Creature Comforts

David playing with Avril, his baby chimp friend who lives at Pinnacle 19.

It has been a full week since our return from our meetings in Kigali.  The transition back to normalcy was a bit bumpier than expected.  Settling back into regular rhythms again took some time.  While the kids returned directly to school Rebecca and I took a comp. day last Thursday for personal retreat.  We spent the morning in silent reflection by the beach, in listening prayer, then shared our understanding of what Jesus was telling us about the time past and time ahead this year.  One thing that was clear was that if we were not going to leave this place burned out next year, we needed to be intentional about what things we would be able to do and what we would not, and be thinking as early as January about ‘exit strategies’ from certain responsibilities outside of work.

Swimming is the heartbeat of our weekly routine and it was great to be able to do that last week and this week as the start of our day.  We usually swim about an hour and then read the One Year Bible together and pray.  If I could contribute our endurance to anything these six years, it would be that life-giving daily routine (when routine is possible.)

Friday we did return to the office for the first time in two weeks before picking the kids up from school.  Ballet was great, and I have many students in both levels.  I was also honored to have several of the mothers join in the second class last week.  I don’t know if their kids were happy or mortified by their participation, hopefully the former, as they seemed to take it more seriously at least.  In the evening we had Tim, Jeanette and Isabel over for family movie night and watched a movie about African Cats.

The weekend had its own highlights as well.  Oren had been asking for his ‘perfect’ day for over a month.  This was very clearly defined in his mind as a Saturday that started with waffles in the morning, followed by a trip to the zoo after yoga, where we have a picnic lunch, then a Fanta and fishing at Cercle Nautique (where we often see hippos.).  In the evening we were to go to Ubuntu for pizza. We did just such a day although Rebecca was doing a teaching to women at the church during our zoo trip, but was with us the rest of the day. 

The zoo is becoming more and more like the kids’ backyard and they run around to see their favorite animals.  Kita the chimp is delighted to see them and immediately tries to get them to play the bottle game with her.  My new friend is the leopard, still not full grown from DRC.  She is quite tame and I when I stand by the cage she comes over to me and waits for me to reach through and scratch her ears and neck.  It seems hard to believe she is a leopard when she acts so much like a cat around me.

The ending was a bit of a detour as we stopped by a Birthday party for our friend Nicola (of GIZ).  They have kids so Oren and David had a late night hanging out with friends at an adult party. 

Sunday we had a real treat after being gone for 2 previous Sundays to find Drs. Joel and Janette Miller giving testimony about their work as American physicians in Burundi.  I appreciated their willingness to talk about the call to be here as a examples to Burundian doctors as those doctors choose how and where they will serve.  Jeanette shared testimony of how her work in the Free Methodist clinic gave her the chance to encourage Christian doctors to show Christ’s love to everyone, regardless of their faith.  (I do notice that there is a kind of ‘team’ mentality here between denominations and especially Christians and Muslims.—If they aren’t on ‘your’ team then you don’t owe them much of anything.)

The testimony was particularly relevant as the scripture passage that was shared was on the Good Samaritan, a striking example of Jesus pointing out that ‘love of neighbor’ must extend beyond religious and ethnic lines.

We went to the beach with the kids in the afternoon, where I snapped this picture of David and his friend Grace petting the ‘nice’ parrot at Club du Lac T.  (There are 2 parrots and you better not pet the wrong one or it will bite your finger off.)  We saw the Millers again at the beach and played with them for a while.   Afterwards I took the kids to our small group while Rebecca caught up on some much needed sleep.

 Monday started with a new venue for the men’s prayer group that I am part of.  We are now meeting at 7:30am at Kings Conference Center, for anyone who would like to join.  After prayer I took Rebecca out to an unusual venue called Pinnacle 19.  It is one of the many resorts that dot the edge of Lake Tanganyika past Club du Lac T.  It is odd in that it is owned by a Canadian Bahaii couple.   I can’t say much about the Bahaii faith beyond what I have read on Google, but it seems to be an Oriental version of Unitarianism.  Nonetheless, statues of Osiris not withstanding, the place is quite charming with a small pool, fountains, some very nice, simple guest rooms, and a spa with sauna and massage.  The restaurant is on the beachfront and offers a panoramic view of the lake and mountains in DRC and Burundi.  It is also one of the less-frequented venues along the lake. 

Rebecca brought all of the necessary equipment for a spiritual retreat, including a Bible and an Ipod with a playlist of songs that inspire her.  I left her there on Monday and picked her back up on Wednesday afternoon.

In the meantime, I had a fairly normal work week, dropping kids at school, working in the morning, then taking them to activities.  On Monday we have added something after tennis in preparation for their return to the US.

Thanks to Debbie, one of the American Ecole Belge school moms (her husband is with the embassy), we have a new English reading and writing club!  I took Oren and David over her house Monday afternoon where we were joined by at least a dozen other Anglophone kids.  Debbie had activities organized for about 4 age groups, and with the help of other parents ran a great English reading and writing club.  Oren and David both really loved it and I think it will be a very fun and essential part of our routine this year, especially if we want to get Oren up to grade level for next year when he returns to an English school.

On Tuesday evening I took the kids to the Ubuntu restaurant again to say a final goodbye to Travis and his daughter Divine.  For those of you who have followed this saga, you know that he has been fighting for several years to win legal custody as an adoptive parent of Divine and get her a resident visa for the US.  Many of us have been praying them through this and the rest of their family left town about a month ago and are back in the US.  Travis and Divine have one more stop in Nairobi for processing then they will be back in the US, hopefully by Thanksgiving.  There were other close friends there who have been with them through this tribulation, and are happy to see it coming to an end.

On Wednesday after school, I took the kids with me out to Pinnacle 19 to get Rebecca and bring her home.  It was a great way for her to end the retreat.  We had lunch on the beach.  The kids were delighted to find that the management allows the 2 pet chimpanzees run around the grounds free.  There is an older one who was in the cage when we got there and a baby, 5 month old chimp named Avril.  Avril was thrilled to see the kids and climbed all over our table, tried to open their school bags, and danced around with David quite a bit.  Oren was a bit scared of her and kept his distance, but David and Avril went off to play alone for about an hour.  I got several photos of them dancing together.  I think we will have to return to Pinnacle 19 frequently in the next year.

I have mentioned the Swiss Family Robinson before as one of my favorite childhood movies.  I loved the way the young boy Francis had so many pets from ostriches and zebras, to baby elephants and tigers.  There is something, albeit politically incorrect, but interesting about being in a place that does not prevent human animal interaction.  I have swum with dolphins, petted leopards, crocs, and rhinos, fished beside hippos, and played with chimpanzees, all with my sons, and seen the delight and wonder in their eyes at the animal kingdom up close.  Hopefully they will treasure these memories when we return to a place where we maintain a more respectable distance from wild beasts. 

It was great to have Rebecca back home on Wednesday evening and we enjoyed our morning routine together today, swimming, and reading the One Year Bible.  One thing I noticed during this week where we were a bit weakened--there is a community around us watching, aware, concerned, we may not notice them watching, but if you stumble, there are hands at the ready to catch you under the arm and get you back up on your feet.  We do a lot of that care for others ourselves, but it is good to know that we don't always have to be strong, we can be the ones who need a hand from time to time.  

Bonus Photo:  Ubuntu Sunset over DRC mountains

Rwanda: A Regional Meeting and Team Retreat

Giving kids a push on a local carousel in a Kigali park during some down time at our regional meetings.

Finally back in Bujumbura, after a long drive from Gisenyi, in Northern Rwanda.  About 9 hours on the road not counting lunch in Kigali where we dropped off our Area Directors Mark and Angela Sprunger.  The occasion was a team retreat along lake Kivu with the Rwanda Burundi and Congo MCC teams.  Fifteen of us drove up and spent 3 days together at the Stipp hotel along the lake.  It was an enjoyable and meaningful time in a very beautiful setting.  It seemed a bit surreal that this town abuts Goma on the DRC side of the edge of the lake, a place which has been embroiled in conflict and fighting between the UN security forces and the M-23 Rebel groups.  Interestingly we were retreating there on the day that a truce was called by M-23 who have been fairly effectively routed from their strongholds in the region.

For us, though, our lodging offered us a view of the best the region has to offer.  Lake Kivu is beautiful, and our accommodations had the feel of a resort complete with swimming pool and fitness room.   The town of Gisenyi is nestled beneath a range of 8 volcanoes that are visible as you drive toward the lake.  Some are still active and the one in neighboring Goma has erupted at least once in the last decade.  This is also the region of the famed ‘Gorillas in the mist’ and although we did not take any tours up into the forests surrounding the volcanoes, they were nearby.  Truth be told, such excursions are extremely expensive and going as an MCC group would have been prohibitively costly.

Present were Tim Lind, the MCC DRC Rep., Patrick and Michael, the 2 service workers in Bukavu, Melody, Matt, Jennifer and Felix (with his wife Alice), from Burundi, Teresa, Julia, and Matt Gates, from Rwanda, Mark and Angela Sprunger, our Area Directors who are currently based in Burkina Faso, and of course our family. 

Rebecca and I were hosting the retreat, with Rebecca taking responsibility for many of the logistics and preparation of the materials for spiritual reflection, although many of us contributed to the latter. 

We stayed at the Stipp hotel, having made it up there in 3 vehicles with the MCC Congo team coming across the border from Goma where they had been doing a field visit with Mark Sprunger. 

In general, we spent the mornings in some kind of intentional activity of worship and sharing.  We had some prepared liturgies and songs featuring Rebecca on guitar, followed by different opportunities to share on the different days.  We began by just taking turns listening to each other share some things about our assignments very generally, but later had opportunities to talk about the ways in which we are challenged or struggling.  On the last day we broke into smaller groups to pray for each other.

It is hard to explain how important creating space for this kind of activity is in doing work here.  Actually that may be true of all work, but it is great to work for an organization that recognizes the need for ongoing debriefing during a cross cultural assignment and effectively requires us to make space for this. 

There are common themes in the challenges we face.  Here the constant affront of poverty vis-à-vis our relative affluence and what that means as far as how we steward privilege is a big question.  We are often perceived as potential benefactors for any number of needs and face constant attempts to have money begged, borrowed, or stolen from us.  It is quite wearing and often every request needs to be considered on its own merit and blanket ‘rules of thumb’ just aren’t adequate in every situation.

Frustration with work are also a common theme.  In a hierarchical culture it is usually only the highest ranking person in an organization who may make decisions no matter how substantive or trivial.  For a westerner, this can run smack into our ‘getting things done’ value system as there can be a huge bottleneck in decision-making on even fairly small and non-substantive changes.  Part of some of the capacity building work of our service workers is to help our partner organizations find ways to better delegate power.

Then there is the constant assault of tragedy, past and present, that we negotiate here.  Sudden news of the death of a colleague or one of their immediate family is fairly common.  Sadly, the stories of wives dying in childbirth among our staff and colleagues is far too common.  Death is such a part of life her for young and old here in a way that would be unimaginable in the US.

All of this and more makes retreating a necessity, and not just vacationing, but deliberate debriefing with an opportunity to share and pray as well.

There was ample opportunity for fun as well.  We enjoyed very good food at the hotel, and took advantage of its fitness room and small swimming pool.  The kids liked the grounds which had quite a bit of old playground equipment on it.  Their favorite thing by far was the gigantic fountain in the shape of a volcano with 2 gorilla statues on it.  The fountain was not working, but the mountain was like a gigantic piece of play equipment where the kids could practice bouldering.  

Outside the gate of the hotel, one could walk along the lake where there was some park land and the opportunity to swim.  Oren and David were particularly enamored of the huge amount of volcanic rocks there were in the area.  In fact, along the lake there are some very interesting rock formations created by what was obviously lava flowing into the lake at one time.

Oren was especially fond of finding the very light, porous pumice-like stone that could be as large as one’s head, but would float in water!  He collected quite a bit and has the inspiration of bringing it back to the US next year and opening a store to sell it to other kids.  He even brought a piece to school with him to show his teacher for show and tell when he went back yesterday.  It was apparently a big hit in the class.

Among the fun activities we did were watercolors, yoga, and a fierce game of ultimate Frisbee in the aforementioned park.  All three of our SALT volunteers as well as Melody and the two guys from the DRC program (Michael and Patrick) –and me, were a pretty fearsome group.  We played 4 on 3 for over an hour and attracted quite a few onlookers.  I was not aware of what a good ultimate Frisbee team our regional program has become.  I think we could easily field a team of 8 very competent players--- Burundi Doctors and Coffee Buyers you can consider the gauntlet thrown down!

A particularly meaningful moment of reflection came from Tim Lind who invited us to remember that we are the bearers of good news and that coming to a region where we are accustomed to focus on the bad—conflict, poverty, etc. we often miss what is ‘good’ here, the daily acts of mercy and compassion, the beauty of the lake.  It was a sober reminder that in order to bring Good News, we need to have the perspective of Jesus, someone who could see the good in a fallen woman at the well, or a tax collector hiding in a tree.  We need to see this region where we work with Jesus’ eyes—to see the good hidden amidst all that is wrong.  He shared a very beautiful poem about Lake Kivu as well. 

We ended our last evening, Monday, with communion as a group.  It was special to share that together as a team.  On Tuesday morning we headed our separate ways, the DRC team returning on foot back across the border to Goma, while the rest of us headed South to Kigali.  We had Mark and Angela in our car and took them to a guesthouse as they were flying out of Kigali.  Matt and the Rwanda SALTers did some field visits on the way back, and Felix took his car with Melody, Jennifer and Matt back to Buja.  After getting caught in a rainstorm in Kigali, our family continued the rest of the trip to Bujumbura, making for a very long day of driving.  We arrived after dark, about 7pm.  It was very good to be back home after more than 12 days out of town.

Selaph:

I would be remiss in not mentioning what happened the first week of our stay in Rwanda.  Prior to our retreat we had arrived a week earlier for regional meetings for country programs in the Central West African region.  These meetings usually happen once a year and October during the children’s fall break is usually the ideal time to schedule them.  As hosts this year, we decided upon Kigali as there is a plan to locate our regional office here in the next year.

MCC programs who belong to Central West African region include Rwanda and Burundi, DRCongo, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, and Chad.  These are primarily francophone (except Nigeria) and do not share much else in common as West Africa is both climatically different and faces food security issues related to drought and conflict related more to inter-faith issues.  It might seem a bit of an odd mix, but I have really grown to appreciate the people and programs we meet when we are together.

The attendees this year included:

Jon and Angela and their 4 kids who are reps in Chad (Caleb, Jonny, Hannah, Lilly).  They are all around the ages of Oren and David, and were great playmates during the 4 days of meetings.  I have tremendous admiration for this young family who have committed to 5 years in one of the most climactically challenging places to live in the world, and least developed.  They faced tremendous health difficulties last year, but have courageously pressed on for another year. 

David and Marylou from Nigeria.  Their kids are grown and they have several previous turns as reps in their past.  They come with many years of experience to the position there.

Tim and Suzanne from DRC.  They began shortly before we did and, like us, they are finishing their last year as reps this year.  I have great appreciation for the challenging work they have working in the DRC.

Mark and Angela, who are our Area Directors have also had to play a fill-in role as reps. for Burkina Faso as well.  They are currently there and we are all praying that some interim reps for the country will be found until the new permanent ones arrive next summer.

Also in attendance were several folks from our national offices in the US and Canada.  Ruth Clemens, the director of International Programs from MCC US came, she goes to our church in Baltimore so we have a personal connection and were very happy to have her come and bring greetings (and gifts) from family.   There were also several other specialists, Kathy who works with the volunteer program, Beth who works with health and HIV programs, Sam from IT, and Jean from HR. 

It is an added bonus to have people who work in the national offices visit us in the field as there can sometimes be a disconnect between our experiences.  I think the biggest surprise for them is how we all survive with such slow internet connections!

We had four days of meetings that covered a range of topics.  Julia, our SALTer volunteered to do childcare for us.  It was extremely helpful.  The  kids got along very well in general and played, colored, watched videos, did some VBS and even went to a playground with Rebecca and I one afternoon.

The week was probably hardest on Rebecca and I as we had to deal with a considerable number of logistical issues.  Picking people up from the airport at 2 in the morning and dropping them off at midnight  when they left were among them.  Changing money, paying bills, arranging meals, and field visits were also necessary.

The highlight of the week may have been the field visit.  Thanks to Matt, our Kigali agronomist, we were able to get a bus to take our group out to a visit to some of our conservation agriculture projects.  I have talked about this project in the past, but to be able to show how this technique is appreciated in the places were are doing it was impressive.

The bus ride was about 2 hours up into the mountain region of Gicumbi.  It was rainy that day and the place was, quite frankly, very, very cold!  We went and visited four different sites including a farm where a member of one of the women’s groups had decided on her own to adopt the method in her own field based on what she had learned from participating on the collective field.  Since adoption of the method is our ultimate goal, it was great to see it already catching on.  After several hours of visiting sites and meeting with the local authority, we headed back to Kigali for dinner. 

Besides meetings we did manage to have our share of good food as the guest house did not offer dinner on the premises.  We had in our 5 days there, Thai, Indian, Mexican and Ethiopian food from the many excellent restaurants in Kigali.

The days ended with each of the reps departing to their respective country programs, and the ones from the US and Canada returning home as well after a brief visit to Goma.  Rebecca and I headed up to our team retreat with the Sprungers, but that is another story….which I have already told.

Among the extra bonuses during the week was the very unexpected news that the SALTers in Rwanda received approval for their one year residents visas.  This was something we spent 9 months trying to secure for last year’s volunteers and ultimately failed.  The fact that they came so suddenly this year was a real surprise and in my opinion, an act of God.

For Rebecca and I, the 2 weeks were the source of much stress and much joy, the completion was cause for a major sigh of relief and a retreat day which we took today.  Some friends even helped out by taking the kids after school.  We reflected on the significance of this, another last—the last regional meetings we will participate in, in our term.  They have taken us to Ouagadugu--Burkina Faso, Jos--Nigeria, Kinshasa--DRC, Accra--Ghana, Addis Ababa--Ethiopia, Kigali--Rwanda, Livingston--Zambia, and Nairobi--Kenya.  I think there will be a part of me that misses the exciting travel opportunities they have afforded us--after some time of rest.

For more photos go to:  https://plus.google.com/photos/111462534583731820408/albums/5942253355208180625?banner=pwa

Teachable Moments and a Birthday

The Renaissance Man?  Teaching 4 and 5 year olds how to bouree.



Ladies night out was the occasion I had to start this entry this week, but I unfortunately fell asleep with the kids while putting them to bed and find myself writing this at a particularly uninteresting forum I am taking in part in this morning. 

 For some reason the many little stresses we face in our work and home life here seemed to add up to making this a particularly straining week emotionally.  It is hard to explain why the many small things can come together in this way but because they are relatively independent of each other they can sometimes gather into the same space of time.  Discipline issues with children and their routines, a series of unexpected requests, preparations for upcoming events, necessity to use our free time for work, and also some physical limitations (an injury), all conspired to make this a particularly challenging week.  I think what makes these things particularly stressful is that they can interfere with Rebecca and I to having time together to talk and coordinate.  We end up having to play ‘zone defense’ to deal with all the problems and have no opportunity to support each other.  We talked yesterday about the need to try to simplify and prioritize, especially when we think about turning this program over to another set of reps.  We want to leave something that is manageable! 

Picking up from last week’s post, I was returning from a trip to Kigali (the third in the last 6 weeks).  On the way home, I went through Burasira, where there is a nice Catholic Seminary and guesthouse where I spent the night before continuing on to Gitega.  It was practically deserted when I got there and I was the only one staying in the guest house.  It felt a bit like a spiritual retreat in its solitude, although one of the nuns, Soeur Anise, did sit with me at dinner and we chatted for quite a whie.  I have known her from visits to the Seminary over several years, but it was nice to have a one-on-one conversation of substance.  I asked her about how she decided to enter “la vie religieuse” as they call it here and she talked about making a decision to enter the order at the age of 17, against the wishes of her family.  Burundian girls deciding to become nuns is still not an unusual choice here, and may even be the best of other less appealing alternatives, including a bad marriage and life of poverty. 

 I told her that very few young women in my culture would make such a decision at that age.  She said she knew as she had spent time in Switzerland where all the nuns were very old women who had decided to enter that vocation late in life, and lamented the fact that our culture does not encourage this more.  She does, in my opinion, reflect the love of Christ in the hospitality she shows, and always asks after Rebecca and the children.

Michael teaching at GLPI

 I continued on early the next morning to Gitega to visit the GLPI seminar.  (Great Lakes Peacebuilding Institute).  This is a one month training seminar for peacebuilders partially supported by MCC.  Melody Musser, our service worker is seconded to our partner MiPAREC who organizes it.  I went while Michael Sharp, an MCC Congo service worker was doing a one week module on conflict theory.  Patrick, the other MCC Congo service worker was also in attendance.  I stayed for the morning session to lend moral support then continued on to Bujumbura.  I arrived on Thursday afternoon.  (I indulged in a swim at the pool before coming back to the house because I felt so physically worn-out from all the driving.)

 

Melody

We had Travis and his daughter Divine over for dinner that night.  They are in the final stages of waiting for her visa to allow them to join the rest of their family back in the US.  It has been a long hard wait, but the light at the end of the tunnel is now in view.

 Friday was ballet and I did ask Rebecca to bring the camera to make a few pictures.  I have quite a few kids in two classes I teach, a beginner group, followed by a more advanced group.  Oren and David had a holiday from school that day but I taught anyway.  October is the month when there a lot of national holidays because of several assassinations of Presidents in the month of October.  There is a morbid joke about October being a bad month to be President of Burundi.

 The weekend was fairly typical as far as yoga on Saturday, Rebecca did have to go to a Saturday meeting midmorning while I stayed with the kids, but we did have a movie night on Saturday together.  Patrick and Michael had returned from their sojourn in Gitega on Saturday and spent the weekend with us at our house.

Joel Miller 

 Sunday was a bit of a departure from the norm as Rebecca asked me to do a short drama in the Sunday school class and tell the story of Isaac and Rebecca from the perspective of Eliazar, Abraham’s servant.  I dressed up in a middle Eastern-ish costume with complete with beard made out of a plastic bag, and sunglasses, and came in and told the story as a kind of grouchy old Arab.  The kids thought it was pretty funny and I had no trouble keeping their attention for the duration of the story.

Ben Carlson

We decided to go again to the standing ultimate Frisbee game on Sunday’s at the park here.  We do have several ex-pat friends who go, as well as some Burundians who had learned Frisbee from the grandfather of ultimate Frisbee in Burundi—Doug Hiebert, our predecessor.  (He taught a group of boys in Gitega ultimate about a decade ago and many continue to play.)  Patrick came with me as well as Rebecca and the kids.  Patrick and I were the only ones who played, until I pulled my calf muscle toward the end of the 2 hour session.  (This game does have its share of injuries with people breaking ribs, hurting eyes, feet, etc.)  I do have to say it is a lot of fun and another opportunity to get together with friends.

We hobbled on to small group directly from ultimate.  I have talked about the group often in the past, and it continues to be a place of real support in our lives.  We were struck during prayer time though that by this time next year there will only be one family left here in Bujumbura.  All the rest of us will be leaving for other assignments.  (JJ and Courtney will still be here.)  It came as a bit of shock to me just how much turnover there is from year to  year.

Monday was another school holiday.  We had a special plan for this day, which was an early Birthday party for David.  He turns 5 on Oct 29^th, but we realized we would be in Rwanda for regional meetings and a team retreat that whole week, and a Birthday cake with adults is just not the same thing to a 5 year old as a party with friends.  We kept it very modest and invite over 3 families with kids his age—Isabel and her parents Tim and Jeanette, the Guilbaud’s and the Ivaska’s with their 2 girls Harper and Zadie.  It was a pirate party and although we pulled it together toward the last minute we had many pirate-themed items and activities.

I had made a pirate ship piniata, and Rebecca made a very cool pirate ship shaped cake made out of secret ingredient chocolate cake.  (the secret ingredient is beets! But you would never know it.)  I had also constructed an elaborate obstacle course in the living room from the furniture and other items in which they could run a sort of circular relay race with the two teams going in opposite directions.  It made for quite a bit of chaos.  We also had a kind of balloon soccer and some games involving the parachute we have that can be lifted and lowered as a group.  Because the number of kids was reasonable, it meant as well, that the parents could talk a bit as well, I was glad that JJ and Simon (2 dads) came as well which gave us a chance to chat a bit.

The kids returned back to school after a 4 day weekend for the first time on Tuesday.  It was a relief to get a few days of regular routine in.  Much of it was used to prepare for the upcoming 10 days in Rwanda.  We will be hosting regional meetings followed by a team retreat.  It will probably be a bit hairy and I may not post again before that is over.

This evening we had one surprise visitor.  It was Nina with her two kids Jonah and Milo!  She is German and used to be here with GIZ, with her kids and husband Bila.  They were regulars at yoga and fellow parents at the Ecole Belge.  It was great to see them and reminded us of all those we have known who have left.  Fortunately it is a small world and I have no doubt we will see them again sometime, somewhere.

A Hodgepodge of Highlights

Kita the chimp, one of the featured attractions at Musee Vivante. 

A hodgepodge of highlights to share from the past two weeks:

Rebecca contributed last week on her participation in a prayer retreat at Buta a week ago Friday.  I was home with the kids those days, but now I find myself alone again, back in Kigali where I am working on various things, but primarily the very slow and challenging task of registering an International NGO in Rwanda.  I won't go into detail here as it is really not interesting to talk about.

As a short aside, I may not have mentioned often enough that my interest in cross-cultural work is probably rooted in my own experience as a cross cultural kid.  My father is a doctor in the public health/infectious disease sector, who like his father before him, spent many years working overseas when I was young.  I grew up in South Asia, and spent many years of my youth feeling a bit out of place in my own culture.

I bring this up because my father is celebrating his 80th Birthday this week.  And, I skyped him last week while he was on a trip to AFGHANISTAN to help ministry of health officials understand how to define health care priorities for their country.  For anyone who feels like they can never live up to their parent's standards, you can imagine how I feel.  Will I have the heart to continue to do this work into my 80s in places like Afghanistan?  I guess time will tell.  Anyway, I want to say Happy 80th Birthday Dr. W.H. Mosley/ Dad, I am very proud of you and the example you have given to me of what it means to live out your faith as a Christian, and a Scientist.  

Most of the highlights this week were on the weekends.  We went fishing about a week ago, Saturday, and found that our fishing peer was surrounded by hippos.  We moved down about 20 meters away from them, as they were hanging out in a marina called Cercle Nautique, minding their own business, and we fished for quite a while.  We did not catch anything but did lose about a dozen worms as the fish would easily nibble them off the hook.  Finally a local fisherman came up to me and told me the secret to success was to use a very tiny #12 hook which was small enough to snag them.  Sure enough, when I tried one I was able to catch one of the small fish that were eating our worms.  The locals love to eat them, but it seemed really small to me and I threw it back.

Jeanette brought her daughter Isabel to the place as well and Isabel and David played near the water while Oren and I walked around for a better look at some of the hippos who had moved a bit further away by then.  They were quite frisky and active in the water and I got some good pictures of them.  Here is one with his jaw fully unhinged.  It certainly does remind me of how terrifying these animals can be and why they are the #1 killers of humans in the animal kingdom.

Hope school boys playing after school.  

The kids did well in school during the week and I only had one trip out of town last week to visit the Hope School.  The occasion was to attend the official opening of the library up there.  I have posted some pictures in the past, but the building is done, the books are in, and Dr. Robin Wilde, the head of the Foundation for Hope in Africa was able to be there for several hours for an official opening ceremony.  

I did feel a bit like a proud parent because The Foundation who supported the construction of the library was a connection I had made through this blog.  I cautiously recommended work with our partner and this is the third building project they have done at the school.  So often construction projects go way over budget and are never realized.  This was just the opposite.  The partner was able to do so much more with the project funds than expected.  The building looks fabulous and includes a library, a small room for a science lab, another small classroom potentially for computer training, and a small office.  The building made a very good impression on Pastor Wilde and two colleagues from a neighboring church who came to evaluate the project.  I think that there will be future support for work at the school, and I remain very dedicated to the work that our partner is doing there.

It was a one day trip, coming and going on a Thursday so although it was a long day, I was happy to have a week where I was not out of town overnight for  7 straight days!

I also taught a lot of ballet the past 2 weeks.  I share the course with another teacher, she teaches Wednesdays and I teach Fridays.  Last week I taught both classes because of several Fridays I will have to miss this month.  I am actually quite pleased by the large groups in the first and second levels.  The kids seem really excited to be doing dance, and were quite well behaved despite the fact that I had close to 20 in the younger kids class.  A lot of new faces in both groups, I do not know if I will continue to teach ballet once I leave Burundi, so I am really going to try to make this last year something special.

Friday's are actually a really fun day to teach because there is are a lot of other activities going on at the school outside the studio.  Oren plays soccer, David hangs out with Isabel while Jeanette, Rebecca, and many other mom's chat and hang out as well.  It is kind of like a big social hour for everyone.

This past Friday after ballet I had some special bonding time with Oren at a french movie that was being shown at the school.  We did this last year once as well, so for Oren it is ritual.  The movie was called EPIC and was dubbed into French.  It was pretty good and I downloaded it later on iTunes so we could see it in English, its original language.  

Oren loved the idea of going to a movie that was not on a TV or a computer screen.  It was projected on a yellow wall and the sounds system stunk, and the power went out 3 times, and it started late, but, truth be told, it was a really fun evening with Oren.  Rebecca and David went out to a movie at a friend's house as well that evening.  Sometimes it is good to do things separately with the kids because when they are together Sibling Rivalry is the only game in town.  

One thing the kids do do together during the week is take tennis lessons on Monday and Wednesday after school.  Oren has shown far more aptitude at this than karate!  David likes it too.  Burundi actually has an excellent women's tennis team and coaches here are very competent, good teachers.  Keeping the kids active during the after school hours is important and since they spend most of the day behind the walls of our house, organized sports seems to be the best outlet here.  Rebecca can also enjoy some time with other mom's when they are at practice.  The Guillebaud's (long time missionaries from UK) bring their kids as well, so Rebecca and Lizzie are often there together.

Saturday was also a highlight with another what has now become a monthly visit to the zoo (Musee Vivante).  Oren brought his buddy Sam Miller with him and they spent over 2 hours looking at the animals.  The zoo does not have much, but what it does have are extremely carnivorous.  Crocodiles, a leopard, many deadly (local snakes) --boomschlangs, mambas, cobras, gaboon vipers.  David did hold a green banana tree snake, the only non-venomous one of the lot.  The kids did get a guinea pig to feed to a crocodile, but the carnage was even worst as we apparently arrived at feeding time and all the snake cages had 4 or 5 small birds in them.  We saw a half dozen get swallowed whole in a matter of 10 minutes.  Oren, David and Sam seemed to enjoy that and tried to talk me into getting another guinea pig to feed the leopard.  I am really not into this "Circle of Life" stuff as much as them and declined.

David scheming to outsmart Kita and grab the bottle.

The most amusing part for me was watching them play around the cage of Kita the chimp.  We had brought her some mangoes that she really liked and some peanuts as well that she really likes you to put directly into her mouth.  She loves little kids and plays a kind of keep-away game with them.  She dangles a bottle just outside the cage and waits for someone to grab it, then flips it a foot or so to the right or left, or pulls it back in the cage.  She had Oren, David, and Sam trying to grab it for about half an hour.  I said at one point to Oren "You'll never get it, she is a chimpanzee, she is at least twice as smart as you."  Oren took up the challenge and tried twice as hard for another 10 minutes, to no avail.  (I was kidding him when I said it, but in the end I realize I might have been right.)

I do have to say, that she is such a clever chimp, it is a bit scary that she is in a cage.  She seems almost like a person in her personality.  I am sad for her, and I don't think animals belong in cages, but it is fascinating to see our kids interacting with her in a way they never could in a setting where laws and regulations don't allow such casual human--animal interaction.  I will miss our little zoo when we leave.

I should not neglect to mention the past two Sundays.  The first one was special because the Ethiopian family in our small group invited our group over to their house for a traditional Ethiopian meal.  If you have never had Ethiopian food you do not know what you are missing.  It is so good, and they made it even better than I have had at any restaurant, complete with coffee ceremony at the end where they roasted and ground their own beans.  I tried the coffee in the very traditional way which is like an espresso with a bit of melted butter and salt in it.  Very unusual but not bad after a rich meal.

our 'not so' small group about to enjoy an Ethiopian feast.

This past Sunday was unusual as well because Rebecca and I were asked to share a sermon to give some testimonial about our work with MCC.  Our church has been doing a series of sermons based on a study of the letter of James.  Following from his admonition that "Faith without works is dead." there have been different people sharing about their work and how it is oriented by their faith.  The week before we had a member of the church sharing his experience of being a refugee and then starting an organization that assists refugees.  

Rebecca and I shared about our work at MCC.  I began with a reflection on what it is like to be an administrator and evaluate the impact of our work.  I used the passage John 9:1-25, the healing of a man born blind from birth, because it is one of the only instances of a good follow-up after a miraculous healing.  I pointed out that there seems to be no one who is happy about the event from the confused disciples, the skeptical neighbors, the enraged pharisees, and the embarrassed parents.  He is ultimately excommunicated from his church and community-- yet seeks Jesus out in gratitude for his transformation.  I talked about the ways in which we meet a surprising amount of opposition and obstacles in development work by those who are actually beneficiaries of the status-quo as it is.  Fighting poverty always becomes, eventually, a justice issue.

I ended by pointing out that we can infer at least one anonymous group present that is supporting Jesus' healing work, and those are the people who must have led and accompanied the man to the pool of Siloam to wash his eyes, since Jesus did not go with him there.  These people, who I described as having a 'pool ministry'- a ministry of quietly assisting and accompanying those in the process of transformation are always present, but rarely known by name.

I described MCC's role in our country as an organization with such a 'pool ministry'.  We don't lead, but we follow and support local partners in the work they are doing.

Rebecca followed with several testimonials, most notably her personal work at bringing together church leaders in Protestant and Catholic churches to sit together and talk about issues of transitional justice and the formation of the Truth and Reconcilliation Commission--issues where there would be no doctrinal division.  (She joked that it is far easier to get tutsis and hutus to sit together in Burundi than Catholics and Protestants.)  "Our work" she said, "is not to lead, or make policy.  I am just bringing all the different leaders to the pool (the meeting room) where they can wash their eyes and be able to see, exchange ideas. and heal the country."

The sermon was well received, although asking both Rebecca and I to speak meant that the service went quite long.  (We are both pretty long winded).

I am leaving Rwanda today and heading back to Bujumbura via Gitega where I will check in with the Great Lakes Peacebuilding Institute, a one month workshop we support.  Michael Sharp, an MCCer from Bukavu in DRC is teaching this week, and Melody our service worker is there as well as the logistical coordinator.  Patrick, the new guy in Bukavu is attending also.  I will spend the night there tonight then back to Buja on Thursday.  I will be glad to be back home again.