kongo 1st Mile Health.
Coming from Seattle to Congo, we found our roasted coffee options limited in supermarkets. There’s no coffee shops or espresso bars where we live. Working long hours under challenging conditions, we really craved a good cup of coffee in the mornings!
We knew that eastern Congo has ideal growing conditions for specialty coffee, but local coffee in stores was ground long ago and very little is available. We spent our first month here drinking imported instant coffee. As friends and neighbors learned we love coffee, people started bringing bags of coffee fresh from nearby farms to us.
As we learn to hull and roast the coffee here, we are constantly discovering new things about the world of coffee in DRC. We found that there isn’t a whole lot of information on coffee in DRC in English, and we found a lot of friends in the US haven’t yet heard of Congolese coffee.
We hope this blog will inspire, inform, and connect you to another part of the world. Follow along with us as we search for the best beans around!