Creating a Change of Season Amidst Farewells, and Traveling

Oren and David cracking open the Christmas decoration suitcase this past week.

I think this blog has been slowly moving into an 8 day cycle. I don't know if it is because life here seems less novel after 4 and a half years, or if we are just really busy. I think it is the latter as we seem to constantly be on the run. I am trying to get something posted this week so I have at least 4 posts in November. But also because it was a memorable week for several reasons, good and not so good.

On the good side, we did celebrate a belated Thanksgiving this past Saturday with a group of American friends. It was hosted by Courtney and JJ Ivaska at their house. We saw Isaiah and Samantha theere (missionaries based upcountry in Muramviya, Travis and his girls (Astrid has arrived safely in the Netherlands), Joel and Jeanette Miller and their family, as well as Ben and Kristy Carlson and their kids. Since most are together in the Ecole Belge the kids has a wild time running around the house playing games (boys and girls separately). There was also a turkey-making craft for the little kids. It was a very enjoyable afternoon/evening. It was nice to go to something rather than host it for a change as well.

Rebecca made another excellent faux cranberry sauce using japanese plums that was indistinguishable from the real thing.  She also contributed an apple crisp made with green mangoes that was quite convincing as well.

On Sunday, Oren could not wait at all to start decorating the tree. We did say he had to wait until Thanksgiving, so he did at least that, but then they begged us to set up the tree and get down the Christmas trimmings suitcase. I went out and bought some lights (since they only last about a year here) and put them on the tree. Oren and David decorated all the rest of it with many of their home-made decorations from past years. It looks great! I have started playing Christmas music starting with The Messiah (which I also do not allow myself to play until after Thanksgiving.

Although there is no seasonal change to cold weather, decorating the house does give us the sense of a change of season. It is also great to see how excited the kids are about Christmas this year. David is now 4 and is very aware of what this means. He also takes many of his cues from Oren as far as what to be excited about.

Backing up in the week, I mentioned in my last entry that I was upcountry for several days of the previous week for a stategic planning meeting of our partner Help Channel. Getting home was quite a relief although the meeting was very interesting. I arrived back Wednesday afternoon and enjoyed the normal routines of Thursday and Friday. Friday particularly with all the dance classes continues to be a blessing and a challenge.

This week it was Rebecca's turn to go up country while I stayed with the kids. It is honestly hard to say which is more stressful. This week a large road construction project that routed all traffic on the main artery into the city past the front gate of the school has been very stressful, both because of delays and concerns for getting the kids safely into school. Oren also suffered a series a small injuries involving toes and an ankle that caused him to miss soccer this week. Worse, he was the latest person in our family to fall victim to a short but powerful stomach virus that both David and I had the week prior. Oren vomited several times on Tuesday evening. He does not like vomiting and in facts seems so affronted by it that he refuses to do it anywhere that might be convenient to clean up, prefering to hit the bedsheets, mosquito nets, floor, bookcases and any open books, over the bucket that I am holding out in front of him.

Fortunately he was over it by morning and was able to go to school the next day which was good because it was class and school photo day, a bad one to miss. Rebecca came home on Wednesday as well and it was good to be reunited as a family. It was a bit odd not being the one traveling though. Next week will be the same with her going to Rwanda.

Rebecca and Nina

Rebecca's arrival was just on time for us to go to the airport later that day to say good bye to some friends who are leaving Burundi for good.  Jatta is a Finnish woman working for the European Union who was a frequenter of my ballet and yoga class and really was able to connect ex-pat dancers to the class.  Nina also left with her sons Jonah and Milo.  They are returning to Germany after a 3 year stint here with GIZ.  Her husband Bila had left a couple months earlier.  They were good friends of ours and both of the kids were in David and Oren's classes.  We saw them off at the airport that night and were sad to hear that both Jonah and Milo had the vomiting virus that evening as they were getting on the plane.  I assume they are back in Germany resting by now.

I am going to turn the blog over to her now to report on the things she did on her 3 day trip to Gitega and Burasira...

Rebecca chiming in here: I’ve been struggling lately to keep all the balls in the air, between work, home, kids, Sunday school, and a few special work-related assignments. This week I needed to travel up-country to see some of our volunteers. So my prayer Sunday night with our small group, was that this trip would be both safe and refreshing. I am glad to say that it actually was refreshing to be in the mountains and have some quality time with some team members.

I left on Monday mid-morning, after collecting a number of essential supplies for Teri-Lynn, who lives in a fairly isolated spot and can’t get many things in her market (she needed cooking gas, pasta, oil, rice without stones, carrots, and a couple packages of cookies for moral support). My first stop was in Gitega, where I was delighted to find that I got to share lunch with Saffy, as well as Melody and Yolanda. Their cook does a great job – see the photo with beautifully arranged fresh fruit for dessert. After lunch, Melody and I met with her supervisors at MIPAREC to get a sense of what her first months will look like at work. We toured the current MIPAREC offices and even got to walk through the new office building, still under construction.

I also got to share dinner with Melody and Yolanda in their flat, and we drank many cups of tea while discussing the best ways to become integrated in a partner organization. The best advice: spend lots of time in the beginning getting to know one’s colleagues, greeting people door to door. We also discussed possible research topics Yolanda is considering for her Masters’ work following her MCC term next year. It’s always fascinating to hear about her research and insights – she does a lot more academic reading about the region than anyone I know.

Gitega service workers Yolanda, Melody, Saffy

I spent part of the morning with Yolanda and her supervisor, completing a mid-term performance review. The partner organization, UCPD, has really grown in maturity, having developed a culture of asking questions of themselves. “Why isn’t this working? Who can we ask to find out? What can we do to change things?” I am always impressed with the integrity and honesty with which they do their work, and Yolanda has been a great fit for that assignment.

Melody and I had a quick – and yet again delicious! – Alphonsine-prepared lunch before picking up Beatrice, the education director of UCEDD, Teri-Lynn’s partner organization. I invited Melody to come along on this quick overnight trip to see Teri-Lynn to give her a chance to see a little of rural Burundi and to be able to picture where her nearest colleague is living and working. The dirt road from Gitega wasn’t too bad this time going up, and Beatrice and I had a lot to talk about in terms of the school and about regional politics, given that she’s Congolese and has some opinions about the recent M23 rebel take-over of Goma. When we arrived, Beatrice, Teri-Lynn and I sat down right away to go through her initial work appraisal. She is working very hard and doing a great job of teaching English to both students and teachers. But it is a real challenge to feel integrated into the community, particularly since she lives alone.

When Beatrice left to go back to the school, the three of us took a walk around the seminary property. I especially wanted to pick up some fallen evergreen boughs to decorate for Christmas. It was so lovely to breathe the fresh air and stretch my legs. Back at Teri-Lynn’s place, I was able to help her replace some parts on her gas stove, but failed to get her living room lights to work properly. Hmmm. Low-voltage lighting solutions will be in the next care package…We had a nice dinner together and talked about Teri-Lynn’s plans for some holiday time with her parents at Christmas. And when the time came, I slept like a log!

Teri-Lynn and Melody with teachers at Hope School

We woke up in the morning to find it had been raining softly all night. We went to the Seminary service of morning prayer in French, a discipline I really appreciate when I go up there – in particular the silent time of meditation between the prayers and the Eucharist. I found myself praying hard about the muddy road that lay before me later in the day. Back at Teri-Lynn’s house, there were questions to discuss with her cook and her nightguard—sorting out houseworker issues is hard for Teri-Lynn without a lot of French or Kirundi (I needed Beatrice’s help for the later). And then on up to the school to shake hands with teachers, drop off Teri-Lynn and pick up Beatrice and head out. At first, the road was decent, but then we got stuck in the middle of a long line of empty pickup trucks, heading back to Gitega to pick up more gravel. And suddenly, heading down an incline, I realized our car was sliding just a bit. And going up the next hill, I was pretty horrified to see the three trucks in front of me really fishtailing in the mud. I told Beatrice that now was a good time to start praying if she wanted to (and she obliged me by praying in tongues very quietly). I was trying not to picture the truck in front losing traction and sliding backwards, making a nice MCC sandwich with the truck behind. All my driving skills were called into action during that hour, and it wasn’t very fun. Finally, we made it to the point where we could take a more rural road and leave the trucks behind. I was glad to, even though the road was bumpier and more narrow. In any case, since I’m writing this, you know we made it back to Gitega in one piece.

I dropped off Melody at home and continued on for Bujumbura, but I realized that I was still kind of dizzy from the stressful hours of driving. So I stopped to visit the Foyer de Charité Catholic retreat center in Giheta, a place I had heard of but never seen before. As soon as I pulled off the gravel drive into the compound and stepped out of my car, I was greeted by a sister in an apron with a quiet, radiant face. She asked why I had come, and then she explained the mission of her order – to provide a place of retreat, where all categories of people could meet with the Lord, and be accompanied in their prayers. Clearly she was someone completely available to serve and welcome anyone the Lord would send. She directed me to the chapel and welcomed me to stay as long as I wanted. And when I left the chapel, I was met by another sister, with a similarly glowing presence, who welcomed me into her sitting room. She told me warmly of the healing they had seen, as people had come for five day retreats over the years. This has been the simple, Catholic approach to trauma-healing, I think. Conversation with these women gave me the sensation of honey rolling down the back of my throat—they have a deep joy and peace that I wish was a more present part of my life. But my half hour with them carried me back down the mountain and back home to my family.

Social Engagements and a Goma Update

Peter and Linda Taylor at their engagement party at our house last weekend.

Among the many blessings I experienced last week, the opportunity to be in Bujumbura the whole week and to go to the pool every day for a swim before work was probably the best.  I think this is only the second week since our return that I was home for the whole week.  I was especially grateful for the opportunity to swim because if you have been following this blog you may remember that our regular swimming venue, Entente Sportif is undergoing a 3 month renovation that began at the beginning of November.  It took some serious investigation to find another pool because there are very few here.  The one in our neighborhood is closed between 8 and 9 am for cleaning which is the only time Rebecca and I have.  Fortunately Rebecca got a special dispensation from the owner to let us go and swim during cleaning time.  This is really awesome for us because the cleaning is not disturbing at all and the whole pool is empty while we are there!

Rebecca in the office.

I enjoyed every aspect of our daily routine from taking the kids to school in the morning to picking them up at noon, sharing lunch together, then partaking of afternoon activities or returning to work depending on the day.  Rebecca and I have both felt behind to the point of negligence with regard to office work.  We have been out of town so much there is a long back-log of emails and other reporting.  We slogged through that over the week. 

Oren has two activities now that meet twice per week.  He is continuing karate, but has also added soccer.  I would say he is not a prodigy in either, but the karate does give him more opportunity to be immersed in French and to exercise, and he really seems to enjoy going to soccer. 

Friday is particularly active extra-curricular day as I have 3 dance classes during the afternoon while Oren is at soccer practice.  Since he practices right outside my studio and many of our friends have their daughters in ballet or sons in soccer, it is a very nice kind of social afternoon.  My adult ballet class in the evening is also proving to be very satisfying.  All the classes have 10 or more participants many who have had dance before. 

The weekly routine has also allowed us to have family tea time again several times per week, although Oren’s soccer practice goes until 5:30 so that is not always possible.

The weekend had some fairly major social events, one of which we hosted. It was an engagement party for a missionary couple who actually met here. Peter Taylor and Linda Taylor (same last name), both retired teachers, had come here from different parts of the world (he, from Australia, she, from Colorado) to offer their services teaching. Peter has been working at the Montessori school these past 2 years and Linda has been doing English instruction at various places around Bujumbura.  They had not known each other before they came here.  Rebecca and I had come to know Peter through our small group of which he used to be a part, and both of them attend our church.

Many of us had begun to notice a budding romance, but they officially declared their engagement this fall. They plan to marry in the US, but since they met here many of us felt they should have an engagement party here in Burundi.  Rebecca and I offered to host it since we have a big house.  The big day was this past Saturday and we prepared the house for a large group, putting extra furniture out on the porch ordering a cake arranging flowers, etc.  It was actually quite a big production. 

Guests starting arriving about 3 and we had about 50 people all told including kids.  It was also a potluck so there were many snacks that others brought.  It was a very integrated mix of ex-pats and Burundians as they have many friends and colleagues here who were very excited to celebrate with them.

At about 4, we all sat around together in the living room and shared memories and stories about seeing the development of the relationship.  Peter and Linda filled in some details of the courtship and future plans.  It is likely they will stay in Burundi together for several years.  There were some jokes from ex-pats about whether Linda would hyphenate here name (Taylor-Taylor).  The most surprising and amusing anecdotes came from the Burundians.  Overwhelmingly the reaction was amused incredulity.  They could not imagine why on earth an older person would get married at all.  It just does not happen here, particularly an older woman.  (Incidentally, neither was previously married.)  To Burundians marriage is only meaningfully understood as an institution in which to produce children.  The idea of a marriage without children seemed to them an absurd idea.  But on the other hand they were very excited to see how happy their friends seemed to be about it.  (Peter and Linda did note that they have been blessed with more children than they could ever wish for through their work here)  We ended the session with prayer for the couple and had cake together.   (for more photos of the party, click here.)

After the party our South African friends Tim and Jeanette stayed around and helped us clean up and stayed for dinner.  We talked about plans for Christmas and we will most likely go together to a lake in Uganda for a shared holiday between Christmas and New Year’s. 

We got to bed late after cleaning up and went to church on Sunday morning.  I helped with David’s Sunday school because there was need of a few extra hands on deck that day but Rebecca was able to hear the sermon.

We spent the middle of the day at home playing with the kids.  We felt they had been somewhat neglected by us in all the preparations of Saturday.  We played some board games including a family game of Sorry that went through the deck at least 5 times.  Oren eventually won. 

We hosted small group in the evening where we continue to deepen our understanding of the book of Micah and how it applies to our lives now.  It is hard to read his strong condemnation of corruption in the church and state and the greed of leaders selling the homes of widows and orphans and not feel there are not parallels hear in our current context.  I observed that it is interesting that we tend to see God as overwhelmingly concerned about our sexual morality and forget that he is also a God who rages over economic injustice and exploitation of the poor, vulnerable and marginalized and condemns their exploitation by the rich and powerful.  He also condemns institutions of justice on earth who favor the rich and influential over the poor.  (I am happy to see that he does not fit comfortably into the liberal and conservative boxes we like to try to stuff him into.) 

We had an interesting discussion about whether the church as whole can have a prophetic voice or whether that comes from an individual.  My observation was that as much as we like to imagine ourselves as Christians as prophetic in our responsibility to ‘speak truth to power’ real prophets who do this often pay a high price for their words.  Many in the Bible were imprisoned or killed and in our time men like Martin Luther King or Nelson Mandela were killed and imprisoned as well.  There are very few individuals I know who are willing to risk that much in invoking God’s justice before the rich and powerful.  I also think it might be harder for a prophet now to be heard over the mass media din that seems to render all opinions equally valid and irrelevant.  Why kill a prophet when you can just change the channel?

After the small group we went out that evening to have pizza at Ubuntu.  We usually do not go out on Sunday after small group but there was a good-bye party for one of our friends.  Astrid Withrow, the wife of Travis will be going to Netherlands for a time to do some work.  We have known their family for a long time as they are all part of the missionary community and have been here for the past 4 years.  They are eventually going to return to the US but there are some delays for the rest of the family as they are waiting for adoption papers for one of their daughters.  Adoption here is quite frankly a long and difficult process that verges on the impossible.  It takes years and there is some dispute in court about how long she has legally been in their custody.  We are praying for a quick resolution this, and quite frankly a miracle.  We are sad to Astrid have to go ahead of the family for income reasons, and we will miss them all when they eventually go.  They have been a blessing in the ex-pat community with their 5 daughters and their powerful children’s ministry.  It was a nice evening with another huge gathering of ex-pats, many overlaps from the party for Peter and Linda.

This has been another travel week and Monday after school I headed up country with Jennifer Price and one of our partners from Help Channel Burundi to Buta.  This is a Catholic seminary and monastery that is famous for having a shrine to some young seminarians who were murdered during the civil war.  They were asked to separate by ethnic group so the tutsis could be killed.  Because of their shared faith, though, they refused to separate and all were martyred together.  I have a previous blog entry about it here.  (The Duke Pilgrimage)                                                .

The reason I am here this week is to participate in Help Channel’s strategic planning meeting.  It has been interesting to hear them construct a vision statement for the next 5 years and to participate with them.  I do admit that I am not happy to be away from home again and will return on Wednesday.  There is no internet up here so this blog post will be going up a bit late.

Late Update from DRC:  We have been following with concern the continuing advance of the M-23 rebel group in Eastern Congo, apparently supported by Rwanda and Uganda according to a recent UN report.  They were approaching Goma, just across the border from the town of Gisenyi in Rwanda.  Our worst fears were confirmed when Goma fell into rebel hands yesterday.  Our MCC DRC service worker (name omitted) was in Goma when they attacked the city and he apparently spent the night in some kind of bunker hearing mortars and fire fights around him. He was able to flee to Gisenyi on Tuesday and is going to be in Kigali with our team there today.  He will plan to return to Bukavu via Rwanda today.  Prayers for him and for Eastern DRC are needed.

A Much Anticipated Homecoming

David has the reputation among our friends of behaving like 'Pig-Pen' from the Peanuts comic strip. Here he is after diving into puddles while Oren played soccer and I taught ballet.

Rebecca came and offered to take my place tonight while I was reading a story to the kids so I could “write the blog tonight.” I have to admit that it had not even occurred to me that another week had gone by and it is once again Monday night and time for another entry. (Admittedly I have been slipping into Tuesday fairly regularly.)

But this could be an opportunity to actually be short and sweet. It was a fairly straight forward work week and the last (for one week) when I was out of town. I left off last week on the night of our arrival in Kigali. I had come to bring the SALTers back, but also to get Matt Gates, our new food security coordinator, set up. This was to be no mean feat in the 2 full days I was to be there. Fortunately we were able to get him an internet modem on the way to dinner on the night we arrived. I was amazed to find that unlimited 4G internet is available in Rwanda for $40 per month. I think that is better than most anywhere else I have been in the world.

On Wednesday, our second day there, I introduced him to the Legal Representative of the Friends Church and we went over to visit his house on the church compound. This had been Ruth and Krystan's house in the past, and I was pleased to find that the church had done a lot of renovation on the outside and repainted the inside, but also put all the furniture back the way it had been. It was nice for him to arrive to a furnished house with all the amenities including some food and cooking utensils. One reason it was in such good order is because we had retained Ruth and Krystan's cook Fifi who had been keeping the house clean since their departure. Matt was introduced to her and it became immediately apparent that he will need to start learning Kinyarwanda quickly so he can communicate with her since that is the only language she knows.

After meeting with the legal rep and visiting the house, we went to the bank to get him an account. Fortunately this is not too complicated in Kigali either and we left the bank with an account as well as a checkbook on order to arrive in one day. We also took the opportunity in town to visit Nakumatt, the large modern East African supermarket that is like a Walmart in Kigali.

After lunch on Wednesday we had an appointment to meet Dave and Debbie Thomas, the Friends missionaries who live almost next door to Matt. I wanted him to get to know them in case he had any problems, but I did not expect to find that their current work project, called Discipleship for Development, which involves working with very small inputs to help communities develop their own assets, would be such an area of interest for Matt and MCC.

The fact is, this approach to development based on helping communities identify their own needs and assets is very much in the direction MCC would like to go. Matt was already excited about the opportunity to see their work in practice in the field. He also talked to them about finding a small piece of land to lease where he can begin some experimental farming.

It is great that he was a Peace Corps volunteer in Senegal and lived with a family and worked with them regularly in their fields. He is used to a rural village way of life and farming, and should be able to find some helpful techniques to improve production here using the tools at hand.

We ate at a Lebanese restaurant Wednesday evening. It was not great, which is not typical of restaurants in Kigali. Matt spent the first night in his new home and the next day we had a morning of meetings beginning with a sit-down with all of our partners at Friends Peace House. It was a chance for them to meet Matt and to hear how he will work collaboratively with all of our partners and will not be seconded to just one. We also visited the Mwana Ncuti project where Alyssa works before heading back to Matt's house for lunch.

In the afternoon we did a bit more shopping found the post office and interviewed and hired a language teacher so he could start Kinyarwanda. The only thing we were not able to accomplish before I left was to get him a car. That is a project he will have to do on his own with the help of some partners or others at the Friends Church.

Matt and SALTers at Zaffron

I had dinner with Felix, Janelle, Alyssa, and Matt, at Zaffron (our favorite Kigali Indian haunt). It was a good last meal together and appropriate 'welcome' meal to Kigali. I am sure he will have many more. (It was almost certainly the place where Ruth and Krystan had their last meal in Rwanda.)

Felix and I left Kigali at 6am the next morning. I had not cancelled my ballet classes that day (Friday) so I had to get back into town by 3pm to teach. We actually arrived around noon and I was able to pick up the kids from school. It was great to see them after being away for several days. It was also great timing to give Rebecca a break from seeing them constantly for 3 days.

Ballet went well, and despite my exhaustion it was great to come back to three classes of very enthusiastic students from 4 year olds to adults. The second level of ballet girls is working on the little swans variation from Swan Lake (simplified) and they are actually getting pretty good at it.

I had about 10 adults which was also very satisfying. I went home that evening exhausted but also exhilarated to be able to teach dance. We had a nice dinner with the kids then watched the Scooby Doo movie for a family movie night.

Saturday was yoga followed by a day at home in which we did very little besides relax and play family games. Saturday night though, Rebecca and I had a date night, the first in months, and enjoyed going out to La Trattoria, an Italian restaurant in town while Jennifer (our service worker in town) took care of the kids. It was great to have an evening alone with Rebecca where we could have some adult conversation without being interrupted.

Sunday was church and Rebecca taught Sunday school. I was pleasantly surprised to find J.J. Ivaska giving the sermon this week. He is in our small group and working here with World Relief. We are beginning a six week series on the book of Micah and he did very well to make it relevant to our time as well.

We met that evening in our small group for the first time in 3 weeks. It was great to be back together again for us.

Monday was back to a fairly normal work day less our morning swim as our pool continues to be closed. We did join another for the time being but I was not able to go until the afternoon. It was good to finally be able to swim after missing it for 3 weeks straight, but we both missed doing so in the morning before beginning our work day. We did find ourselves less tolerant of the normal stressors-- random people dropping by to ask for money, having to do things 2 or 3 times before they are right, etc.

The kids and Rebecca are all asleep now and I am ready for bed as well. It is good to be home as a family to at least 7 days.

Lusaka, Kigoma, Kigali--at the End of the Campaign Trail

Superboy David jumping on trampoline outside our tent at Jakobsen's beach in Kigoma, Tanzania.

Once again I find myself beginning this entry at a very late hour-- 10pm. I feel that we might actually be hitting 'the wall'--that is to say the limit of our ability, at least for me. The last two weeks have been very interesting and unique in the relational time they have offered. But the travel is really beginning to burn me out, and I am feeling a need for a rest, which is a bit ironic to say considering we were on a team retreat the last 4 days. (Of course many of you know that when you are the organizer of the retreat, it is not always very restful.)

Melody

The biggest challenge has been the travel. I am writing this blog from Kigali tonight where I have just brought Matt Gates, our new food security consultant, along with our two SALTers. The day's drive began in Bujumbura with 8 passengers. We let off Yolanda and Melody in Gitega, Teri-Lynn at her house in Burasira, then continued on to Kigali where we arrived this evening. After having a meal at Bourbon Cafe I dropped off the SALTers at their host parents' homes, and then installed Matt, Felix and myself at the Amani guesthouse. On Wednesday morning Matt will be formally introduced to the Friends Church (who we are under in Rwanda) and our partners. I will also be setting him up with an internet a bank account and language study in the next two days before returning to Bujumbura.

This is the third straight week of travel. Last week we got back from Zambia (all flights that began at 2am) and then within 24 hours, loaded up our team (of 14) who had all gathered at our house to await our return, and take them to Kigoma, Tanzania for a team retreat. In case anyone thinks we are bad at scheduling, the truth is these two events were further apart until the All Africa meeting was moved forward to end the day before our team retreat began on fairly short notice after we had made our bookings.

One of the major factors that is contributing to stress during travel here in the region has been the intensity of the rainy season this year. I don't think I ever remember seeing one quite so wet. There are many days when it rains the entire day or more. Driving in a driving rain for long hours is difficult, espcecially when unpaved roads and long waits at border crossings are involved. Loading and unloading vehicles in the rain and mud is difficult, especially if one is also trying to manage children who are happy to get soaked and filthy before climbing into a crowded car.

Felix and Alice

Fortunately on the days we were on retreat in Kigoma itself, the weather was great. Kigoma is a place I have written about before, (at this link). I appropriately entitled the post 'Paradise, Thy Name is Kigoma.” It remains true to the memory, so I will backtrack to last week and fill in some details.

As mentioned above, we arrived back in Bujumbura after an all night flight last Wednesday. Our team had already gathered, most at our house, to wait for us. Included in the group were Michael Sharp from the MCC DRC team as well as newcomer Matthew Gates. (picked up by Felix and Jennifer.) We had an opening liturgy on Wednesday evening at our house, after finding places for everyone to sleep. Felix surprised us that evening when he showed up with his fiancé Alice! Rebecca and I had met her the week before, but this was the first time she was introduced to the team.

Yolanda and Safi

We also did some fun activities including a costume contest, since it was Halloween. It was kind of like the show Iron Chef. Three teams were given identical materials and asked to create a costume. There was judging afterwards. The materials were challenging and of the 3 entrees, 2 were aliens (Oren and Teri-Lynn), Rebecca was the statue of liberty. Oren's team, who made him into an 'alien mummy' were the winners. Yolanda and Janelle carved a pumpkin into a T-Rex head, much to Oren's approval as well. We went to bed fairly early despite all the activity. Needless to say, our family was beat after the trip from Zambia.

On Thursday morning we packed two vehicles with all of us and our stuff and headed south along the lake to Tanzania. I remembered last year the drive not being too long, but I had not factored in the extra time it takes to get 14 people across a border. We spent at least an hour on each side. Fortunately I remembered that the Burundian border crossing is 28 kilometers before the border itself. (You have to go back if you forget to get your exit stamp.) We continued on to Kigoma, the road is generally good and arrived in the late afternoon.

With the number of us going, we occupied a tent (permanent with a thatch shelter built above it) as well as two cottage. (The proprietors—the Jakkobson's made their cottage available to us for the days we were there!) I tried in my last account to describe the rustic but well appointed beauty of this setting. It is along the lake, but the cottages are up on a slope that looks down on the lake from above from very charming porches. The water in the lake in this area is clear enough to stare down at least 50 feet. This makes snorkeling around the base of cliffs to see tropical fish possible.) Above the cottages is a savannah that looks out over a large penninsula. There are wild animals here including antelope and zebra as well as monkeys and monitor lizards.)

team in Kigoma, Matt is at the back.

The cottages are not connected to any grid but have solar power and gas stoves and refrigerators and lighting. So there are all the modern conveniences available in this very quiet, remote, setting. Oren was adamant that our family would stay in the tent, and although it only had 2 single beds, we were able to sleep in it relatively comfortably.

The two days we were there (Friday, Saturday) were beautiful in terms of weather and we all took the opportunity to hike, swim, read, and relate. We also had morning and evening worship and a session of reflection each day. On the first day we talked about our assignments and shared one by one the way we have been aware of God's presence in our work and also the ways we have felt disconnected or even disappointed with God or ourselves. It was a very good opportunity for us get to know each other better.

On the second day we each took the time to do a “Spiritual Gifts Inventory” based on a kind of questionaire. We used this as a take-off point to have small group discussions about the assets we bring to our assignments and to find ways to encourage each other in our work. We also prayed together in small groups. Every evening we used an Anabaptist liturgy provided by Yolanda to close our day. I felt that the retreat was a very positive experience for building our team. I also think that for the SALTers particularly, it was a nice opportunity to relax, being out of the setting of their host families and away from the isolation of their assignments.

We generally ate well. I thought Friday night was a highlight when we roasted two large sangala (a local fish that tastes like sea bass) over a grill. We all took turns preparing meals and cleaning up, and generally ate together.

We left Sunday morning, and sadly our timing was not ideal with regard to weather. The fact is, it poured all Saturday night and continued relentlessly into Sunday. We did morning worship and communion together and even delayed our departure by an hour. But eventually we had to face the sad reality that we would have to load our stuff in the cold pouring rain into the vehicles. Doing this from a tent brought back to me a cascade of fond but not entirely good memories of Boy Scouts and the numerous camping trips that involved shivering in a wet tent and then trying to pack the sopping tent and sleeping bag into a pack to head home.

We did get everyone and everything in and made our way back to Burundi in the continuing rain. The border crossing back was even worse than before and took us nearly 3 hours as it was more crowded coming back on both sides. There was a lot of standing around under awnings waiting for immigration officials to fill out 3 or more ledgers with identical information for each one of us. I am used to seeing this kind of redundancy everywhere here in this French style bureaucracy, but it is especially trying when one is waiting in the rain.

bluff overlooking the Penninsula

We did get back in the early evening and went over to the Ubuntu restaurant for pizzas (still raining). We were all pretty exhausted when we got back to our house and did a closing liturgy and went to bed.

On Monday morning I took the kids to school for the first time in 2 weeks. (I think we only lost one book of Oren's in our travels.) Michael Sharp headed back to Bukavu and Rebecca and I spent the rest of the day doing orientation with Matt Gates and Melody Musser.

On Tuesday morning we packed the car again for a huge road trip through Burundi to drop off our SALTers and service workers at their assignment locations. On board were Yolanda and Melody, heading for Gitega, Teri-Lynn going up to Burasira, and Matt, Alyssa, and Janelle going up to Kigali with Felix and I. The first leg to Gitega was pretty uncomfortable for passengers and on the way to Burasira we did again meet rain on the dirt road. Fortunately it did not turn to mud. We had lunch at the seminary with Teri-Lynn then headed on to Kigali and arrived in the early evening.

I have been up since about 4 am watching election results. Fortunately there is good internet here. I admit that I have been relieved to be living overseas through most of the campaign ugliness. While I do not want to make much political commentary here, I do feel that the effect of the Citizens United legislation has been to allow for far more partisan disinformation to be disseminated without accountability. I long for the days of 3 networks and a sense of journalistic ethics to get at the facts without propagating a particular political agenda. FYI: My grandfather was a farmer, teacher, and Roosevelt democrat and I continue in that proud political tradition- so my absentee ballot was cast in support of Barack Obama. I have friends across the political spectrum and while I can get caught up easily in political debate, I feel as a Christian in the current political climate, this is more and more a distraction from bearing the spiritual fruit that our life in Christ requires. (Be the change you want to see.)

God bless all Americans today. Our country has much to be proud of, and our electoral process, where people can cast ballots without fear is something that should never be taken for granted. Here in this part of the world, the overwhelming sense about elections is fear, and a successful outcome for a voter is not getting killed before the balloting is done.