Three Goodbyes

Oren has a drawing video for Kung-fu panda characters.  Here is his rendition of viper.  Great for a 5 year old in my opinion.


One of the benefits of the diet Rebecca and I have been on the past 3 weeks is the opportunity to try our hand at making some foods we are allowed to eat but are not easy to find here.  Since we cannot eat carbohydrates or sugar, that leaves vegetables, meat, and dairy products.  We eat tons of fresh vegetables every day, but meat choices are pretty much beef or lake perch.  We have decided to try to be more creative with dairy.

In Burundi there is an abundance of locally produced fresh milk.  Rebecca and I are able to buy it at a stall right next to our house.  You just bring a large container over and they fill it.  (Like a gallon)  When we bring it home, our cook boils it (as it is probably not pasteurized.)  It is fairly cheap, about $4 a gallon.  Also available here is one type of cheese (from Congo) that tastes like a strong gouda.  (And gets ripe--stinky-very quickly)  There is also yogurt available, made locally by a Catholic mission upcountry and sold in Bujumbura.  Ice cream is also beginning to be available at an affordable price thanks to Burundi joining the East Africa Community.

But all the other dairy products, are not possible to get or are fantastically expensive and available at exorbatant prices.  to wit:  Cream cheese, ricotta, mozarella, and any other cheese.  However, as I said, with our diet we have been experimenting with and finding ways to have some of these things by making them ourselves.

Cream cheese and ricotta are the easiest.  Cream cheese can be produced by straining yogurt in a cheesecloth (we use a clean cloth diaper)  We set the cloth in a strainer then pour the yogurt in at night.  By the next morning the cloth contains a large lump of fresh cream cheese.

Ricotta is similar only done with milk.  We add vinegar (about 1/3 cup) to a gallon of milk which curdles it.  We then strain it with the cheese cloth and have ricotta in about an hour.  (If you want Indian paneer just strain a bit longer and press it with a heavy object when dry.)

I also started making our own yogurt yesterday just by adding a tsp. of some other yogurt to a jar of warm milk and leaving it out overnight. Alas, all our home-made dairy products are made with full-cream milk -- so we're still eating a lot more milk fat than would be ideal.

Several of our friends even make their own butter and even skimmed milk.  We have not been that ambitious to date. We'd welcome simple ideas for separating the cream from fresh milk!

Besides making dairy products (and our own dog food) we have had a fairly full week in other ways.  If I would characterize it themeatically, I would say much of our work was around saying good-bye.

I mentioned last week that we said good-bye, for a time, to our South African missionary friends Tim and Jeanette who are on furlough, but this week our biggest good-bye was for our team member Jodi Mikalachki.  Actually to be accurate, it was she who was saying goodbye to the community where her assignment was based.  That is the Hope School on a hill called Nyangungu.

Jodi arrived shortly before we did, and it is hard to believe that her 3 year assignment is coming to an end.  I went up to get her on Wednesday morning.   It is a long drive and I went alone because I anticipated bringing quite a bit of stuff back with her.  I had lunch with Jodi and her staff (2 nightguards, gardener, and cook) before we loaded all of her bags that she will take with her back to the U.S.  I also greeted the priests at the seminary next to her house and thanked them for watching over her as well during her time in the country.

Jodi represents a now-rare type of mission worker: A missionary who feels deeply called to a life of service in a very remote place, drawing her emotional and spirtual support from the local community, learning the language and deeply integrating herself into the life of the community.  Not to be cliche, but I do almost feel I can see into the heart of Mother Theresa when I am with her.  She is empassioned for the people she has worked among.   Although this assignment is ending for her, I have no doubt she will find a way to come back here again someday.

There are 2-3 other mzungus like her in Burundi I know--a dying breed perhaps in the mission field.  They are all women, and while I don't want to stereotype, I believe that this type of long-suffering and compassion seems to be more of a female quality than a male one.  My experience (personal) is that men like to go in and 'fix', train, solve, but not neccesarily 'abide'.  I suppose there are places for both kinds of interventions, but I truly admire those who are willing to abide.



I drove Jodi back to Bujumbura on Wednesday.  (The same day I picked her up.)  We got back to my house about 6:30 pm.  Yolanda was there and the Horsts also popped over for a short farewell visit.  Jodi will actually leave the country this coming Wednesday as there is quite a bit of debriefing we do here with her before she goes back for more debriefing at MCC headquarters in Akron, PA.

Jodi is not the only big farewell we bid this month.  I sadly announce the departure of our favorite Indian restaurant in the world, Khana Khazana.  It arrived here just 2 years ago and made us feel that Bujumbura contained a little slice of heaven.  But it has closed for reasons unknown to me, perhaps difficulty keeping a business open profitably in this country.  There is still a decent Indian restaurant here called Tandoor, but Khana Khazana was the best.

The last goodbye and the way I will end this entry is a tribute to a friend at our church.  His name is Gerard Nzeyimana, a man with a young family, who ran sound for the worship team among other tasks at the church.  He was one of the increasing number of victims of traffic accidents.  He was hit on his motorcycle and died in the hospital after several hours in a coma.

Although he was not a close companion, he was someone who was always willing to help out, and as a mechanic, helped me get my car started on several occasions at the church.  I could tell he always did this out of the goodness of his heart and not in expectation of a 'tip'.  This is not a common experience to me.  He was someone who always greeted me with a smile and handshake when I saw him on Sunday morning.  I know now that he is with the Lord.  But I do pray that you would keep his wife and 3 young children in mind and prayer as the loss of a breadwinner here can be devastating in the absence of a welfare safety net.

I went to the funeral today.  It is interesting to hear the message at a Burundian funeral that I could understand.  (They translated in English for the anglophones there.)  There is a lot more emphasis here on the sovereignty of God and his 'doing' this for purposes we cannot understand but must accept.  It may be subtle but I feel like in our country there is a more nuanced theology of God 'allowing' in the sense that we often do not talk about God inflicting tragedy in such an active way.  God suffering with us.  I do not think anyone has a simple explanation on the 'problem of suffering', but it is interesting to hear subtle diferences in theology between our cultures as Christians.

I will say that Burundians, Christians and otherwise, have learned to endure tremendous suffering over generations and are markedly staid in the face of tragedy, yet resillient as well.  (Sadly, growing up without one or more parents from an early age is almost emblematic of life here in the last 20 years.)  Because of that, I believe that many who can truly relate to the suffering of this family are also able to give them comfort and hope.

As for me, I have known more people who have died here in the past 2 years than I have probably known my whole life before arriving.  As a man over 50 with both of my parents still living, I am a true enigma here.  Today, though, I am remembering that every day of life is a gift, and not to take any of time with my wife and children for granted.