Video transcript | We are the countryside: meet Wilmer Carcamo

We needed to drop everything within 30 days. Sell everything that we have, move to the UK because we needed the support around us.

From being in the UK, I decided to start a new business, a new adventure, where I started to export coffee from Honduras or import coffee into the UK.

My name is Wilmer. Born and raised in Honduras, Central America. I live with my wife, my son Maddox and my in-laws. We live in Morpeth, Northumberland.

Building a business in the countryside has been a new chapter in my life. Our home and work space is right behind a sheep farm. We work with this type of view. Stop for a break and go for a walk, see the alpacas.

I grew up in the countryside. Being so close to nature in the UK just reminds me of being back home, having so much beauty and so much connection. My grandmother, she was a farmer, she farmed coffee as well. I was trying to connect. Bring a little bit of Honduras into Northumberland.

You need to work hard. Technology is really important. Hundred percent online business. Everything is through social media, in front of the cameras. So we can be in the countryside and then we have customers anywhere from London to Glasgow and they feel like they’re visiting Northumberland.

Ellie is from the UK. So a year and a half after we got married, we had our first child born by emergency C-section by surprise because he suffered a genetic condition. And that changed our life completely. We needed to drop everything, move to the UK because we needed that support. So one of the main reasons that we work so close to home is because we need to be really close for an emergency situations.

Being in the countryside gives me the flexibility to have this space but also close to my family. We get out every Sunday if possible. Find new places to visit in the countryside.

So my wife loves walking. Max loves the forest. There’s so much in Northumberland, actually we have not finished exploring yet. But now it’s more limited with Max because at this point we need wheelchair access mostly.

Some of the places could have that accessibility. He’s growing so eventually we can imaging when he’s 20 years old to get to some of the places, how accessible they are or how close we can get to the actual place.

I think there’s a lot of stuff that can be improved around that experience for disabled people. But he enjoys it and that’s the most important part for him, to connect him with something.

So being around the nature, he can hear the birds or he can see the tree moving. And sometimes he smiles to branches, and that makes me smile because he smiles. That’s the most important part when your kids are happy and they’re just themselves and playing.

It reminds me of my beginning, of my roots, up to the person that I am now, that I’m still connected to the countryside.

Watch the video on YouTube.