Homeleave #7: Winding up--Chautauqua, Niagara Falls, and back to Baltimore

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Classic view of Niagara Falls which I saw for the first time last week.


As we enter the 'late afternoon' of our homeleave, I am amazed, in looking back at all the traveling we have done, particularly with regard to the geography we have covered in the US (and Canada).  We have actually been to every region, (Northeast, South East, Midwest, and Northwest, even the Great Lakes) except the Southwest.  (There is no plan in the working to get down to Phoenix or San Diego anytime before we leave.)  It has been quite an adventure and we have felt very successful in visiting many, many friends and relatives in our time here in a way that has not been excessively stressful.

Last week we completed our final set of family vacations by spending a week in Chautauqua, New York with Rebecca's parents and her brother and sister-in-law with their 2 kids.  The timing in terms of travel the first day was a bit tough in that Rebecca and I returned from Vancouver/Seattle on a red-eye to Baltimore, then left the same morning for an 8 hour road trip to Chautauqua, which is in western New York, about an hour south of Buffalo.  Although we were tired, the timing was good in that we arrived on the same day as everyone else so we had the maximum amount of time together.

If you have not heard of Chautauqua and the Chautauqua Institution, it is worth a bit of explanation and description to try to get a picture of the place where Rebecca's family decided to vacation this year.  At a glance, one might describe it as a kind of close-knit gated community along the side of Lake Chautauqua, a small lake in a fairly remote part of Western New York.  Visitors can rent rooms or houses that are owned on the property, which is quite large and even includes a golf course, tennis courts, a dance studio, art studio, art gallery, several theaters including a large ampitheater that houses 3000, stores, restaurants, a large library, bookstore, a town square and much more.  I would say that it is part town, part University and actually has a faculty that is invited each year as well as a dance and opera company in residence, numerous artists, authors, and other distinguished individuals. During the summer season there is a different theme each week, that vary from the Arts, to Global Health, Economics, Innovation and Technology, and even Iran: from Silk Road to Middle East Powder Keg (which was the theme for our week).

There are also, of course numerous lake activities to choose from including swimming, boating, skiing, sailing and fishing to name just a few.  Needless to say, there was plenty to do and choose from.

The history of Chautauqua is interesting because it was founded in the 1870s as a camp to train Sunday School teachers. About 2000 teachers from different denominations were invited to participate and set up camp in the place in tents.  This eventually evolved into what is now the Chautauqua Institution.  Because of its Christian roots there is a worship service every morning that features a very well known preacher.  The week we were there, the preacher was the Rev. Dr. Raphael Warnock, from the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, GA, which was the home church of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

He was an excellent speaker and quite inspired, coping deftly with an audience that was probably 99.9% white. He joked about that and told us how to 'talk back' to the pastor:  "If you like what I say, say 'Amen'.  If you agree with what I say but it is hard to hear say, say 'Lord have mercy'.  If you disagree with what I say, say 'Help, Lord!'  He tested us out with the proclamations  God is Good--Amen!  Drinking is a sin.-- Lord have mercy!  I could go on preaching all day-- Help, Lord!


He led us each morning and the adults in our group took turns going on different mornings while others watched the kids.

Rebecca and I did get a chance to swim most mornings as there was a pool available for lap swimming as well.  By day we did various activities with the kids including miniature golf, biking, and swimming in the lake.  Oren continued to improve his biking skills along with his cousin Miriam and they preferred to bike just about everywhere on the grounds.

During the evenings there were many special programs for adults and we took the opportunity to split up childcare again so that different ones of us could go to experience some events.  Dave and Jean Sack (Rebecca's parents) went to the opera The Magic Flute on Monday, Paul and Gwndolyn (Rebecca's brother and sister-n-law) went to a lecture by author Dan Brown on Tuesday, and Rebecca and I went to a performance of the North Carolina Dance Theater on Wednesday. It was great to see a dance performance by this repertory company and I did see some works of choreographers I was familiar with (Jaqueline Buglisi, Dwight Rhoden).  It was an enjoyable evening.

When we were staying home with the kids we enjoyed playing some adult board games, particularly Ticket to Ride, a pretty cool board game where the idea is to construct rail lines between major cities in the US.

We also took turns cooking and enjoyed great food prepared by different families.  Rebecca and I prepared a very nice Indian meal on Friday evening which included Aloo Gobi vindaloo (cauliflower and potatoes), channa saag (spinach and chick-peas), raita, and chicken tikka masala.  It came out really well eventhough we improvised on many ingredients.

We did some special outings and because of that this week was quite unique.  On Thursday we left the Institution and headed north about an hour and a half to Niagara Falls, NY and Ontario.  We were not just going as tourists though--we had made a plan to meet Zachee, Bridget and Timmy!!!  Yes, they had recently arrived in Toronto from Burundi where they will be for the next several years.  Zachee's visa for Canada did not permit him entry into the US, but it was not a problem for us to cross into Canada.  Since we were close to the border in Chautauqua, we made plans to coordinate a visit to the falls with them.

Although we did a get a flat tire on the way up (something I am very used to from driving in Burundi), we did not have much trouble getting up.  When we crossed the rainbow bridge into Canada we saw Zachee and Co. as we drove down toward the visitor center parking lot.

Oren and David were ecstatic to see Timmy!  David hugged him and rubbed his head quite a bit.  They all looked great and we introduced Zachee, Bridget, and Timmy to Rebecca parents, her brother as well as the cousins Miriam and Gabriel.

The kids had a ball at the falls.  It is quite a spectacular view on the Canadian side where you can look directly into the immense Horseshoe Falls.  (It was the first time I had been there.)  We really enjoyed hearing Z and B's stories about leaving Burundi, traveling through Europe, and arriving in Canada.  We shared lunch together as a big group, then Rebecca's family went on back to Chautauqua while our family stayed and had dinner with Zachee and Bridget.  We all enjoyed sitting in the visitor center restaurant that over looked the falls as the sun was setting.  It was a fabulous day and we drove home in the evening and got back around 10pm without incident.

Bujumbura will be a bit emptier without Zachee, Bridget, and especially Oren's best friend Timmy there.

But the Burundi connections did not end on Thursday.  It happened that Jodi Mikalachki, our former service worker who taught at the Hope School, was also in Toronto.  So she took a trip down to Chautauqua on Friday and paid us a visit.  It was nice to spend the day with her there and we reminisced as well as talked about her future plans to return again to Burundi sometime in the fall.

We left Chautauqua on Saturday and headed back home to Baltimore, arriving in the late afternoon.  This was an important landmark as this ended all of our journeys prior to our return to Burundi.  We have left the last 2 weeks for time in the Baltimore area to get ready for return, in terms of packing, and preparing spiritually, emotionally, etc.

The kids are spending time with their grandparents and cousins for the most part this week.  They went to the train museum with Grandma Jean as well as the library.  Rebecca and I have begun shopping for gifts to bring back to friends and colleagues, not a small job.

Because of Oren's enthusiasm for biking, we did plan a family bike trip on Thursday.  There is an old railroad that has been converted into a bike trail along the Gunpowder river (NCR trail).  It goes about 20 miles, but we chose a short section of it, about 7.2 miles round-trip.  We felt this would be a challenge for Oren but do-able.  (remember my goal of biking across the US with the family in 2020!)  We borrowed bikes from my parents and Rebecca's brother (he had one with a baby seat for David) and we set off mid-morning.  It was a perfect day and despite some complaints about being tired, Oren did make it to the halfway point which was an old train station where we had lunch.  After lunch we rode back which was much easier as it was on a slight downhill grade that way.  I was very proud of Oren for accomplishing this goal and gives me hope for future adventures.

Friday the kids went to the train museum but in the evening we had dinner with Rebecca's parents then out to a baseball game.  We watched the Aberdeen Ironbirds, a minor league team, with some great seats right behind home plate.  Although they lost, it was a good time with Rebecca's family and the cousins.

Saturday was Miriam's (Oren's cousin) 8th Birthday and although it rained the kids had a great time together again at their house which featured great food and a piniata.  (It was funny to watch David go after the piniata with a bat--he knew exactly what to do.)

Sunday we went to my parents' church where Rebecca taught a Sunday school class and I preached.  It is the last chance we will have to visit this church (Valley Baptist) before we leave, so they did pray for and recommission us for our return to Burundi.  It is good to know how faithfully people in this congregation have been praying for us during our time there.

I shared a message based on a series they are doing on the book of Acts.  (chapter 14).  It was interesting to read and exegete this passage.  It is the first time I have gone back and done some studied reading of the book of Acts since I entered the mission field 3 years ago.  Hearing about Paul's struggles on his 2nd missionary journey through Iconium and Lystra really felt alive to me.  I was able to share from the heart the frustration of being misunderstood cross culturally, as in what happened to Paul and Barnabus at Lystra.  After performing a miraculous healing, they are immediately proclaimed to be Gods (Zeus and Hermes) and even after much debate are barely able to keep the people from sacrificing to them.

In our context we are not called Hermes and Zeus, but the name Mzungu has similar implications, and with all of our access to resources, it is easy for local Christians to confuse the messenger with the message, and look for the benefits of the Gospel in the material benefits provided by the foreign mission or Christian NGO.

Here is a quotation from the sermon on the subject:

I know it is important in terms of encouraging our partners to go out and see their work, and while people do not actually acclaim me as Zeus when I go out in the field (these are Christian partners) the treatment I receive as a donor is uncomfortably close to deification.  In fact there is a word for white foreigners, it is Mzungu.  And while we may not be seen as God’s we are just as good from the perspective of most Burundians.  We have power, we do amazing things with our medicine, and computers, and money.  So we receive ‘divine’ treatment from our local hosts and receive innumerable petitions for help in healing diseases, providing education, food, jobs, and money.  We are seen as saviors.

And I can tell you, poor rural African Christians are in awe of seeing us and other missionaries roll up in 4X4s with lots of money to spend (for good causes—provided by faithful givers in North America), driving around the country, jetting in and out of the region. And African pastors say, “Hey, I’d like a piece of that.  I’d like to drive around the country in 4X4 preaching the Gospel, I would like a big church building and a church band with electronic musical instruments and a soundsystem, and I would like a computer to write my sermons and do word searches on the internet.  And as a witness to the Gospel I need it and deserve it.

You see, our good actions, our charity, even as Christians is so easily misunderstood and can take the focus away from the gospel and bring the focus on the donor and the benefits.  Paul and Barnabus struggled to do damage control in this situation, and we see many historic mission churches having to do the same damage control around the world today.

This brings the blog up to date on this Sunday.  I intend to make one more entry, probably on the plane on the flight back to Burundi.  We have a bit less than 10 days here and I am amazed at all we have done, and everyone we have seen and yet timed in a way that has not felt overwhelming and unrestful.  Hopefully we will be able to maintain this in our final week.

Homeleave #6: O Canada

Rebecca and I on a suspension bridge that crosses over Lynn Canyon, North Vancouver, Canada.



This is another important juncture and opportunity to put down 'on paper' the happenings in our homeleave.  I am writing this for friends in Burundi who are interested in keeping up with us, as well as a way for me to reflect back on the experiences and how they have renewed and enriched us mentally, physically, and spiritually.

I had mentioned in my last entry that we were leaving the children with the Grandparents for a one week trip as a couple to Vancouver.  The plan was to audit a one week course on the Psalms at Regent College (a Christian seminary) where Rebecca received her M. Div.  We had chosen this option for several reasons not necessarily in this order of importance:

1) Spiritual renewal-- We feel we have needed this both as a result of our overseas assignment as well as parents of young children.  Both are equally trying I would say, even though we love our children and do find a great deal of satisfaction in our jobs.  MCC encourages us to do something intentionally renewing as part of our leave time and even provided a contribution to the tuition fee of the course.

2) Visiting the Pacific Northwest again-- Both of us did our graduate work in the region (me at UW) and Rebecca at Regent.  We also spent time during our courtship together in Vancouver so we did relish the idea of going back and reliving some of those memories.

I should add that our decision to take a course in Old Testament theology (the Psalms) over some of the more topical courses offered was due to the fact that Dr. Bruce Waltke was teaching (one of the foremost evangelical scholars of OT theology and Hebrew in the world, as well as one of the greatest men of sincere faith I have ever met.), and also because we really felt a need to 'get back to the basics'.  So we forewent some interesting options including "Reading C.S. Lewis",  "Writing with Scripture", "Faith in a Postmodern World", "Poverty and Transformtion in the Gospel", etc.  in favor of what could have been a very dry series of lectures on exegeting the Psalms using various critical methods.

In fact, Dr. Waltke did exegete and give us tools to exegete using various critical methods, but through it he opened my eyes and heart to receive them for the bursting garden of hidden treasures they are. He also restored my confidence that indeed those psalms attributed to King David were most likely written by him despite the doubts cast by some late 19th century Bible scholars who have claimed they date to the more recent 'second temple' period, theories that remain in vogue even today.

I cannot go into the details of everything I learned about the Psalms and that might also detract from talking about the important way that reading them daily worked on my soul.  Class was from 8-11 followed by an hour chapel service at the seminary with beautiful music and inspired speakers.  It was the perfect beginning to each day.  Rebecca and I would walk back to the sublet apartment we were staying at then have the afternoon to relax and do things in the City.

Before I go forward though into our extracurricular activities in Vancouver I should back up a bit to talk about our arrival.  We left on a Friday from Baltimore.  My Dad dropped us off at about 7 am at the airport and we headed for Seattle where we planned to connect with some old friends of ours (Matt and Jana), stay the night, then head out in a rented car the next morning.

The weather was bad in Chicago, our connecting town, and our flight left Baltimore several hours late.  We were quite sure we would miss the connection but by a miracle, our next flight was also delayed taking off so we made the connection with about 10 seconds to spare but sprinting through O'Hare Airport when we landed.

The long flight and even delays were not all bad.  Not traveling with kids meant that Rebecca and I actually had a chance to read a book or two.  I brought a book called When Charity Destroys Dignity: Overcoming Unhealthy Dependency in the Christian Movement.  It is written by Glenn Schwartz the son of the missionary martyred in the movie The End of the Spear.  It is a good book about the problem of charity and worth reading if you are in the mission field.  I got through most of it on the flight to Seattle.

The arrival in Seattle was less dramatic and Matt met us at the airport.  I could not do justice to Matt and Jana in trying to 'sum them up' in any brief way.  I have known them for many years, probably most notably during my dance mid-career.  I lived in New York at the time but did some work in St. Louis at Washington University from time to time.  Matt was a student and then later got a job at MADCo a dance company I had worked in in St. Louis.  Jana was a dancer there and I set several works on them as a guest choreographer.  When I went to grad. school in Seattle, Matt and Jana had moved there and founded their own dance company 'The Rockhoppers'. We became very close those 2 years because of our past connection.  So close that when I did get married in Baltimore to Rebecca, they came out and even performed a duet at the reception of our wedding.

They are unique in many ways I cannot even explain. I get the impression, for instance that they succeed at everything they try.  They have since left dance and have an amazing landscape architecture business that does beautiful garden work in Seattle called Terabithia.

They were very happy to welcome us to their house when we arrived and Matt smoked ribs, beginning on the morning we arrived.  We had a fantastic dinner and spent a lot of time laughing and reminiscing about the old days.  They gave us a lift to the car rental place after breakfast and also gave us some fall/winter clothes as we had no idea that while it was 105 in Baltimore it has not ever been above 80 the whole summer in Seattle and is in the 50s and 60s most of the time.  It was cold there and Rebecca and I were not at all prepared for that.

We started the 3 or so hour drive North to Vancouver but stopped for lunch to see another friend, Elizabeth, who was a housemate of Rebecca's when she was a student at Regent.  (She was also at our wedding.)  Elizabeth has since married a man named Nick and they live in Skagit Valley about an hour north of Seattle where they work in a ministry alongside migrant farm workers, ex-prisoners, former addicts, and other marginalized people.  Nick also manages a community farm project where they grow some of the most beautiful vegetables I have ever seen.  (The soil there is probably the best in the world for things like cabbages, broccoli, berries, etc.)  We had a very nice lunch with them and talked about some shared interests in ways, as Christians, to engage poverty which do not lead to dependence but rather empower those we are serving to find sustainable solutions to their problems.  The spiritual leader of their ministry is a man named Robert Ekblad who wrote the book Reading the Bible with the Damned.  I read it when I was doing prison ministry in New York and it is one of the best books I have ever read on sharing hope, through our faith, with people who are deeply marginalized and alienated from (and by) mainstream western culture.

We continued on to Vancouver after our visit with Elizabeth and Nick and arrived in the afternoon. (It was so simple to cross the border--did not even get out of the car--its lush gardens and parkland were a real contrast to the border between Rwanda and Burundi that we drive through monthly.

We found our apartment and key, dropped our stuff off and decided to take a long walk from the UBC campus along the shore toward the City.  It was cool but perfect weather to walk in.  We marveled at how clean everything was, how well-cared-for the City looked.  And of course marveled at the sublime back drop of snow-capped peaks which surround the City across the picturesque English Bay.  We also were interested to see expressions of Vancouver culture (where everyone seems super healthy.)  Here is a picture of an outdoor yoga class with about 300 people in attendance.

We made a loop back home and had some sushi and Korean soup at an Asian restaurant near the campus.  We had decided to eat very healthily and exercise daily during our time here as well.

The next day was Sunday and we were invited to preach at Peace Mennonite Church, where Rebecca had interned while she was in seminary.  We shared our video and reflections on Psalm 126 with them.  There were some MCCers there who really appreciated the presentation.  There were others who still remembered Rebecca from her seminary days including the pastor and his wife who Rebecca had actually been in Seminary with.  (Tim and Sandra)  Although Tim was not in town, Sandra invited us over to lunch afterward and we had a nice meal with her and their 3 sons.

What most impressed me that day was the story she told me about how their family had biked across Canada in 80 days two summers before.  I was amazed that they had the wherewithal to do such a thing. The youngest son was only 12 at the time.  It apparently was something they had planned to do for years.  I was so impressed I am thinking about maybe working toward doing that with our family in about a decade (maybe for my 60th Birthday).  I imagined what a lasting memory that would be to leave with one's children as well as a time to really grow together as a family.  Anyway, we will see if that ever happens.  I certainly admired their willingness to do that.  We also talked about some common interests as they had served as a family in Zimbabwe and had been back in the past year.

We left in the afternoon and had made a plan to do a hike that day.  Specifically, we had decided to hike up Grouse Mountain on a trail called the Grouse Grind.  I know every Vancouverite knows what this is but I will try my best to describe it to those who do not.  It is not a remote trail, in fact it is quite well used, probably hundreds of people a day ascend it.  If that were not the case I would call it the most grueling vertical ascent short of mountaineering.  Several thousand feet up in less than 2 kilometers.  I know that we were dying and wondering if we were near to the top after half an hour.  We were sure we must be, until we saw the one quarter sign about 300 meters above us.  We trudged on, Rebecca did her best not to look down as she is extremely acrophobic.   Meanwhile we were being passed every 2 or so minutes by individuals or groups that were virtually jogging up, trying to beat their previous time.  (Which you can get recorded on an e-card.)  The world record is about 24 minutes and Rebecca and I probably took about 1.5 hours.  To the average person this hike is a grueling struggle against nature and fear; for Vancooverites it is Nature's stairmaster, and many do it several times a week.

The top is a real tourist attraction and can be reached as well by a giant cable car (the way we came down.)  It is a real thrill ride, like a roller coaster only thousands of feet down hanging by a thread.  There is skiing at the top in winter and there was still snow on the mountain when we got up there.  (We were not cold after the climb though.)  We shopped on the way home and ate dinner around 10pm, which did not seem late as the sun just barely sets by that time.


Monday we began class and as I mentioned above, we felt very good about the course of study we had selected for the week.  It was really satisfying to be back in a class setting and listening to a lecture by an inspired teacher!

On Monday afternoon we took a brief walk on the beach but then rode the bus into the City in Vancouver to have dinner with another former classmate of Rebecca (who also came to our wedding).  Scott and his wife Patricia live in a really nice apartment in downtown Vancouver that reminds me of a highrise on the upper westside of New York City.  Very small but extremely well-appointed.  He is working for the Catholic Church running a homeless shelter and helping people with transitional housing.  They prepared an exquisite dinner for us perfectly presented including a cake that Patricia made.  She even went to the internet and found the phrase Kaze Abagenzi (welcome friends) in Kirundi and wrote it in icing on the cake.  We took our dinner to the park by the waterfront and then took a walk around the marina to the entrance to Stanley Park.  It was great to catch up with them and hear about what it is like for Scott as an American to be working now in Canada.  We ended the evening with cups of imported Colombian hot chocolate before Rebecca and I returned to our apartment.

Tuesday we went swimming in the afternoon in the UBC pool.  We chose to use the 50 meter outdoor pool even though the air was quite cool.  The water is kept at a reasonable temperature so the workout was very satisfying.  We took another long walk afterward and found a park on the waterfront where there was a 135 meter pool!  It was phenomenal and we planned to return to try it out on Thursday.

Wednesday we took a walk through Stanley Park downtown along the waterfront.  It is very scenic and includes beautiful views of mountains, water, as well as ocean liners, enormous oil freighters and cargo ships coming and going, and sea planes taking off and landing.  We also saw seals in the water as well as a family of otters.

Thursday after class we did take a trip to the gigantic pool for a swim.   It was quite an experience to swim laps that measured 135 meters.  Going across and back once was the equivalent of doing 11 laps in a 25 meter pool.  Afterward, since it was our last evening in Vancouver, we went out to eat again at a Japanese restaurant (we love sushi--something you just don't get in Burundi or much of Africa for that matter.)

After class on Friday we packed and left Vancouver and drove back to Seattle where we met Matt and Jana again after dropping off the rental car.  We arrived about 6pm and since our plane was leaving at 11:30 pm, (red eye) we had dinner with them at a Thai restaurant.  Another unforgettable meal for both the food and the conversation.  They dropped us at the airport afterward and we took the overnight back to Baltimore (with a stop in Chicago) without incident.

We were extremely grateful to our parents for watching the kids for the whole time.  We did Skype regularly and got very good reports about them.  For most of the week Oren stayed with Rebecca's folks and David stayed with mine.  Splitting them up was actually really good since sibling rivalry is one of the main programs they run when they are together.  Being apart at night made them very compatible by day and they did many things with cousins including visit the zoo, train museum, a farm, etc.  They were extremely well-behaved the whole time.

The challenge of ending this trip was the lack of transition time to the next activity.  We landed in Baltimore at 9:30 am Saturday and left 3 hours later, bleary-eyed on the next stage of our leave- a vacation with Rebecca's family at the Chautaqua Institute in upstate New York.  I will say more about that next week, but I am writing right now from New York.  The 8 hour drive up here was probably the most difficult part of the trip since Rebecca and I only had the fitful sleep one gets sitting upright in a plane the night before.  Still we are glad to be here and to see our kids again and are enjoying our time now with Rebecca's parents, her brother's family and the cousins are having a blast.

Postscript:  I want to reflect a bit on the experience of visiting Canada as an American, particularly during this week when all the news seemed to be about the impending debt crisis and the inability of Congress to reach a compromise.  I guess the tension will always exist here in our culture between the recognized need for an effective federal government and the desire to be left alone to pursue one's own destiny.  Our forefathers overthrew their own colonial overseers in order to pursue individual inalienable rights of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.

In Canada the 3 words that probably best express the Canadian citizen's worldview is  Peace, Order, and Good Government.  That is, they do, on the whole, privilege the good of the community over the rights of the individual.  It is evident in that Canadians pay very high taxes.  But the trade-off is also evident in the well working efficient mass transit system, in low unemployment, in beautiful parks to be enjoyed by all, in free health care, and in a highly regulated banking system that did not get caught in the sub-prime lending crisis that plunged our economy into recession.  Scott, who works with the homeless also noted that in Seattle (3 hours down the road) there are 10,000 homeless people on the streets, in Vancouver there are less than 2500.  This is because all new building in Vancouver City must make provision for 20% low-income housing in the facility and homelessness is a priority for the city.  (the mayor was elected on a platform of providing more bike lanes and ending homelessness.)

I think the Tea Party in our country represents the apotheosis of the rights of the individual over the state.  Rightfully they ask why the government should force us to provide for those who cannot provide for themselves.  (I think  Tea Partyers believe that unemployment is more due to ones unwillingness to work rather than bad fortune beyond ones control and helping out just makes it worse.)  I disagree, but I really don't know who is right.   -- I will say, however, that there is a lot to be said for a nation that takes care of all its citizens and foreigners and puts the good of the community over the individual.  Whether Canadians are generally less lazy and likely to take advantage of the system than Americans, I can't say... but I doubt it.  And yet government regulation and taxes seem to succeed there in promoting the good for all better than unregulated private enterprise in our country.  Many who read this may differ with me on this analysis, but I would suggest taking a good hard look at a place like Canada before rejecting the notion completely.

Bonus Photo:  Oren at a farm in Maryland that his grandparents took him to.

Homeleave #5: Southern Comfort

Oren and David sitting atop a corn seeder in Kansas City.


As inconsistent as I have been about blogging regularly during homeleave, I am trying to update from time to time to keep friends in Burundi informed about what we are doing, and also to keep a record of the way we spent our time.

We were quite intentional about planning our homeleave.  3 months is more than a vacation and there are times of leisure as well as times of intentional visiting and relational work.  There is some keeping in touch with our program in Burundi, although Felix seems to be handling the added responsibility during this time masterfully.  There is also the shopping, doctor visits, etc. that need to be done here due to the lack of these options in Burundi.

We divided our homeleave into several parts, some more relaxing than others.  The first 4 weeks were spent mainly in Baltimore with our parents (alternating between houses) with a one week visit to Poughkeepsie, NY where Rebecca and I worked before moving to Burundi.  This was a fairly relaxing month, we did do some church visiting, but the days were spent mainly taking kids to play grounds and even going almost daily to a healthclub ourselves to enjoy some exercise.

Beginning on July 6th, we moved into a more relational mode and are dividing this into 3 parts, we spent about 12 days visiting members of my family (brothers, Aunts and Uncles, nieces and nephews).  We begin tomorrow with a week of personal time for Rebecca and I away from our children in Vancouver, Canada, and then we will do a week with Rebecca's family at a vacation spot in upstate NY.

This will leave the last 3 weeks for us to have again less programmed time back in Baltimore before returning to Burundi.

So I want to recount a bit about the visit to relatives on my side of the family.  I might preface this by saying something about the cultural experience this offered.  Most of my relatives live in the midwest or deep South--some natively and others transplants while Rebecca and I are basically a family of 3rd culture New York Yankees.  So going to a part of the country folks down there call the U-nahted States (emphasis on the U) can be intimidating.  (They can tell our 'ethnicity' by our accents and generally don't take kindly to Democrats.) ;-)

We made plans to visit one of my Aunt Binnie and Uncle Bill in Kansas City as the first stop.  (I had lived with them some in College.)  Since KC is a bit off the beaten path we flew there from Baltimore.  Although 2 of my 3 cousins were not there at the time, we had a great time with Bill and Binnie and my cousin Beth.  (Incidentally, my cousin Beth Armstong is author of the excellent book What's Prayer Got To Do With It).

Bill and Binnie live on the edge of the city limits on a 40 acre farm, so our children really enjoyed playing out in the fields, by the pond, and climbing on an antique iron corn seeder.  They also loved all the nooks and crannies in the fabulously redone old farm house where they live.

We mainly relaxed and enjoyed great food, but did go out for a tour of the city on one day.  Kansas City is a railroad town and we were able to see many model and real trains including long coal trains and double-stack container cars that fascinated Oren.  (His chief complaint about Burundi is that there are no trains there.)

We left early on Monday morning to return to Baltimore and on the same day headed south by car this time to North Carolina where we stayed the night at my brother Mark's house before joining most of the rest of my family and spouses and kids at Fontana Dam North Carolina for a 3 day stay at a Smoky Mountain resort.  The trip down went well and we visited with Mark who was still at his house eventhough his wife Christine and my nieces had gone ahead to Fontana with my parents.

We left early the next morning and got to Fontana Dam in the afternoon.  (The roads through the Smoky Mountains reminded me of Burundi roads upcountry in terms of curviness, but these were extremely well paved and even banked.

Fontana has much to recommend it and when we got there Oren and David were happy to be able to play with their cousin's Abigail, Grace, and Fletcher.  (The latter is his age.)  We all rode bikes, swam, and even did karaoke, square danced, played put-put golf, frisbee golf, went on a boat trip, to name a few of the activities.

The time seemed to go by too quickly and we could not do it all in the time we had.  We continued on from Fontana, NC to Nashville Tennessee where my brother Jonathan is an MD at Vanderbilt Hospital.  His wife Emma works there too as a researcher.  We arrived en masse with our family and my parents.

Oren and Fletcher, being age mates had a lot in common which created about as much conflict as it did amusement for them.  All in all it went well and bike riding was one of the favorite activities for them.  (Especially when Fletcher took Oren to see Engine 475 an enormous old steam engine now stationed in a public park.)  They circled the engine on bikes for nearly an hour.

We did enjoy a date night with Jon and Emma while my parents watched the 3 children.  They took us out to see the sights of historic Nashville (home of American Country Music for those who are reading this who are not American.)  We saw the original Grand Old Opry as well as the new enormous Opryland hotel complex.  (Imagine acres of enclosed airconditioned indoor gardens, like Versaille under glass.  It was impressive in its opulence.

We left Nashville on Monday and headed back the 2 day journey to Baltimore.  The kids were more antsy coming back than going out.  We stopped back through My brother Mark and Christine's house in North Carolina on the way home.  It may be the last time we see them until next year.  We left mid-morning to Tuesday and got to Baltimore by evening.  (We did stop through Harrisonburg Virginia and saw Eastern Mennonite University, but missed our ex-SALTer Robyn Mast who was working that day.)  We did not miss any McDonalds playland from Baltimore to Nashville and back though.  It does help to wear the kids out a bit during our lunch breaks.

It was nice to be back in Baltimore at my parents house and we enjoyed working out a bit on Wednesday after all that driving.  We also had a Birthday party for Rebecca at her brother Paul's house who lives up the road from my parents.  Many of our long time family friends were there and everyone shared a fond childhood memory of Rebecca.  It is hard to believe that all of us have known her since she was 2 years old.  (I could add that this was her 39th Birthday but none of you would believe me, but it really was her first 39th Birthday!)

It is late Thursday night and I am trying to get this posted before we head out again tomorrow morning for what I might call the centerpiece or crown jewel of our homeleave.  Rebecca and I are going to go to Vancouver Canada to her old seminary to ostensibly take a 1 week course on the Psalms, but it is also a getaway as a couple, away from the kids.  Our parents have generously offered to watch them for a week.  This is the first time we have ever left them alone for such a long time (in fact they have never been without us both overnight.)  So we are anxious, but excited about the chance this will give us to renew as a couple.  (Those of you with young kids know having time as a couple is rare, and I would say has been a more challenging part of our work than living in Burundi.)

So we will leave at 6am Friday morning.  Please pray for a renewing time for us and that our kids will be  OK with the grandparents.

Homeleave #4: Baltimore Highlights

Independence Day Celebration in Baltimore.



We have just completed one month of our homeleave and while I have posted a couple times since arriving here I want to try to a brief synopsis of some of things we have done here with some photos as well as give some impressions of what seems different now that we have lived outside the country for 3 years.

Since Baltimore is the home of Rebecca and my parents it is a place we have visited frequently over the years, even before moving to Burundi so there are things we like to do here, and Oren in particular has favorite activities which we have done on outings over the past 4 weeks.

Actually tonight is the July 4th, American Independence Day and we went out to a place near Baltimore called Oregon Ridge to watch fireworks with accompanying music by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.    It was interesting to realize how little Oren knows about his identity as an American at 6.  Rebecca showed him the American flag and explained that it was the flag of our country, and that July 4th was our country's Birthday.

The kids loved to be out in the evening and played on a large playground in the park prior to sunset then watched the fireworks afterward.  I was struck by what an anomaly this would be in Burundi.  Any explosion in or around the city can cause fear or panic and a sustained volley would almost certainly be mistaken for rebel groups firing mortar shots from the hills into the city.  We do here the pops of firearms and grenades almost nightly there still, the result of criminal activity we are told.  So it is quite a contrast to stretch out and enjoy the the thundering report of exploding fireworks and 'oooh' and 'ahhhh' under the brilliant colors of flaming debris.

An American public playground

It seems important to share these American cultural traditions with our children, moreso since we are not here and their exposure to their cultural heritage is not experienced in any regular way.
Prior to this however, we have made efforts to get the most out of our time here with visits to other typically American things.  It is amazing, though how some of the more mundane activities are the most appreciated.  Going to a playground at a park or school is a daily event.  It is something I took so much for granted here before we left, but now it is something I cherish as a special opportunity to play with our kids.  I can't say there are no playgrounds whatsoever in Burundi, I think there are 2 or 3, but none are engineered with the safety requirement of playgrounds here.  Even more, it is great to be able to go to a place where there is no wall and where your children playing in one place for more than 10 minutes does not attract an enormous crowd.  We are so anonymous here, it is, I admit, such such a relief not to be stared at so much in public.

Besides the daily playground visits though, we have gone on the following outings:

1) Railroad Museum-- Baltimore has an amazing historic railroad museum with many old steam locomotives and other cars, all resting in an enormous old round-house.  Oren is a train enthusiast and he and David, with their cousins Miriam and Gabriel and Grandma Jean went to the museum and had a marvelous time.  Oren particularly likes the engines where he can go into the cab and pretend to drive the train.

2) Baltimore Zoo-- My parents went with us to the Baltimore Zoo it was a lot of fun to go with the kids as they have only been to one once or twice in their life.  They loved to see the animals in cages although I don't know if they were too impressed with the zebra, giraffes, rhinos and lions, which they have seen in the wild very near to where they live.  There were slides and a zoo train.  David was most enamored by the farm animals like donkeys and goats because he could pet them.  He definitely seems far more comfortable on a farm than in a city in my opinion.

3) Orioles Baseball Game-- We did get to see the Orioles beat the Cincinnati Reds last week.  We went with Rebecca's family (her brother's family and their parents).  Oren did not really understand the game although he did let me explain it to him somewhat.  We were in the upper deck so the distance did not help in terms of keeping the kids engaged.  They did make it through the 7th inning before we had to go home.  It was a fun day all-in-all.

4)  Oren's 6th Birthday!-- This was a big event that we celebrated last Thursday.  He invited his cousins and their parents as well as all of his grandparents.  Oren is in a robot phase right now and wanted more than anything, some kind of robot for his Birthday.  We were able to find him one that teaches some reading and math skills.  He also wanted a robot Birthday cake and wanted to make it himself.   His Grandmother baked a brownie cake that we cut up in the shape of a robot and Oren iced and decorated it using his new toy robot as a model.  It was a very good likeness and the family really appreciated his efforts.  He also received many other gifts to take back with him to Burundi including a baseball glove, snorkel and mask, tennis racquet, basketball, as well as a bike to use here.  (He learned to ride it this week.)  He also got some badly needed underwear and t-shirts.  The kids played together most of the day and had a treasure hunt to find the presents after dinner.

5) Washington D.C.--  Oren is just getting old enough to really appreciate something like a visit to the Smithsonian museum of Natural History.  It was something I loved to do as a child as well.  We went as a family with Rebecca's mom.  We decided to add an element of adventure by taking the kids there by train from Penn Station in Baltimore.  Oren loved the double-decker passenger cars and the whole train trip.  We even had to take the metro (subway) once we arrived in D.C.  That was also a special treat for him.  Of course it meant that by the time we arrived it felt like we had done quite a bit.  Still, the children loved the museum where we saw an imax 3d movie and saw many animal and aquatic exhibits.  Their favorite place was the insect exhibit which featured all live animals and the kids got to hold live caterpillars, stick bugs, and even a Madagascar hissing cockroach.  (As if a non-hissing cockroach is not dreadful enough.)  David probably liked this best because he will happily pick up just about anything and has even caught a turtle, a frog, and crayfish on his own around our house.

6) Church-- We have been going to different churches since being back, we were at my parent's church for a presentation, but went to the North Baltimore Mennonite Church the past 2 weeks.  This past Sunday Rebecca preached from Matthew on the parable of the weeds.  I won't tell about it in detail, but there is a link here to a recording of it:  http://sermon.net/enbmc

Other activities we have done include berry picking--bluberries, rasberries, strawberries, black caps, thus far, with Grandma Jean, trips to the barber, the private airport where their grandpa has use of a Cessna airplane, several trips to the library where the kids have checked out many books and played reading games in their media center.  Again something that we have nothing like in Burundi!

News from Burundi has generally been good from our colleagues.  We have heard that the books that were sent this past Feb. have all arrived and the ones for Burundi have all reached their destinations.  The Hope School is grateful to receive so many.  I hope to take some photos when we get there.

I got some interesting news from my dad of all people.  He had to go to a conference in Nairobi and passed through Bujumbura.  On the way home he was on the flight with Zachee, Bridget and Timmy who were leaving Burundi for good (temporarily).  They talked a bit in the Brussels airport.  We are hoping to see them on a visit to Niagara Falls we have planned in late July.  It is a small world.

It is good to feel like I miss Bujumbura, even as I have been enjoying daily the experience of walking down clean paved sidewalks, going into air-conditioned houses, being anonymous, not being asked for money constantly.  But, maybe because of that, I do feel like being here feels like a Club-Med vacation even just walking in the neighborhood.  I don't know if I really ever want to get used to this again.  In many ways I enjoy feeling like it is a special treat rather than an entitlement.

This week we will be visiting my brothers and cousins in various parts of the midwest.  We leave for Kansas City on Thursday.  If there are any friends in Burundi reading this, we are thinking about you and miss you all.  More in a couple weeks.

Homeleave #3: A visit to Poughkeepsie

Poughkeepsie United Methodist Church, NY, --seen in the rain as we headed out of town.


I think it would be good to put a few things down 'on the record' after the past week and a half have elapsed.  We have been in Baltimore since our arrival in the US with Rebecca's parents, but we planned and took a trip to our old stomping ground, Poughkeepsie, NY, this past week between Wednesday June 15th to the 22nd.  In many ways, since I know there are many faithful readers who live in Poughkeepsie, I feel like this blog post should serve as a heartfelt thanks for all those who hosted us, cared for us, took us out, and prayed with us, during the time we there, and a sincere apology to all whom we were not able to see because of time constraints.

The road trip north began with a stop on Wednesday in Akron, PA, which is the home of MCC headquarters.  We went there to debrief a bit on the last month of our time in Burundi (and all of the emergencies).  One would not think that throwing a work day into homeleave would be particularly ideal, but we were actually happy to go.  One reason is that MCC Headquarters in Akron is a beautiful place with some very nice guesthouses where our kids love to stay.  Childcare was even provided during our meetings.  There is also a fabulous playground nearby.

We met with several people in International Programs as well as Human Resources, and even saw our West Africa area director Mark Sprunger who was on home leave himself and lives very close by.  We stayed the night and headed on to Poughkeepsie on Thursday.

We arrived in the evening and had dinner with our friends Don and Rosaura Andujar-McNeil.  Oren has been a friend since birth to Gabriela their daughter, but now they have a new son as well (Raphael).  We had a plan to see them several more times during the week, but actually went on that evening to Bob and Frances Thompson-Gee's house where we stayed for the week.  Bob is the pastor of the Poughkeepsie United Methodist Church where Rebecca served as Pastor of Youth Ministries for 5 years.

Every day was full and quite different.  Friday morning we went to Vassar College and visited some of my ex-colleagues from the Dance Department (Steve Rooks, Joanne Jensen, and Michelle Whalen.)  It was nice to let them see how the boys have grown, and for me to see the current condition of the dance department.  It looked great and it sounded like the Vassar Repertory Dance Theatre continues to do fabulous work each year.  (It was also nice to see that they were still using some of my templates for programs, publicity, etc.)  I feel like I did leave some things of value there.

Friday afternoon was a real treat.  We had a good pastoral visit with Bob and Frances and were able to shear some of the challenges that weighed heavy on us in our work.  They prayed with us then took us over to the church where we received an hour of 'soaking prayer'.  (a kind of prayer meditation which lasts about an hour.)  We did this with the healing prayer team in the sanctuary.

We felt completely 'cleansed' when we finished and had dinner with them.  It was an extra blessing that childcare was provided during the entire experience.

On Saturday we began the morning by joining Don and Rosaura at their farm pick up.  This is a cooperative farm that Rebecca and I used to be members of.  It is really pleasurable to pick up fresh produce as well as gather some things right from the fields.  Strawberries were still in season and all of us picked several quarts.  David was probably the most diligent of all.  After that, we took a hike across the Eads Railroad bridge which spans the Hudson river.  It is now a kind of state park and very scenic.  We did struggle a bit keeping Oren going and I think he was perplexed about why we would walk all the way across a bridge then turn around an walk right back, but on the whole it was very enjoyable.

In the late afternoon we stopped by a block party near our old neighborhood where we met our friend Heidi, then headed to the annual Greek Festival to enjoy carnival rides and gyros for dinner with Don and Rosaura again.  It was a long but not particularly exhausting day.

Sunday Rebecca and I were given the honor of preaching in both of the morning services at the Poughkeepsie United Methodist Church.  We shared the sermon time presenting our meditation on Psalm 126 in the last blog as well as the video that appears in last weeks blog.  It was really awesome to be able to share our work with these many friends who are part of our home church.  It was good to see so many familiar faces even after 3 years, and to hear how well the youth are doing as well.

After church we had lunch at the Riverstation Restaurant on the Hudson River with the Caramico's (Courtenay, Antony, Asa, and Alexander ).  Asa was born shortly after Oren and was one of his best early childhood friends.  They had a playdate after lunch and had a great time at Asa's house.  It was a very nice afternoon.

On the way home we stopped by to see some other friends from church, the Hicks'.  John was one of the other youth leaders and Kate helped out with youth as well.  Their daughters Kate and Laurel watched Oren as well from time to time.  Oren and David were very happy to go to their house especially when they were laden with gifts!  Oren got a new school Buzz Lightyear backpack that he loved!!  He will definitely be the only kid with one of those at his school in Burundi.

Sunday evening we were actually back and Bob and Frances' on time for dinner and enjoyed a nice evening together on their back porch sharing food that had been prepared by them as well as other friends from church.

Monday morning I was blessed with the opportunity to go to swim at the Poughkeepsie Middle School pool where I used to go all the time when I lived there.  Coach Ron Terwilliger who was at church on Sunday said it was OK for me to come.  It was the first time back in swimming since I broke my rib, but the water felt great and it was so good to swim in a real lap pool with lane dividers, etc.  I felt like I was flying.

After that, we took the kids to a playground, then off to Lake Minewaska in the Schawangunk Mountains.  This is an area we used to love to hike and we took a walk around the lake and even went swimming (despite the fact that we actually encountered 3 water snakes on the journey.)  It was a refreshing afternoon.  In the evening we went over to Chris and Theresa Garretts house to have dinner with our small group.  It was a very nice evening to spend time with these friends.  I do lament the fact that despite the fact that we have made very good friends in Burundi, we have not been able to create a prayer and share group like the one we had in Poughkeepsie when we were here.

Tuesday was our last very full day.  I did go swimming again in the morning, early, then afterwards we headed up north about 45 minutes to Tivoli, NY to see Bruce Hempel and his wife Muriel at their farm.  Bruce is a spirtual mentor and a brother in the Kairos Prison Ministry.  It was really good to catch up with him and hear some news about the ministry at the Coxsackie Correctional Facility where we served together for several years.

They also have a farm with a calf, goats, chickens, horses, dogs, etc.  This, I think felt like home to David as it was like the seminary upcountry in Burundi.  He was happy to walk around and pet goats and chase the chickens around.  We had lunch with the Hempels as well.  It was a very good day.

When we got home there was time to go to the Children's museum (an old haunt of Oren's) and while I took the kids there, Rebecca visited a bit more with Rosaura.  That evening we had dinner with Heidi for the last time where we had a fabulous strawberry shortcake among other offerings.

We went back to Bob and Frances' for our last night then woke up early Wednesday to participate in morning prayer that meets weekly at the church (something Rebecca and I used to do) before heading back to Baltimore.

The roadtrips here feel so much easier as far as comfortable vehicles and roads.  We also did make a rest stop at a favorite McDonalds with a playland in it.  (To actually be able to use a restroom is quite a novel experience on a roadtrip compared to Burundi.)

I think the kids loved most every minute of the attention lavished on them by friends they barely remember during their time in Poughkeepsie.

Rebecca and I were reminded of what a beautiful place we used to live in, and what a supportive work and church community we dwelt in while there.  I hope we could remind those who have been there for a long time, what makes that place so special.

Thank you again to all of you there who have cared for us over the years, even after we left.

Homeleave #2: More Reflection on Psalm 126

David relishing an apple, a rare treat for him, at his grandma's house.


I had considered at the end of last week whether I would try to maintain a weekly posting during our home leave.  I am realizing now, though, that many of our Burundian friends are keeping up with us here so I am going to attempt to update this semi-regularly.

I will begin with a health report.  As I mentioned, I had a fall on my second day here on my chest.  To  be precise, I slipped on a puddle in the kitchen of Rebecca's parents' house and fell into the corner of a countertop, effectively stabbing myself in the ribcage.  Although I was not able to move at all from the floor for several minutes, I did eventually get up and only went to the doctor the next day.  He did confirm that I had broken at least 1 rib and maybe 2.

This has put a bit of a damper on some of my plans for doing exercise every day.  Swimming is out.  Fortunately our parents belong to a very nice athletic club here that has a large selection of low impact aerobic apparatuses.  I can do a kind of rotating stair master for an hour a day and get a satisfactory work out.  I am hoping in the next several weeks the pain will diminish enough to allow me to swim as well.

We have spent the first week pretty much lying low.  We have done things with family but that is about it.  We helped Rebecca's mom Jean with yard work one morning, went to a cousin's softball game on another and took the kids to a swimclub with his cousins on a third day.  Other than that we have been spending time at the homes of our parents, at playgrounds, some cookouts, and other get togethers with friends.

One of the highlights was going out to Charter Hall, the retreat center on the Chesapeake Bay that belongs in part to Rebecca's family.  We went out on Sunday after church with a large group of friends.  Actually we went to Rebecca's parents' church this past Sunday (Long Green Valley Church of the Bretheren) and shared a brief mission moment there.  We then headed to Charter Hall around noon and had a typical American lunch with grilled hamburgers, fixins', potato salad, baked beans, etc.  Our kids loved it.  We swam in the bay in the afternoon and did a bit of kayaking.  I was very impressed to see Oren kayaking solo for the first time and doing a very good job of handling the boat.  He was able to manoeuver about quite well on his first attempt.

In the evening a thunderstorm came through and we sat in the dockhouse watching the rain on the water and enjoying coffee and conversation while the kids played games.  We headed home about 7pm and got home before 9.

One thing that has taken some serious 'getting-used-to' is the time of sunset.  In Burundi at all times of year it is pretty much night by 6:30 pm.  Here in Baltimore, it would not be hard to toss around a baseball at 9pm without artificial light.  Since our kids are used to going to bed with the sun, in the dark, (and usually by 8pm) they have been staying up quite late bacause it just does not feel like night to them at their bedtime.  I had truly almost forgotten how long the days are here in the summer.  We are enjoying it though.

Throughout the entire week Rebecca and I have had a bit of homework.  We will be expected to speak or even preach at several services and other gatherings during our time here, about our work in Burundi and Rwanda.  We have been trying to organize our thoughts and our photos, videos, etc. to be able to make an interesting coherent presentation with (ideally) a unified theme.  The problem is more what to cut out than what to put in.  We have sat together and worked on organizing our videos when we have had the chance.

We decided on Psalm 126 as thematic of our work over the past year, particularly with regard to the way MCC works to accompany local partners who implement our programs.  (MCC does not implement programs but follows the lead of trusted, visionary, local individuals and organizations.)

The end of the Psalm goes like this:

Those who sow with tears

    will reap with songs of joy. 

Those who go out weeping,

   carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, 

   carrying sheaves with them.

For our talk, we observe that almost everyone in Burundi and Rwanda is deeply traumatized by the wounds of war, the loss of immediate family to violence, illness, poverty.  But that there are those, who, because of this tragedy are driven by passion to make a better future for themselves and their country.

But while tragedy itself may be a necessary condition to foster this passion, it is not sufficient.  The last verse of the Psalm talks about those who "go out weeping carrying seed to sow."  There is much weeping in Burundi but only a few who go out weeping carrying seed.  That is, there are only a few who are able to see the resources they have at hand and, in their sorrow, begin to sow a better future.

As a mission organization on the ground, we are able to see who these people are and assist them.  Often an international donor who is not on the ground, anxious to 'help,' will provide assistance in a way that does not try to use the resources available in a community, but rather seek to provide all that is needed.  Be it food, seed, buildings, money, shoes, etc.  This approach almost always leads to dependence and can make a bad situation worse rather than better.

The classic example is the problem of providing seeds to farmers.  This is often seen as a better solution to food security than giving direct food aid.  The problem is, when you supply seed one year, farmers will grow it, but often expect the same input the next year.  Hence, they will eat or sell ALL of their harvest and not save any seed, but rather come back to the donor for the next year's 'seed' assistance.

The same thing even happens with much heralded 'microfinance'.  Because loans are coming from a donor organization, there can be a lot of default and poor use of the money.  An alternative that, as an example, uses the resources of the community, is a savings group where very small membership dues are collected from participants in a community.  This money is then used for microloans.  Essentially people are loaning each other the money in their own community.  Default is almost zero and the community uses its own resources to enrich itself.  Many times these groups, even in an 'impoverished' community can amass several thousand dollars that are available for credit, livestock purchase, etc.

A lunch gathering after presenting
a talk at my parents' church.

The point for us, through the psalm is that many are weeping and some, in their pain, carry seeds--their own resources, no matter how meager--and begin to sow.  These are the local NGOs MCC seeks to partner with, the one's who will return with 'songs of joy, carrying sheaves with them.'  They are the ones that will bring about the hope for a bountiful harvest in the future for their communities and countries.

We wanted to try to provide some visual support for our talks and worked together on compiling a video using the imovie program on my Mac. Before we knew it, because it is so simple to use, we had created a whole documentary that has all the emotion and unity of a PBS report.  Anyway, I am putting up a small version of it here.  I hope some of our friends in Burundi can download it there.  I am really taking advantage of being in the US to upload something over 2 megabytes.   I hope you all enjoy this wherever you are.  If we are coming to speak at your church, though, you can expect to see this again.

We head up to MCC headquarters this week on Wednesday then Poughkeepsie, NY on Thursday for a week. Maybe we will see you all soon.

Video we made to accompany our talk about our work:

The Long Night's Journey into Day

Oren and David with "Buddy" a ventriloquist dummy that Oren and I made last week from a craft book he has in Burundi.  He loves to do projects!



I apologize for the late posting.  I was aware that our hour of departure from Burundi would be Sunday evening and that traveling would delay a posting by at least a day, but I am committed to letting those who are interested know that we are now here in Baltimore for the beginning of our two and a half month home leave.

The Monday of last week though, made this adventure seem like a dim hope in the distant future.  We had to deal with a lot of work in our last week.  As country representatives for Burundi AND Rwanda, and responsible for about a dozen partners and a half dozen volunteers and local staff, means leaving takes quite a bit of thought and preparation for handover of responsibilities.  We do a lot from providing grants on a particular schedule, review reports on outcomes, and provide support (financial, spiritual, emotional) to volunteers.  This does not even include our own house staff, pets, yard, etc.

In short, planning to go on vacation requires training someone and providing mechanisms to insure that all of these responsibilities continue to be fulfilled.  Our program cannot take a vacation just because we are.

Fortunately we have a very confident program assistant in Felix and he has been left in charge of our program, volunteers, and unfortunately, our household as well.  I say unfortunately because the last 2 years, during our vacation, we have found someone to housesit in our absence.  But this year we were not successful.  Leaving a house in Burundi is far more complicated than leaving one here, we have 3 housestaff who need to be paid and need to continue to work.  Because of security someone must always be on the premises, not to mention the fact that during the dry season the entire house needs to be cleaned thoroughly (of a quarter inch of dust) at least twice per week.  Our dogs also need daily care and our cook needs to prepare meals for the other staff and herself as well as do the marketing so they and the dogs can be fed.

All that to say, even leaving home is a very complicated enterprise.  But it was further complicated by the matter of helping our service worker family who had had the medical emergency in the final week of their term get packed and leave for good as well.

The husband came back on Tuesday to finish up the packing and he and I worked together between Tuesday and Friday to pack, empty and clean the house, give away the pets, end staff contracts, meet the landlord, finish MCC business, etc.  He left on Friday and barely made the Kenya Airways flight back to Nairobi. There was still stuff to do after their departure as well which left precious little time (1 day for Rebecca and I to get our house in order as well for a 3 month absence).

Saturday was complicated by the fact that we needed to take the 2 dogs the other family had owned and find new owners for them.  For most of Saturday and part of Sunday we had 4 dogs at our house who got along reasonably well together but were pretty rambunctious with David (who loves to play with dogs) and knocked him flat over numerous times in their frolicking.

Despite all of this we did make steady progress in cleaning out our house and threw out about a dozen boxes of junk as part of a spring cleaning effort.  We worked most of the day Sunday as well after church.  Our flight left at 8pm and we actually ready when it was time to leave.

Timmy and us at the airport.  I don't why I have such
a weird expression on my face.

Felix took us to the airport about 5:30 pm.  When we got there, Zachee and Bridget and Tim were there to say good bye.  That was a particularly important farewell as they will not be back in Burundi next year.  They are moving to Canada.  This will be a particularly difficult reality to face when we return to Burundi in the fall.  Timmy is like a brother to Oren and is at our house at least twice a week.  (We do have tentative plans to meet them in Niagara falls in July when we are in upstate New York.)

The 8pm flight on Sunday is somewhat unique in Burundi as it is a Brussels Airlines flight, the only European carrier that lands in Burundi.  Unlike the Kenya Airways flight to Nairobi, Brussels Airlines sends an enormous Airbus A300 jetliner.  It is a surreal sight as it lands after dark and dwarfs the entire terminal building and shimmers from its brightly lit interior, like some strange extraterrestrial apparition.  And that is the effect of entering it.  We walk out to the 2 story movable staircase and ascend past the enormous engine that I could stand in twice.  As soon as you cross the threshold you are out of Burundi and into Europe, the music, airconditioning, carpeting, cushioned chairs, etc.

It stops briefly in Nairobi before heading to Brussels.  This is quite a different experience than going Kenya Airways to Nairobi and switching planes to go to Europe.   Kenya Airways and Nairobi airport still feel very African,  Brussels Airlines takes out this transitional step and consequently feels very other-worldly.

We flew through the night to Brussels and got there at about 6 am.  (not much time change as we were flying almost due north.)  We spent 4 hours in the Brussels airport (which is interesting as Belgium is the home of some very interesting exports including Smurfs, Tintin comicbooks, and Godiva Chocolates!

At noon we took a United Airlines flight to Dulles.  This was a day flight so the kids were awake for most of it.  I will say though, that they are veteran travelers and had brought many of their toys and activities so they kept themselves entertained for much of it.  There were on flight movies as well so all in all it was not bad.

Our kids and cousins playing at my parents' house.

It was great to see the USA under us in the last 2 hours of our flight.  We actually flew directly over Poughkeepsie, NY, our old stomping ground, and I could see clearly the bridges, and Vassar campus even at 30,000 feet.  We proceeded to Dulles where we were met by Rebecca parents, Papa Dave and Grandma Jean.

They drove us the 2 hours to Baltimore where we went to my parents house and had a fabulous homecoming dinner with my parents, Rebecca's parents, my parents, and Rebecca brother and sister and law and Oren and David's 2 cousins Miriam and Gabriel.

It was great to be back, for Oren especially who really does not see Burundi as 'home' eventhough he has lived there for 3 of the 5 years of his life.

After dinner we went to Rebecca's parents' house where we will stay for the first part of our trip here.  The kids fell asleep early but then were up again by 4 am and wanted to play.  Oren was very excited to do things with Grandma Jean, especially berry picking and cooking.  They went out on Tuesday morning and picked several quarts of cherries from a pie-cherry tree in her yard.  They made a fabulous cherry cobbler together which we ate after dinner.  It was definitely the best cherry pie I have ever tasted.

We have been enjoying the variety of fresh fruits and vegetables here, and even certain food like chicken breast since we virtually never buy chicken in Burundi.

There has been one unfortunate downside.  Yesterday afternoon I was in the kitchen and slipped on some water on the floor.  I fell very hard and my ribcage fell right into the pointed edge of a kitchen counter.  It knocked the wind out of me and I laid on the ground unable to move for about 5 minutes.

I now have an extremely painful area of my ribcage and have probably cracked at least one.  It will certainly limit my capacity to do some of things I like to do as far as exercise, so please pray for a speedy recovery.

This home leave is a longer one, 2 and a half months and marks the end of our third year in Burundi.  It is hard to say how many more years we will be there, but I imagine at least 3 more.  So this is a kind of half-way point.  Burundi definitely feels like home at this point, but it is so good to come back and enjoy the comforts of being back in our own culture.

I have not decided yet whether I will keep up a weekly posting during homeleave.  I may make entries less frequently, unless there seems to be too much to say about being here.  Until next time... Au revoir.