The second time we visited Emanuel and Lucie,  we got to meet the rest of the family; Daniel, Carine, and Faustin (seated left to right in this photo) and of course the youngest, Sandrine, who still isn’t sure about us.

It had been 6 months since our last trip.

They told us they're now focussed on saving money to buy more land for tea, and to renovate the house.

As well as tea, they're getting good production of potatoes and beans and can now buy seeds for other crops more easily. 

The two best things that they say growing tea has provided:

1. They've purchased a property in the village centre that can be rented out as a shop or for other commercial activities.
2. They have solar lights in the house. Powercuts happen all the time so this has been brilliant.

They asked us how we were getting on with launching this tea business.

We gave them an update on where we were at and said we were very nearly ready to buy the tea for SPILL.

Lucie cheered and must have been wondering what was taking so long.

Overthinking everything most likely.

Pathway to Emanuel and Lucie's tea field down the side of their home.

One of Lucie's portraits. She tells us she hopes demand for this tea will rise, and along with it, the price. Operating costs like fertiliser continue to rise and she hopes tea prices will rise alongside those.