We first met Emanuel, Lucie and their youngest daughter Sandrine in March 2023. 

They had started planting tea in 2018, so their tea field was 6 years old and more than half-way to full maturity (it takes around 8 years for tea plants to grow up!) 

Emanuel used to work away from the family as a casual labourer, travelling to and from Kigal every day, to make ends meet. It takes 3-4 hours to get to Kigali by car and transport is difficult to come by.

Some of their neighbours had become tea farmers and when they looked in to what the earnings could be, they realised it would give them the opportunity to earn more and it would bring the family together again. Plus, they would be their own bosses.  

Emanuel and Lucie have 4 children and since growing tea, they're able to pay for school fees comfortably (in Rwanda education for all children is paid for, and costs up to $85 per term) as well as medical insurance for the family.

They sheepishly told us they don’t really drink tea but they do drink beer. And that growing tea pays for the beer so they’re kind of drinking tea but in a different way. 

We told them the Brits love beer too. 

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We visited again in September. You can follow their journey here:

Emanuel and Lucie - second visit.

The view from Emanuel and Lucie's house. You can see a fellow smallholder farmer's house and tea field up on the hill. And the car that took us there on the drive.