Splitting Up Before a Wedding

I am currently numbering writing this blog among my rapidly diminishing spiritual disciplines. I have mentioned it before, but I will say again, that having 2 children makes much regularly scheduled personal time, a luxury. The kids are both in bed at this point and …(30 minute break here to rock David back to sleep.)… now where was I, oh yes, personal time.

This week was a bit out of the ordinary because Rebecca and I decided to split up. That is, we decided to have one of us be the full time parent and the other do the MCC work. The MCC work this week involved driving our 3 SALTers up to Burasira to meet Jodi and do a week of intensive Kirundi with a teacher at the Hope School for the Batwa. I planned to spend the night at the seminary with them, then continue on to Rwanda to meet with partners in Kigali for a few days, before returning Friday to pick them up and coming back to Buj.

Basically the week went as planned. We left on Monday after lunch. I spent the morning getting the car tire repaired, oil changed, etc. We also had numerous emails to answer that were all extremely urgent before we left. We did get everything done and headed into the hills on schedule. The trip was uneventful, and the SALTers, I think found the ride fascinating, even with the 16 kilometers of very rough ‘off road’ driving on the short cut that bypasses the town of Gitega and saves us about an hour of time.

I got them set up in the seminary and we had dinner with Jodi and the priests. The priests are always delighted to have foreign visitors and took great sport in teaching them some Kirundi and plying them to sample the locally produced pineapple wine, and traditional banana beer.

The next morning, Tuesday, I delayed my trip to Kigali by several hours because Jodi’s night guard was sick with something that did not respond to malaria treatment. (She suspected typhoid.) The local clinic was quite far away so I offered to drive. It was very remote and the road was more of a bike path, really. When we got there Jodi asked the sister (it was run by Colombian nuns from the order of St. Vincent de Paul) if we could have a tour, as one of SALTers, Robyn, was a nurse.

It was quite a lesson in public health and what you can do with a little, and just how little health care there is. The sisters are very committed and there are only a few of them and some other lab technicians that run the clinic for a population of 15,000. There is no doctor! About 90 percent of cases that they see are malaria. (2-3000 cases per month). Other less frequent illnesses include typhoid, tb, and a few cases of AIDS but not much. They also run a prenatal clinic and maternity ward. (Again, no doctor) They have an amazingly low incidence of women dying in childbirth, which they attribute to excellent prenatal care. They focus heavily and following their patients, and teach mothers about good nutrition for children.

I did ask about a mosquito net campaign, but Sister Anna explained to me that it is very hard to get them to use the nets correctly because of the extreme poverty in the area. People sleep 8 to a room with no beds, many outside, etc. A mosquito net presumes a certain lifestyle involving beds and ceilings. Also, many of the people are more concerned about their next meal than whether they are bitten by mosquitos. She said an improvement in life conditions for the community would need to preceed such a campaign. I did understand her point.

I was very impressed with their dedication and commitment, the way they work, the apostolic call they have is truly remarkable. I often find that Catholic religious orders provide the best models of what ‘walking with’ the poor really means. I think we ‘evangelicals’ could stand to learn a bit from their witness. They are trees that bear fruit, and most often anonymously.

At noon I left the SALTers and Jodi, and I continued on to Kigali. I went on the very difficult road from Burasira to a town to Ngozi and then up to Kigali. I can only say that the road was so appallingly bad, I had to leave it and drive through the brush in several places just to make progress. But I did get through without incident.

I got to Kigali in the evening and went directly to a local pool called Cercle Sportif, to do some laps and provide some therapy for my aching discs (from the bumps on the road.) I checked in to a local guest house and then met our service workers, Ruth and Krystan for dinner. (Ruth’s parents were visiting and we had a nice evening together.)

I spent Wednesday and Thursday doing business and meeting with partners. It was a lot of relational work, but not unpleasant. People were pleased to see me, but disappointed to be missing Rebecca. While I was able to find time to take a swim everyday, the truth is, I did find myself pining for my family. Ever since getting married, I cannot stand to be away from them for more than one day. That is probably because I was single for so many years before getting married.

I returned to Burundi on Friday, reversing my path and picked up the SALTers in Burasira. They had had a fabulous time with the priests and Anita, their Kirundi teacher from the Batwa school. We left and got home by late Friday afternoon.

At this point I am inserting Rebecca’s story about her time at home alone with the kids:

Ever since I became a mother, I have been working part-time (up to almost full-time) alongside parenting. Much of the time, I’ve found this to be a good balance. The best days have been ones where I could spend half a day with my kid(s) and the other half doing professional work.

Of course, things are rarely perfect. Like many moms, I try to multi-task a lot, checking email and making phone calls in between heating up the soup and playing a round of candy land. Instead of having dedicated time with kids, I’ve often felt distracted from work by them and distracted from them by work. As much as I enjoy writing, I’ve been happy to leave the blogging to Paul because there is always some task to attend to even after the kids are asleep – planning out a menu for the week, based on who is visiting and when Marcelline can get to the market, for example. I rarely feel like I am focused enough to sit and write.

This past week, I experienced something which felt completely new: a week dedicated to parenting. Paul left with our SALTers on Monday and only returned on Friday evening. Ahead of time, we both agreed that he would be the one working this week so that I could give my attention fully to Oren and David.

At this stage, they both need about 100% attention to be safe. For example, the morning after Paul left, I put David in his crib to keep him safe from Oren, while I stepped into the bathroom to hang up some laundry. Ten seconds later: CRASH! Oren sobbing! Big inhale and then David screaming like I’ve never heard. Apparently, David was standing up in his crib, wanting me. Oren wanted to climb into the crib and be the other baby. His weight against the gate pulled it loose and down, landing him on his rear and David on his head. It was a very bad moment for all of us, to say the least. There was a big goose egg on David’s head, but he calmed down after about 30 minutes and started acting normally. Since our doctor is still not back from vacation, I just put ice on his head and watched for concussion. Our crib would never meet any safety specs, so I’ve turned the gate against the wall now and I hope I don’t find out about any other defects any time soon.

Fortunately, that was the low point of the week. We did have many good moments. Oren went to a birthday party and played with a neighbor kid here. We met another child at the playground nearby, and since that kid speaks French, they both resorted to the international language of yelling and chasing each other in circles. It was a good way for them to get their wiggles out. On the home front, Oren began to understand a certain cost-benefit analysis. If he played quietly by himself while I got David down for his nap (instead of climbing on me and David and pretending to be the other baby) then he and I could do things together, just the two of us. We definitely had some good times on the trampoline. We replanted a whole bunch of seeds that he had worked on with my mom (many had sprouted then died while we were away on vacation). We plan to start with an herb garden for right now. As we get time and more rain and more compost soil, we’ll add lettuce and other vegetables. We were able to transplant seedlings for pumpkin and cantaloupe, inspired by Gramma Jean. Oren even got his strong helper hands to work, clearing the table after meals and cleaning up toys in various places.

David is really growing and gets around all over the house, on his fast little hands and feet. He’s getting very expressive and verbal, almost saying things like mama and dada. He’s got a particular babble that almost sounds like the name of our dog Bella, which he says whenever he sees her. He is so delighted by her and tries to climb onto her and become a puppy. He also loves human contact. This week, I have finally learned how to tie David onto my back, Burundian style. He falls asleep within 5 minutes, and then gives me my hands free to do other things with Oren like work on our recipe for homemade ice cream. We haven’t really made ice cream yet, but we’ve tried out a series of sweet milky cold things.

Of course, in this job there is no such thing as completely taking time off from work. Our service worker Jodi came down through Bujumbura and ended up spending two nights here. It was great to have her company, but of course we did find work-related things to discuss. And I did squeeze in two French lessons…But overall, it was quite refreshing to spend the time with Oren and David, focus on their learning and behavior, and not divide my attention from them.

My favorite moments were an on-going conversation with Oren at meals (when we have so many visitors, it’s not really possible to just talk with Oren). We reasoned through a series of questions like this: What if God lived at my house? Where would God sleep? Mommy & Daddy’s bed? Or maybe my bed. What game would you play with God? Pass the pigs. And jump on the trampoline. What would we give God for dinner? Spaghetti. It feels right to work on Oren’s sense of security. His most frequent question when he’s getting lonely and out of sorts is, “When are we moving back to Baltimore? Will I live in New York again in my red house?” It’s hard to hear, and not mourn the loss of the relationships he’s had there.

SATURDAY: Back to Paul

I felt like a real Burundian over the weekend as we found ourselves committed to several social obligations on both Saturday and Sunday. Saturday was the wedding of Enoch, the trainer who has been teaching Marcelline new recipes for a while. I have reported his story before, a very gentle young man who was a former child soldier and FNL rebel before being demobilized and trained as a cook.

His wedding was to begin at 2pm, and he actually phoned us 3 times during the day to be sure we knew the place and that we would be there. Marcelline actually escorted us. She showed up at our house about 2:45 and we headed out to arrive at 3:15 pm, a full hour and 15 minutes late! The good news is, we were still the first ones to arrive! The wedding party was not even there yet.

Luckily we found that Odifax, one or staff, lived across the street from the church. He invited us over to sit under a tree on some stools. It was nice and many of the women around there were thrilled to hold David. That was good because we did not want to put him on the dirt and get his clothes filthy. Although Odifax’s three children did not have any choice in the matter. In fact I was really struck by just how rude his living situation was. His house was made of mud bricks and was very small. Straw mats served as beds. I had no idea he was so poor. He lived with his wife, 3 children, mother, several brothers and their families in a tiny hut.

Just the other day, he had asked for a loan to pay for school fees for his children. We gave it to him, but now we are trying to figure out what more we could do for him to build his capacity, especially after we leave.

The wedding party eventually arrived, and as usual, we were escorted to the front of the church as guests of honor. We had wisely left Oren home with the SALTers so we only had David to contend with. He was not bad. The ceremony was long, but had some really great singing and dancing by Burundian choirs. We left after about 4 hours, making our excuses. It was a nice event, but I can only sit still without understanding anything for so long.

I am happy to report that the car worked fine this Sunday. After church we got Yolanda installed in her house and Brandon in his, entertained several drop-in visitors, and finally got a few minutes to ourselves.

Robyn is still with us but will be in her house next week.

That is all for now as the power just went off. (It now goes off at 10pm and not midnight. I liked the other way better. Although I won’t complain because I just heard that in Nairobi they are now rationing the power and turn it off all day every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.)

Last photo. Here is Rebecca who has now mastered the art of carrying David Burundian style. He likes it. He is tied on with a simple bath towel, although with the right marketing strategy, I am sure she could sell it at Babies R Us as an African baby sling for $50 each.

The car is broken down so it must be Sunday morning

I have to say, it is starting to feel a bit eerie that every incident of car trouble we have had, has fallen on Sunday morning. This has happened 4 times, and last month it occurred on two cars simultaneously (both batteries died). Each time, there was absolutely nothing wrong with the cars the night before.

So this morning, we all went out (the usual frantic Sunday morning rush to get to church before the end of worship music) only to find the front driver’s tire completely flat. There was no problem the night before, so we were quite stunned. This could have been a problem that would have prevented us from arriving at church altogether, but fortunately we still have Zachee’s car in our driveway, and it worked fine. We all piled in and went to church with the kids on our laps.

We had a big car load because… The SALTers have arrived!! They actually got here this past Monday, and have been living with us and getting oriented to Burundi this week.

They are Brandon (a different one than the one who left recently), Robin, and Yolanda. Brandon is a radio technician and will be working with one of our partners who runs a Christian radio station that is very popular in Bujumbura. Robin is a nurse, and will be serving at an AIDS clinic run by the same partner (World Outreach Initiative). Yolanda is a peace worker and will be building capacity and helping with the peace programming of our partner, Moisson Pour Christ.

The week has been spent orienting them to life in Burundi. It began with me picking them up at the airport on Monday afternoon. They had flown from Dulles, to Addis Ababa to Bujumbura on Ethiopian Air. When I saw them emerge with all they were going to have of personal possessions for the entire year, carried on their backs and hand-carrys, I was reminded of the arrival of our family just over a year ago, with everything we had in 2 suitcases for each of us.

It is an interesting kind of paring process, getting down to the bare essentials, and comfort objects you need to decide on bringing for such an assignment.

Spending the week with them in our house has been demanding, but also a great opportunity to get to know them. They seem to be excited about the work, being in a new culture, and willing to try anything. On Monday afternoon we took them out for tea with the two directors of the partnerships they will be working with.

On Wednesday evening we invited their host families to an evening gathering at our house so they could all meet. I must say, I am very pleased for the answered prayer with regard to families who are glad to welcome them. We all met together, and, not surprisingly, all the families found out that they knew each other. (I swear, everyone in Bujumbura knows each other.).

I think the placements will provide an interesting and varied experience. Yolanda and Robyn are going to be staying with two neighbors (next to each other) who are close to our house. They are very good friends of Zachee. They are Catholic, and while the Catholic/Protestant division can be intense among certain denominations in Burundi, these families were happy to accept our SALTers.
Brandon will be staying with two single young adults who share a house. They are brother and sister of a family that had 13 children by one mother and father! (Burundian families are typically large.) She is a coach on the national junior women’s tennis team.

We also took them to their workplaces where they were introduced and had a chance to see their workspaces. Typically introductions of this type involve sharing food, and we were all obliged to eat several extra meals at various times during the week as part of the ritual of hospitality and welcome.

For dinner on Thursday we had their language teachers over to meet them. We have hired two, one to teach French to Robyn and Brandon, and another to teach Yolanda Kirundi (as she already speaks French.) Our feeling on the matter is that French is far easier to get conversationally adept at than Kirundi, and most people in Bujumbura speak it. The SALTers will do a one month intensive of language study and then continue less intensively as needed after that.

Oren had a final week of summer school, and will be off for a week before the fall semester begins. It is amazing to me to think that we are already at the end of summer (in the US). Another school year is beginning. As one who has lived most of his life on the academic calendar, I am keenly aware of the shifts in the academic year that a change in season means. There is something a bit sad about being in a job now that does not have quite the same ebb and flow of an academic year, and being in a country where the change in seasons is really quite subtle. It does not get really hot here, and it definitely does not get cold either. I would love to have the sensation of taking a run on a cold fall day. I never thought I would ever say this, but I will miss the snow this year.

On the good hand, there is the tropical fruit here. I am looking at our mango tree right now, which should be bearing fruit in about a month. There are over 1000 mangoes on one of three. We also have been getting far more lemons, limes, oranges, and avocadoes off of our trees in the yard than we could possibly eat. In addition, we have some other interesting fruits that are less prolific, to wit: I ate a guava and a stick of sugar cane from our garden just yesterday.

We had our first visit to Club du Lak Tanganyika on Saturday since we have been back from break. We wanted the SALTers to see a place they could rest and relax from time to time. It was interesting to see Oren, now, so willing to go into the big pool with his water wings. He also showed his ability to hold his breath underwater. He had a great time. We stayed for dinner and ate fish briochettes.

David continues to be a delight. He smiles constantly at the sight of new people and visitors and is becoming more and more adept at locomotion in his relentless pursuit of abilities possessed by his older brother (and following him around). Oren can be very sweet to him as evidenced by the picture of them in the crib, but more often than not he is excessively rough when they play and David ends up in tears. I am not sure how long this phase will last.

Next week will be a bit hard as I am going to take the SALTers up to visit Jodi in Burasira for a week of cultural immersion and language study beginning Monday. While they are there, I will continue on up to Rwanda to do some business there and visit partners. I will come back and pick up SALTers and proceed to Bujumbura Friday if all goes according to plan. It will mean a week of Rebecca with the boys and me away from the family. I am not looking forward to that, but it seems like the best thing for this trip. I will let you know how it all goes next week.

Fixing a spare on a Sunday afternoon might seem like a curse, especially given the uncanny number of car problems we encounter on Sundays, but I prefer to see the blessing in it. First, we have not had to change a car tire until now, so it was good to see that all the necessary tools are in the jeep to do so, and they all work. We also discovered that there is a key lock on the spare, which is attached to the back door. After some diligent searching, we realized that it is the ignition key that unlocks the spare. I changed it without too much problem. So now I know, that if it it ever happens on the road, I will be able to make the necessary repairs. I am going to be thankful for the dress rehearsal, rather than complain about my bad luck.

Homecoming

David, Oren, and I at the Kenya National Museum.

I apologize for any haste in writing this entry and delay in getting it on line, but it is late now and I am dead tired. We had a line of visitors today, some making social calls to welcome us back after a long vacation, and others to help pull together last minute plans for our SALTers who are arriving tomorrow (Monday)!

As we are coming to terms with the reality that 3 new workers doubles the size of our team, and consequently our responsibility as well. At this point all of our host families are in place but we still have 3 sets of orientation guides to print and copy, as well as some shopping for food.

Jodi was with us this weekend and suggested that they do a 4 day Kirundi intensive and cultural dive-in at Burasira, so we may be there early next week. A trip to Kigali in the near future is on the docket as well.


Right now, though, it is good to have about a week without any travel. We returned from our vacation and got into Buj late Friday night. We were supposed to land around midday but we had some trouble at the Kenya airport. I will come back to that after I catch you up on the early part of the week.

We returned to Nairobi from the coast on Monday and checked into the Mennonite Guest House there. The guesthouse is simple, but very nice and the large back yard has some great swings for kids as well as opportunity for some excellent bird watching.

We had dinner with some friends of Dave and Jean (from their Bangladesh days) then said our goodbyes as they (Dave and Jean) were going to catch a plane about 5 the next morning.

On Tuesday we had visits to the pediatrician for Oren and David. It was nice to find such modern doctor’s offices that had all the vaccines they needed, and the pediatrician was excellent. We were also a bit taken aback by the price of the visit which was about the same as what we would pay in the US, and not the $5 to $10 doctor visits that we had become accustomed to in Burundi.

Wednesday was dentist day and all of us went to the dentist. This was probably the most modern, high-tech, dental office I have seen anywhere in the world, and was located in a very upscale mall. Again, we were quite shocked by the very high cost of a check up and cleaning for Rebecca, Oren and I, but were glad to see that there are places here where one can get very good dental and even orthodontic care.

We spent the rest of the day shopping for supplies in the Westgate Mall. This mall lacked nothing that could be bought in the US, and it was honestly a bit surreal to remember that we were in Kenya. Just to illustrate my point: we treated ourselves to lunch at a very nice Japanese sushi restaurant, and later had Greek food for dinner at the food court.

On Thursday we took in some sights, namely the Kenya National Museum, which has a ‘snake park’ attached to it. We chose to do the snake park only and had the chance to see many of the venomous snakes that live in East Africa up close. There are some very scary snakes here including, puff adders, Gabon vipers, cobras, and the dreaded green mambas, and black mambas. They also had crocodiles and turtles. (Although unlike Burundi, you can’t jump in the cages with crocodiles and pull their tails or feed them guinea pigs.)

We visited the Kenya MCC office for lunch on Thursday and later had dinner with a young MCC couple, Jonathan and Marti, who have two kids about the age of our own. He is an artisan and works to build the capacity of local artisans in Kenya, especially to help them develop design ideas, and quality control to be competitive in a world market. It was great to meet them, (they were good friends of Zachee, Bridget and Tim, as well as our predecessors Doug and Deanna Hiebert.) We had dinner with them and shared an Ethiopian meal at a restaurant reputed to have the best Ethiopian food in Kenya. I would have to say it is probably true. The food was awesome.

Jonathan also confirmed to us what we had been told by others, that Nairobi was becoming a very dangerous place to live due to banditry. Many expats have been mugged, car jacked or had their houses broken into. The former MCC country rep was even shot in a robbery. This is very sad as, to me, it is indicative of the rapidly growing and expanding upper class, and worsening maldistribution of prosperity in the country. This is a trend that is reflected elsewhere in Africa and much of the rest of the world.

In Nairobi it is quite astonishing to see people desperate in slums and shanty towns in such close proximity to the luxury malls I described above. I just don’t think this type of development is sustainable, even though many would argue that Kenya is a model of the African free-market model. If wealth is not redistributed in some way, I think there will be a continued and worsening trend of violence and rebellion. The first hints of this emerged in the elections a year ago.

I would add, however, that having come from Burundi, I was struck by the pride of the Kenyan people. There is something about them that is evident on a psychological level that I do not see among Burundians. There is a confidence, a spirit of entrepreneurship, hope for the future, and a sense of self worth that I think the years of trauma and civil war has bred out of many in Burundi. I think Kenyans see themselves as a force to be reckoned with in the world. This is reflected in their producing of champion marathoners, their country which is arguably one of the most beautiful and exciting tourist attractions in the world, and even the personal pride they seem to take in Obama’s presidency.

When we talked to Kenyan, be they doctors, or taxi drivers, I really noticed that they were very friendly and polite, but not self effacing. We were not stared at because we were Mzungus, or really seen as anything particularly special in Nairobi. In Burundi, I feel I am treated somewhat differently. There is far more undeserved deference and a sense of awe that I seem to experience in my interactions with many Burundians. I have no doubt that this is due to the different histories of these two countries. Kenya has been a bulwark of stability and peace in the region and Burundi has been mired in violence due to ethnic division.

I am generalizing here as there are certainly exceptions to this rule on both sides, but it was interesting to notice this, having spent time with people in these different countries.

We prepared to leave Nairobi on Friday morning. It was sad to have our vacation end, but we were ready to get back to our home in Bujumbura at this point. We got to the airport with our many bags (including an extra one that Papa Dave and brought with him of supplies for us.) and got through the ticketing process with minimal difficulty, although we were a bit late and only had about 30minutes before the plane took off.

I had a slight pang of suspicion that something was not right when the agent sent us to the gate area but told us they had not announced a gate yet. He did tell me that the plane was not listed as delayed though. We got to the gate area and waited for an announcement or listing for out gate, but as the time for departure came and went, it never appeared.

Not only that, but the departure board subornly did not acknowledge that it was delayed or cancelled. I did notice, however, (it was noon now) that every single flight on Kenya airways since 7 am had been delayed or cancelled. In essence nothing from Kenya airways had taken off at all the entire morning. I looked outside to see if there was a storm or other weather problem--nothing, I speculated that maybe there was a bomb scare, but surmised that there was probably a strike that began that morning that was trying to be kept quiet by the airport authorities.

This was confirmed when Rebecca went up to ask and got a sneak peak a memo to that effect on the info desk. Interestingly enough, no official at the airport ever said a word about it, and seemed to be trying the strategy of keeping everyone in the dark about it as long as possible.

With our flight in limbo it was hard to know how to proceed. It was not delayed or cancelled, but it was not on time either. We waited for several more hours and were trying to see if they could rebook, but they did announce our flight for a later time that day. We had no confidence that it would leave but no choice but to wait and see.

To make a long story short, after many more hours of stall tactics and shunting us around to different places, we did get on our flight that evening and got home about 9pm, 12 hours after we had arrived at the airport in Kenya.

It is sad to have such a great vacation come to an end. One thing I value about a vacation is the opportunity to reset. Even more than the great sites, was the chance to put back into practice, good habits of self care and spiritual discipline. Rebecca and I were able to swim most every morning, read the Bible, and eat healthily. I am coming back renewed and refreshed, and committed to trying to be more wholistic in balancing work, family and self care. This first week back we are already having to break some of those resolutions as we frantically get ready for our new team members arriving.

That said, we are glad to be back, everything here is coated in a thick layer of dust. I am looking forward to the rainy season here!

A week in Paradise: Coral Reefs, Coastal Forests, and Worship under the Cashew Trees

Papa Dave, Rebecca, Oren and David at the Nairobi airport waiting for our flight to the coast for our last week of vacation.




If you are following this blog regularly, you know that Rebecca and I are currently on vacation with Rebecca’s parents, Dave and Jean, and we have just left three days of safari in Northern Kenya to spend a week along the coast north of Mombasa near a town called Malindi. (The Indian Ocean borders the whole east coast of Kenya for those who are geographically challenged.)

The place we are staying is called Turtle Bay Beach Club, and it is far and away one of the nicest places I have ever stayed (as far as vacation accommodations) in my life. The place came highly recommended to us as very beautiful AND family-friendly with lots of activities for the kids. We have not been disappointed!

I am putting a picture in here, but to capture the beauty of this place would take a photo album. There are so many amazing features, but much of the daily activity is focused around an enormous swimming pool (one of three) which sits about 100 yards off the beach. By day, there is opportunity to swim, eat sumptuous food, play darts, table tennis or water polo, or simply join the other sun worshippers reading books and dozing around the pool. Or, one could walk behind the wall onto the powder white sand beach and enjoy sitting under or climbing the expansive mangrove trees, wind surfing, sailing, canoeing, exploring ponds filled with eels, watching sea turtles, going deep sea fishing, or snorkeling through one of the most fish-filled coral reefs in the world.

Rebecca and I opted for snorkeling on Thursday and took an excursion (for birding) into the Arabuko-Sokoke forest on Saturday. I will give a brief account of each of these excursions, although I do not have pictures because I do not have a camera that goes underwater or a telephoto lens powerful enough to shoot wildlife unless it is very large or very nearby (or both).

I should begin by mentioning one trip earlier in the week that we were able to take as a whole group (grandparents and kids included). We visited the Gede ruins, an old Swahili trading town from the 15th Century that was apparently abandoned at some point in the 17th century due to a lack of water and political competition. The ruins are interesting and Oren enjoyed running around the broken and partial walls of the remaining structures. Much to our chagrin, he quickly made his favorite activity peering into the ancient wells that are quite dry and about one hundred feet deep. He made a thorough search of all the grounds to be able to look into as many wells as possible. This required us to hold him thrashing by the hand for much of the excursion.

Next door was a much less threatening nature center which housed 100s of species of indigenous butterflies in a giant aviary. Butterflies from Kenya are exported all over the world to collectors and zoos (while they are cocoons). I had no idea there was so much opportunity for income generation through the butterfly trade, but many local community members benefit as they are involved in capturing them in the forest and raising larvae in their homesteads. We found that this area has numerous projects aimed at finding ways for the community to generate income sustainably so that they can value and protect the neighboring forests and marine park. In the midst of poverty, with such pressure for fuel and food, it’s refreshing to see people working hard to save the natural habitats for the long-term (utterly impossible to imagine in Burundi so far).

On the way home from this trip we visited a fair-trade wood carving facility and bought some really beautifully carved animals. Oren enjoyed watching the carvers make and paint the animals. He is quite a shopper and was asking everyone he met how much their wares cost and was prepared to strike a bargain for most everything. (This delighted the merchants but was a bit of a challenge for the parents who had to diplomatically say ‘No’. Over and over and over.)

Wednesday was spent enjoying the pool and working vigorously on teaching Oren how to hold his breath under water. This has been a point of concern for us because he has no instinct for this, and in fact usually inhales suddenly when his face hits the water. He has been somewhat stubborn about learning to hold his breath, but the good news is that we finally made a breakthrough this week and he can put his head underwater without drowning. The next step is swimming although that will have to wait until we are back in Burundi.

On Thursday the Grandparents agreed to watch the kids so Rebecca and I could go snorkeling. There is a weekly expedition from the hotel guided by a zoologist who is quite good. We learned a lot about the reef before we even left the hotel. The reef is like the barrier reef in Australia in that one has to take a boat quite far out off the coast (in low tide) to get to it. Once there you can go in the water and snorkel along quite long walls of coral, filled with tropical fish that are able to grow unusually large because of the peculiar conditions of temperature and current here. (The groupers can get up to 12 feet long.)

We saw many beautiful angel fish, butterfly fish, surgeon fish, parrot fish and a moray eel. This was Rebecca’s first snorkeling experience and she found it magical to just float above such an incredible array of sizes and shapes and colors. It was much like bird watching – except easier! We also learned that white sand beaches are all created by parrotfish, which chew up and digest coral. They apparently expel about a kilogram a day each. Since there are approximately 50,000 around the reef near us, they produce about 50 tons of sand per day. Consequently they have added many miles of land to the coast over the past several thousand years. Our guide also pointed out, indelicately, that everything we were sitting or walking on from the coast to several miles inland, had passed through the intestines of a parrotfish.

On Friday, Rebecca and her Mom took a bird walking trip around the neighboring village down to the mangrove swamps. Their guide recommended we do a trip into the one-of-a-kind Arabuko-Sokoke forest. This place is unique in that it is one of the few remaining protected dry coastal forests in the world. It is home to many unique indigenous species of flora and fauna, particularly birds and butterflies (over 250 species of each!). The forest is also home to about 80 elephants and their diminutive cousins, the secretive elephant shrews.

Rebecca and I once again took up the grandparents’ generous offer to baby-sit the kids so we could go on a 4 hour guided trek into the forest. The trip started out extremely well as we immediately caught sight of an extremely rare spotted ground thrush right when we got out of the car. This was followed shortly by our happening upon a small group of elephant shrews who scurried around on the path in front of us for about 15 minutes. FYI, the elephant shrew has a long snout, black body, yellowish-brown backside, and looks to be the size of a small dachshund.

We also saw several other species of birds including a Narina trogon and several varieties of hornbills. The forest itself is unusual, filled with beautiful indigenous trees with fancifully twisting limbs reaching out into a broad, light canopy. It was a really great outing and we had the sense that we had been blessed by this rare opportunity to see such a rare natural wonder of the world. Sadly we were told that efforts to protect this forest are ongoing as there are many who would like to convert it into farmland and other profitable real-estate.

On Sunday we decided to visit a local church that Rebecca and Jean had seen in a nearby village (outside the resort) on their bird walk. The sign they had read said the English service began at 9:15 and ended at 10:15. Despite our best efforts, we were not able to get out of the hotel until about 9:15 and started the twenty minute walk to the church. About half an hour in, we guessed we had taken a wrong turn and got directions back to the path we were supposed to be on. It was close to 10 when we arrived, but, thanks to African sense of time, instead of being 45 minutes late, we were 5 minutes early! The congregation actually met outdoors underneath 2 cashew trees. The singing, all a cappella, was beautiful (all in Swahili). There was an opening sermon followed by more singing and then an extended period of prayer.

I am used to hearing this kind of group prayer where everyone says their own prayers out loud, but I have not often seen it build to a place where much of the congregation (30 people) were weeping openly. I pictured this scene multiplied all over Africa and much of the rest of the world. People crying out to God, praising, worshipping, and calling out to Him, and I believe it gives Him pleasure to hear this praise and adoration.

I did think about the fact that I have rarely prayed myself to the point of weeping, but then, I thought about the fact that my life has been so privileged, and mercifully free of tragedy and hardship, that I have not ever come before him on my knees and surrendered in quite such an abandoned way. I do feel like something is missing for me because of that, although, having seen the appalling hardship and tragedy that so many in this part of the world endure, I don’t know if I would be able to pay the price for that kind of expression. I did feel blessed by being able to share in worship with this community, and they were delighted to welcome us. (We did duck out before the beginning of the second sermon as the kids were getting quite antsy and it looked to be going on for several more hours.)

We spent the rest of Sunday relaxing on the beach and swimming in the pool. Rebecca and I have also been enjoying daily early morning swims. I really feel like I have recovered a lot of my health and physical, as well as spiritual, well-being from this trip.

Monday we head back to Nairobi where Dave and Jean will depart for the US. We will spend several more days visiting doctors, dentists and possibly other MCCers, then head back to Bujumbura on Friday.

Here is a photo of some Masaai performing at the hotel. They can jump really high repeatedly, like kangaroos! Very impressive!

Sweetwaters, Swimming, and A Room of One’s Own?

David is the great animal lover of the family. Here he is saying goodbye to Bella before we departed for vacation.




As paradoxical as this might sound, I am starting this blog entry from a luxury TENT. And if you find the concept of a luxury tent hard to grasp, you might find it even more oxymoronic that I am freezing my A…err fingers off despite the fact that I am sitting exactly on the equator in July!

Actually I am with Rebecca, her parents (Papa Dave and Grandma Jean), Oren and David at Sweet Waters, a resort Safari lodge located in Northern Kenya. The rooms are tents, but extremely well appointed tents, underneath thatch roofs. They form a semi-circle around a watering hole on a game reserve with Mount Kenya as a backdrop. It is called Sweet Waters, and at the risk of sounding like an advertisement from the Kenya Office of Tourism, I would have to say it is quite amazing.

We have taken several safari drives in the park over the past two days and have seen many gazelle including Impala, Grant’s and Thompson’s Gazelle, Oryx, Hartebeast, and Waterbuck. We also aw several Black and White Rhinos, Elephants, Zebras, Giraffes, numerous birds, baboons, etc, many of these right outside our tent at the watering hole.

For ‘Burundians’ like Rebecca and I, the experience of arriving in Nairobi is like culture shock. Kenya is so developed compared to Burundi! There is evidently enough of a wealthy urban class to support many large luxurious malls with absolutely anything you could want (bowling alley, movie theatre, kids’ activities, food court and shops), all designed so beautifully and tastefully, that they could compete with malls anywhere..

There are also many things for kids to do, things that I associate with being in the US, like large indoor playgrounds in malls, air houses for bouncing, and waterslide parks. Also, because Kenya was an English colony, the official languages are Swahili and English, and everyone speaks English here.


So how did we get here? Rebecca and I finished off all our last business on Monday. We basically had one day to tie up all the loose ends for two weeks off. Needless to say, many minor crises came up and we were not able to even start packing before Tuesday morning to be ready for our noon flight.

Among the problems we were still in the process of solving was finding housing for our arriving MCC ‘SALT’ workers. Last week I had mentioned the challenge of finding housing for 3 westerners to live with host families in Bujumbura. We had looked extensively, and over the weekend several places we thought would work out fell through. On Monday evening we went to visit the last family we hoped would be able to invite one of the SALTers to stay. We had not met the family before, a mother with three adult children (college age), but we were delighted with the house and the charm of all of them. We talked extensively about the concept MCC has for placement with host families—that we do not want to ‘rent a room’ but rather place a person in a situation as a ‘family member.’

The family seemed amenable to this, and talked about their experience hosting another young woman from Sweden the year before. The daughter of the family seemed particularly interested in the young woman we were bringing in and asked many pertinent questions. Rebecca and I were delighted to have found such a wonderful placement, and right next door to one of our other workers’ host families.

Usually in Burundi one saves the difficult business for the end of a conversation, and I have had many meetings with partners where a quip as we were walking out the door was really the entire reason we had been asked over for a conversation. So I am used to that. Sure enough there was one small catch to this living situation that they let us know about after a full hour of conversation and discussions of logistics, etc.

The mother said to me, as we were leaving (Rebecca was actually outside the door taking a cell phone call) --that she wanted to be sure that the girl we invited would be comfortable staying in her daughter’s room with her daughter and sharing a full size bed with her.

I wish I could have captured on video my effort to stifle any display of shock or disbelief. Perhaps you have had to stifle a sneeze in a public place, and tried to disguise the fact that you even were sneezing…that is kinda how I imagine I looked.

I know it is a cultural thing, but most Americans I know are used to having at least some completely personal space. I am also aware that for most of the rest of this world, that is a huge luxury. Rebecca and I went home, prayed about it, then talked with Jodi about the whole meeting (she had actually gone with us). We decided it would probably be best to lay it all out for the SALTer who we had in mind for the placement and let her decide. We really did think this was a very good situation in all other respects.

Long story short, the day we left, our SALTer wrote back and said she would be willing to give it a try. We will need to be checking in frequently on this situation, but I am optimistic that God will bless this placement especially because of the sacrifice being made by both the family and our worker for the coming year.

With that settled we were free to pack and leave for vacation on Tuesday. Jodi drove Rebecca, Grandma Jean, David, Oren and I to the airport and we got on the plane and took the short flight to Nairobi from Bujumbura without incident. We arrived about an hour ahead of Papa Dave, who was coming to join us for our sojourn in Kenya.

After much planning by email, we had settled on spending the first two days in Nairobi, then 2 days up north in Sweetwaters for a safari, then a week at the beach near Mombasa at a place called Turtle Bay Beach Club. For the most part, this trip was made possible by the grandparents’ frequent flyer miles, and their great generosity prompted by this special rendezvous with their rarely-seen missionary-kid grandchildren. (This is not a trip that could be done on an MCC vacation allowance, but we are very grateful!)

Our first two days in Nairobi were spent at the Methodist guest house. (The Mennonite guest house was full.) I would say ‘guest house’ is a pretty broad term as this was a four story building with about 100 rooms, a restaurant and gift shop. It also had, much to the delight of Rebecca and I, a full size swimming pool for lap swimming! We both love to swim, but it is so hard to get away with two kids to do so. We took full advantage of having the grandparents with us to swim as much as possible in the afternoons we were there.

I could do an aside here on the ‘blessedness’ of swimming. I have to say, there is really nothing quite like the feeling one has right after a long hard swim in a pool. It is interesting, I already have an association with Methodists and swimming, as the swim coach in Poughkeepsie, NY (Ron Terwilliger) is a member of the United Methodist Church where Rebecca and I served. (I swam 'religiously' every Tuesday and Thursday morning the last 2 years I was in Poughkeepsie at the pool he managed.) Anyway, those swims at the Methodist Guest House were every bit as satisfying as a day on safari or at a resort on the beach for me. I should add though that while the equator runs right through Kenya, Nairobi is at an altitude of about 6000 feet, so the water was freezing even in this season!!

Besides swimming, we also went to a mall where Oren could do some kid friendly things that are not possible to do in Burundi. I mentioned the indoor playground and airhouse. He also got to drive an electric car and eat several bowls and cones of ice cream while he was there.

As I complete the blog, we are currently at our next destination, Turtle Bay Beach Club, which I will describe in more detail next week.

One thing I will add as a postscript is the awareness I have on this trip of the disparity between rich and poor in Kenya. We drove out of the highly-developed consumer-friendly areas of Nairobi, crossed the Ring Road, as if we were leaving town, and then were shocked to see low-income housing and slums stretching out for miles. Deep poverty is evident in the countryside as we drove up north, and as we’ve driven along the coast. As we drove to this resort, virtually all the houses we saw were poorly constructed of sticks, mud and thatch. It’s a little hard to relax in luxury with this awareness. There’s a lot of development here, but development for whom? This has led to a phenomenally high crime rate, with frequent muggings and robberies especially in Nairobi, which means we need to be careful about where we go.

This is becoming more and more the story in other countries as well. In Burundi, the day before we left we received a notification from the US embassy that crimes by armed bandits against expatriates are rapidly on the rise. This is due, to some extent, to the fact that a great many former rebels (now demobilized with the signing of the Arusha Peace Accords) find themselves going from a 14-year career as fighters, to being unemployed and unskilled on the street in Bujumbura. Banditry is sadly the peace dividend we are gleaning, at least in the short run.