Papa Dave's Visit Part 2: Sliding From Kigali to Bujumbura

Kids at Hope School  for the Batwa (kindergarten) opening letters from American penpals, brought by David Sack during his visit.



Rebecca and I are both sitting with macbooks in our laps in our bedroom.  She is trying to get some last-minute work items sent, and I am doing my best to get over the urge to procrastinate further on writing this blog.  Actually her letters are important.  We need to get some letters of invitation out to folks who are visiting in the near future.  There is always a low level of anxiety about travel and getting all documents necessary for obtaining a visa prior to the depature of one's plane.  It is a genuine concern as many of our colleagues have actually had situations where a delay in visa processing caused them to miss a flight completely.

I am currently in that state of anxiety as I am scheduled to drive up to Bukavu, Eastern DRC on Friday and I do not have a letter of invitation to include with my visa application yet.  Hopefully it will arrive tomorrow.

As far as the blog, I should be enthusiastic about writing it as we had quite an exciting week and there is a lot to share.  The past week we have been hosting Rebecca's dad Dr. David Sack, who stopped by for a visit to us on his way to a conference on cholera vaccine trials in Zanzibar.  (Zanzibar is not too far from here so he went there via Bujumbura.)

Jodi's house.

He landed, as mentioned last week in Kigali where our family was together for some work and play.  The kids had no school and Rebecca and I had business with several partners to do.  I mentioned some of it last week, but we did manage to finish on Tuesday and had a nice Indian dinner at Zaffron with our team, before heading out of town Wednesday morning.  (Dinner at Zaffron with the MCC team is rapidly becoming an MCC tradition.)

We left town mid-morning on Wednesday.  To be precise, I dropped Felix at the bus stop so he could go directly to Buja while our family and 'Papa Dave' took a scenic route back with plans to pass through Burasira to stay the night at the Seminary there and see the Hope School for the Batwa as well as Jodi Mikalashki who still lives there.

The trip started out quite well even though we did not leave until early afternoon, but once on the road we made good time to the town of Ngozi.  It was evident that there had been a fairly heavy rain recently and from there, when we got on the dirt road to Burasira we could tell it was going to be a challenge.  Actually the problem was that they were fixing and widening the road and had scooped off most of the hard packed dirt and rock on the top leaving a lot of fresh soil that had turned to very slippery mud in the rain.  I had to use my 4 WD nearly the whole way and on the first long down hill I still had trouble keeping in  control of the vehicle as it slid down the hill, narrowly avoiding some bicyclists and pedestrians on the road.  I don't know how anyone going the other way could have possibly ascended the hill.

We did make it to the seminary though where Oren and David immediately jumped out and ran to visit the farm animals that are kept there in nearby stables.  (Cows, pigs, rabbits, goats).  Since Jodi is no longer our service worker, we do not get up here very often as a family, yet even after nearly a year away, the kids remembered every nook and cranny of the seminary and the lane to Jodi's house.  After visiting the animals, they ran directly to her house to forage through her collection of childrens books, before we all headed down for a scenic walk along the Ruvubu river.

The challenge of taking a walk in a rural area of Burundi with children is that they are like magnets passing over iron filings.  Within 10 minutes we had throngs of kids, many from the Hope School, following us around.  Oren seemed to enjoy entertaining them with peculiar antics that made the kids laugh.  But we did cut our trip short to enjoy the privacy of Jodi's home where we sat around talking before enjoying a dinner of beef bourguignon and pasta prepared by Jodi.

We left Jodi's and returned to the seminary for the night where we were welcomed by the sisters who were delighted to see that Rebecca and family had accompanied me this time.  Oren took the opportunity to ride his razor scooter around the smooth outdoor corridors surrounding the main courtyard.  David enjoyed visiting the pet monkey.

The next morning we had breakfast with Jodi then headed up to the Hope School where we met Innocent (head of our partner organization) and the principles of the school.   We came up in our car as we had a large steamer trunk in tow with many more books and goodies for the library brought by David Sack from the US.  We also had a special surprise for the students--more than 500 letters sent to them by students from the US.  These were responses solicited by Jean Sack who had been up at the school the month before organizing the library.  She had asked the kids at Hope to write thank you notes and these were 'you're welcomes' from kids in the US who had helped collect books to send them.

We decided the best way to distribute all the cards was to go as a group, class by class to each grade from 10th down to the 3 levels of preschool.  We had at least one letter for each kid and they were thrilled and quite shocked to receive them.  They were asked to write a note in response which Dave took back in his suitcase for his trip home.  I admit that doing these deliveries was a bit like playing the role of Santa Claus and I was sorry that the many letter-writers could not enjoy the thrill of distributing the letters.

While we were distributing, David and Oren played outside and generally had a very good time entertaining the Hope School children at recess.  Oren who recoils at being stared at by adults seems to love the attention from chidren his age and at one point was teaching a group of them the song "Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes" with gestures.

The other pleasant surprise was to see the 10th grade class under construction when the mission team from Hope for Africa Foundation was here, is now done!  And kids are using it this week.

When we finished by mid-afernoon we packed up and continued our journey to Bujumbura.  Not wanting to go back the way we came we decided to go back via Gitega, although we heard the road was even worse.  But we also had heard rumor of a circuitous route that went by a town called Karuzi.  We decided to go that way since Innocent was going part way in his car and said he could guide us.   We followed him to Karuzi then continued on to Gitega which we reached by 3pm.

That gave us just enough time to say HI to Yolanda in her new flat, which is quite charming.  We stayed for about half an hour, introduced her to Dave, then continued to head down to Bujubumbura.  We made it home about 6pm and had a dinner Marceline had left prepared for us earlier in the day (spinach quiche).

On Friday, Rebecca and I took a comp. time day after 10 straight days of work.  We took Papa Dave and the kids to the beach at Club du Lac T. where we swam in the pool and ate fish briochettes and french fries.  It was nice to show him that we do have a place to relax when we need it.

On Saturday we started the day with yoga where we had several newcomers.  It is a great group and we usually do brunch together (so there is really no hope of weight loss :-)  In the afternoon the kids really wanted to take Papa Dave out to their favorite place, Musee Vivant, our local zoo.

We took a guide along at the entrance, which meant there was even more opportunity to interact with the animals.  He gave us fruit to hand to the chimp and in the snake house, he gave David and Oren several snakes to handle.  It definitely became too much for Papa Dave when, after asking a quesion about the Gabon viper, the guide took it out of the cage and set it on the floor to show how docile it was.  We implored him to put it back in with Oren and David running around as we did not want to risk them stepping on it.  (I am sure he would have let us jump in the crocodile cage as well if we wanted to as some of our friends have done.)

That evening we had a potluck at our house with some of our missionary friends including Thomas and Naja's family, Tim and Jeanette's family, Tanya and Stephan's family, and Jodi who was down from upcountry.  It was a delicious meal of soup followed by some amazing desserts (in honor of my Birthday again I think).  They included Jeanette's lemon meringue pie, Rebecca's bread pudding, and the piece de resistance, Naja's walnut buttercream cake.

On Sunday, we went to church with Dave but when the kids went to Sunday school with Rebecca, I took him to the airport as he had a noon flight on to Zanzibar.  Despite the shortness of the visit, we felt we were really able to show him quite a bit, especially many of our friends.

Sunday afternoon was another highlight for the week as we had a plan to restart our small group that afternoon after nearly a year.  Although we have had disappointing results in the past we were encouraged by our pastor to re-form cell groups that had become inactive.  This time we were pleasantly surprised to find many who were willing to commit to join ours, and a great cross cultural mix.  We had Tim and Jeanette (south Africa), Philip and Estelle, he is Kenyan and head of Food for the Hungry here, Scott and Danica (Canadian), Rebecca and I, as well as Marie Goretti and her 2 daughters (Burundian).

We had an interesting discussion on the passage that was preached that day, Acts 6.  It was the story of the neglected Greek widows.  It is impressive to see how the early church resolved an ethnic conflict and seemed particularly relevant to this context.  Even as a mzungu I was impressed by the very inclusive solution the leaders devised, in asking the congregation to take responsibility for appointing 7 overseers.  They seemed to have done a good job in having a good mix of greeks in the group.

I confessed that as a mzungu, I would have, as a leader, simply delegated the task to 7 people of my choosing who I felt would do a good job and foregone the inclusive process of having the group choose the delegates.  But having worked in this context for nearly 4 years now, I appreciate the fact that a participatory process is always more important than expediency for its own sake.  During the evening we sang together, studied the Bible then prayed for each other, it was a real blessing and a great surprise for us.   We look forward to continuing in the weeks ahead. 

It was good to be back into a routine on Monday, kids back in school, refreshing morning swim and a productive day at work.  We will enjoy that for the next 4 days before I have to head off again on Friday to Bukavu.


Bonus photos for the Hope for Africa Foundation team.  Here is the finished classroom inside and out:

Phases of 50 Part Three: The Grouchy Pragmatist?

Meeting with partners in Kigali to discuss their action plans.


If one joined Facebook for Birthday well wishings alone, it would definitely be worth it.  I crossed another year this past week and had several dozen friends ranging from grade school through dance career, teaching, and career change, all wishing me a Happy Birthday, and reminding me of many years of unforgettable experiences and relationships.

As much as I would like to wax philosophical about the 'meaning' of being 52, I have been in a far more pragmatic mood this past month and don't have a lot to say (Maybe that is a characteristic of someone in their 50's?--just don't get me started on IRAs or retirement funds :-).  Actually I would observe in general that I seem to be less patient than I was in my youth.  I am wondering if this is a natural unavoidable change like pattern baldness and loss of vision, or is it a direct result of having children?  Will it continue to get worse or level out at 65?  I so don't want to turn into a grumpy old man, any suggestions on how to keep it light and easy going after the 5th decade?

We did not celebrate again this week formally, some Birthday gifts drifted in throughout the week from various friends and by mail.  We had had the big folk dance last week which was our official celebration of my Birthday (although we did not bill it as such.)

This week was the last week of our reporting deadline.  It has now come and gone and we succeeded in putting in all we received, although that is not the same as saying we completed everything.  There is a bit more left as far as late reports and plans, but we will deal with them as they come in.  The real pressure is definitely off though.

The week also had me tied up in a two day brain-storming session in collaboration with many other Christian NGO's who had formed a consortium to try to get a large grant from USAID for peacebuilding.  (disclaimer: MCC may not accept money from USAID, but I was representing our partners who may receive this money directly.)  It was a long but interesting process to watch a proposal emerge from a group of about 30 people.  (I am used to working alone on new ideas, so groupthink was a new experience to me.)  But through many sessions of plenary and breakout groups we did manage to put together a goal and some objectives.  I have no ideas how much chance it has of succeeding, but it was a good effort.

Rebecca was busy finishing up entries in our database, then David got sick on Tuesday and Wednesday which meant she needed to stay at home those mornings.  Despite the setback we did finish what we needed to by Wednesday.

We did have a few social events worthy of note.  We went to our friend Tim and Jeanette's for dinner (South African missionaries), it was another one of the several Birthday events I had during the week.  It was nice except David and their daughter Isabel are a bit competitive for the same toys.

Thursday Rebecca went out with her friends for Ladies Night while I stayed home with the kid.  She gave a funny report about trying out a new restaurant set up by a Belgian that claimed to be a restaurant and pastry shop.

We are used to getting a version of an item on a menu we are familiar with only to find the Burundian version is quite different.  I remember ordering a Greek salad and gettting something I would have called cole slaw.  But I think the ladies had the most extreme experience of this I have heard to date.

There was an item on the menu listed as Tapas, which, if you are familiar with it, is a type of hors d'oeuvre--the menu listed a plate featuring olives, some rolled cold cuts (prosciutto, salami) some cheeses like brie, and other imported items.

The service was incredbly slow and Rebecca said she imagined that they were trying to figure out what to make since she doubted they had any of the ingredients or even knew what tapas was.

Sure enough, when the plate came it had some samosa's, the local Congolese cheese, fried plaintain, french fries, and remarkably, absolutely not one ingredient described in the menu.  When they confronted the waitress with this fact and said they had received the wrong order she said no, that was tapas.  When asked why there was not one item mentioned on the menu, she told them they did not have any of those ingredients.   The mzungu ladies explained to her that this would have been something good to tell them before they placed the order.  According to Rebecca, the waitress still seemed quite surprised when the order was sent back.

This is another trivial example of the problem I have described and we experience in more serious ways on a regular basis.  It has to do with being able to get accurate information from someone when they know it may not be what you want to hear.  I cannot tell how many times I have had the experience of trying to figure out what the facts are when people are deadset on only telling you what you want to hear rather than what is actually true.  It is not just a problem for mzungus.  It is a cultural norm here to keep harmony, even if it means hiding of fudging reality.  I expounded on this in more detail in my blog of Jan. 2010 Confronting a Culture of False Hopes .html

Kids playing in our room at Amani guesthouse Kigali.

The week was also a prelude to our departure to Rwanda on Friday after school.  The kids are off the entire coming week so we decided to go as a family and head up over the weekend for a longer Rwanda stay.  I wish I could say it was vacation, but we did have a lot of business to do, especially meeting partners and new potential advisors.  We went with Felix and go to Kigali without incident.

We met our volunteers on Saturday for breakfast and did some shopping the afternoon.  On Sunday morning we went to the Friends Church and were fairly impressed that Oren and David made it through 2.5 of the 3.5 hour service.  (David took a nap and Oren played snake on mom's cellphone for some of it.)  But they were not distracting.  Since it was all in Kinyarwanda I did not understand much of it, but the singing was very nice.

After church we had a long lunch meeting with the legal rep. of the church and lead pastor (since MCC is under the Friends Church in Rwanda.)  It was good although it did require the kids to sit quietly through another long meeting.  We rewarded them afterwards by taking them to a pool and playground.  We were surprised how cold the water was there!  Kigali is definitely cooler than Bujumbura in general. Fortunately we brought along our long sleeve shirts and jackets.

Monday was the highlight because after our morning meetings with partners, we went to the airport to pick up Rebecca's dad.  Dr. David Sack (Papa Dave to the Grandkids) is here in Africa for a conference on vaccine development in Zanzibar.  But since that is relatively close by, he came a week early to visit us.  Our plan was to pick him up in Kigali and bring him back down to Bujumbura.

We are excited to have him here and he brought many things back from the US for us and for some of our partners as well, particularly children's books and letters from kids who want to be penpals with some batwa children at the Hope School.  We will pass through Burasira and the Hope School on our back to Bujumbura.

Dave also brought back a new camera for me.  I had ordered it online through Amazon several months ago and just got it.  The timing is good as the flash on my old camera no longer works.  It is a Canon G-12 so hopefully those who follow this blog will see some improvement in the quality of pictures.  I am very excited about it, I admit.

First photo with new camera:  Rebecca, David Oren and Papa Dave 

at Sola Luna, an Italian restaurant in  Kigali

Measuring Our Impact--Reputation vs. Character

Oren, Elias, and Aviaja climbing on the monkey bars at the Ecole Belge after their Karate class.



Our last full week at home (before starting travel again) this past week was significantly more eventful than the week before.  We are still in the process of end of year reporting and planning for the new year as well.  That is work done at the computer mostly, filling in fields in a database after reading and critiquing plans and reports received from our partners and service workers. 

It is interesting to be part of such an ‘intentional’ organization.  Literrally everything done by MCC, it partners and each individual service worker is planned for at the beginning of the year and then reported on at the end.  (with one progress report as per year as well.)  “What about sponteniety?” You Ask.  I assure you, there is a blank for that in the final report that asks what unexpected surprises or learning happened during the year that can be reported on, and how will you integrate this into your plans for next year? 

In fact, as an amusing exercise I will provide you with a few questions to consider for yourself this year that we must answer and report on each year.  As you see some are about personal development, not just questions about the job.


1) What self development goals do you have for the coming year?

2) What primary relationships (e.g. co-workers, neighbors, local church) will you focus on this coming year?  What do you hope to give and receive from those relationships?

Felix at the office at work.

What I find interesting is that this is my ‘job’ that is asking me this.  Some may consider it invasive, but I appreciate the emphasis on transparency that is put on our position here.  What undergirds this is an element of trust that MCC is committed to help us in realizing our maximum potential and not seeking to undermine us.  It also kind of gives one a sense that ones time is valuable and should not be wasted.  

I do admit though, that while I was enthusiastic and very elaborate about my great hopes and plans in the first two years, my answers have become shorter and far less interesting as the years go by.  


Looking back over the week though, the routine remained more or less the same.  I have mentioned that I started teaching a ballet class for adults on Wednesday evenings and that continued to grow and go well last week.  Swimming continues to be a daily activity and we found out that our dues for this year will be about $100 each (Rebecca and I)  That is really not bad for unlimited access to a great pool for a whole year.  (They did warn us they would be doing major renovations during the last 3 months of the year though.)

Thursday was one of the standout days because of interesting activites.  It began in the afternoon after school.  I was with the kids and we were invited by Naja to go fishing off the pier of a restaurant called Cercle Nautique, that has boat docks at it.

We met Thomas and a friend of his as well as the kids Aviaja and Elias who were already fishing off the wharf.  What was most impressive though was the family of hippos between the piers, about 10 yards away lolling in the water, occasionally bumping the docked speedboats bobbing nearby.

David and Oren did not catch anything but enjoyed watching the hippos snorting and yawning nearby.

(note to anyone in Burundi, this is the best free place to see hippos, and very close to the center of town.)

That same evening Rebecca and I had a date night pre arranged with Scott and Danika.  We went out to a nice restaurant called Palmerai, also on the beach near Cercle Nautique.  The chef there is possibly the best in Burundi, a Belgian man who used to cook for Mbutu (former Bigman of DRC).

We had exquisite food--filet mignon with roqueford sauce and veal scallopini.  It was about $12 per entree but would have been about $50 each in the US.

We had a chance to have a good conversation together about things other than work, mostly.  It did occur to us that my Birthday and Valentines day were going to be the following week, but we would be out of town in Rwanda for my Birthday.  So this was kind of a celebration.

One topic of conversation that came up that was interesting was looking at how our current jobs differ from our previous ones.  I had been director of the dance theatre at Vassar College and on the dance faculty, and Rebecca had been a youth pastor.

Being in monitoring and evaluation mode we analyzed the differences in the language of NGO reporting.  It went something like this:

Although we are challenged by our new jobs we realized oure old jobs were exciting in a certain way that is not duplicated here.  There we were program implementers here we are administrators.  At Vassar and our Church, we were directly involved with 'beneficiaries' of these projects.  (students mainly).  In 4 years it was really possible for both of us to see the 'impact' of our work on them.  At Vassar, someone in VRDT for 4 years of College goes through a major transformation in that time, and there is a real sense, for many, that I played a significant role.  In the case of the church (PUMC) Rebecca was able to see the same affect on youth in that time.

By contrast, we do hope our programs are having 'impact' on 'beneficiaries' of our work, but we rarely see that, even when we read reports and do field visits.  It is not the same thing as being 'on the ground' and in the lives of individuals the way we were, and our partners are now.

I suppose we might have some impact on our service workers on our team, but we are always one step removed from those who we are truly here to serve.

By the end of the evening we went and picked up the kids and Scott and Danika gave us a great report on their behavior.

The other place Oren is getting great reports is on his dictées.  These are his French language writing quizes he has every Friday.  I am impressed that so far he has done them all virtually perfectly, in cursive.  Last week he wrote:  A l'école je calcule et colorie.  It is good to see him succeeding and feeling pleased with himself about his progress in learning French.

Saturday was a big day in that we planned, also as part of my Birthday week, a folk dance in the afternoon.  We once again cleared our living room and invited the 'usual suspects', as well as some new folks.  As most of the regulars could not come we had a newer group, many of them francophone this time, so much of the teaching was in French.

Among the most enthusiastic dancers was the daughter of one of Oren's teachers who brought 2 other friends from school.  They did "Cotton-eyed Joe" about 3 times before other adults arrived as well as a South African dance called Pata-Pata.  We did some Western square dances as well and a Hora.  It was fun as always and we had a dinner together afterwards.

We did have a few unexpected but welcome visitors including Allie Wisdom, a person who actually reads this blog and is planning to move to Burundi with her family in August.  It was great to meet her and 2 of her sons who were visiting with her.  We also had a pastor from the UK (John) drop by to cut a rug, as well as Carl Schmidtt, one of the founders of Conservation Agriculture (Farming God's Way).

It was an interesting group and I enjoyed the conversation as much as the dancing this week.

Rebecca and I got to bed around 10:30 pm after cleaning up some messes, but felt very satisfied with the work.

Sunday was another special treat as Scott Mackenzie was preaching (for the first time at BICC).  He did a great job talking about Ananias and Saphira.  The takehome message that really struck me was the distinction between reputation and character, and where we put our emphasis and energy.  I think admittedly most of us are more concerned with the former than the latter, and may even spend time on our character if we think it will positively influence our reputation.

He challenged us to be individuals that really cultivate a good character and be the kinds of people that others seek out because we genuinely care, and are not motivated to friendship for other objectives. (particularly trying to get something.)  This was probably a challenge for many here who see friendship and interest as inseparable.

He also challenged Western missionaries to be 'real' with our constituents at home.  Not to try to impress them with testimonies of conversions and miracles which may not have quite happened as extraordinarily as we might imply.  He admitted his own temptation to make his time and work here sound more impressive that it really is to those at home.  (Especially since they depend on support from others.)

Overall, though he was encouraging and not confrontive, and I feel motivated us all to want to be better and more real in our work here and church community.

Next weekend we will be in Kigali and will be meeting Rebecca's dad there.  Hopefully there will time to send a short post on Monday.

Bonus photo on the way to church.  Bicycles are the pick up trucks of Burundi.  This is a pretty typical view on the road.

A Return to Normalcy

I think we have actually arrived at a week that was so normal that there is really nothing to say.  I had wondered if this would ever happen here and now after nearly 4 years it has.  I am thinking though that it might have more to do with me no longer having eyes to see the really unusual things we experience daily as more than just ordinary.

Talking to Rebecca to pick our brains about what was interesting, we could only remember a few social events.  We had pizza with Scott and Danika at Ubuntu on Friday night, then baby-sat their kids on Saturday so they could go on a date night.  We will get an exchange on that this Thursday.

On Saturday afternoon we went over to the house of Jan and Ann.  She is an American friend of ours who is actually a real Mennonite!  She is here with her husband who serves at the Dutch Embassy.  She had been away for the birth of their third son.  They have a beautiful house with a swimming pool and Oren is friends with their oldest son Bassie (Sebastian).   We had a very nice afternoon swimming and chatting with them.

Sunday was church and we spent a quiet afternoon at home.  Jodi and Yolanda were both in town over the weekend and we hosted them.

The work week was focused on getting end of year reports and new plans into our database which it will be for the next several weeks to come.  Not the most exciting work, but it does give us an excuse not to travel and have some nice daily routines like swimming.

We have added two more elements to our weekly ritual.  The first is afternoon tea.  Now that Noel is no longer a puppy we like to go out and sit on the front porch as a family and have tea.  The kids love this ritual already and we have a nice porch with a view of the mountains of Eastern Congo in the rainy season.

Tea is served at about 5 when the one of us who is working gets home.  Admittedly a bit late for tea, but we get to enjoy the sunset on the porch before supper that way.

The second new ritual we will be adding (again), is the revival of our Sunday afternoon prayer and share group.  Our church is getting us to revitalize our small group ministry so we will start again next Sunday at our home.  Hopefully we will be able to build a more cohesive group this time around.  We do see a need for an anglophone group for the church and that will be our niche.

I think that is about it for the week.  Not great blogging but satisfying enough to live.  Actually David just started throwing up (after being well all week) so this is probably a good place to stop.