I've rewritten this article three times.  Quite simply, I don't know what to say.  But transparency means the truth – what we saw, what we heard.  So here it is.

We are standing in the middle of what is now a field of dirt and rocks.  It's been nearly two months since the landslide at one of Gumutindo's primary cooperatives and small plants are peeking through the soil.  People we've met are friendly and even jovial.  But we are standing on what was once a trading town.  We are standing on 300 buried people, and their families who we meet are quiet.

Do I tell of the details?  They are not pleasant.  But they make it real – more than a faraway disaster in the paper.

When nearby communities heard of the landslide they picked up shovels, pickaxes, sticks – anything they could use – and rushed to the site.  They dug for days in the pouring rain to find anyone who might be saved.

"Here is where they put the bodies they could find," our guide to the site said.  "There are still 300 buried."  It was a two hour hike on foot to the site, which is inaccessable by vehicles.

As we sat in the empty field and heard of what happened curious children gathered around to watch and talk to us.  The sun shone and people greeted us warmly on our return.  "There have always been landslides here," Emmanuel, Communications and Information specialist from Gumutindo said.  "Gumutindo has a plan to plant over 900,000 trees on the mountain to help prevent erosion, but there were landslides even when it was all forest here."

Off in the distance people were excavating some of the landslide area.  The government wanted to recover all of the bodies, but now they are considering a mass grave.  Most of this village was crushed including a clinic that was treating children.  On the day the landslide happened, the Ugandan government arrived and told affected families and communities that they shouldn't have been there in the first place.

Those who have lost their homes now live in tents in the nearby town, and the government aims to relocate them within four months.  They don't want to go, however – the government wants to move them to another climate where the language is different and they would have to grow different crops.

This landslide brings up an important fact about coffee farming.  Coffee farmers are some of the poorest people in the country, farming in some of the most marginal, hazardous areas.  Technology and sustainable ecosystems usually come second to making enough money to feed your family.

The community around the landslide site is healing and spirits are lifting.  Money donated from Just Coffee customers has been given to the cooperatives affected to help displaced people.  Thank you for all who donated from the farmers and cooperatives here.  The fate of those affected is still unknown, however.