Café Extremo! - We have completed our first coffee home in Colombia!
We call it the Extreme Coffee Home due to the remote location and challenging logistics of transporting the materials to the build location.
he home was built in the Sierra Nevada mountains above the city of Cienaga in the northern department of Magdalena. The coffee farms in this region are remote and are characterized by steep slopes and lush vegetation. The scenery is breathtaking. The majority of the coffee workers and their families live in very poor conditions with homes built with rusty metal, scraps of wood, and dirt floors. The poor conditions are not conducive to good health and stable living conditions. After interviewing 9 families in the area we chose to build the home for the Garcia / Barranca family. The building coordinator and construction Master was the father of the family Roberto Robinson Garcia. As a motivated owner and builder he managed over 70 trips down the mountain with burrows transporting material and then constructing the home. With the help of neighbors, Nancy and their children they are now living in a very nice home perched on a ledge surrounded by beautiful scenery. They are a very close family that share the responsibilities of home chores and tending to their coffee farm. Lucia and her mom Nancy spend time together walking 4 hours a day 3 times a week to school, harvesting coffee, and enjoying caring for the beautiful flowers they are growing, Lucia, wrote… “Thanks to God and to the people who donated the money to make our dream of having a beautiful house come true. I think that in that house I will spend the best life. I really like the bathroom inside the house. I think that with such a beautiful house I will have a better quality of life. I think you are very good with us. Thank you very much and may God bless you forever for helping us."
Nancy recently mentioned in a Facebook message “I love it here! Thank God and to all those who made this a reality for our family.”
We have 2 more coffee homes scheduled in Colombia for this year and hoping to schedule several more. We have families that we have interviewed that are praying for a home. Please join us. Sponsor a home for a family and come to Colombia to help build the home.
For more information, contact estabanc@vdcol.org or tomh@vdcol.org.
