I WALK past lush rows of beautiful corn, beans, leeks and cucumbers before finding Janvier Bararunyeretse amongst a jungle of chokos.
“Farming is in my blood,” he smiled, listing off the vegetables he used to grow in Burundi in east Africa.
Life on Tamborine Mountain for Janvier and his family is something he could never have dreamed of.
When civil war broke out in Burundi in 1993, he and his wife lived in constant fear.
He lost countless friends as villages were pillaged and burnt.
“It was very hard,” he said of the war.
“I didn’t want to join the military.”
He never knew where the fighting would be next or which village would be attacked and was constantly fearful for their lives.
“Sometimes they come at night, sometimes in the day and burn the houses,” he shared.
“The day my son was born they were fighting. The soldiers came in the village and started to shoot people. We didn’t get a chance to go to hospital.
“It was a horrible time. We do not remember again.”
In 1996 he grabbed his wife and their six-month-old son, Jimmy, and ran from their village leaving everything behind.
“We ran across the border on foot over two days,” he said, relying on people along the way for food and water or drinking from creeks.
He knew he would not return.
They made it to a UNHCR refugee camp in Tanzania and for 11 years until 2007 he lived in a makeshift tent with 60,000 other refugees.
During this time he and his wife welcomed three more children.
“It was a very hard life. You are not allowed to leave the camp – it’s like an open jail,” he shared.
“You try to grow what you can to eat. The UN don’t give you vegetables. Some organisations help the refugees to grow vegetables.”
Finally, the day came when Janvier was offered protection by the UNHCR and was accepted as an asylum seeker into Australia.
“I was very happy. We found a way to feel safe and have a home,” he said.
They were settled in Perth in 2007 and Janvier got a job in a hospital as a nursing assistant. Later they moved to Katanning and welcoming their fifth child.
Janvier longed to farm again, but the soil was poor and there was no water in Katanning, he said.
“My heart was still connected to farming, so I looked for a chance to move to keep doing farming,” he explained.
In 2013 they settled in Logan, where he had a friend from Burundi, and the climate was similar.
It was while working for a scaffolder who lived on Tamborine Mountain that Janvier was introduced to Margaret and Glen Jenyns.
His boss saw all the vegetables he was growing in Logan and suggested he work for the local rhubarb farmers.
He began helping them on their farm in return for space to plant his vegetables, which he sold to the African community in Woodridge.
In 2015 he moved to Tamborine Mountain and has a certified organic farm allowing him to sell to wholesalers as well as his own stall at the Northey Street markets in Brisbane.
“I like to see people with good food. We don’t want chemicals harming people. It’s better to have food you know to put in your body,” Janvier said.
“I like to see the younger people know where their food is coming from with no chemicals.”
In Burundi he also grew organic produce using manure from the local animals.
Surrounded by an abundance of fresh vegetables I ask him if he cooks.
“Of course, I cook,” he beams.
Veggies with rice he said is his favourite. He also likes to make his own bread with casava, maize or semolina.
Janvier smiles when asked how he feels about living on the mountain and raising his family here.
“The children now have a good education,” he said.
Three of them went to school on Tamborine Mountain.
Lewe, their fourth child, was school captain at Tamborine Mountain State High School.
“I didn’t get a chance to go to school as a little boy but was taught by Catholic missionaries to read and write two days a week,” he shared.
“Tamborine Mountain is unique because when I came here Glen and Margaret were so kind to me letting me use their farm for free.
“It’s a peaceful area with no crime. All the people here are nice and friendly.
“Here we have everything, water, food, it’s hard to explain how totally different it is to someone who hasn’t been to a poor country.”
