A Team Gathering in Bujumbura

Krystan and daughter Misha during a tea break at our team gathering this weekend.

Its amazing how quickly work can become overwhelming here. After a week of some respite we were in full swing again and there is really no end in sight.  Not that it has been all bad, but we have been doing a ton of hosting the past 5 days.  

The occasion was our team gathering.  This is something we do several times a year and is an occasion for all of us to be together.  At this time there are 11 of us all told and we are expecting another one in just over a week.  This has been one of the gratifying parts of our job in the past 4 years, to grow our team, which had 2 service workers when we arrived.  

Despite the size of the group, we did feel that we could still host them in our house.  This has the advantage mainly of being far more economical than going to a guest house in town.  Our house is more or less a guest house with its 4 bedrooms, but we had to do a considerable amount of doubling up with our kids sleeping with us, and the 3 SALTers and Yolanda sharing 2 rooms with Ruth and Krystan's family in Oren and David's room.  Felix, fortunately could stay at his house which is in the subdivision right next to ours.  He went home at night.

The gathering started on Wednesday afternoon with the two SALTers from Rwanda and Ruth and Krystan (with Misha) arriving by bus from Kigali.  Felix picked them up and they did some work on their visas as soon as they got here.  Yolanda had come down from Gitega the day before.

Our first activity together was dinner at our house.  Marceline had prepared cabbage rolls and pasta.  We had dinner then began our time together with an evening devotional and some singing (from the Mennonite Hymnal and Sing the Journey).  We also used an Anabaptist Lenten devotional throughout the week, morning and evening for our times of reflection.

The focus of our retreat this week was not something new.  We do it once per year as part of our reflection on our program.  It is basically a review and critique of MCC's stated values and the extent to which these are reflected in our programming.  As a team that means looking at this on several levels from program level to individuals seconded to partners. 

There are 8 core values with several correlaries but here is a synopsis:

1)  Relationships  -- emphasizing the prioritization of relationships and maintaining respect for all in our work.

2)  Learning -- emphasizing that we are a learning organization that adapts to the context as we come to understand  (not control it.)

3) Flexibility -- again related to adapting to the context and being accountable to local experts on the ground.

4)  Solidarity -- emphasizing our effort to have our own lifestyles on assignment not be too different than those of the people we serve.

5) Nonviolence -- like it sounds

6) Servanthood -- emphasizes humility, respect of local partners, and ways in which we steward our privileges.  

7)  Collaborative Decision-making -- as it sounds

8) Involvement with the church.  Both individually and as a program.

The last one gave us some challenges because of what I have said in past blogs about the local Mennonite Church (or lack thereof).  There was also some acknowledgement that as a donor organization, direct involvement or a accountability to a single church can be tricky because of the great temptation that creates for church leaders to try to get some MCC resources for church related projects that are not part of MCC's mandate.  (My favorite example is the frequent request we get for musical instruments for a church choir when our work is in the domain of food security and peace and reconcilliation.)  A church can find it baffling that we do not want to assist them with the former when it can contribute directly to evangelism-- their top priority.  To see things like  food security as a legitimate church activity may be a bit of a stretch.

We began the real discussion on Thursday morning after we dropped the kids off at school.  We always began with singing and devotional then launched into discussions of each value.  As with all of our work at MCC we do not end this in philosophy but are expected to come up with a concrete action plan for the next year to work on areas of weakness related to our values assesement.  We also had, as part of this gathering, the opportunity to look back over last year's objectives to see if we had succeeded.

We shared lunch and then worked in the afternoon, hiring a childcare worker to help us.  There were 3 kids in all with David, Oren and little Misha (R and K's daughter.)  The afternoons did include some creative activities as well after our second round of meetings, we did make collages using old magazines to express the things that give us joy.  It was a nice diversion and Oren and David even got into it a bit as well.  

Thursday evening we did yoga together and many stayed up late to visit.  (I fell asleep early.)  Friday was more or less a repeat of Thursday, although in the afternoon, when we took Oren to Karate, we went over to his school and several of us threw a frisbee around.  (Bethany is quite an ultimate frisbee enthusiast and even plays on an official team in Kigali.)

On Friday evening we also enjoyed watching a movie together (Midnight in Paris) a Woody Allen film.  (That had been brought by Rebecca's dad 2 weeks prior.)  

Saturday was our last day together as a group and since we had finished all of our business on Friday we made plans to go to the beach.  Our original plan was to go down to 'Blue Bay' a beach about 2 hours south of Bujumbura which is very nice with very clear water.  Ultimately, because of weather and other factors we decided to stay near and went to Club du Lak T.  Among the reasons for not going was illness.  Several people were not feeling great Oren had a very sore throat and a fever so Rebecca stayed home with him while I took David and the others to the beach.  

We had a nice afternoon there and ate lunch as well.  Here is a photo of grilled mukeke, a local fish unique to Lake Tanganyika, that is quite tasty.

When we came home we had a closing ceremony in which we came into a circle and went through the group one by one to affirm everyone.  We also remembered that this would be our last team gathering with Ruth and Krystan present.  They will be finishing their assignment in mid April and leaving Rwanda.  The exciting news though is that they have accepted another assignment with MCC as Country Representatives for MCC Eastern Europe.  They will be moving to Sarejevo in August after a stint at home in Canada.

I should mention that dinner Saturday night was awesome as well.  We asked Marceline to not make food that night and we cooked as a team.  With the help of Ruth, Yolanda and Annie we made and ate gado-gado, an Indonesian dish featuring various vegetables egg and other items over rice and covered with a spicy peanut sauce.  (Annie was the expert on the peanut sauce.)

We went to bed pretty late on Saturday, but did get up on Sunday for church. By this point though, Oren’s fever was quite high and his throat was in agony, we started him on antibiotics, but I stayed home with him while Rebecca and David went to church.  The rest of the team began heading out of town.  Ruth and Krystan and Misha went with Yolanda to Gitega.  Their plan was to visit Yolanda’s home then go on to Burasira to see Jodi (former MCCer).  (This is where the Hope School is located.)  It is such a nice place, they wanted to go one more time before they left the region.  Their plan is to continue on to Kigali from there.

The SALTers are hanging out together for a few more days and pay a visit to Yolanda on Tuesday.  Today (Monday) they did go down to Blue Bay for some swimming and had a bit of an adventure when a hippopotamus emerged out of the water just a very short distance from them.  It actually ran into another swimmer.  Everyone apparently cleared out of the swimming area.  Fortunately there were no injuries. 

Oren was home from school today, but looks markedly better.  Hopefully he will be well enough to go back tomorrow.  We will continue to have guests this whole week, but I’ll get to that another time. 

I should mention one important piece of really good news.  It goes back to some reports I was writing last year about a friend fighting corruption.  This person was a model of patience and hope under tribulation and false charges and was even arrested and imprisoned for several months with no due process or even a credible charge.  As of this week, all charges have finally been dropped and he and his wife were cleared to reopen their pharmacy.  It had been closed for about a year and a half because of corruption.

I won’t mention it by name, but those of you who live in or have lived in Burundi in the mission community know who I am talking about.  Justice does ultimately prevail if one is patient and courageous.

Bonus Photo: The MCC Rwanda Burundi program Team.  (less Felix, Oren and David)

Contending with Patrimonial Justice

Rebecca and Oren enjoying a Chef Salad and Fruit Salad at Club du Lak Tanganyika on Sunday.


There are some weeks where a lot happens but little of it can be written about in a public forum such as a blog.  This is one of those weeks and I will say that this can be because a matter is personally sensitive but it is more often a problem of political sensitivity.  As open as I try to be about our life here, we are keenly aware that there are certain topics of discussion that are off-limits.

But in the abstract, I think there is some opportunity for reflection.  The matter that is on my mind has to do with 'justice'.  I am aware now how much I have made cultural assumption about what that word means in the ideal.  And whether or not our institutions live up to this ideal, the basic premise is that there are, created by civil society, laws (rights and prohibitions) that apply to all regardless of race, creed, or social status.

There are, of course egregious examples in our own history where we do not live up to our ideals, but generally this is met with disapproval and tongue clicking when looking back at such events.  (O.J. Simpson comes to mind.)

In a patrimonial culture as we find in Burundi, there seems to be a different idea of justice, not based on an external civil code to which all are accountable, but rather on hierarchical social relations, where right is decided by one's connections in the hierarchical net work to patrons or big men of varying social stature.  One's access to a just outcome is based primarily on how one is connected and not focused primarily on the facts in evidence or some universally accepted civil code.

What is even more complicated here, is that since Independence most countries here have a colonially inherited western criminal justice system which functions to some degree, but does not supercede the power of the patrimonial justice system which remains very much intact.  In fact these two systems will run in tandem with the former appearing to be engaged seriously in a process of inquiry while the other moves along 'behind the scenes.'

What happens as a result of these parallel justice systems can be very frustrating to a westerner who finds himself in the need of justice.  This can happen because of ignorance of a civil code, false accusation, or even more frequently through the corrupt machinations of government functionaries.

In this aforementioned event the simultaneous process begins, one in the institutions of justice like the courts, and at the same time in the patrimonial system of big-men.  I have sadly found in all the cases that have affected people I know to date, that the court system invariably reaches an impasse and finds itself unable to render any judgment at all because the real authority to decide a matter lies in the hidden network of big-men who have the real power and authority to make decisions and render judgment.

What this means also, as a westerner, is that if one mistakenly believes that justice will be done through the courts, he will find himself wasting a lot of time,'proving his innocence' and will ultimately fail.  In order to prevail, one has to work through one's contacts and social relations to find a big-man who is an advocate. Ultimately what justice amounts to is lining up the big-men against each other and the one with the biggest big-man will prevail.

I don't know how I feel about this.  There are times, like this week, where we see this system exploited to undermine and threaten people we know here to be doing very good work, and find little recourse in trying to fight false accusations in a court of law.  On the other hand, as an American and one who has been here for a while, I find that we are fairly well connected to some powerful people in government and could probably benefit from these connections for various advantages we may want or need.

That, in short sums up some areas of frustration we have faced this week without saying anything too specific.

I will say that one recourse we do have is prayer and it has felt to be the only place of recourse several times this week.  Fortunately Rebecca and I both belong to prayer groups that we attend separately during the week and on Sunday we have our small group which is already beginning to feel like a real place of empowerment.


To get into the less abstract events of the week, I would begin by noting that it seems that one or both of us were out every evening, or else hosting someone(s) at our home.  On Monday Rebecca was out with her friends for their monthly 'Ladies Night Out'.  This usually includes Naja, Tanja, Jeanette and one or two others (I was not invited so I don't know.)

On Tuesday we hosted a visitor from the Mennonite Mission Network, Steve Wiebe-Johnson who was here more or less on a fact finding mission about the emergent Mennonite Churches here in Burundi.  I have written about these churches before and the challenge they are for us as an International Mennonite Organization.  These churches were created by pastors who registered with the government as the legal representative of a Mennonite Church here.  The fact that they have no connection to the larger global Mennonite family did not seem to be a major issue for them (there are 2).  In effect, they bought the Mennonite franchise in Burundi.  It is hard to know to what extent the leaders are sincere in their faith or just opportunists, (I am not making in judgment here.)  But discerning this was essentially Steve's task in coming here.  We did have dinner with him on Tuesday and had a nice conversation.  He also thoughtfully brought several kids books for Oren and David and some homemade fudge for us.  Needless to say, he made a very good impression.

Thursday was date night.  This is thanks to our arrangement with Scott and Danica to do a babysitting exchange at least once per month.  Rebecca and I went out to our favorite restaurant in town called Botanika.  I will say the experience was hampered a bit by a bad toothache for me, but also because it seems that the management might have changed.  I felt this because while the menu remained the same, we found that everything kind of came out a bit like a Burundian version of what was described.  The roqueford salad, for instance came out with no cheese on it whatsoever but covered with raw onions.   e The pork tikka I ordered was just pork in a white sauce, no spice whatsoever. The veggies were also very typical, carrots and green beans.  I am hoping the managers were just away this week, but I fear that the restaurant might not continue to be a favorite place to go out as a couple.

Friday evening Rebecca was out again, this time at an elders meeting for the church.  She continued church work on Saturday afternoon with a Sunday School teacher's training seminar.  I entertained the kids through all of this, and on Saturday evening we had a nice dinner with our friends Thomas and Naja.  This does remind me that one of the highlights of the week was having a guest cook, actually Yolanda's cook Alphonsine was down from Gitega to learn some things from Marcelline and to teach her as well.  Alphonsine has extensive experience in preparing western dishes and even spent several years with a Greek family.  We enjoyed an babaganoush as well as moustafa and various soups when Naja and Thomas were here.  The kids had fun with Elias and Aviajah.

Unfortunately both David and I started to get a virus on Saturday and both went to bed with a fever.  We did wake up feeling better on Sunday morning though and after church went to the beach.  It was nice to go and swim with the kids and relax together.  I took the opportunity to try out the new camera with some portraits that I have put into this week's post.

This coming week we will be having a team gathering here in Bujumbura so another week with a full house of guests.

Seeing the Church in Action in Eastern Congo

Picture of Bukavu along Lake Kivu from the Guesthouse balcony.

I think there is a temptation, for those of us in the world of mission/development, to look with a certain smug cynicism on the history of the church in countries that were evangelized during the time of colonization.  While it is true that it is easy to point out the many failings of early missionaries, and even the complicity of some in clearly sinful injustice, I think we sometimes do our best to reinforce this narrative and even avoid seeing the ways the Gospel can be a transforming power in these places.  

For instance, this week, as I prepared to go to Bukavu in Eastern DRC I was reading King Leopold's Ghost by Adam Hochschild, an excellent, riveting history of the Congo from the 14th century on.  The first contact with the Portugese by the kingdom of Congo led quickly to lucrative slave trading (at first with the Congolese nobility in complicity, but later enslaving even them.)  In one chapter he explains that some priests who had gone out to evangelize and had established churches became so enamored of the potential for wealth that they sold their entire congregations to slavers.  He further notes that after the reformation, in a nod toward morality, some did refuse to sell their converts to any Protestant slavers because they did not want to send those baptized into their faith into the hands of heretics.

While such stories no longer shock me, I will say that I think it is a mistake to think that all Christians in any era were equally abominably immoral either then or now.   In this blog entry I am committed to tell a story of encouragement about the work of the church in Eastern Congo that is embarking on a noble and dangerous mission to bring justice and relief to groups of people virtually imprisoned by rebel groups in the bush.  

UN refugee camp where Rwandan refugees are processed
before repatriation

I should probably explain what I was doing in Eastern Congo this week.  In fact I was only there for 3 days and it was part of what I would call a learning tour or exchange visit between some of our Rwanda partners, and some MCC partners in Eastern DRC.  

.

I actually left Bujumbura on Friday right after the kids got out of school.  From Bujumbura there is a fairly direct route to several places in Eastern Congo, and Bukavu, my destination was about 3 hours away.  The road passes through Rwanda for about 45 minutes before arriving at the border town across the Rusizi river from Bukavu at the bottom of Lake Kivu.  

The difference between the two countries is actually quite shocking.  Rwanda which has well kept roads and clean communities is in stark contrast to Bukavu which I would describe as  wreck of a city, which is sad because it could be beautiful.  It overlooks Lake Kivu from small hills and could easily pass for somewhere along the Italian Riviera.  But alas, when one arrives there you find that there has been no interest by the government in keeping up roads and infrastructure and the whole place looks like a dump,  in all the areas of public use.  Behind walled compounds though one can see very nice multi-story houses so there is wealth here, but not for public consumption.  The town is also a ghetto for numerous NGO's relief organizations and a large company of UN peacekeepers and other UN agencies.  Almost every car on the road that is not a taxi is a landcruiser with an emblem on it.

The state of the city is sad and does continue to confirm my belief that all the really good things in life come from investment in public goods through government spending and taxes.  (for roads, schools, parks, railroads, running water, sewage systems, electricity, etc.)  If you don't believe me come to Bukavu where there is no govt. spending whatsoever as far as I can see.  Ironically the cost of living here is extremely high and rents in Bukavu apparently exceed those in Kinshasa.  

I arrived with 5 colleagues from Rwanda at about 3pm and we crossed the border and took 2 taxis to our guest house.  It was fairly calm but had no consistent water or electricity.  They did run a generator at night.  Actually the 15 minute trip to the hotel is a story in itself.  Taxi drivers do not want to put a penny's worth of gas more than they will use, so there are people on the street that sell it by liter (quart) even less, in little bottles.  When you hire a cab the driver will buy a little bottle, put it in the tank and go.

selling gas by the liter on the road.

Our driver had so little gas that he found he could not get up a hill from the border to the center of town. That is until he turned the car around.  With the angle of the engine down the car started, so he backed up at about 30mph up the hill along the narrow street to the top, then flipped it back around and took us to the hotel where we spent the rest of the evening.

Before dinner we had a time of devotion with our group leader and the pastor of the Bukavu Mennonite Bretheren Church.  We went to bed and the next morning, after breakfast, went out by cab again to visit some partners of MCC DRC.   We visited several but I will recount the story of the work of one called the RRP (refugee repatriation program).  This group works to help bring Rwandese refugees out of the bush and get them repatriated back to Rwanda.  These refugees are primarily hutus who fled after the genocide and there remains quite a few thousand FDLR armed rebels hiding in the forest.  The problem is that they have with them many more thousand non-combatant Rwandese, particularly women and children who could go back to Rwanda and rejoin families or start a new life.  

Many are not aware of this option, and the rebels are committed to keep them in the bush with them as it gives them protection.  The work of the RRP is to get the word out to those who would like to flee the bush about the opportunity to be repatriated.  The RRP gives information as well as transportation out of the bush.  What makes it dangerous is, as mentioned above, the FDLR leaders do not want anyone to return and leave them in the bush alone without protection (human shields)

The other problem is that some of these people are in such remote parts of the forest that they are unreachable by the army or any NGOs. The RRP, however, has a very valuable network because it belongs to a larger organization of protestant churches that have small congregations everywhere in the region, even in extremely remote areas.  In many of these remote areas members of the rebel groups even go to these churches and would hear any messages brought by the local church leader.  

Pastor Kipindula who leads the organization told us that pastors can get the word out about the chance for repatriation and help organize 'escapes' from the forest for those who want to 'flee'.  In other words the church in uniquely positioned to be an agent of non-violent liberation and transformation in this situation and they are taking on that role willingly at great personal risk.

To date they have saved about 11,000 refugees who were stuck in the forest not knowing they could return to Rwanda and terrified of leaving for fear of being killed.

This has been a very effective campaign and far more effective, according to Pastor Kipindula than the campaigns by the Congolese army to route the rebels.  (Ironically all of their military campaigns are called things like "Peace", or "True Peace", and "Durable Peace")  The problem is that they tend to go in and fight rebels, killing some, which leads to retribution somewhere else, to which the army usually responds by massacring everyone they come upon in a remote community.  For many it is as if the war in the jungle is not over at all.)

The pastor also said that in the early days their work was even more hampered by the fact that the army did not support them talking to communities where the FDLR was because they were the enemy, and the FDLR in the communities would accuse them of being spies for the army.  Despite this, this organization has been working through the network of remote churches since 2006 at great personal risk,proclaim quietly the gospel: to preach freedom to the captives--AND to help them in their escape.  Most of those who have fled have been women and children, who are most frequently the victims of the conflict .

We saw the good work of several other organizations but I wanted to give details of this activity because it is a good counter-narrative to the one I often hear here about self-serving pastors and failed churches.

We had a chance to reflect on what we learned in the evening, then on Sunday morning we headed back to Bujumbura and Kigali (for our partners).  I was back home about the time Rebecca and the kids got home from church.

That was the end of the week, but it is worth mentioning some of the interesting events of the beginning as well.  We were in town most of the time and had a pretty full house.  Yolanda was down unexpectedly as she was sick and had tested positive for malaria.  We encouraged her to come down from Gitega to convalesce at our house which she did.  We also had Jodi down for several days with us, not because of illness.  Although all of us seemed to have something that was going around.  I was sick with a very sore throat and had to be on antibiotics.  Jodi, Oren, and Rebecca all had a touch of it at times as well.

By Friday, we were all feeling better though and Jodi and Yolanda returned back upcountry on the weekend.

Friday was a special day at school for David.  It was his first ever field trip.  His teacher and another teacher in the maternelle took their classes to see horses at Circle Hippique (a place David loves to go.)  They are studying the Cheyenne Indians in their classes and learned about the Indians riding horses.  The kids all got to put on their Indian headresses and shirts they had made and ride a horse.  

Parents were invited to go and Rebecca decided to go along to be sure he would be OK.  (We know from going there that the horses are often roaming around free and she did not want David to get stepped on.)  Apparently there were no mishaps and the kids had a great time as is apparent in the pictures.

Sunday afternoon I was back in time for our small group which is now meeting for its second week.  It is a real blessing to be able to share together especially in this season of Lent.  

Bonus photo:  Oren has been losing his teeth in the past month.  He is starting to look grown-up and pretty funny too.

Papa Dave's Visit Part 2: Sliding From Kigali to Bujumbura

Kids at Hope School  for the Batwa (kindergarten) opening letters from American penpals, brought by David Sack during his visit.



Rebecca and I are both sitting with macbooks in our laps in our bedroom.  She is trying to get some last-minute work items sent, and I am doing my best to get over the urge to procrastinate further on writing this blog.  Actually her letters are important.  We need to get some letters of invitation out to folks who are visiting in the near future.  There is always a low level of anxiety about travel and getting all documents necessary for obtaining a visa prior to the depature of one's plane.  It is a genuine concern as many of our colleagues have actually had situations where a delay in visa processing caused them to miss a flight completely.

I am currently in that state of anxiety as I am scheduled to drive up to Bukavu, Eastern DRC on Friday and I do not have a letter of invitation to include with my visa application yet.  Hopefully it will arrive tomorrow.

As far as the blog, I should be enthusiastic about writing it as we had quite an exciting week and there is a lot to share.  The past week we have been hosting Rebecca's dad Dr. David Sack, who stopped by for a visit to us on his way to a conference on cholera vaccine trials in Zanzibar.  (Zanzibar is not too far from here so he went there via Bujumbura.)

Jodi's house.

He landed, as mentioned last week in Kigali where our family was together for some work and play.  The kids had no school and Rebecca and I had business with several partners to do.  I mentioned some of it last week, but we did manage to finish on Tuesday and had a nice Indian dinner at Zaffron with our team, before heading out of town Wednesday morning.  (Dinner at Zaffron with the MCC team is rapidly becoming an MCC tradition.)

We left town mid-morning on Wednesday.  To be precise, I dropped Felix at the bus stop so he could go directly to Buja while our family and 'Papa Dave' took a scenic route back with plans to pass through Burasira to stay the night at the Seminary there and see the Hope School for the Batwa as well as Jodi Mikalashki who still lives there.

The trip started out quite well even though we did not leave until early afternoon, but once on the road we made good time to the town of Ngozi.  It was evident that there had been a fairly heavy rain recently and from there, when we got on the dirt road to Burasira we could tell it was going to be a challenge.  Actually the problem was that they were fixing and widening the road and had scooped off most of the hard packed dirt and rock on the top leaving a lot of fresh soil that had turned to very slippery mud in the rain.  I had to use my 4 WD nearly the whole way and on the first long down hill I still had trouble keeping in  control of the vehicle as it slid down the hill, narrowly avoiding some bicyclists and pedestrians on the road.  I don't know how anyone going the other way could have possibly ascended the hill.

We did make it to the seminary though where Oren and David immediately jumped out and ran to visit the farm animals that are kept there in nearby stables.  (Cows, pigs, rabbits, goats).  Since Jodi is no longer our service worker, we do not get up here very often as a family, yet even after nearly a year away, the kids remembered every nook and cranny of the seminary and the lane to Jodi's house.  After visiting the animals, they ran directly to her house to forage through her collection of childrens books, before we all headed down for a scenic walk along the Ruvubu river.

The challenge of taking a walk in a rural area of Burundi with children is that they are like magnets passing over iron filings.  Within 10 minutes we had throngs of kids, many from the Hope School, following us around.  Oren seemed to enjoy entertaining them with peculiar antics that made the kids laugh.  But we did cut our trip short to enjoy the privacy of Jodi's home where we sat around talking before enjoying a dinner of beef bourguignon and pasta prepared by Jodi.

We left Jodi's and returned to the seminary for the night where we were welcomed by the sisters who were delighted to see that Rebecca and family had accompanied me this time.  Oren took the opportunity to ride his razor scooter around the smooth outdoor corridors surrounding the main courtyard.  David enjoyed visiting the pet monkey.

The next morning we had breakfast with Jodi then headed up to the Hope School where we met Innocent (head of our partner organization) and the principles of the school.   We came up in our car as we had a large steamer trunk in tow with many more books and goodies for the library brought by David Sack from the US.  We also had a special surprise for the students--more than 500 letters sent to them by students from the US.  These were responses solicited by Jean Sack who had been up at the school the month before organizing the library.  She had asked the kids at Hope to write thank you notes and these were 'you're welcomes' from kids in the US who had helped collect books to send them.

We decided the best way to distribute all the cards was to go as a group, class by class to each grade from 10th down to the 3 levels of preschool.  We had at least one letter for each kid and they were thrilled and quite shocked to receive them.  They were asked to write a note in response which Dave took back in his suitcase for his trip home.  I admit that doing these deliveries was a bit like playing the role of Santa Claus and I was sorry that the many letter-writers could not enjoy the thrill of distributing the letters.

While we were distributing, David and Oren played outside and generally had a very good time entertaining the Hope School children at recess.  Oren who recoils at being stared at by adults seems to love the attention from chidren his age and at one point was teaching a group of them the song "Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes" with gestures.

The other pleasant surprise was to see the 10th grade class under construction when the mission team from Hope for Africa Foundation was here, is now done!  And kids are using it this week.

When we finished by mid-afernoon we packed up and continued our journey to Bujumbura.  Not wanting to go back the way we came we decided to go back via Gitega, although we heard the road was even worse.  But we also had heard rumor of a circuitous route that went by a town called Karuzi.  We decided to go that way since Innocent was going part way in his car and said he could guide us.   We followed him to Karuzi then continued on to Gitega which we reached by 3pm.

That gave us just enough time to say HI to Yolanda in her new flat, which is quite charming.  We stayed for about half an hour, introduced her to Dave, then continued to head down to Bujubumbura.  We made it home about 6pm and had a dinner Marceline had left prepared for us earlier in the day (spinach quiche).

On Friday, Rebecca and I took a comp. time day after 10 straight days of work.  We took Papa Dave and the kids to the beach at Club du Lac T. where we swam in the pool and ate fish briochettes and french fries.  It was nice to show him that we do have a place to relax when we need it.

On Saturday we started the day with yoga where we had several newcomers.  It is a great group and we usually do brunch together (so there is really no hope of weight loss :-)  In the afternoon the kids really wanted to take Papa Dave out to their favorite place, Musee Vivant, our local zoo.

We took a guide along at the entrance, which meant there was even more opportunity to interact with the animals.  He gave us fruit to hand to the chimp and in the snake house, he gave David and Oren several snakes to handle.  It definitely became too much for Papa Dave when, after asking a quesion about the Gabon viper, the guide took it out of the cage and set it on the floor to show how docile it was.  We implored him to put it back in with Oren and David running around as we did not want to risk them stepping on it.  (I am sure he would have let us jump in the crocodile cage as well if we wanted to as some of our friends have done.)

That evening we had a potluck at our house with some of our missionary friends including Thomas and Naja's family, Tim and Jeanette's family, Tanya and Stephan's family, and Jodi who was down from upcountry.  It was a delicious meal of soup followed by some amazing desserts (in honor of my Birthday again I think).  They included Jeanette's lemon meringue pie, Rebecca's bread pudding, and the piece de resistance, Naja's walnut buttercream cake.

On Sunday, we went to church with Dave but when the kids went to Sunday school with Rebecca, I took him to the airport as he had a noon flight on to Zanzibar.  Despite the shortness of the visit, we felt we were really able to show him quite a bit, especially many of our friends.

Sunday afternoon was another highlight for the week as we had a plan to restart our small group that afternoon after nearly a year.  Although we have had disappointing results in the past we were encouraged by our pastor to re-form cell groups that had become inactive.  This time we were pleasantly surprised to find many who were willing to commit to join ours, and a great cross cultural mix.  We had Tim and Jeanette (south Africa), Philip and Estelle, he is Kenyan and head of Food for the Hungry here, Scott and Danica (Canadian), Rebecca and I, as well as Marie Goretti and her 2 daughters (Burundian).

We had an interesting discussion on the passage that was preached that day, Acts 6.  It was the story of the neglected Greek widows.  It is impressive to see how the early church resolved an ethnic conflict and seemed particularly relevant to this context.  Even as a mzungu I was impressed by the very inclusive solution the leaders devised, in asking the congregation to take responsibility for appointing 7 overseers.  They seemed to have done a good job in having a good mix of greeks in the group.

I confessed that as a mzungu, I would have, as a leader, simply delegated the task to 7 people of my choosing who I felt would do a good job and foregone the inclusive process of having the group choose the delegates.  But having worked in this context for nearly 4 years now, I appreciate the fact that a participatory process is always more important than expediency for its own sake.  During the evening we sang together, studied the Bible then prayed for each other, it was a real blessing and a great surprise for us.   We look forward to continuing in the weeks ahead. 

It was good to be back into a routine on Monday, kids back in school, refreshing morning swim and a productive day at work.  We will enjoy that for the next 4 days before I have to head off again on Friday to Bukavu.


Bonus photos for the Hope for Africa Foundation team.  Here is the finished classroom inside and out:

Phases of 50 Part Three: The Grouchy Pragmatist?

Meeting with partners in Kigali to discuss their action plans.


If one joined Facebook for Birthday well wishings alone, it would definitely be worth it.  I crossed another year this past week and had several dozen friends ranging from grade school through dance career, teaching, and career change, all wishing me a Happy Birthday, and reminding me of many years of unforgettable experiences and relationships.

As much as I would like to wax philosophical about the 'meaning' of being 52, I have been in a far more pragmatic mood this past month and don't have a lot to say (Maybe that is a characteristic of someone in their 50's?--just don't get me started on IRAs or retirement funds :-).  Actually I would observe in general that I seem to be less patient than I was in my youth.  I am wondering if this is a natural unavoidable change like pattern baldness and loss of vision, or is it a direct result of having children?  Will it continue to get worse or level out at 65?  I so don't want to turn into a grumpy old man, any suggestions on how to keep it light and easy going after the 5th decade?

We did not celebrate again this week formally, some Birthday gifts drifted in throughout the week from various friends and by mail.  We had had the big folk dance last week which was our official celebration of my Birthday (although we did not bill it as such.)

This week was the last week of our reporting deadline.  It has now come and gone and we succeeded in putting in all we received, although that is not the same as saying we completed everything.  There is a bit more left as far as late reports and plans, but we will deal with them as they come in.  The real pressure is definitely off though.

The week also had me tied up in a two day brain-storming session in collaboration with many other Christian NGO's who had formed a consortium to try to get a large grant from USAID for peacebuilding.  (disclaimer: MCC may not accept money from USAID, but I was representing our partners who may receive this money directly.)  It was a long but interesting process to watch a proposal emerge from a group of about 30 people.  (I am used to working alone on new ideas, so groupthink was a new experience to me.)  But through many sessions of plenary and breakout groups we did manage to put together a goal and some objectives.  I have no ideas how much chance it has of succeeding, but it was a good effort.

Rebecca was busy finishing up entries in our database, then David got sick on Tuesday and Wednesday which meant she needed to stay at home those mornings.  Despite the setback we did finish what we needed to by Wednesday.

We did have a few social events worthy of note.  We went to our friend Tim and Jeanette's for dinner (South African missionaries), it was another one of the several Birthday events I had during the week.  It was nice except David and their daughter Isabel are a bit competitive for the same toys.

Thursday Rebecca went out with her friends for Ladies Night while I stayed home with the kid.  She gave a funny report about trying out a new restaurant set up by a Belgian that claimed to be a restaurant and pastry shop.

We are used to getting a version of an item on a menu we are familiar with only to find the Burundian version is quite different.  I remember ordering a Greek salad and gettting something I would have called cole slaw.  But I think the ladies had the most extreme experience of this I have heard to date.

There was an item on the menu listed as Tapas, which, if you are familiar with it, is a type of hors d'oeuvre--the menu listed a plate featuring olives, some rolled cold cuts (prosciutto, salami) some cheeses like brie, and other imported items.

The service was incredbly slow and Rebecca said she imagined that they were trying to figure out what to make since she doubted they had any of the ingredients or even knew what tapas was.

Sure enough, when the plate came it had some samosa's, the local Congolese cheese, fried plaintain, french fries, and remarkably, absolutely not one ingredient described in the menu.  When they confronted the waitress with this fact and said they had received the wrong order she said no, that was tapas.  When asked why there was not one item mentioned on the menu, she told them they did not have any of those ingredients.   The mzungu ladies explained to her that this would have been something good to tell them before they placed the order.  According to Rebecca, the waitress still seemed quite surprised when the order was sent back.

This is another trivial example of the problem I have described and we experience in more serious ways on a regular basis.  It has to do with being able to get accurate information from someone when they know it may not be what you want to hear.  I cannot tell how many times I have had the experience of trying to figure out what the facts are when people are deadset on only telling you what you want to hear rather than what is actually true.  It is not just a problem for mzungus.  It is a cultural norm here to keep harmony, even if it means hiding of fudging reality.  I expounded on this in more detail in my blog of Jan. 2010 Confronting a Culture of False Hopes .html

Kids playing in our room at Amani guesthouse Kigali.

The week was also a prelude to our departure to Rwanda on Friday after school.  The kids are off the entire coming week so we decided to go as a family and head up over the weekend for a longer Rwanda stay.  I wish I could say it was vacation, but we did have a lot of business to do, especially meeting partners and new potential advisors.  We went with Felix and go to Kigali without incident.

We met our volunteers on Saturday for breakfast and did some shopping the afternoon.  On Sunday morning we went to the Friends Church and were fairly impressed that Oren and David made it through 2.5 of the 3.5 hour service.  (David took a nap and Oren played snake on mom's cellphone for some of it.)  But they were not distracting.  Since it was all in Kinyarwanda I did not understand much of it, but the singing was very nice.

After church we had a long lunch meeting with the legal rep. of the church and lead pastor (since MCC is under the Friends Church in Rwanda.)  It was good although it did require the kids to sit quietly through another long meeting.  We rewarded them afterwards by taking them to a pool and playground.  We were surprised how cold the water was there!  Kigali is definitely cooler than Bujumbura in general. Fortunately we brought along our long sleeve shirts and jackets.

Monday was the highlight because after our morning meetings with partners, we went to the airport to pick up Rebecca's dad.  Dr. David Sack (Papa Dave to the Grandkids) is here in Africa for a conference on vaccine development in Zanzibar.  But since that is relatively close by, he came a week early to visit us.  Our plan was to pick him up in Kigali and bring him back down to Bujumbura.

We are excited to have him here and he brought many things back from the US for us and for some of our partners as well, particularly children's books and letters from kids who want to be penpals with some batwa children at the Hope School.  We will pass through Burasira and the Hope School on our back to Bujumbura.

Dave also brought back a new camera for me.  I had ordered it online through Amazon several months ago and just got it.  The timing is good as the flash on my old camera no longer works.  It is a Canon G-12 so hopefully those who follow this blog will see some improvement in the quality of pictures.  I am very excited about it, I admit.

First photo with new camera:  Rebecca, David Oren and Papa Dave 

at Sola Luna, an Italian restaurant in  Kigali

Measuring Our Impact--Reputation vs. Character

Oren, Elias, and Aviaja climbing on the monkey bars at the Ecole Belge after their Karate class.



Our last full week at home (before starting travel again) this past week was significantly more eventful than the week before.  We are still in the process of end of year reporting and planning for the new year as well.  That is work done at the computer mostly, filling in fields in a database after reading and critiquing plans and reports received from our partners and service workers. 

It is interesting to be part of such an ‘intentional’ organization.  Literrally everything done by MCC, it partners and each individual service worker is planned for at the beginning of the year and then reported on at the end.  (with one progress report as per year as well.)  “What about sponteniety?” You Ask.  I assure you, there is a blank for that in the final report that asks what unexpected surprises or learning happened during the year that can be reported on, and how will you integrate this into your plans for next year? 

In fact, as an amusing exercise I will provide you with a few questions to consider for yourself this year that we must answer and report on each year.  As you see some are about personal development, not just questions about the job.


1) What self development goals do you have for the coming year?

2) What primary relationships (e.g. co-workers, neighbors, local church) will you focus on this coming year?  What do you hope to give and receive from those relationships?

Felix at the office at work.

What I find interesting is that this is my ‘job’ that is asking me this.  Some may consider it invasive, but I appreciate the emphasis on transparency that is put on our position here.  What undergirds this is an element of trust that MCC is committed to help us in realizing our maximum potential and not seeking to undermine us.  It also kind of gives one a sense that ones time is valuable and should not be wasted.  

I do admit though, that while I was enthusiastic and very elaborate about my great hopes and plans in the first two years, my answers have become shorter and far less interesting as the years go by.  


Looking back over the week though, the routine remained more or less the same.  I have mentioned that I started teaching a ballet class for adults on Wednesday evenings and that continued to grow and go well last week.  Swimming continues to be a daily activity and we found out that our dues for this year will be about $100 each (Rebecca and I)  That is really not bad for unlimited access to a great pool for a whole year.  (They did warn us they would be doing major renovations during the last 3 months of the year though.)

Thursday was one of the standout days because of interesting activites.  It began in the afternoon after school.  I was with the kids and we were invited by Naja to go fishing off the pier of a restaurant called Cercle Nautique, that has boat docks at it.

We met Thomas and a friend of his as well as the kids Aviaja and Elias who were already fishing off the wharf.  What was most impressive though was the family of hippos between the piers, about 10 yards away lolling in the water, occasionally bumping the docked speedboats bobbing nearby.

David and Oren did not catch anything but enjoyed watching the hippos snorting and yawning nearby.

(note to anyone in Burundi, this is the best free place to see hippos, and very close to the center of town.)

That same evening Rebecca and I had a date night pre arranged with Scott and Danika.  We went out to a nice restaurant called Palmerai, also on the beach near Cercle Nautique.  The chef there is possibly the best in Burundi, a Belgian man who used to cook for Mbutu (former Bigman of DRC).

We had exquisite food--filet mignon with roqueford sauce and veal scallopini.  It was about $12 per entree but would have been about $50 each in the US.

We had a chance to have a good conversation together about things other than work, mostly.  It did occur to us that my Birthday and Valentines day were going to be the following week, but we would be out of town in Rwanda for my Birthday.  So this was kind of a celebration.

One topic of conversation that came up that was interesting was looking at how our current jobs differ from our previous ones.  I had been director of the dance theatre at Vassar College and on the dance faculty, and Rebecca had been a youth pastor.

Being in monitoring and evaluation mode we analyzed the differences in the language of NGO reporting.  It went something like this:

Although we are challenged by our new jobs we realized oure old jobs were exciting in a certain way that is not duplicated here.  There we were program implementers here we are administrators.  At Vassar and our Church, we were directly involved with 'beneficiaries' of these projects.  (students mainly).  In 4 years it was really possible for both of us to see the 'impact' of our work on them.  At Vassar, someone in VRDT for 4 years of College goes through a major transformation in that time, and there is a real sense, for many, that I played a significant role.  In the case of the church (PUMC) Rebecca was able to see the same affect on youth in that time.

By contrast, we do hope our programs are having 'impact' on 'beneficiaries' of our work, but we rarely see that, even when we read reports and do field visits.  It is not the same thing as being 'on the ground' and in the lives of individuals the way we were, and our partners are now.

I suppose we might have some impact on our service workers on our team, but we are always one step removed from those who we are truly here to serve.

By the end of the evening we went and picked up the kids and Scott and Danika gave us a great report on their behavior.

The other place Oren is getting great reports is on his dictées.  These are his French language writing quizes he has every Friday.  I am impressed that so far he has done them all virtually perfectly, in cursive.  Last week he wrote:  A l'école je calcule et colorie.  It is good to see him succeeding and feeling pleased with himself about his progress in learning French.

Saturday was a big day in that we planned, also as part of my Birthday week, a folk dance in the afternoon.  We once again cleared our living room and invited the 'usual suspects', as well as some new folks.  As most of the regulars could not come we had a newer group, many of them francophone this time, so much of the teaching was in French.

Among the most enthusiastic dancers was the daughter of one of Oren's teachers who brought 2 other friends from school.  They did "Cotton-eyed Joe" about 3 times before other adults arrived as well as a South African dance called Pata-Pata.  We did some Western square dances as well and a Hora.  It was fun as always and we had a dinner together afterwards.

We did have a few unexpected but welcome visitors including Allie Wisdom, a person who actually reads this blog and is planning to move to Burundi with her family in August.  It was great to meet her and 2 of her sons who were visiting with her.  We also had a pastor from the UK (John) drop by to cut a rug, as well as Carl Schmidtt, one of the founders of Conservation Agriculture (Farming God's Way).

It was an interesting group and I enjoyed the conversation as much as the dancing this week.

Rebecca and I got to bed around 10:30 pm after cleaning up some messes, but felt very satisfied with the work.

Sunday was another special treat as Scott Mackenzie was preaching (for the first time at BICC).  He did a great job talking about Ananias and Saphira.  The takehome message that really struck me was the distinction between reputation and character, and where we put our emphasis and energy.  I think admittedly most of us are more concerned with the former than the latter, and may even spend time on our character if we think it will positively influence our reputation.

He challenged us to be individuals that really cultivate a good character and be the kinds of people that others seek out because we genuinely care, and are not motivated to friendship for other objectives. (particularly trying to get something.)  This was probably a challenge for many here who see friendship and interest as inseparable.

He also challenged Western missionaries to be 'real' with our constituents at home.  Not to try to impress them with testimonies of conversions and miracles which may not have quite happened as extraordinarily as we might imply.  He admitted his own temptation to make his time and work here sound more impressive that it really is to those at home.  (Especially since they depend on support from others.)

Overall, though he was encouraging and not confrontive, and I feel motivated us all to want to be better and more real in our work here and church community.

Next weekend we will be in Kigali and will be meeting Rebecca's dad there.  Hopefully there will time to send a short post on Monday.

Bonus photo on the way to church.  Bicycles are the pick up trucks of Burundi.  This is a pretty typical view on the road.

A Return to Normalcy

I think we have actually arrived at a week that was so normal that there is really nothing to say.  I had wondered if this would ever happen here and now after nearly 4 years it has.  I am thinking though that it might have more to do with me no longer having eyes to see the really unusual things we experience daily as more than just ordinary.

Talking to Rebecca to pick our brains about what was interesting, we could only remember a few social events.  We had pizza with Scott and Danika at Ubuntu on Friday night, then baby-sat their kids on Saturday so they could go on a date night.  We will get an exchange on that this Thursday.

On Saturday afternoon we went over to the house of Jan and Ann.  She is an American friend of ours who is actually a real Mennonite!  She is here with her husband who serves at the Dutch Embassy.  She had been away for the birth of their third son.  They have a beautiful house with a swimming pool and Oren is friends with their oldest son Bassie (Sebastian).   We had a very nice afternoon swimming and chatting with them.

Sunday was church and we spent a quiet afternoon at home.  Jodi and Yolanda were both in town over the weekend and we hosted them.

The work week was focused on getting end of year reports and new plans into our database which it will be for the next several weeks to come.  Not the most exciting work, but it does give us an excuse not to travel and have some nice daily routines like swimming.

We have added two more elements to our weekly ritual.  The first is afternoon tea.  Now that Noel is no longer a puppy we like to go out and sit on the front porch as a family and have tea.  The kids love this ritual already and we have a nice porch with a view of the mountains of Eastern Congo in the rainy season.

Tea is served at about 5 when the one of us who is working gets home.  Admittedly a bit late for tea, but we get to enjoy the sunset on the porch before supper that way.

The second new ritual we will be adding (again), is the revival of our Sunday afternoon prayer and share group.  Our church is getting us to revitalize our small group ministry so we will start again next Sunday at our home.  Hopefully we will be able to build a more cohesive group this time around.  We do see a need for an anglophone group for the church and that will be our niche.

I think that is about it for the week.  Not great blogging but satisfying enough to live.  Actually David just started throwing up (after being well all week) so this is probably a good place to stop.