The Social Life of Oren

Oren occasionally finds the camera and goes around the house taking pictures, most are not great, but this one of David is pretty good!


Some weeks I feel I am belaboring a point, and I am sorry about that, but the power situation here is getting worse and worse. We have been averaging about 4-6 hours of power every 24 hours. What is particularly frustrating is there is no predictability about when this will be. Sometimes it is on from midnight to 5 in the morning, other days it is in the mid afternoon, morning or evening. It makes me yearn for the good old days when it reliably was off from midnight until 6 am. It is also baffling that some areas have virtually no problems (particularly rich areas like the quartiers where the President and ministers of parliament live). We are not in a ‘privileged’ quartier so we seem to have it the worst.

The prevailing rumor now is that this is an infrastructure problem and not a water shortage or anything else. They just do not have enough power to cover all of the rapidly growing Bujumbura. They expect to solve it in the next four years. (the length of our term) Sadly, it does not appear to me that infrastructure has changed much since colonialism, but I am probably wrong about that. I have also heard that Burundi, despite these shortages, continues to sell electricity to neighboring Rwanda and Congo. I don’t know if this is true, but it would not surprise me if it was, and that someone in the government is making a lot of money off of it.

It is honestly making working at home, doing laundry etc. very difficult. We can barely keep our computer batteries charged. Once again, tonight, I am racing against time finish this blog before I run out of batteries. (Sorry no proofing until later in the week.)

While this was not a traveling week, it was not without significant events. Oren completed another week of school without incident, and in fact, I am happy to report that he seems to be moving again into a more positive phase. He has been acting out a bit due to missing home and misbehaving around us, but once school began and he has been able to be with friends again, he really seems more happy and well adjusted. He has several friends including a neighborhood kid who drops by almost daily after school and they play together, either climbing trees or jumping on the tramp. (His name is Cedric.)

The other exciting news for Oren is that TIMMY is back!! Yes, Zachee, Bridget and Timmy got back early Thursday morning. Oren saw Timmy at school on Friday and was quite excited to see him back. Catching up with Zachee after his 3 months in Canada was really great. It was interesting to see a person experiencing reverse culture shock so fully. Zachee has lived his whole life in Burundi, but coming back after such a long absence seemed to be a bit disorienting for him. The other big surprise is that Timmy is not an English speaker! He apparently practiced English intensely the whole time there and came back able to carry on a decent conversation with us when he arrived. It was honestly a bit shocking for us since we are so used to speaking to him in French and to have he and Oren communicate with yelling. Now Zachee and Bridget are encouraging us to speak English to him so he won’t lose it. It is great for Oren, but there goes another francophone friend who could help him improve his French.

Actually, I had, until recently, thought he had really learned no French, but I think I am wrong now. I can give him instructions in French and he understands them, so there seems to be some progress.

If there is anything that has defined this week, it is a return to routines. I am happy for the rhythm that a school year provides and it is good to be back in that routine. Many of our friends and Oren’s have returned from long vacations, many new faces have replaced the old that left during the summer. Rebecca and I are back into our language lessons and work routine. Two big changes, one is that David is not too old to take to the office so we now go one at a time for the beginning of the week. We meet at home for lunch then switch off or do language lessons. On Thursday and Friday, Marcelline does less cooking and takes care of David while we do work together (usually at home on the computer.) This seems to be working pretty well for now.

The other big change is building in some habits of renewal, to wit: regular exercise. We have included in our rotation, the opportunity for each of us to go separately for a daily swim before we work. We have recently discovered a really good 35 meter pool right near our office. I find I have it almost entirely to myself from 8-9 each morning. The workout is really transforming my capacity to deal with the many frustrations and challenges of work here. I am really thanking God for this small blessing.

I am also happy to say that I went to capoeira again this past Thursday, as the teacher is back in town. (Just a reminder, he is the principle of the school Oren goes to, The Ecole Belge.) It is great to be able to this again as it seems to keep me agile and flexible a good counter to the backbreaking driving routine upcountry and to Rwanda.

Our SALTers are still doing quite well and are learning language intensively as well as working. We still have Robyn at our house as her host family are still dealing with some unexpected ‘drop in’ relatives that they need to let stay for a bit. (Refusing hospitality to relatives is a faux-pas here, no matter how much it may inconvenience or even impoverish you.) We anticipate her being here about 2 more weeks before she moves in. She has been anxious about being immersed in language so last week we invited Francine to come over and have dinner and stay the nights with us until Robyn moves out. She did stay several times last week and that was really fun. She is such a dear person and a really good cultural attaché.

On Friday we also had Onesphore drop in with his wife Innocente and children, Jim and Deborah. It was a very nice visit and David was very happy to play with Deborah. Onesphore did drop one small bomb on us though when he told us Innocente would have to go to France for 2 years to finish her medical residency in gynecology. (They do 3 years in Burundi and 2 in France to complete.) I can’t even say how much my heart went out to them. She will only be able to visit once in the 2 years she is gone (because of money) and of course Onesphore going out to visit her with the kids would be impossible as far as getting a visa. (Their children, Jim and Deborah are the same ages as Oren and David.)

I honestly cannot imagine such a sacrifice to finish one’s degree, yet I have seen this happen a lot here, particularly for anyone who wants to get ahead. I am hoping we can find ways to support Onesphore and his children emotionally while she is gone. (his sister will help with childcare as well, but I cannot imagine how she will be able to cope without seeing her kids for that long.)


The weekend had it share of interesting social events as well. We went to a birthday party that Oren was invited to by one of his school friends. We did not know the family, but knew they were part of the European secular NGO community. It is a very different gathering than a missionary event. The kids had many things to do in the yard like swim or jump in an air house, while the adults would sit around drinking Amstels and smoking while chatting about life here, the lack of power, upcoming elections, etc. Nonetheless, Oren seemed to have a good time, and we like to have him get opportunities to socialize with his school friends outside of school.

On Saturday evening we went over to watch a movie with Astrud and Travis’ family. I mentioned them last week. They have 4 girls and are trying to adopt a fifth. They are definitely becoming good friends and they have a family movie night on Saturday’s where the kids bring all the mattresses out into the living room and watch a kids movie projected from a computer on the wall. This week as the movie Underdog!

Sunday was also fairly busy. After church we went right to the beach because we had plans to go to the recently restarted English fellowship in the afternoon. We were going to a second service because Rebecca is committed to find or create a good Sunday school situation for Oren, which he has not had until this point (At our own church, all Sunday school is in Kirundi). Rebecca was the teacher this week. I think it went pretty well from what she said, although she came home feeling a bit like she had the flu.

I made dinner for us in the dark and finally got the kids to bed about 8:30. So it light’s out for now, (Oh, the lights are already out.)