Cranking the Rumor Mill and an Inauguration

Inauguration Ceremony for new Legal Representative of the Evangelical Friends Church

As May approaches it is hard to believe we are most of the way through the rainy season.  I say this because we have not had a lot of rain this year.  There is still some time to go, but there have been stretches of weeks without any rain around here.  I think that is bad for the farmers here, although there still appears to be food in the markets.

That is with the exception of coffee and sugar.  The coffee problem from what I understand is caused by a lack of coffee bags.  I hear that the bags are imported and that they are stuck in customs waiting for someone to pay duty.  Since coffee is a national industry, it is only slightly surprising that the government is holding up a revenue generating export in order to extract revenue from itself.

Sugar is even worse.  I don't even understand the full explanation of corruption that has made sugar all but disappear from the market, but again this is another crop that Burundi grows and exports that is unavailable.  Actually it is available but you have to know someone.  Recently I was complaining to one of our partners about this and he suddenly closed the door and leaned over his desk and said, "Do you want to buy some sugar?"  I said "Yes"  He leaned in closer and said "How much?"  I thought quickly about how long we would be without and timidly ventured the request; "er 10 Kilos?"  He said it would be at the office the next day for $1.40 per kilo (an awesome price)!  The next day I showed up, he was not there, but his secretary produced a dark sack, closed tightly and I left her the money in cash.  "What's in there?" she asked suspiciously.  "Sugar" I admitted guiltily.  "Can I have a kilo?" she asked?  What could I do, she could completely blow my cover.  I reached in the bag and threw a kilo. sack on the desk and dashed out into the open air, sweating, but exhilarated.  I had succeeded.  I walked casually to my car tossed the bag in the back seat and drove home.

The situation is actually worst for those who are living on the margins.  Food prices for staples like beans and rice have doubled and onions have gone from 50 cents per kilo to $2.50 per kilo this year.  The explanation I find most convincing is the clampdown by OBR (the Burundian IRS) on taxing everything about 18% at every level from harvest, or import to transport to selling in the market.  The result is very high costs on all food.  The new intense enforcement of tariffs on everything has to do with the fact that because of the corruption in the government, major donor nations (US, European Union) have diminished greatly some block grant that were given directly to the government for operating costs.  (salaries, etc.)  As a result, the government has to try to replace it with higher taxes.  The problem is that the government is now quite expensive and it does not seem that the people will be able to support it at the level of corruption to which it has been accustomed.  Civil society is in revolt right now and has given them an ultimatum with the threat of general strikes if there is not evidence of services provided for taxes, and a relief from high food costs.

So we are living in interesting times here. (For all serious readers please be advised that I am more apt to spread my favorite rumors then to provide high quality savvy political and economic analysis in this blog.)  But I think there is some truth to what I am told.

The other problems we encounter at this time of year are more personal.  Things Fall Apart.  I am talking about things that we bought on our last homeleave etc.  Computers are the hardest hit by this time of year.  We currently have 3 that were working fine last summer that are not functioning well or completely broken down.  Other equipment, cd player, speakers, etc are malfunctioning, my leather sandals' straps are breaking, batteries in power tools are expiring, etc.  With the exception of the sandals, I think most of the electrical equipment wears out as a result of the heat.  Not that it is burning hot here, it is just hot all year around and no place is air-conditioned.  I think computers just eventually melt their motherboards.  Anyway, we begin to look forward again to another trip back home to replenish on things that are more readily or cheaply available there.  (I should add swimming suits and goggles to that list as well as Rebecca and I go through several sets of each per year.)

We will have a homeleave for about 4 weeks in mid July to mid August, so it is still several months away, but we are finding ourselves more and more actively adding things to the list of items to buy or replace, and anticipating the time we will have there to be rejuvenated.

This week was actually one of rejuvenation in many ways for me.  We were not traveling and I was able to swim all 5 days.  Rebecca missed several mornings of swimming though as she was asked to lead some morning devotionals for a regional conference hosted by World Vision.  She was honored to be asked but did miss the chance to swim with me.

Speaking of things breaking down.  The pool vacuum ( a circa 1968 model) did not work at all for the last 2 weeks.  I know this because I swim during the pool cleaning hour between 8 and 9.  Curiously, the workers continued the daily routine of lowering the large hose and sweeper into the pool, priming the pump and fiddling with it every day I was there, as if they were expecting it to suddenly work by some act of God.  I am assuming that they do not feel empowered enough in their work to tell the boss it is not working and not continue to pretend to clean the pool.  Hopefully someone will eventually figure out that the pool is getting really gross without anyone getting into trouble for not doing their job.

The rest of the work week was fairly uneventful.  We did have one social event of note, a goodbye party for one of our friends (Bila) who is German and the husband of Nina.  He will be going back to Germany for work reasons.  It will be sad to see him go as he has been the only faithful male yoga class attender.  The party included a large buffet of foods he made as he is quite an excellent cook of both entrees and desserts.  My favorite dish was his caramelized flan.

There was a high note worth mentioning this week as well.  This Sunday I was invited to go upcountry to Kibimba (near Gitega) for the inauguration ceremony of the new Legal Representative of the Evangelical Friends Church here.  This was important to attend in an official capacity as MCC is under the auspices of the church here in Burundi.  I went with Felix and Yolanda while Rebecca stayed in Bujumbura to take our kids to Sunday School.

The ceremony was about 6 hours long.  It began with numerous speeches and songs and ended with a reception.  As a VIP I was able to sit on a chair underneath a UNHCR tarp instead of stand in the hot sun.  To me the most impressive part of the ceremony was that it was happening at all.  Transition of power, even in churches in difficult here and even this transition divided the church into 2 Annual Meetings (still under 1 legal rep.)  Still it was good to see Levy (the old legal rep) greet Moise (the new legal rep.) with a hug when he came up on the grandstand.

Levy gave an interesting meditation on the prodigal son during the conference.  He counseled the new rep. to see both factions of the church as his children and not spurn one for the other.  I was struck by this thought of seeing the parable from the perspective of the father who has not 1 but 2 difficult children who need drastically different parenting strategies.  They both need grace, eventhough one may not see himself as being 'wrong' in any way.

We left the reception right at the end at 2:30 and drove quickly back to Bujumbura to get to our Bible study small group.  I was able to make it only 20 minutes late which I was grateful for.


The kids were good last week and over the weekend and we did go to the beach with them on Saturday during the day.  David loves to go in the waves as much as Oren does these days and the surf was pretty high on Saturday.

We have a holiday on May 1st this coming week and will plan to do an activity with some other families.  I am grateful that we have at least 2 more weeks without upcountry or international travel.

A Tribute to Ruth Plett and Krystan Palikowski

Ruth and Krystan with their host family after their 3 week village live-in upcountry in Rwanda (May 2009).

I have to confess that I have been stalling on getting this blog posted.  It is not for a particularly good reason.  Actually Rebecca did most of the hard work writing the bulk of it telling about her time in Rwanda.  But we have had a problem locating the download cord for the old camera that she took with her and made pictures of the last days of Ruth and Krystan.  But at this point we have to admit defeat and let everyone who is interested know what has gone on this week.  The photos will be a collage of pictures of Ruth, Krystan and Misha that we have taken in the past few years.  When I do find the cord I will put the last ones up as well eventually.

As you might surmise from the above paragraph, we have passed at least one milestone in the past week--that is saying goodbye to our 3 year service workers Ruth and Krystan (and daughter Misha) who have served with one of our partners in Rwanda.  (They actually came here as a couple and had Misha during their term in Africa.)

I have to say, it seems like the time has flown since their arrival.  I still remember vividly, taking them to Cercle Hippique on their first or second day in Bujumbura for orientation.  (The old colonial riding park and stables).

Sadly I could not go up and be with them in their last few days as this was another week of dividing and conquering for Rebecca and I.  I stayed in Bujumbura with the kids in school while Rebecca did the final debriefing and logistical work with them in Kigali.  Fortunately life was the kids was pleasantly uneventful and they did behave quite well for me, probably sensing that ganging up on one parent was unfair.

The highlight of the week for them was probably going over and seeing Scott on Thursday evening and his 2 sons John and Jonas who has also been a bachelor this week as Danica is in Canada (their blog is here).  My kids love to go over there because Scott has an IPAD with the Angry Birds game on it.  (Our family has still not made its debut into the world of video games for kids.)

We did stick to most of our normal routines including family tea time in the afternoons and icecream after Oren's karate class on Friday.  Rebecca got back on Saturday afternoon and we went to a Birthday party of one of Oren's friends from school that afternoon.

I am leaving the rest of this blog to Rebecca to recount her adventures in Kigali...

First day of work, meeting Jonas and Cecile.

On Wednesday morning, I got an early bus from Bujumbura to Kigali. Before the trip even started, I was disappointed to realize that someone had reached through the window and stolen my book: King Leopold’s Ghost. I guess I won’t be able to catch up with Paul on Congolese history again until I can hunt down a copy the US this summer. But otherwise, the trip was fairly uneventful. My first task upon arriving in Kigali was to get a packet of pen pal letters for the Hope School, hand-carried from the USA by a malaria expert friend of my mother’s. I found tracked him down at the swanky Hotel Mille Collines where USAID was hosting a malaria conference. The woman who greeted me there also knows my mom and Paul’s dad was her thesis advisor – it was surreal to find myself in a place with so many family connections suddenly. I felt badly when I had to tell them that I myself wasn’t actually working on malaria in Rwanda! But I did get the letters.

My next task was to meet our volunteers Ruth and Krystan to finish up some administrative details, like closing their bank account and transferring the name on their Internet provider. I won’t bore you with the details, but closing a bank account isn’t as easy as you might think. Ruth ended up having to take a moto back to the bank to finalize some details on the Friday they left town. So it’s good we started the process on Wednesday! I was able to join in on a farewell party potluck, thrown by their Bible study group (at the house where I was staying). It was really nice to meet or see again a number of Ruth and Krystan’s friends in Rwanda.

Meeting newborn Misha in Kenya. (Aug 2010)

On Thursday morning, I had to go to the bank again myself to transfer funds to our partners. This led me to a number of experiences in solidarity. First, I was running late, so I finally broke down and took a taxi motorcycle the 10-minute ride. It was absolutely terrifying. I don’t know how people here do it all the time. My legs were shaking by the time I arrived. Unfortunately, upon arriving, I found that the process was going to be much more complicated than before. I needed to visit the various banks of our partners to deposit checks, which meant that I needed to wait in line. I spent about 45 minutes at the first bank – longer than I wanted, but still tolerable. Later that afternoon, I went to the second bank, which was very crowded with people sitting and standing everywhere. I pulled a number for the line, and found that I had 492. The bank was currently serving customer 399!! Of course, not every number actually represented a person served, but still, after 90 minutes of waiting, with the line at 451, and only 30 minutes before I was supposed to be back to meet our team for dinner, I finally broke down, used my white racial privilege and went into the VIP room to be served. And at the last moment, the teller informed me that the account I was trying to deposit to was inactive!! Thus, I had wasted this entire time of waiting. I asked the teller why there were so many people. He said, “That’s not a big crowd. You should see things here on payday!” Later I asked our partner why he uses that bank, and he said that it’s the one bank that is willing to serve fairly poor people, and has branches all over the country. So I guess our own bank is the rich people’s bank, and what that means is very short waiting time (and probably higher maintenance fees).

In between banking adventures, I spent time doing the closing interview with Ruth and Krystan and trying to tie up any other loose ends with them. We are really hoping to recruit another volunteer(s) to replace them, so we’re keeping the lease on their house and keeping it furnished for now. That makes things simpler in the long run, but means that we need to know how to manage that house in their absence. We ended the day with a team dinner at our favorite Kigali Indian restaurant, Zafraan. The waiter said to Krystan, “I don’t need to give you a menu do I?” and in the end they gave us a discount for being good customers! It was good food and a good chance to talk about some of the more difficult relational issues that can happen when returning home to family after a long absence.

On Friday, I met with several of our partners and was able to talk with them about some of their hopes for the future. Both of them have been part of inter-MCC exchange visits we’ve organized in the past two months, and this has given them some good ideas for new programs. I think they have really appreciated learning from other MCC partners, but it has also given them a boost to realize that they have things to share and contribute as well.  I had some quiet time to catch up on work after that. And then the rest of the afternoon, I was just able to spend time with Ruth, Krystan, their little Misha, and two other close friends of theirs, continuing to debrief informally.

Team retreat in Gisenyi.

Finally, as the sun was setting, their pastor neighbor came with his car and the two taxis pulled up.  It was good that we had three vehicles planned because we had quite an entourage helping to take them to the airport. It is very, very important in Rwandese culture to accompany people as far as possible on their journey – it’s a real sign of love and care here. So even their housekeeper and their night guard got in a car, along with a peace worker who is a close friend of theirs. There would have been more people sending them off I’m sure, but most of the leadership of the Friends Church (including the majority of our partners) is currently at an international church conference in Kenya. So we were about a dozen people with six large bags heading to the airport after a prayer at their house. I am very sorry to see this family go, but they will be serving with MCC again starting in August, and will be well used in that position in Sarajevo.

My final official task of the evening was to help our SALTer Annie move her things from her host family’s house to Ruth and Krystan’s house – she’ll be house-sitting the place to keep it safe for the next few months. I left to return to Bujumbura early on Saturday morning. After a trip of mild misery as usual, I was so glad to see the faces of my boys and Paul waiting for me at the bus station!

Back to Paul...

Ruth and Krystan have left us but have decided to stay with MCC.  They, in fact will be taking the position of Country Representatives for Eastern Europe and will be based in Sarajevo beginning in August.  They will be missed here by our whole team and we can honestly say to them:  "Well done, good and faithful servants."

Travel Log part 2: Exploring the Zanzibar Archipelligo

Oren displaying a starfish we found in the shallows near our hotel.


Bujumbura--Addis Ababa--Congo Brazzaville--Kinshasa--Addis Ababa--Dar Es Salam--Zanzibar--Addis Ababa--Kigali--Bujumbura.  That is the routing that we took to go for a week of meetings in Kinshasa and a week's vacation in Zanzibar.  While it was tiring, I would say that it was worth it.  The complicated routing is due to the fact that there are few direct flights in Africa, and we were booked on Ethiopian Airlines which is mainly routed through  Addis.  I will say it is a generally a  good airline and the service was great on board.  We generally relaxed except on the last day when we had to leave Zanzibar at 3 in the morning.  We were routed back to Addis on a small turbo-prop plane for over 3 hours.  It was more disappointing to find that this same plane was to take us back to Bujumbura where we did encounter some bad weather enroute.  The worst of it was that when we did arrive, the plane, about 80% full with 60 passengers did not have enough storage capacity for all of our baggage.  So a full half of us found that our baggage had not arrived with us in Buja and we had to come back the next day to get it.  Despite all of that, though, I would say the trip to Zanzibar was well worth the bother, as Rebecca will explain below.  (I may add some comments from time to time)...

We landed in Zanzibar at the airport close to the main metropolis called Stone Town.  We drove an hour there across the island, finally arriving at the sleepy town of Bwejuu on the East Coast of Zanzibar at about 4 pm. Our lodging was actually located a few kms out of town, up the beach. The friendly staff of Upepo Boutique Beach Bungalows was on hand to welcome us and show us to our little thatch-roofed house. It just had one large room with 2 big beds and an ensuite bath, but it was perfect for a family. The towels were creatively decorated with fresh red hybiscus and yellow flowers. And there was a covered porch area where we could sit and relax outside. The whole place included only two bungalows and a restaurant with a capacity for about a dozen people (but we never saw other guests there besides ourselves and the other couple staying at Upepo).

We explored further and found some locally made beach lounging chairs facing the ocean under a set of little evergreens shaped like beach umbrellas. A nice local hammock hung in front of the restaurant. And overhead coconut palms rustled in the breeze-- a line of them stretching all along the beach north and south.

We visited Zanzibar in the off season so we felt like we had the beach pretty much to ourselves. As we took a walk along the shore at high tide we discovered that there were several other beach hotels on either side of ours, but all of them small, hosting maybe one or two couples in similar kinds of accommodations. The kids and I had to get in the water and we were shocked to find that it was as warm as bathwater! We'd heard that there was a shallow coral bay area fringing the beach, and obviously the water had been baking in the sun for a couple of days. Still it was fun to swim.

We ordered dinner at our hotel restaurant and were delighted with the food there, that night and every night. Zanzibar is a great place to go for culinary tourism! We enjoyed fresh fish and calamari, prepared in sweet, cardamom coconut sauce or spicy masala. The kids loved the whole grilled ocean fish rubbed with Zanzibar spice (with lots of chips on the side). For desert a few nights we enjoyed Zanzibar pancakes with chocolate (fresh crepes). And all the food came decorated with frangipani flowers, beautifully presented, freshly prepared.

Grilled Parrotfish

We were tired after our meetings in Kinshasa and two days of travel, so we had a good long sleep the next morning. We enjoyed a lovely breakfast of a sampling of 5 different tropical fruits, omelets and fresh bread, alongside delicious spice tea. And then, after playing in the sand for a bit, and making plans for the rest of the week, we decided that it was time to explore the ocean right in front of us at low tide.

We all set out with our rubber shoes and walking sticks provided by Upepo. The first hundred meters were challenging because there seemed to be a line of quicksand that wanted to suck our feet down into muck and suck our shoes off of our feet. Paul's rubber sandals proved to be unequal to the task of this shore walking and broke very quickly but luckily I and the kids had decent water shoes. Because after the quicksand, we then got to a place where the spiny sea urchins loved to nestle in among the sea grass. But as some compensation, there were many other creatures to look at too At first, we just saw little brown fish and hermit crabs and long tube-like anemones. But as we walked further we came to some places where real coral was growing. Tiny blue and green fish skittered in and out of the holes. There were enormous red starfish to pick up and big fat grey starfish that had no arms, but were basically fat pentagons. .Later we found classic anemones, with black and white zebra fish hiding inside of them. Oren and I went out farther than Paul and David, because of Paul's shoes.

We were not the only people out there. A lot of villagers were out to harvest things from the sea. We ran into a group of young teenage girls several times and they seemed to be looking for octopus on the outer edge of the reef area – maybe a kilometer out from shore. It was a tough walk for them because they had to really pick their way through coral colonies and eventually dodge fairly deep pools to get out to the edge. We finally picked our way back to the shore, and found that we had been out for more than three hours! There was some sunburn, and some sore feet to show for our efforts, but it was very fun! We went out to explore the reef several more times during the week, and Paul even took Oren all the way out to the edge where the big breakers hit on one afternoon--about a mile walk out from the high tide mark.  (But Paul came back with urchin spines in the bottoms of both feet – very painful!) David and I enjoyed exploring things at a slower pace. And towards the end of the week, Paul and I each took a little time to try snorkling a bit with Oren's gear (not perfect). I did see a lion fish about two feet from me (luckily I saw it before I touched it!) I also saw some great butterfly fish and angel fish and a black and white eel. There was so much more detail to see from under the water than from above and it was a very fun experience. But what was sad was the realization that people (including us) are tromping all over the coral every day, breaking off pieces and damaging things that we can't even see that we're stepping on. Tourists are certainly a big part of the problem, since we provide the market for the octopus and parrotfish that people walk out on the reef to catch. And Zanzibaris need to make a living. I think that there will need to be some serious analysis of the problem in the near future in order to preserve the marine wealth of Zanzibar – in order to maintain the tourist wealth.

We fully enjoyed a day at the beach with no distractions but then we planned several other excursions on the other days. On Wednesday, we got up early and took a taxi down to the southern town of Kizimkaze to see the dolphins there. We took a dhow fitted with a small motor out onto choppy water under grey skies. It was kind of an ominous beginning to the tour. Even Oren was alarmed by the swell which rocked the boat fairly violently. On the other hand, the water in that bay was crystal clear and various shades of turquoise and lapis, and we could see at least 4 meters straight down to the bottom. All along the way, the skipper (a kid of 25 or so) was on his cell phone, obviously trying to track down the dolphins through his colleagues. . We got to the place where the dolphins usually pass, and they were clearly not present at that moment. The skies were getting heavier north of us and it looked as if this might be a failed expedition. But then we got one more call on the cell, and the skipper revved the engine and turned the boat around the way we had come. About 6 other boats were converging on one1 spot and then suddenly there they were! Five dophins cresting just above the surface in perfect unison.

Paul had already suited up with swim fins and snorkle and the guide said, Go, go! So he just jumped off the side of the boat and started swimming out. And he was right with the group of dolphins – almost a dozen all told. Under water, it was pretty magical and calm, watching the dolphins swim underneath the humans, not in any particular hurry. On the surface, things were a lot more chaotic, the boats trying to keep up with the swimmers without bumping into anyone or anything, also trailing the dolphins, and at least 15 people in the water at any given time, swimming in all different directions. The guides had already told us that the water was too rough for kids (which we felt as well) so we just went in to swim with the dolphins one at a time. I tried it once, but I'm no good with a snorkle, so I just used my goggles. I was right on top of the dolphins for thirty seconds and then they started surfacing around me and I thought I might touch one – and then I drank some sea-water. So they got away from me at that point, but it was pretty amazing to see first hand. I have to say that Paul is a stronger swimmer and he did really well all three times that he jumped in to swim with them. Again, there are issues of conscience about this method of interacting with the marine life – but the dolphins did not seem to be really bothered by all the attention.

Giant Zanzibar land crab

On our way back, the sun came out and the water got calmer. Oren was really grieved that we didn't let him swim with the dolphins. Also, Gramma Jean gave the kids a beautiful book on coral reefs and Oren has been thrilled at the thought of visiting a real coral reef (wading through shallow water looking down on coral didn't really count in his mind). So we put David's life-vest on him and his goggles and he jumped with me into the shallower water near shore. We only had less than 10 minutes of our time slot left, but still we were able to look down on a real coral garden and see some beautiful fish and a wide variety of coral and anemone and other things too far below me to see clearly. Oren was desperate to dive down and see things but I wouldn't let him take off the life-vest. I think we'll help Oren swim better and learn to really snorkle and set a goal of doing some serious snorkling with him before we leave the African continent.

The rain finally started really coming down as we got in the car and headed back for our hotel – good timing! We had breakfast and then settled under the one covered beach cabana. The kids and I did some water color painting while Paul worked on finishing his Congo history book. It was fun to try to paint at all our different levels. The rest of the day was a slow, rainy day lazy, with a movie, another picnic lunch of apples & peanut butter, a game of carcassone for the adults and a nap for David. We enjoyed just relaxing again.

On Thursday, after breakfast, we took another drive to the center of the island to the Jozani Forest, a protected reserve. It's the home of the only surviving 3000 Zanzibar Red Colobus monkeys (one of the rarest monkeys in the world). The forest itself was beautiful to walk through, with huge old indigenous trees. What was once a coral reef under the sea is now the island itself, and still quite damp. Giant snails, 8 inches long, seem to be produced in great quantities. There are a number of rare birds that live in this forest, but we arrived too late in the morning to see any. Fortunately, the monkeys are much easier to see, feeding in a family group of over 40 individuals. They are quite small but active and fun to watch. Our last stop was past the monkeys as walked into a mangrove swamp. It was amazing that they had even built a nice boardwalk to protect the swamp and the visitors. Paul and I could have spent longer in the forest, but that amount of visiting was enough for the kids, so we retired back to the beach for a lazy, sunny afternoon.

Our final outing on Friday took us up north, about an hour from Bwejuu. Spice production – and partcularly the production of cloves – was once the economic backbone of Zanzibar. Now, spice production is more symbolic for local use.. – and also as an aspect of tourism. We visited a community owned spice farm, a seemingly random assortment of different patches of this and that growing across several hectares, with little homesteads in between. The tour guide was from Stone Town, but he was accompanied by young men from the community who harvested small samples for us to smell/taste/touch. We learned a lot! For example, the lipstick fruit is a small hairy pod filled with tiny seeds which when crushed produce a bright orange-red dye—the source of that bright red color on tandoori chicken. The spices turmeric, ginger and cardamom all come from similar looking lily plants. Vanilla and pepper both grow on vines. Oren loved all the “toys” one young man made for him out of plant products as we walked around. First there was a necklace made from manioc leaf. There was a watch and a small frog made from coconut palm leaves. Sunglasses constructed out of a pineapple leaf! And to “cap” it all off, a full hat woven from coconut fronds. Actually, we each got a different kind of hat, decorated with bright hybiscus blossoms. We were quite the tourist family!

The Spice tour ended with a spice lunch – a chance to sample how many of the spices are used, particularly in spicy rice pilau. There was also cooking bananas in masala, manioc cooked in coconut milk and another spice sauce for fish. The food was really good, though much more local tasting than our more refined restaurant food. To complete the cultural tourism aspect of things, another young man cut up lots of different local fruits one at a time and let us sample pieces of them: pomelo, passionfruit, jackfruit, pineapple, banana and custard apple. It was a unique and interesting way to experience more of Zanzibar.

On Saturday, we had a little time for one last swim before packing up and heading back to Stone Town, since we needed to be closer to the airport for our 4 am Sunday departure. We picked out Stone Town Cafe B&B from the internet, and it was a great, central choice, with a beautifully decorated room. We were right in the old section of town, so it was easy to walk around, explore little shops, peek down narrow alley ways, and admire the fascinating wood carvings and Arabian architecture. I must admit that coming to Zanzibar during low season is great for being on the coast –it's much cheaper and very calm and quiet. However, Stone Town felt a bit like a ghost town, and everyone seemed a bit desperate to do any business at all with the few tourists who were in town. We all really enjoyed Forodhani Gardens with a new playground area for the kids. Lots of local folks were hanging out there as the sun set, and a large group young men were doing insane running dives off of the pier, to the amusement of various on-lookers. After dinner, we tried to get some sleep in our lovely hotel room, and I really regretted having to get out of that super comfy bed at 1:30 am to get ready for the taxi and the long journey back to Bujumbura today.

Stonetown Harbor at Sunset

Paul's closing:  As you know from the beginning, we did back to Bujumbura on Sunday afternoon.  It was great to have Felix meet us at the airport in our car completely repaired and returned from Rwanda!!!  We were actually glad to be able to meet with our prayer and share group at 4pm.  We had a quiet dinner afterward as a family and went to bed, ready to begin our normal routine on Monday morning.  As of this posting we also have all of our suitcases back.

Travel Log part 1: Kinshasa--Meeting in the shadow of Leopold's Ghost

Coming into Kinshasa from the airport, the tall structure is some kind of unfinished play area that Mbutu never completed.

Addis Ababa, from where I am sending this blog, is becoming a familiar place of transition for us, especially on this trip.  We are stopping here no less than 3 times in two weeks as all of our routings pass through it.  On a map, it does appear to be a peculiar center point as it is nowhere near our destinations, but since we are flying Ethiopian Airlines, it is necessary.

Actually travel between our different destination points feels a bit like taking the local subway that stops at every in- between point.  This was particularly poignant enroute to Kinshasa when we made a 1 hour stop in Brazzaville before jumping across the Congo river in our 767, a total of 5 minutes in the air, to land on the other side in Kinshasa.  It was the shortest flight I have ever taken.

The trip to the western side of DRC and especially Kinshasa in certain ways fulfilled a certain wish to set foot in the place I had read about in several books set in Africa, particularly Barbara Kingsolver’s The Poisonwood Bible.  Most recently though I have been reading an incredible history of the colonization of the Congo by Belgians under King Leopold II that is one of the most shocking accounts of what was probably the most brutal colonial occupation of a country in history.  Between 1890 and 1910, during the height of the ivory and rubber trade, much of the population of Congo was enslaved and forced to labor to provide Europe with ivory and rubber. 

The tactics were so brutal it is honestly on a par with Kony and the LRA.  The Force Publique, was in the habit of kidnapping and holding hostage the women and children in a village to force the men to work.  If they did not bring in the proper quota, their wives and children were killed.  Soldiers would regularly whip laborers to death, hang them, and most preferably cut off their hands.  10s of thousands of Africans had their hands chopped off as punishment for various offences, particularly not working hard enough.  Dismembering hands and feet of young children (5yo’s) was not uncommon practice as well to force parents to work harder.

Probably most disturbing was the habit of some of the most sadistic Belgian officers to ‘decorate’ their gardens (enclosed flower beds) with the severed heads of Africans they had decapitated.  In Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness set in the DRC of the time, he describes the fictional Mr. Kurtz as putting heads of Africans on stakes all around his walled compound.  This story was undoubtedly drawn from something Conrad actually witnessed during a sojourn he had in Congo during this epoch.

The crowning abomination for me though was the fact that the Belgian Colonial authority was carrying out this reign of terror under the guise of humanitarian protection of natives against the Arab slave trade.  They did their best to completely disguise and dis-inform the public back home of what was really happening in the Congo.

I did feel encouragement, however, in reading this book, that among some of the most outspoken critics at the time were missionaries on the ground who passed on eye-witness accounts of the horrors to the European press.  There were several accounts of African tribes who, during failed rebellions, actually protected missionaries and did not consider them to be part of the reign of terror led by the Belgian Force Publique.  This is another corrective to the more cynical view that Christians who came over during the colonial era were in complete complicity with all the objectives of their European Government counterparts.  It was in fact with the help of testimony of some of these returned missionaries that colonial authority was taken away from the King of Belgium.  (3 mentioned by name were the Rev. William Shepard, an African American Presbyterian, and The Rev. John and Alice Harris, two Baptist missionaries from the UK.)

So the brief history lesson is what set the stage to our family’s arrival in Kinshasa.  We of course were not here for a history lesson, but rather for the much more practical purpose of having another one of our regional meetings.  Our region includes the countries of Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Chad, DRC, Rwanda and Burundi. 

We look forward to these meetings now as a time to be together with our country Rep colleagues. In between the business meetings, there are lots of informal times to share stories about our challenges, frustrations, and yes, joys in our individual assignments.  We also become aware of various regional crises and try to share learnings and advice as we seek to direct MCC programming to the areas most needed.

Chad reps. shared with us the growing challenge of famine in the region that continues to grow more acute due to drought.  Whether MCC will participate with other groups in a major relief effort was a question on the table.

Nigeria reps. also shared with us the challenge of living in a continual deteriorating religious conflict.  They do feel under some threat personally as Boko Haram terrorism has been directed at churches in their area as well as other parts of Nigeria.  Sadly I read an account just this morning of a bomb that went off in a Catholic Church there which killed 35 on Easter Sunday.

The rest of us fortunately had less crisis related news to share about our countries.

We were also a bit sad to be saying good-bye to both the Nigeria Reps (Harman_Souder family:  Mark, Brenda, Greg, Valerie) and the Chad Reps. (Entz’s: Doug, Naomi, and Hannah).  They have come to the end of their assignments.  It will be sad to see them go as we have enjoyed for several years the mutual support that have been an important part of these regional meetings.

It is also a big challenge to find new people willing to fill the roles these reps. will vacate.  Both countries pose serious challenges for expats.  Chad is unimaginably hot, and Nigeria continues to descend into instability and possible civil war.  To find people willing to be ‘on the ground’ in these places for MCC requires extensive searching and prayer that God will call those whom he has prepared to do the work there.  (If anyone reading wants more info on MCC and job opportunities, there is a link on this blog in the right hand column.)

Our residence in Kinashasa was simple and quite pleasant.   We stayed at the Methodist-Presbyterian Guesthouse, an old youth hostel.  Weather in general was quite hot, even for those coming from Chad and Burkina, found the humidity very uncomfortable.

The City of Kinshasa is a study in contrasts as well.  The airport epitomizes the stagnant bureaucracy of a failed state.  Both coming and going took an exceedingly long time with an amazing number of redundancies.  There were at least 4 separate passport control checkpoints, as well as a number of places where they checked a receipt for $50 we paid per person as an airport tax.  There were also 3 separate security checkpoints, none of which had any working scanning equipment so it was all manual.

Driving from the airport onee passes by many miles of slums which are carpeted under several feet of old plastic shopping bags.  Eventually we emerged into the more modern center of the city where our guest house was located.  The city itself is impressive with modern skyscrapers, supermarkets, and just about any import one would want to buy available.  A poignant example of the great disparity between wealth and poverty so apparent in the country.

I will admit that there was a side of me looking at all this asking myself if we might ever consider taking an MCC DRC assignment in the future.  I don’t have answer to that question now, but it is not something I would dismiss out-of-hand, despite the great challenges I see here.

We did have some special events during our time together, particularly since we were meeting over Holy Week.  On Friday evening we went over to the house of MCC Congo Rep. Suzanne Lind and share a meal together which included a Seder as Jesus might have participated in at Passover.  We sat together on the floor as a big group.  After dinner we had a chance to give some words of encouragement to the Rep. families that were leaving.

We left Kinshasa about midday on Easter Sunday and unfortunately we were not able to go to a service before departing as the ride to the airport and the time for processing takes so long, we had to leave pretty early in the morning.

We flew with some of the other reps to Addis where we stayed the night again and today are on our way to Zanzibar for 6 days of vacation.

It will be interesting to find out more about this port on the other side of the continent, also an important point of trade, including slaving to the East (Arab countries). 

Hopefully I will find internet and be able to post this before the end of next week.

(As it turns out, I was not able to post this for a full 6 days because we had no internet access in Zanzibar.  Will update you soon on that trip.)

Our Cup Runneth Over: A very Challenging Week

 How I found the engine of my car when I went to the mechanic to get an estimate on the damage.

I realize what a cliffhanger I left in last week’s blog when I received more comments than I have ever received for any single entry.  If this were a series it would have been a good season finale and you could expect reruns for the next 3 months. 

But, for anyone waiting in suspense, I am happy to report that I am alive and well and currently writing from a plane heading to Addis Ababa (Ethiopia).  Which is to say that I have survived the adventures and misfortunes of the previous week only to be ready for more this week and the week ahead.  Actually I am enroute with the whole family, David snoozing beside me, and Lyn Longenecker, my travel companion of the past week with us as well.  We will be in Addis Ababa tonight and then head on to Kinshasa (DRC) tomorrow.   As usual, in order for us to get from Central Africa to the West Coast of Africa, we have to fly all the way to the East Coast and then double back.   I guess I am used to this by now.

The past week was so full of activities that I do not think I can possibly remember it all.  I was writing last Monday from Kigali where I had arrived (towed by a wrecker) in the late afternoon.  I did find Lyn at Ruth and Krystan’s house and we had dinner with the group that evening.  The next morning we began our field visit at our partner Friends Peace House that runs a kind of trade school for street kids.  While Lyn was visiting there, I was called away for a consult with the mechanic who was working on my car.

I was slightly horrified on my arrival to find that the entire engine was out of the car and completely dismantled down to he pistons and cyclinders.  He told me the overheating had done extensive damage and the pistons would need to be replaced along with numerous other parts and gaskets that had melted.  I asked if he could get parts and do it and he assured me he could.  I asked about the possibility of just buying a new motor and he told me there were none available in Rwanda and I would have to order it from Dubai or Japan.   Faced with no good options I agreed to let him do it and gave him about $1800 for parts. 

Labor will probably not be more than a couple hundred dollars here.  That is one big difference between here and the States.  I don’t know how many mechanics would choose to rebuild an entire engine over replacing it if the car was not some sort of vintage automobile.  But here in Africa, little, that is made of metal is ever wasted and I have no doubt this guy has done it  before.

I realized I would have to entrust the car to Ruth and Krystan at that point because Lyn and I had a tight schedule and planned on seeing two other projects on the way back to Bujumbura.  I also realized that our trip was going to get a lot more gritty as we would need to go by matatu (minibus) and taxi instead of in a comfortable 4X4. 

Welcome Committee at the Hope School

So the next morning at 6 am we got on a minibus to a town across the bprder in Burundi called Kirundo.  The van would have sat 12 comfortably but we managed to squeeze in 19 along with a ton of luggage.  Despite being squished it was not bad and the border crossing did not take long which was a blessing.

In Kirundo we were met by Innocent, the coordinator of our partner UCEDD who runs the Hope School for the Batwa.  He picked us up in his ancient Toyota Carina and drove us the last 2 hours to the Hope School.  Fortunately it was not raining or we would have never made it over the dirt road under construction that runs to the school. 

There we found there was a huge welcoming ceremony prepared for us complete with drummers and dancers.  (Obviously they considered Lyn to be quite a ‘big man’ in our organization.)  This was followed by a productive meeting with the teachers and administrators of the school. 

By the time we were finished we were very beat and feeling pretty grungy after the trip but did enjoy walking with the setting sun down to the seminary at Burasira where we were staying the night.

We had a nice dinner and met Jodi Mikalachki there as well who greeted us and shared dinner with us.  We had a decent night’s sleep after a cold shower.  The next morning we went to the 6:00 am mass then had breakfast and returned to the school.

Lyn is the coordinator of education programs at MCC so Innocent had arranged for him to meet the student committee and parent’s committee for the school.  We met the students first who were moslty from the secondary school.  We had a good exchange with them and had the chance to ask them directly what the biggest challenges were that they faced in trying to succeed, especially in the national exams.  Overwhelmingly the response was hunger (because they usually do not eat more than once per day) and light (because they have no candles or electricity to study after sunset when their chores are done.)  It was interesting to hear this and discuss solutions with them to these problems.  They also expressed an interest in having some kind of small trade school  as an alternative for those who felt they could not succeed in the national exam. 

Parents Committee at the Hope School

The meeting with the students lasted about 3 hours and the thought of repeating the same thing with the parents right after seemed daunting.  We did go in to meet them though and I have to say it truly enlightening to sit with the parents and talk with them.  This was mainly because of how different it seemed to me than a similar meeting I attended at the Ecole Belge for Oren on Parents day. 

These were peasants.  I am not being derogatory.  They were rural folks with no formal education whatsoever.  I could only imagine the hope and anxiety that might be wrapped up in sending their children to school, a place which they probably could not really understand as I am certain none of them could even read.  Even communication was a challenge as they only speak Kirundi.  I can manage some very rudimentary conversation in Kirundi but Lyn knew neither Kirundi nor French.  So we had to do a 3 part translation from Kirundi to French by Innocent, and then French to English by me.

We did talk to them and I told them that I was a parent myself and that I felt like I wanted them to think of me as a parent as we discussed together the challenges of educating their kids and the importance of encouraging their kids to stay in school.  When we talked to them about the challenges the kids identified, they agreed with the children’s assesement, of the major challenges and added that feeding them regularly was hard in their community.  Their crops were not sufficient to feed the family and they try to hire themselves out to neighbors for extra income with little success. 

It was sobering as I consider the challenges I face with our kids in school and have never considered feeding them to be one I have ever considered seriously.

By the time we finished, I realized we had been in meetings for 6 hours.  We left the school and headed to our next destination, Gitega.  We went in Innocent’s car again, which really did sound like it would fall apart at any bump, but despite the fact that he took a route full of shortcuts that virtually cut down several hedgerows and foot paths, we did get there in one piece in about 2 hours.

Women's Group at Bukirasazi

It was late afternoon by then and I contacted Yolanda, our service worker who met us at the guest house where we were staying.  We told her our saga and while she was sympathetic, she probably could not help feeling a bit of karmic justice to see the country rep. having to get around the country by public transport the way all of our service workers are required to do. 

Yolanda is seconded to our partner UCPD whose project was the last on our 4 day tour.  The next morning we went over to UCPD headquarters where we met Jean Pierre and other UCPD personnel then proceeded by taxi to Bukirasazi where they have their projects.  MCC is supporting a new program to give youth technical training through an apprenticeship program with local artisans, namely taylors, carpenters, and masons. 

We began our visit with a meeting with a representative group of women from about two dozen women’s groups formed by UCPD.  They do various projects together but also helped come up with the idea of the project and will be responsible for selecting young people who will participate in the program.  We had an informative talk with them, again using the 3 part translation from Kirundi through French to English.

After visiting with the women, we made several more stops in the commune to see a local authority and several artisans, to wit: a taylor and a carpenter.  I was particularly struck by the carpentry shop where the carpenter worked with little more than a hand saw and a hammer. 

Last taxi home

We returned to Gitega about 2 and headed down the hill in a taxi, again packed with passengers and cargo and headed down the mountain.  We were back in Bujumbura by about 5pm on Friday.

I have to say, it would be hard to imagine that the weekend could be fuller than the week but it really was.  I arrived to meet our new service worker Jennifer Price.  She arrived from the US on Wednesday to begin a 3 year assignment with our partner Help Channel in Bujumbura.  It was exciting to finally have her arrive and to meet her.   Rebecca had been hosting her at the house since her arrival and starting her orientation. 

That same evening we took Jennifer, the kids, and Lyn to a potluck hosted by our South African friends Tim and Jeanette.  It was a nice party and we had a chance to see a lot of friends and introduce Jennifer around.  We were particularly glad to see Naja and her two kids as their family is going out of town to South Africa for several weeks.

Lyn Longenecker and Jennifer Price at Club du Lac T.

Saturday began as usual with yoga.  We had a fairly big group with Lyn and Jennifer joining in.  After class I took our guests and our kids to the beach, for some lunch and to swim.  The other reason was to give Rebecca 6 hours of uninterrupted time to prepare a sermon she was to preach on Sunday.  She had been feeling very stressed about not having any time alone to prepare as she had charge of the kids and Jennifer while I was upcountry.

The time alone seemed to do the trick as she delivered a powerful sermon on Sunday based on Mark 14 and 15, the story of the Last Supper through the betrayal in the garden of Gethsemane.  The approach she took that really seemed to awe the congregation was to tell it as a narrative from the point of view of Simon Peter.  She spoke as him in the first person and took us through the entire story.  It was very effective and well done, and people actually applauded at the end. 

It was very affirming for her to receive the appreciation.  That afternoon, in our small group we had another opportunity to discuss it and again there was great affirmation of her gift for telling a story.

David with giant millipede

Small group was not the end of the day though; after our group left we welcomed Janelle, our SALTer and her whole family over to dinner.  (Mom, Dad and brother).  They actually came to visit her in Burundi for a week.  I think it was really exciting for her and actually her family will stay in our house this week while we are gone.  (They were going to use our car as well but it will not be back for at least another week.)

We packed until about 11pm (Rebecca until 2 am) and did our best to leave things completed during our absence for the next 2 weeks. 

I wish I could say that Monday morning was stress free, but the truth is we did not feel well prepared to leave.  We are going to Kinshasa for a week of regional meetings then return back to the East Coast of Africa and vacation for 5 days in Zanzibar. 

Our cook called us first thing in the morning to say she was sick, then our cleaner came in with a sprained back.  With both of them out, we are not leaving the house in an ideal situation for guests. 

Janelle and family at our house

Nontheless, when the cab came at noon, we got in and left.  (Jennifer actually came with us in the car Help Channel gave her as we did not have enough room in the cab.)  Lyn Longenecker is also accompanying us to Kinshasa before heading back to the US.

At this posting, we have arrived safely in Addis Ababa where we will stay the night and leave about 9 am to continue our journey.  It has been a hard but not entirely uninteresting week.  We are definitely excited by a change in routine and a chance to get out of town and take a long deep breath.