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.