Workation in Winnipeg

Self portrait en route to Winnipeg, Manitoba.

I used to think that cold weather was a bit like debt--after a certain point, beyond which you cannot pay, what difference does it make whether you are down $50,000 or a million? So as Rebecca and I prepared to go to Winnipeg last week and I looked at the weather forecast the night before we left and it said 25 below zero, I thought, 'well how cold can that feel compared to say 5 or 10 below?' I now have my answer.


It is interesting to see how hard it is to get work done when you are living at home and not going into an office. Or in this case, in the homes of our parents. No one is stopping us, but there is still a great deal of distraction and sort of a sense that we are on leave. Deadlines do continue to come and we were feeling like we needed some time to catch up. The Canadian headquarters of our binational office resides in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Several of our projects in Burundi are under the auspices of several MCC Canada dedicated funds. Since reporting for at least one of them is quite complicated our organization thought it would be a good idea for us to pay them a visit, get some training, and try to catch up on some of our work. We were, in fact, reasonably productive and considered our 4 days away from Baltimore to be a workation of sorts.

We decided to take David but leave Oren with Grandma Jean. Taking him would have been complicated from a childcare perspective, and he would have had to miss his last day in preschool here in the US. They were having a Christmas program as well as goodbye party for Oren. Rebecca and I were sorry to miss that, but Grandma took some photos. Oren was a star (as in twinkle, twinkle) in his program (he had a choice of being a star, a king, or an angel, I believe.) He apparently did quite well. After the program his class gave him a goodbye card and a nice book for a present to remember them. (They knew him well and you can see that the book features some nice pictures of a diesel engine.)

Meanwhile Rebecca and I got up at 5am and drove to the airport this past Monday. We were on time, but our flight left 45 minutes late which meant we missed our connection in Minneapolis. Consequently, our travel day was 7 hours longer than planned and we got to Winnipeg 13 hours after we left Baltimore. (Here is a picture of us in transit. Notice David in the front pack.) David was easy to travel with, and I suppose we can see this as a good test for our trip back to Burundi. (We will be sharing a seat with him for 20 hours at least). We were met at the airport in Winnipeg by Betty who works in the Winnipeg office. I was sorry she had to pick us up so late after hours, and she took us to dinner too--Appleby's (a real Canadian experience). We found out she worked for MCC in Bangladesh, and since Rebecca and I both spent our childhood there, we had a lot to talk about.

The weather: The temp. was about -25 but with the windchill it was -50. We covered every square inch of us to exit the airport and traverse the 10 feet to the awaiting car. I thought my lungs were going to crystallize even for the 30 seconds we were outdoors! Winnipegians plug their cars into an outlet when they are not driving to keep the battery from freezing when it is this cold. All I can say is that I will take the 85-90 degree Burundian days anytime.

Fortunately our hotel was very nice and cozy. Here is a picture of David sitting on the bed. He looks quite content.

For the next two days we had meetings from morning until night. We talked with the program officers for
Generations at Risk--that supports our programs dealing with AIDS education
Global Family--that supports our education programs
Canadian Food Grains Bank--which supports our food security program
Water and Agriculture--which supports one of our water projects
as well as several other individuals who helped us understand better how to write good proposals and properly use our database. (and I thought mission work was going to be a lot more..well... spiritual, honestly)

We also had absolutely no time for sightseeing or anything touristy while we there. I did try to take a picture of a street scene to capture the look of the cold weather. This is a view from our hotel window. Not too interesting, but it is the most we saw the whole time we were there. We did eat some good Indian and Thai food for dinner on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The time spent, though was very valuable and David was a huge hit and enjoyed being carried around the office by most everyone. He seems to like the attention.

We returned to Baltimore on Thursday (leaving again at 4:30 am this time). The flight back was much quicker as we had no bad weather or missed connections.

We were going to try to go to Poughkeepsie the following day, but all 4 of us have come down with a horrible cold that is making us miserable, we did not think we could make one more long trip without a rest. That is too bad for us since I fear this was our last chance to get up there before we go back to Burundi on January 6th. The reality of returning for several years is really beginning to dawn on us and we are trying to think of everything we will need to get before we go. Things we need include prescription and over the counter drugs, as well as spare camera batteries, jumper cables, etc. I might even take a hammer.... Then of course there is everything one needs for a newborn--stroller, carseat, pack and play, etc. AND we still only have a 2 bag per person limit.

Being sick has given me a lot of time to read the news on the internet. I have to say that I am very concerned about the situation in Congo which sounds like it might turn into another regional war. General Nkunda is really digging in in Eastern Congo and seems to have his eye on overthrowing the government of Congo. Please pray for peace. This would have a grave affect on us in Burundi as it is just across the border, and the whole situation continues to be a nightmare for the people living in or fleeing from Congo.

On a lighter note, I also read on a friend's blog (Isaac who is staying at our house in Burundi) that Starbucks is now serving Burundian coffee! This is great news for Burundi as they desperately need to have some good export products. Please buy Burundian coffee when you are at Starbucks and say a prayer for us when you drink it. Here is a description from the Starbucks website:

Burundi Kayanza
Juicy with herbal blackberry notes and tea-like flavors, this is a coffee unlike any African single-origin offering we’ve ever tasted. The microclimate of Burundi’s rugged Kayanza Ridge is an ideal setting for farmers to grow this amazing coffee. Each farmer tends a small patch of just 50 to 250 coffee trees, making this a truly rare and special bean.

Key term: Intense

Geography is a flavor You can tell a lot about a coffee if you know where it’s from. Coffees from Africa are remarkable for their floral aromas and citrusy tastes.

Isaac, our faithful housesitter has also been giving us regular but increasingly alarming reports about breakdowns of appliances, water heaters, housestaff, and now a severe cooking gas and deisel fuel shortage. In short, I am anxious to get back, but really quite apprehensive about what we will find.

This week we are trying to send out Christmas letters and gifts. Rebecca will be preaching next Sunday so she is trying to prepare a sermon. I believe she will be using part of Jeremiah 31 and sharing on the Herod's slaughter of the innocents. Some things really have tragically not changed in the past 2000 years.