I feel I can get off a little this evening because Rebecca wrote a midweek report about the Presidential election. As she noted, they went fairly smoothly and the current President won a whopping 85% majority in the country. Of course he was the sole candidate so that makes it a bit easier. Although we still hear reports of grenade attacks from time to time, it does not seem that anyone is in an uproar.
Actually the current obsession is the World Cup. It honestly seems as if everyone has stopped doing everything in order to watch it. Even Rebecca and I turn it on most evenings and anytime a goal is scored we hear loud shouts from all over the city wafting into our windows.
The defeat of Ghana was quite surprising as far as experiencing here what I would call an "African" psychology. I have not really sensed any consciousness in Burundi of people seeing themselves as "Africans". In fact, they seem far more interested in parsing differences between Hutu, Tutsi, Twa, etc. But when Ghana was playing Uruguay and was ultimately defeated I sensed in the city, everywhere, a sense of deep sadness and disappointment. Ghana, the only African team left in the quarter finals was the great African hope, and the loss was palpable here.
(It was interesting listening to the game here in French and then hearing Burundian commentary afterward, the word Uruguay sounds phonetically like the Kirundi Uragwaye which means "You are sick." Or Uragoye "You are annoying". ) Anyway, Uruguay did not please anyone in Africa on Friday night.
One thing I should mention in this blog is the weather. It is the dry season, and although it is a bit cooler than other times of year, it is so dry and dusty. This is exasperated by the fact that our road is being fixed. This involves pushing a lot of dirt around with road graders. We have about a quarter inch of dust on the porch and in the house every other day. It is like living in volcanic ash I suppose. Our poor cleaner, Odifax has to work extremely hard to keep the place clean.
This also means the kids are constantly filthy. They really seem to like to roll in the dirt, often they play at home in the hose so the dust turn to a sort of fine mud that covers their clothes and bodies. Despite this, David and Oren are great playmates these days, especially that Oren is out of school.
Oren still complains about missing school and asks daily if it is beginning again soon, but he does find things to do at home, and we have devised a series of projects that are like things he does at school. The other problem is that most all of his school friends have left town for the summer (and elections.) We have gone to Club du Lac T from time time and have found it eerily quiet, no kids running around and playing in the pool. There are a few dads left, but everyone else is gone.
Probably the most interesting day of the week was Sunday. It began with Rebecca and the kids going to our regular church service while I went to visit a local "Mennonite" church here. I put Mennonite in quotations because it is not a church recognized in any way by the Mennonite World Conference, it is just a church registered by a Burundian pastor here as the Burundian Mennonite Church in hopes of getting some money from MCC or other Mennonite groups.
It was not an easy visit. I generally do not like to go on 'field visits' because of the artifice surrounding such events. I am always put in a place of honor and it always seems as if the entire event is a performance for me. It is then followed by a giant meal in my honor.
This was no different, and in fact I was seated on a platform directly behind the pastor, basically in the place at the front of the church where one hangs a crucifix or cross. If I had extended my arms out I would have made a good substitute Jesus, and that is exactly how I felt.
It does annoy me when I feel like, as a white person, we are perceived to be saviors here, it is a mentality here that particularly grieves me, and a peception that is particularly hard to break. I generally need to sit quietly in such spectacles and be gracious and polite.
Later, I privately explained for the 100th time to the pastor that MCC does not support churches and would not be providing them with a new church building or a new vehicle at any time in the future. I did manage to leave after being with them about three and a half hours.
Sunday afternoon was far better. All of the US citizens in Burundi were invited to a party at the marine house (place where US marines who guard the embassy live--there are 6 of them I think) for a 4th of July picnic. It was a lot of fun. I was not surprised to see that basically every American in Burundi could fit in a backyard. The food was awesome! It was a potluck featuring a lot of American picnic food like deviled eggs, potato salad, baked beans, enchiladas, apple pie, brownies, etc.
What struck me was the diversity of careers and political persuasions represented there, conservative Christians, University students doing research, military and diplomatic personnel, heads of NGOs (liberals), even a few Jehovahs Witnesses. But there was no feeling of "Red and Blue" here. There was no political bitterness between us all. We were all really happy to be together with other Americans regardless of who they were. It was a particularly meaningful 4th of July.
Among the things we did besides swim and chat, was hear a speech from Obama read, and watch a ceremony of a marine being promoted.
After the picnic we went over to the English fellowship where Rebecca preached the last sermon of that service for the summer. We came home pretty exhausted and Rebecca in the kids went to bed right after dinner.
Afterthought:
I am thinking, after spending time with other Americans on July 4th, about our country. I am grateful to be an American, especially when I think about the ideals our country was built on. But I do skim daily, reports about the bitter political and idealogical battles being waged over 'liberal' and 'conservative' issues regarding the economy, social, and other defining issues.
It is interesting to see Burundi through the lens of some of these debates. Here, for instance, is a 2nd Ammendment's fan's paradise. Everyone seems to have the right to bear arms and form militias to oppose the government and they do! Small arms and hand grenades are readily available on the black market for as little as $1 each. Consequently political differences that we might settle or argue about in a newspaper, are discussed here with randomly lobbed grenades. (Grenades are also used to settle other disputes like being dumped by your girlfriend. I guess that is a hazard of having them readily available for political discourse.)
I am pretty desensitized but I think visitors are a bit alarmed to see most every police man wielding an m-16, AK-47 or other automatic weapon ( and there are 100s of police in town everywhere you go.) But with everyone having access to a weapon, law enforcement needs a lot of them too. We are very used to hearing automatic weapon fire and grenades going off every night and are told that it is not a war, just criminals breaking and entering houses to rob people. (Probably being met with return fire.)
Abortion is also illegal here and family planning is not promoted (except abstinence only). The average family size is about 7 children and more than 50% of the country is under 17. There is not sufficient money for education or any plan about what will happen to future generations. Food security is a serious problem as well. People just keep having more and more babies with a faith that God will take of them. (Most of them leave it up to God because parents rarely survive beyond the age of 45)
Homosexuality, of course. is illegal as well, and in neighboring Uganda there is legislation in Parliament to make homosexuality punishable by death. I think Burundi would find support to follow suit.
So I guess it depends on what you want. In some ways it seems like there are those in our country that would like to see us look a bit more like Burundi with a lot of militias and gun wielding citizens, more babies, and a lot less homosexuals.
I guess after living here, I am appreciating more the great diversity and tolerance our great society allows. I appreciate the protection our government offers all its citizens, and especially the many good social things our taxes pay for like social security, schools, good roads, national parks, social services, sewage systems, garbage collection, and protection from being poisoned by food we eat, water we drink, etc.
It is in light of all of this that I can say with pride and happiness "God Bless America". I hope that Burundi might strive to resemble us at our best, and we would not strive to resemble Burundi at its worst.
No comments:
Post a Comment