Homeleave #3: A visit to Poughkeepsie

Poughkeepsie United Methodist Church, NY, --seen in the rain as we headed out of town.


I think it would be good to put a few things down 'on the record' after the past week and a half have elapsed.  We have been in Baltimore since our arrival in the US with Rebecca's parents, but we planned and took a trip to our old stomping ground, Poughkeepsie, NY, this past week between Wednesday June 15th to the 22nd.  In many ways, since I know there are many faithful readers who live in Poughkeepsie, I feel like this blog post should serve as a heartfelt thanks for all those who hosted us, cared for us, took us out, and prayed with us, during the time we there, and a sincere apology to all whom we were not able to see because of time constraints.

The road trip north began with a stop on Wednesday in Akron, PA, which is the home of MCC headquarters.  We went there to debrief a bit on the last month of our time in Burundi (and all of the emergencies).  One would not think that throwing a work day into homeleave would be particularly ideal, but we were actually happy to go.  One reason is that MCC Headquarters in Akron is a beautiful place with some very nice guesthouses where our kids love to stay.  Childcare was even provided during our meetings.  There is also a fabulous playground nearby.

We met with several people in International Programs as well as Human Resources, and even saw our West Africa area director Mark Sprunger who was on home leave himself and lives very close by.  We stayed the night and headed on to Poughkeepsie on Thursday.

We arrived in the evening and had dinner with our friends Don and Rosaura Andujar-McNeil.  Oren has been a friend since birth to Gabriela their daughter, but now they have a new son as well (Raphael).  We had a plan to see them several more times during the week, but actually went on that evening to Bob and Frances Thompson-Gee's house where we stayed for the week.  Bob is the pastor of the Poughkeepsie United Methodist Church where Rebecca served as Pastor of Youth Ministries for 5 years.

Every day was full and quite different.  Friday morning we went to Vassar College and visited some of my ex-colleagues from the Dance Department (Steve Rooks, Joanne Jensen, and Michelle Whalen.)  It was nice to let them see how the boys have grown, and for me to see the current condition of the dance department.  It looked great and it sounded like the Vassar Repertory Dance Theatre continues to do fabulous work each year.  (It was also nice to see that they were still using some of my templates for programs, publicity, etc.)  I feel like I did leave some things of value there.

Friday afternoon was a real treat.  We had a good pastoral visit with Bob and Frances and were able to shear some of the challenges that weighed heavy on us in our work.  They prayed with us then took us over to the church where we received an hour of 'soaking prayer'.  (a kind of prayer meditation which lasts about an hour.)  We did this with the healing prayer team in the sanctuary.

We felt completely 'cleansed' when we finished and had dinner with them.  It was an extra blessing that childcare was provided during the entire experience.

On Saturday we began the morning by joining Don and Rosaura at their farm pick up.  This is a cooperative farm that Rebecca and I used to be members of.  It is really pleasurable to pick up fresh produce as well as gather some things right from the fields.  Strawberries were still in season and all of us picked several quarts.  David was probably the most diligent of all.  After that, we took a hike across the Eads Railroad bridge which spans the Hudson river.  It is now a kind of state park and very scenic.  We did struggle a bit keeping Oren going and I think he was perplexed about why we would walk all the way across a bridge then turn around an walk right back, but on the whole it was very enjoyable.

In the late afternoon we stopped by a block party near our old neighborhood where we met our friend Heidi, then headed to the annual Greek Festival to enjoy carnival rides and gyros for dinner with Don and Rosaura again.  It was a long but not particularly exhausting day.

Sunday Rebecca and I were given the honor of preaching in both of the morning services at the Poughkeepsie United Methodist Church.  We shared the sermon time presenting our meditation on Psalm 126 in the last blog as well as the video that appears in last weeks blog.  It was really awesome to be able to share our work with these many friends who are part of our home church.  It was good to see so many familiar faces even after 3 years, and to hear how well the youth are doing as well.

After church we had lunch at the Riverstation Restaurant on the Hudson River with the Caramico's (Courtenay, Antony, Asa, and Alexander ).  Asa was born shortly after Oren and was one of his best early childhood friends.  They had a playdate after lunch and had a great time at Asa's house.  It was a very nice afternoon.

On the way home we stopped by to see some other friends from church, the Hicks'.  John was one of the other youth leaders and Kate helped out with youth as well.  Their daughters Kate and Laurel watched Oren as well from time to time.  Oren and David were very happy to go to their house especially when they were laden with gifts!  Oren got a new school Buzz Lightyear backpack that he loved!!  He will definitely be the only kid with one of those at his school in Burundi.

Sunday evening we were actually back and Bob and Frances' on time for dinner and enjoyed a nice evening together on their back porch sharing food that had been prepared by them as well as other friends from church.

Monday morning I was blessed with the opportunity to go to swim at the Poughkeepsie Middle School pool where I used to go all the time when I lived there.  Coach Ron Terwilliger who was at church on Sunday said it was OK for me to come.  It was the first time back in swimming since I broke my rib, but the water felt great and it was so good to swim in a real lap pool with lane dividers, etc.  I felt like I was flying.

After that, we took the kids to a playground, then off to Lake Minewaska in the Schawangunk Mountains.  This is an area we used to love to hike and we took a walk around the lake and even went swimming (despite the fact that we actually encountered 3 water snakes on the journey.)  It was a refreshing afternoon.  In the evening we went over to Chris and Theresa Garretts house to have dinner with our small group.  It was a very nice evening to spend time with these friends.  I do lament the fact that despite the fact that we have made very good friends in Burundi, we have not been able to create a prayer and share group like the one we had in Poughkeepsie when we were here.

Tuesday was our last very full day.  I did go swimming again in the morning, early, then afterwards we headed up north about 45 minutes to Tivoli, NY to see Bruce Hempel and his wife Muriel at their farm.  Bruce is a spirtual mentor and a brother in the Kairos Prison Ministry.  It was really good to catch up with him and hear some news about the ministry at the Coxsackie Correctional Facility where we served together for several years.

They also have a farm with a calf, goats, chickens, horses, dogs, etc.  This, I think felt like home to David as it was like the seminary upcountry in Burundi.  He was happy to walk around and pet goats and chase the chickens around.  We had lunch with the Hempels as well.  It was a very good day.

When we got home there was time to go to the Children's museum (an old haunt of Oren's) and while I took the kids there, Rebecca visited a bit more with Rosaura.  That evening we had dinner with Heidi for the last time where we had a fabulous strawberry shortcake among other offerings.

We went back to Bob and Frances' for our last night then woke up early Wednesday to participate in morning prayer that meets weekly at the church (something Rebecca and I used to do) before heading back to Baltimore.

The roadtrips here feel so much easier as far as comfortable vehicles and roads.  We also did make a rest stop at a favorite McDonalds with a playland in it.  (To actually be able to use a restroom is quite a novel experience on a roadtrip compared to Burundi.)

I think the kids loved most every minute of the attention lavished on them by friends they barely remember during their time in Poughkeepsie.

Rebecca and I were reminded of what a beautiful place we used to live in, and what a supportive work and church community we dwelt in while there.  I hope we could remind those who have been there for a long time, what makes that place so special.

Thank you again to all of you there who have cared for us over the years, even after we left.

Homeleave #2: More Reflection on Psalm 126

David relishing an apple, a rare treat for him, at his grandma's house.


I had considered at the end of last week whether I would try to maintain a weekly posting during our home leave.  I am realizing now, though, that many of our Burundian friends are keeping up with us here so I am going to attempt to update this semi-regularly.

I will begin with a health report.  As I mentioned, I had a fall on my second day here on my chest.  To  be precise, I slipped on a puddle in the kitchen of Rebecca's parents' house and fell into the corner of a countertop, effectively stabbing myself in the ribcage.  Although I was not able to move at all from the floor for several minutes, I did eventually get up and only went to the doctor the next day.  He did confirm that I had broken at least 1 rib and maybe 2.

This has put a bit of a damper on some of my plans for doing exercise every day.  Swimming is out.  Fortunately our parents belong to a very nice athletic club here that has a large selection of low impact aerobic apparatuses.  I can do a kind of rotating stair master for an hour a day and get a satisfactory work out.  I am hoping in the next several weeks the pain will diminish enough to allow me to swim as well.

We have spent the first week pretty much lying low.  We have done things with family but that is about it.  We helped Rebecca's mom Jean with yard work one morning, went to a cousin's softball game on another and took the kids to a swimclub with his cousins on a third day.  Other than that we have been spending time at the homes of our parents, at playgrounds, some cookouts, and other get togethers with friends.

One of the highlights was going out to Charter Hall, the retreat center on the Chesapeake Bay that belongs in part to Rebecca's family.  We went out on Sunday after church with a large group of friends.  Actually we went to Rebecca's parents' church this past Sunday (Long Green Valley Church of the Bretheren) and shared a brief mission moment there.  We then headed to Charter Hall around noon and had a typical American lunch with grilled hamburgers, fixins', potato salad, baked beans, etc.  Our kids loved it.  We swam in the bay in the afternoon and did a bit of kayaking.  I was very impressed to see Oren kayaking solo for the first time and doing a very good job of handling the boat.  He was able to manoeuver about quite well on his first attempt.

In the evening a thunderstorm came through and we sat in the dockhouse watching the rain on the water and enjoying coffee and conversation while the kids played games.  We headed home about 7pm and got home before 9.

One thing that has taken some serious 'getting-used-to' is the time of sunset.  In Burundi at all times of year it is pretty much night by 6:30 pm.  Here in Baltimore, it would not be hard to toss around a baseball at 9pm without artificial light.  Since our kids are used to going to bed with the sun, in the dark, (and usually by 8pm) they have been staying up quite late bacause it just does not feel like night to them at their bedtime.  I had truly almost forgotten how long the days are here in the summer.  We are enjoying it though.

Throughout the entire week Rebecca and I have had a bit of homework.  We will be expected to speak or even preach at several services and other gatherings during our time here, about our work in Burundi and Rwanda.  We have been trying to organize our thoughts and our photos, videos, etc. to be able to make an interesting coherent presentation with (ideally) a unified theme.  The problem is more what to cut out than what to put in.  We have sat together and worked on organizing our videos when we have had the chance.

We decided on Psalm 126 as thematic of our work over the past year, particularly with regard to the way MCC works to accompany local partners who implement our programs.  (MCC does not implement programs but follows the lead of trusted, visionary, local individuals and organizations.)

The end of the Psalm goes like this:

Those who sow with tears

    will reap with songs of joy. 

Those who go out weeping,

   carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, 

   carrying sheaves with them.

For our talk, we observe that almost everyone in Burundi and Rwanda is deeply traumatized by the wounds of war, the loss of immediate family to violence, illness, poverty.  But that there are those, who, because of this tragedy are driven by passion to make a better future for themselves and their country.

But while tragedy itself may be a necessary condition to foster this passion, it is not sufficient.  The last verse of the Psalm talks about those who "go out weeping carrying seed to sow."  There is much weeping in Burundi but only a few who go out weeping carrying seed.  That is, there are only a few who are able to see the resources they have at hand and, in their sorrow, begin to sow a better future.

As a mission organization on the ground, we are able to see who these people are and assist them.  Often an international donor who is not on the ground, anxious to 'help,' will provide assistance in a way that does not try to use the resources available in a community, but rather seek to provide all that is needed.  Be it food, seed, buildings, money, shoes, etc.  This approach almost always leads to dependence and can make a bad situation worse rather than better.

The classic example is the problem of providing seeds to farmers.  This is often seen as a better solution to food security than giving direct food aid.  The problem is, when you supply seed one year, farmers will grow it, but often expect the same input the next year.  Hence, they will eat or sell ALL of their harvest and not save any seed, but rather come back to the donor for the next year's 'seed' assistance.

The same thing even happens with much heralded 'microfinance'.  Because loans are coming from a donor organization, there can be a lot of default and poor use of the money.  An alternative that, as an example, uses the resources of the community, is a savings group where very small membership dues are collected from participants in a community.  This money is then used for microloans.  Essentially people are loaning each other the money in their own community.  Default is almost zero and the community uses its own resources to enrich itself.  Many times these groups, even in an 'impoverished' community can amass several thousand dollars that are available for credit, livestock purchase, etc.

A lunch gathering after presenting
a talk at my parents' church.

The point for us, through the psalm is that many are weeping and some, in their pain, carry seeds--their own resources, no matter how meager--and begin to sow.  These are the local NGOs MCC seeks to partner with, the one's who will return with 'songs of joy, carrying sheaves with them.'  They are the ones that will bring about the hope for a bountiful harvest in the future for their communities and countries.

We wanted to try to provide some visual support for our talks and worked together on compiling a video using the imovie program on my Mac. Before we knew it, because it is so simple to use, we had created a whole documentary that has all the emotion and unity of a PBS report.  Anyway, I am putting up a small version of it here.  I hope some of our friends in Burundi can download it there.  I am really taking advantage of being in the US to upload something over 2 megabytes.   I hope you all enjoy this wherever you are.  If we are coming to speak at your church, though, you can expect to see this again.

We head up to MCC headquarters this week on Wednesday then Poughkeepsie, NY on Thursday for a week. Maybe we will see you all soon.

Video we made to accompany our talk about our work:

The Long Night's Journey into Day

Oren and David with "Buddy" a ventriloquist dummy that Oren and I made last week from a craft book he has in Burundi.  He loves to do projects!



I apologize for the late posting.  I was aware that our hour of departure from Burundi would be Sunday evening and that traveling would delay a posting by at least a day, but I am committed to letting those who are interested know that we are now here in Baltimore for the beginning of our two and a half month home leave.

The Monday of last week though, made this adventure seem like a dim hope in the distant future.  We had to deal with a lot of work in our last week.  As country representatives for Burundi AND Rwanda, and responsible for about a dozen partners and a half dozen volunteers and local staff, means leaving takes quite a bit of thought and preparation for handover of responsibilities.  We do a lot from providing grants on a particular schedule, review reports on outcomes, and provide support (financial, spiritual, emotional) to volunteers.  This does not even include our own house staff, pets, yard, etc.

In short, planning to go on vacation requires training someone and providing mechanisms to insure that all of these responsibilities continue to be fulfilled.  Our program cannot take a vacation just because we are.

Fortunately we have a very confident program assistant in Felix and he has been left in charge of our program, volunteers, and unfortunately, our household as well.  I say unfortunately because the last 2 years, during our vacation, we have found someone to housesit in our absence.  But this year we were not successful.  Leaving a house in Burundi is far more complicated than leaving one here, we have 3 housestaff who need to be paid and need to continue to work.  Because of security someone must always be on the premises, not to mention the fact that during the dry season the entire house needs to be cleaned thoroughly (of a quarter inch of dust) at least twice per week.  Our dogs also need daily care and our cook needs to prepare meals for the other staff and herself as well as do the marketing so they and the dogs can be fed.

All that to say, even leaving home is a very complicated enterprise.  But it was further complicated by the matter of helping our service worker family who had had the medical emergency in the final week of their term get packed and leave for good as well.

The husband came back on Tuesday to finish up the packing and he and I worked together between Tuesday and Friday to pack, empty and clean the house, give away the pets, end staff contracts, meet the landlord, finish MCC business, etc.  He left on Friday and barely made the Kenya Airways flight back to Nairobi. There was still stuff to do after their departure as well which left precious little time (1 day for Rebecca and I to get our house in order as well for a 3 month absence).

Saturday was complicated by the fact that we needed to take the 2 dogs the other family had owned and find new owners for them.  For most of Saturday and part of Sunday we had 4 dogs at our house who got along reasonably well together but were pretty rambunctious with David (who loves to play with dogs) and knocked him flat over numerous times in their frolicking.

Despite all of this we did make steady progress in cleaning out our house and threw out about a dozen boxes of junk as part of a spring cleaning effort.  We worked most of the day Sunday as well after church.  Our flight left at 8pm and we actually ready when it was time to leave.

Timmy and us at the airport.  I don't why I have such
a weird expression on my face.

Felix took us to the airport about 5:30 pm.  When we got there, Zachee and Bridget and Tim were there to say good bye.  That was a particularly important farewell as they will not be back in Burundi next year.  They are moving to Canada.  This will be a particularly difficult reality to face when we return to Burundi in the fall.  Timmy is like a brother to Oren and is at our house at least twice a week.  (We do have tentative plans to meet them in Niagara falls in July when we are in upstate New York.)

The 8pm flight on Sunday is somewhat unique in Burundi as it is a Brussels Airlines flight, the only European carrier that lands in Burundi.  Unlike the Kenya Airways flight to Nairobi, Brussels Airlines sends an enormous Airbus A300 jetliner.  It is a surreal sight as it lands after dark and dwarfs the entire terminal building and shimmers from its brightly lit interior, like some strange extraterrestrial apparition.  And that is the effect of entering it.  We walk out to the 2 story movable staircase and ascend past the enormous engine that I could stand in twice.  As soon as you cross the threshold you are out of Burundi and into Europe, the music, airconditioning, carpeting, cushioned chairs, etc.

It stops briefly in Nairobi before heading to Brussels.  This is quite a different experience than going Kenya Airways to Nairobi and switching planes to go to Europe.   Kenya Airways and Nairobi airport still feel very African,  Brussels Airlines takes out this transitional step and consequently feels very other-worldly.

We flew through the night to Brussels and got there at about 6 am.  (not much time change as we were flying almost due north.)  We spent 4 hours in the Brussels airport (which is interesting as Belgium is the home of some very interesting exports including Smurfs, Tintin comicbooks, and Godiva Chocolates!

At noon we took a United Airlines flight to Dulles.  This was a day flight so the kids were awake for most of it.  I will say though, that they are veteran travelers and had brought many of their toys and activities so they kept themselves entertained for much of it.  There were on flight movies as well so all in all it was not bad.

Our kids and cousins playing at my parents' house.

It was great to see the USA under us in the last 2 hours of our flight.  We actually flew directly over Poughkeepsie, NY, our old stomping ground, and I could see clearly the bridges, and Vassar campus even at 30,000 feet.  We proceeded to Dulles where we were met by Rebecca parents, Papa Dave and Grandma Jean.

They drove us the 2 hours to Baltimore where we went to my parents house and had a fabulous homecoming dinner with my parents, Rebecca's parents, my parents, and Rebecca brother and sister and law and Oren and David's 2 cousins Miriam and Gabriel.

It was great to be back, for Oren especially who really does not see Burundi as 'home' eventhough he has lived there for 3 of the 5 years of his life.

After dinner we went to Rebecca's parents' house where we will stay for the first part of our trip here.  The kids fell asleep early but then were up again by 4 am and wanted to play.  Oren was very excited to do things with Grandma Jean, especially berry picking and cooking.  They went out on Tuesday morning and picked several quarts of cherries from a pie-cherry tree in her yard.  They made a fabulous cherry cobbler together which we ate after dinner.  It was definitely the best cherry pie I have ever tasted.

We have been enjoying the variety of fresh fruits and vegetables here, and even certain food like chicken breast since we virtually never buy chicken in Burundi.

There has been one unfortunate downside.  Yesterday afternoon I was in the kitchen and slipped on some water on the floor.  I fell very hard and my ribcage fell right into the pointed edge of a kitchen counter.  It knocked the wind out of me and I laid on the ground unable to move for about 5 minutes.

I now have an extremely painful area of my ribcage and have probably cracked at least one.  It will certainly limit my capacity to do some of things I like to do as far as exercise, so please pray for a speedy recovery.

This home leave is a longer one, 2 and a half months and marks the end of our third year in Burundi.  It is hard to say how many more years we will be there, but I imagine at least 3 more.  So this is a kind of half-way point.  Burundi definitely feels like home at this point, but it is so good to come back and enjoy the comforts of being back in our own culture.

I have not decided yet whether I will keep up a weekly posting during homeleave.  I may make entries less frequently, unless there seems to be too much to say about being here.  Until next time... Au revoir.