Phases of 50 part 5: 54 Last Birthday in Burundi

Truck that fell off the road in a ditch while negotiating a detour because of flooding.

I have had 6 Birthdays in Burundi.  Another landmark to contemplate.  Time is not a continuum, at least in my life.  There are times that have been more significant than others.  I can almost look back and see my past in terms of lifetimes, like some kind of reincarnation.  Although we can’t go back in time, there have been periods where ‘who I am’ has not significantly changed by circumstances over many years.  This has not been the case in the past six.  I don’t even feel like the same person who came here six years ago.  Whatever motivated me to come here belonged to the mindset of someone quite different.  But I do not regret who I have become.  It is indeed a metamorphosis of sorts.  I can never ‘go back’ to who I was.  This is interesting because we will be ‘going back’ to the US in July.  But it will be a going forward.  I might look the same on the outside if you see me again, but I am different on the inside.

The fifties are great though. It is like your senior year.  It really feels like I am in the right place and I know what I am doing.  Hopefully this will sustain me through any period of unemployment we might face upon our return.

I celebrated my Birthday modestly this past Tuesday.  The kids were very excited about it and had prepared a kind of surprise party. They had decorated the living room when I came home from work, and had some presents and a cake on the coffee table.  The biggest surprise though was when we went to open the door to let Rebecca in and in about 10 seconds Bella jumped up and devoured about half of the cake.   The kids were sobbing about this, but I did cut away the part that was eaten and we enjoyed the rest.

I got a very tasty gift that we all enjoyed.  It was chocolate from Switzerland in the shape of 5 Swiss army knives.  I thought they were real knives at first. 

Rebecca and I also had a double date night with Simon and Lizzie Guillebaud.  They are missionary friends from the UK who have been here longer than us.  Simon is an author as well, check out his blog here.  (Simon Guillebaud).  I did not know that Simon was at least as much as an Indian food connoisseur as I am.  We all went to Kohinoor (which is the current best Indian food restaurant in Buja no matter what anyone might say about Taj Mahal.)  We concluded that the chili garlic tawa chicken (extra spicy) is the best dish there.  It was a really nice evening with the two of them, and it seems like the first time in many years that we have been out as a couple with other adults.  I hope we can do that again before my next Birthday. 

The end of last week was occupied with assessing and deciding upon an appropriate MCC response to the disaster that happened.  I had written about the floods last week, and I had a chance last Monday to go up and see the damage in some areas.  We have decided to work on doing relief with a church that is at the epicenter of the area where the flood came down the mountain.  There is a link to the blog here written by one of the missionaries who works with this church.  (Joy and Jesse Johnson). 

Jesse took me up to the church and I had a much better idea of what had happened.  I have to say, I would have never imagined, before seeing this, how much damage rushing water can do.  During a torrential downpour water coming down the mountain backed up behind a culvert through which a river past.  The river flooded its banks and went over a road and came down the mountain like a tsunami.  I was standing in what looked like a dry rocky riverbed that was nearly a kilometer wide and went straight down the hillside for several miles.  This was not a riverbed at all, but at one time a hillside with houses, trees, walls, fields, etc.  It was completely gone.  Apparently the water was 10 feet high as it crashed down the mountain pushing boulders the size of elephants and trees down with it.  I could not believe the amount of damage.  I asked a local how long the torrential ran lasted that did this.  He said only about one hour.  It came like one giant wave.  There were the remains of some houses that were strategically located or at the edges of the torrent of water.  One house was sheered in half by a boulder.  On an inner wall, now completely exposed is a picture of the Blessed Mother.  I don’t know if the family inside survived.

It was a bit surreal to see the Emmanuel church in the middle of the rubble, standing fully with no damage to the walls.  I could see that the water had come up about 5 feet around it.  Apparently many people fled to it and were saved inside when they locked the front doors (which faced up the hill)  It was a miracle. 

I also took a picture of a deep gorge that was the road until the flood.  I can’t believe the water carved out such a long deep trench where the road had been.  I don’t know how that could ever be restored without a tremendous amount of earth moving.  I have a picture of a house beside what was the road.  It had porch extending in front of it onto the road.  Now it is on the edge of the gorge with no porch.

that was the road

When I talked to Jesse he told me that the immediate need is cookware and some supplies like clothes for the survivors who lost everything.  Secondarily there will need to be some supplies to rebuild—cement and tin for roofs.  I am glad to say that MCC was able to respond very immediately with financial assistance because we are on the ground here.  At this point it is estimated that over one hundred died, but up to 40,000 were affected by the flood because of the damage.  The exact number of casualties is difficult to know because there are still many unaccounted for whose bodies may never be found.

The rest of the last week was fairly normal.  We are in the reporting period of the year so time at the office has been spent doing end of year things, entering reports (mainly Rebecca’s job) and communicating with partners and service workers. 

The weekend was good, especially Sunday when Emmanual Ndkumana preached a powerful sermon about being salt and light in Burundi as Christians.  He asked this in the context of the current political crisis and flood.  He is a person who feels that Christians must be politically engaged and aware of what happens around us.  We can’t spend all of our time in the church praying and ignorant of current events, be they political, natural, social.   His critique of Christian’s in Burundi in the past was their dis-engagement from the events that were happening around them, very spiritually concerned but not able to be a prophetic voice in the time of the ethnic crisis here because they were not well informed.  He described a time he heard a tutsi praying for the destruction of the hutus, and later that day a hutu praying for a judgement on hutus. 

He said that God is waiting for a time when we can pray ‘in agreement’ it is in those prayers when he is in our midst.  His sermon is timely as the political situation continues to deteriorate here.   In the latest somewhat bizarre turn of events, it appears that the President has been able to name the new head of the opposition party.  (It would be like Obama claiming to have legal authority to pick the head of the Republican party.)  This is all aimed at him getting a third term, which I am certain he will succeed in doing, but am wont to know how.

We went for icecream on Sunday afternoon.  We usually go once per week to Ice World where you can get real (McDonalds style) softserve icecream, which is the best one can do here in Bujumbura.  I think I will miss especially the moral dilemma one must negotiate to enjoy this small pleasure.  In the photo you can see David enjoying his small scoop while two hungry street kids look through the window at us.   I don’t know if I will ever be able to go to Coldstone Creamery again because there is no one to remind me, as I eat, that there are those who cannot.  Justice isn't a world where no one has ice cream, justice is a world where everyone has it.

The weekend was spent partially in preparation for teaching I did on Monday and Tuesday for a group called YWAM (Youth with a Mission)  They do a 3 month training school followed by 3 months of practicum on mission work.  I was asked to teach on reconciliation and the Father heart of God.

I had two days about five hours each day so I had to have enough to say.  There were 6 students, 4 Burundian and 2 bazungu.  It was a very interested group and I felt like I made a good case for the fact that the Apostle Paul did not feel that reconciliation to God could be separated in any way with reconciliation to one another, particularly across ethnic lines. (Jews and Gentiles).   He was really hardcore about this and had many disputes with fellow jewish believers on this point. 

I did try to convince them that one of the failures of early evangelism in Burundi was the separation of sharing the gospel from ethnic reconciliation.  When the war started Christians divided ethnically and killed each other in great numbers.

One notable exception to this was in Buta (a town in the South) where there is a Catholic seminary.  In 1997 they were the only school in the country that remained ethnically mixed while all others were divided.  When rebels attacked them, the older seminarians (high schoolers) were asked to separate by ethnicity so the rebels could kill the tutsis only.  The students refused and 37 were martyred when they interlocked arms and stood together.   One dying survivor had a beatific smile on his face as he told the rector “Father, we won, they told us to separate and we didn’t”  Since that day the Father, Zachary Bukuru has built a memorial and tells the story to any who come to hear it.

I felt this story was worth hearing in person during the week of teaching.  I was actually splitting the teaching days over the week with Simon Guillebaud so on Thursday we drove 2 cars with the students up to Buta.

Father Zachary and Simon

The drive up was no small ordeal.  The rainy season has been terrible and about an hour down the road we came upon an impassable avalanche.  We were forced to find another route which took us several hours longer than our time planned for the journey.  Nonetheless we got there in the early afternoon and met Father Zackary.  It was an honor for me to bring all of these students, including Simon and the YWAM staff here for the first time.  They were quite overwhelmed by the man and his story.  I am especially glad to be getting Burundians to hear it.  It is sadly not well known, but as the Father says, God prepared this ground as a place of healing and reconciliation for Burundi.  It does stand as a memorial, not of a massacre, but as a martyrdom of boys who stood as brothers in Christ against ethnicism in the hope for a better future.

The trip back home was even worse than the way up, we had some bad sections of slow decent and Simon’s brakes actually failed completely by the time we got down the mountain.  Miraculously they did not fail before. 

It was, still, more than worthwhile and all who went up were deeply, deeply appreciative of the experience. 

Friday was ballet day and we are now hard at work preparing a suite of Swan Lake dances.  I am even planning to order some little white tutus from China.  This is my last year so I want to make it good.  I will miss this when I am gone.

No rest for the weary, I am supposed to go back up country to preach on Sunday than stay on for a field visit at the Hope School.  Keep me in prayers and thanks to all who sent me Birthday wishes.