Giving Thanks Amidst Shortages

The family decorating the tree to herald the Christmas season here.

I have not written much recently about the change in season and how we experience it.  Last year around this time I think I had a picture of a bucket of mangoes which was about a daily yield for our trees in November.  We are indeed in the height of mango season again and while they are readily available in the market, our trees seem to have suffered from a blight that has rendered them all but fruitless this year.

I comment on this only because it is just one of several cases where we are experiencing shortages.  The others however are not nearly as innocuous as a mango virus which one can hardly blame on some ethical shortfall by the government.  

The other two items that seem to be in an ever-shortening supply are sugar and electricity.  We are now well out of the dry season, a time when hydro-electric power is down, and we seem to have less than ever. We are blessed to have a solar back-up system but there are times we have no electricity for 3 days at a time.  

The more insidious shortage we have experienced recently is the complete disappearance of sugar from the market and in fact anywhere in Bujumbura.  Since Burundi has large sugar cane plantations and is self sufficient in sugar, we can only presume that someone in the government has found a way to profit personally from some manipulation of the market or perhaps selling it off as export to other countries.

The same is true of ARV drugs which are provided for free by several countries but seem to not be available at HIV clinics or hospitals anywhere in recent months.

It is in these ways that corruption is experienced in countries like Burundi.  Whenever something is not available, no matter how valuable or ubiquitous, you can be sure that someone is benefitting (profiting) massively from the inconvenience or suffering inflicted on a large number of people.

Seeing the stately mango trees in our yard that are bearing no fruit, reminds me of the story of Jesus' encounter with the fig tree out of season which was bearing no fruit.  I think that more and more the international community and the local populace here are getting fed up with the current government and its lack of 'fruitfulness' since it won the elections last summer.

Although we do not eat a lot of sugar ourselves, the lack this year did have some disappointing consequences at Thanksgving.  Last year Rebecca found a very good substitute for cranberry sauce using locally available Japanese plums instead of cranberries.  It was a very tasty alternative, here is a link to the recipe. (cranberry sauce recipe).  

However, as we were not able to find sugar she made the sauce without it.  It was unfortunately, extremely bitter and not very tasty as a garnish.  The pumpkin pie was OK because we had received as a gift a jug of Rwandan honey which was an acceptable substitute in the pie.

I should probably back up a bit and talk about what we did for Thanksgiving.  We have been fortunate to have had an interesting gathering to share this traditional American feast every year that we have been in Burundi.  We have chosen this meal as one to share with Burundian friends and this year we invited the family of Normand Ndayizeye (him, his wife and 3 kids) to sup with us.  Normand's family is in fact the host family for our SALTer Janelle.  So she joined us as well as Jodi Mikalashki who happened to be in Bujumbura for car repairs and two other young women Safi and Helene (from UK and Sweden respectively) who are here working in various capacities with the Friends Church.  

It was a very enjoyable gathering and we did savor some traditional favorites including succotash and mashed potatoes and stuffing, but had to substitue rotisserie chicken for turkey.  We celebrated on Friday night rather than Thursday as the latter was the last day of the visit of our evaluation team.  In fact Thursday was one of the longest work days of the year as the team debriefed us a bit on their findings on Thursday evening after a long day's work.  Since Toss had to be on a flight out of Burundi at midnight we ate dinner together and then talked over the finding until about 11:30 pm.   We were pleased with how thorough they were in their work, but were completely exhausted by the time they left.

We did not take the day off on Friday as we had other work that had been set aside, but did take the afternoon off to prepare for our Thanksgiving guests.

The weekend was the real day of rest and family time, and we had felt that the children had been somewhat neglected during the time the evaluation team was here, or at least relegated to watching movies in the backroom while we talked.

But Oren was up bright and early Saturday morning and ready to set up the Christmas tree in the living room.  (We had promised him that we would do this after Thanksgiving but not before.)  He got out the tree and all the decorations and we began the process of decorating the tree and the rest of the living room for Christmas.

Honestly since we do not experience any of the seasonal changes in the year as far as weather, it is nice to create changes to our internal environment to feel like we have entered into the Christmas season.  I can almost feel nostalgic for a touch of Christmas commercialism (Black Friday) because here the and months and years can plod along with little variation.  It is up to us to create the feeling of a new season.

It is nice ot see the season through Oren's eyes who is really into crafts and decorating.  He is dying to make Christmas cookies.  The one thing which we do not have that we managed to bring in last year is a gingerbread house kit.  He would love to have the opportunity to make one of those again which he considers to be a tradition now.

Sunday was another day of rest with church in the morning and an afternoon of laying around the house.  We would have happily gone out swimming or something but Oren really just wanted to spend the day in the house with the Christmas tree.  (we did watch the original Grinch who stole Christmas, Rudolf, and Charlie Brown Christmas on the computer that day.)

We did go out in the evening to visit our friends's Thomas and Naja and their kids.  They are the Danish family (he is here as Director of World Relief).  We stopped by a pizza place on the way to their house and brought the pizza over to share with them.

It is good to see the children playing together and Oren being comfortable speaking french with them.  They spent a good part of the evening drawing a picture of two dinosaurs fighting from a comic book.  (Dinosaurs are Oren's new favorite thing and he has been asking for a dinosaur robot for Christmas,)

Rebecca, our auditor working at our office this week.

Sadly I began getting sick on Sunday might with a fever and went to bed shortly after we returned home.  On Monday I was still sick but did go to work.  We picked up 'Rebecca' (a different one) our auditor who arrived from Canada in the afternoon.  She will be with us for a week

I went to bed early on Monday and Tuesday and am finally getting this blog entry out today (Wednesday).  Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving and Happy Belated Birthday Jonathan!

Evaluating Our Program

Oren has been suffering from Christmasitis this week and even brought out and decorated the tree in the guest room.

Sometimes when I think back to my life prior to living and working here, I marvel at the change in reading material I find I surround myself with.  My inbox is full of embassy and UN updates on security, as well as regional development work. My reading list is now primarily comprised of books on latest development theories and regional history--a far cry from the history of dance in 18th century France.  (Although I did always teach that from the perspective of how political power shaped art institutions in European history.)

Now I am working through a book called "Dead Aid" about the generally negative impact foreign aid has had on development in Africa, and simultaneously reading a book about the influence Chinese investment is having on the subcontinent.  I am looking forward to finishing so I can begin reading "King Leopold's Ghost" about the history of Congo, because that history has played a large roll in creating the dynamics of the Great Lakes region where we work.  I am not an expert on anything, I would say, but I am aware of changes in my capacity to be able to assess what is good and bad programming around here.  This is helpful because much of our job is to see that money provided by MCC is wisely used to have a positive impact that reflects God's character (justice, mercy, hope, love.)

It is actually always surprising to me how much work it takes to see money used in a way to do more good than harm.  

Toss and Jimmy our two Congolese evaluators.

In that light, we have continued to be busy hosting the Evaluation Team that is here to help give us strategic direction for the next 5 years.  I think it is fortunate that all of the 4 evaluators are African, from DRC, Burundi and Rwanda.  They have a deep familiaraity with the context and have been able to get at the real marrow of some of our partners programs.  They have generally been committed to meeting 'benficiaries' of all of our programs and not just the partners.  (The level where Rebecca and I primarily interact is with the partner.)

They have also helped us sort out how to relate to two "Mennonite Churches" in our region.  Those are 2 churches that have registered themselves as such with the Burundian Government but have no connection to the Mennonite World Conference of other Anabaptist organization.  It is tempting to regard those who registered them as simply opportunists wanting to plug into some mzungu money, but the reality is often more complicated than the appearance.

I did my own evaluating this week when I went up to Gitega on Friday and did a follow up of the Great Lakes Peacebuilding Institute.  It is a project we have been funding for about 7 years and it is encouraging to see it beginning to move into self-sufficiency this year as a well respected peace-building program that trains trainers in peacemakers throughout the region.  It is also the only one of its kind that does instruction in French.

Friday was fortunately the only travel day and I went up with a Congolese colleague on Friday morning about 6 am and drove back with him the same afternoon.  It was funny because we were supposed to go up and stay the night Thursday.  I told him I was leaving at 3pm and he said he would get to Buja by noon.  As I suspected that meant 5:15 pm, an hour too late to head up country as driving after dark is not considered safe upcountry.  We stayed the night at our house where we enjoyed talking about regional issues (he helped me understand better the deep animosity Congolese feel toward Rwandese.) and left early the next day to get to Gitega by 8am.

We talked quite a bit on the drive about how MCC could be more involved in Eastern Congo and both agreed that we really need a volunteer living in Bukavu.  (I know MCC Congo is advertising for this position, so if any readers feel a call to serve in this region through MCC, there is a great need for ‘eyes on the ground there’ to accompany with our church and peace partners.)

Rebecca was at home with the kids and took them out to a park with our friend Jeanette (from South Africa) and her daughter Isabel as well as Kirsten and her daughters Emily and Rebecca.  I have included some pictures.  Most playground equipment here would be illegal in the US.  For instance notice the slide that goes down about 50 degrees straight into a hole, there is no deceleration curve at the bottom.  (more like jumping that sliding.)

Other than those events, the week has been fairly consumed with doing logistics for our evaluators and meeting them in the evenings.  It has been good to see things through their eyes.  (We do not participate in the interviews, but do get feedback afterwards.)  They spent the early part of the week in Gitega and at the Hope School and seemed very positive about the work of our partnerships there.

We have also had several Skype meetings with some of our colleagues in the US and Canada regarding new projects.  It is always amazing to me that we can be so separated by distance and yet have a conversation that makes us feel as if we are in the same room.

Saturday was a bit logistically challenging as we had some work responsibilities related to the evaluation team as well as the adult ballet class I am teaching.  I have to say it has been a real pleasure teaching these past 2 weeks especially as I find that there are about a half dozen young NGO workers here who have had some dance experience—2-3 professionally. 

Sunday the evaluation team left for Rwanda and we went to church.  David was beginning to get sick (again) and slept through most of the service (which means I could here the sermon.)

The pastor shared on the parable in Luke about the Shrewd Steward (or manager).  If you haven’t read it for a while it is worth looking at.  One of the more confusing parables, but quite rich if you take time to flesh it out. 

The observation the pastor made that I appreciated was the 3 choices the steward seemed to consider he had as professions;

1) begging

2) scrapping (working, digging)

3) being a steward for someone. 

Since the master was going to fire him, presumably for not doing the last one well, he decides to cut the debt owed by some of the master’s clients to ‘make friends.’  The master commends him on his shrewdness. 

The pastor observed that it does seem that in life the three choices about how we acquire and use our wealth are quite applicable.

1) we can beg, that is live in such a way in which we consider that we are victims and depend on others for our livelihood, not taking responsibility for ourselves.

2) we can work, (the word has the sense of digging or clamboring)--we can believe that we are earning everything for ourselves, and that what we get is ours and clambor unceasingly to get as much as possible for ourselves.

3) We can be stewards:  That is in recognition that what we have we are holding for a master, and that what we do and the way we use our resources should reflect the master’s priorities, as all that we have belongs to  him.  

In the story of the shrewd manager, it is clear that the master is generous in that he compliments the steward for his generosity in cutting debts (self-serving as it was) it reflected the master’s priorities.

Anyway, I enjoyed the reflection and the different ways we might see our own lives as Christians.  Living as stewards rather than beggars (victims) or ‘scrappers’ (clamborers in the rat-race).

We are getting ready for Thanksgiving this week which we will celebrate Friday for logistical reasons.  I tried unsuccesfully to get a turkey.  (I asked Yolanda to get one from the Swahili Quarter in Gitega.) They wanted about $50 for a pretty small one so we will have rotisserie chicken again this year.

Bonus Photo:  Oren working on the car proving the adage that "If the only tool you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail."  Definitely true in the NGO world!

Strange Fruit

Say Awwwh!  Cutting open a jackfruit I found on the road by our house.  They are not native to Burundi, but someone apparently has one in our neighborhood. 


I feel somewhat remiss this week in not bringing my camera around to take pictures during the week.  Although we were in town most of the week, it was not uneventful.  I do have to admit that the fact that we were not traveling almost made it feel like we had a week of vacation.  Just to be back in our normal routine is quite refreshing.  When we have it, the week looks something like this:
Monday, Wed, Friday--
6:00 wake up
7:15 kids to school
8-9 swim
9-12 work together
12 pick up kids and go home for lunch
2-5 one of us goes back to work the other stays home with the kids
6 dinner
8 kids in bed asleep

On Wednesday's I teach ballet in the 2-5 slot to kids at the Ecole Belge.

On Tuesday and Thursday Oren goes to karate in the afternoons.

The routine has a rhythm to it of work and renewal activites that keep us balanced. (I did not mention the women's Bible Study and the men's prayer group that meet weekly as well.)  It is also really nice to not be on the road for a long trip with the stresses that accompany that--bad drivers, bad roads.

So we savored the week even though we were working very hard to prepare the logistics for an evaluation team that was arriving on the weekend.

The weekend itself was very busy but did have some high points.  One for me was the addition of an adult ballet class on Saturday afternoon.  I had been encouraged by several women who are here working with various NGOs to try one.  I had my doubts about whether there were any interested adults, but was shocked when at 1 pm, just through email and word of mouth about 10 students showed up another 5 expressed interest in coming in the future.  I will plan to do this every week until Christmas and then decide what to do after that.  It was inspiring to teach a class of people who were really interested in dance, and at most had previous dance experience.

Saturday was also the day that 3 of our 4 evaluators came.  Two were coming from Kinshasa, both Congolese, Jimmy Juma and Toss Mukwa.  Jimmy works for MCC in South Africa and Toss is part of the Mennonite Church leadership.  The other two evaluators are coming from Rwanda and Burundi respectively.  They seem to be an able team and we had dinner with them Saturday night at our house.

This make the work week feel like it had been extended a day, but it was interesting to be with them and share some of our thoughts.  They will be here for 2 weeks and will interview all of our partners and service workers.  They will be going up country and to Rwanda.  Fortunately we do not have to go with them on all these visits.

On Sunday we took them to church with us.  It was good to be back after a missing last week because of our retreat.  It is definitely a part of our routine we do not like to miss.  David is still not old enough for Sunday school and has trouble sitting through the service though.

Rebecca's Sunday school is enormous now, but she is getting some volunteers that are helping her split the class.

One of the mother's who has helped voluntarily is our new friend Danika ( of Scott and Danika fame), who are here with Food for the Hungry.  She is a family doctor and has been volunteering at the the large public hospital where she has been working in the maternity ward.  She recently related a harrowing story that I am directing you to here by this link.  It is about her experience of saving a life of a woman about to give birth who needed a C section.  It is truly by her actions that this woman survived, but does point out just how substandard maternal healthcare is here  (my-scariest-day-at-work-ever/).  We have had several colleagues lose their wives in childbirth and just today Rebecca was talking to one of our partners who said they lost a nurse in their clinic this past week when she gave birth to twins then had some problem with her C section several days later in the hospital.  Despite her cries of agony, no doctor was available to see what was wrong and she died of 'unknown' causes shortly thereafter.  (no relation to the person in Danika's story.)

I do admit that this and other stories does give us an understandable anxiety about needing medical care here.  What seems to prevail in many of the horror stories we hear is this sense of fatalism--like whether one lives or dies has little or nothing to do with medical care, it is all just fate.  I think that explains why, in Danika's story there was such a lack of urgency, even in an emergency.

I will relate one last story just because it is so bizarre.  A relative of one of our partners was in a car accident here.  It was serious and the spinal injury could not be treated in Burundi.  Her family was wealthy enough to send her by air ambulance to Kenya's Aga Kahn hospital where she was operated on successfully.  Unbelievably, though, on the way from surgery to recovery she had to be transported to another floor by elevator.  On the way down though, the elevator cable broke and it fell more than a floor to the bottom of the shaft while she was in it on a bed.  The attendants were not seriously injured but her spinal injury is now far worse than when she arrived.  And this is in one of the best hospitals in the sub-continent.   (Of course in all of these incidents there is no legal recourse as far as hospital or doctor liability.)

I think I will leave the topic of health care at this point and return to the happier subject of Sunday after church.

We did take the evaluation team out to lunch at one of the local beaches.  It was not one we usually go to.  We had a nice conversation and when our guests left Oren and David ran down to the lake for a swim.  We all enjoyed playing in the waves for about 2 hours before we were chased to shelter by a huge thunderstorm.  We drove home and sat on the porch and watched a gorgeous sunset over the mountains of Eastern Congo.  It is good to remember we have such a nice view from our porch.  (Which we tend not to use since the birth of puppies last Christmas.)  But now that Noel, the young dog is more mature, we can sit out there without being attacked to friskily.

We also enjoyed several other activities including carving up a jackfruit that I found on the road in our neighborhood (it had fallen off of a neighbor's tree.)  I tried drying it to make some kind of dried fruit for museli, but I have to admit, it does not taste that good.  (Like a smelly overripe banana.)

Oren has learned to play chess and we did play a few games during David's nap.  It is amazing how fast he is growing.  He can even beat mommy (with a bit of help from dad.)  Oren and Rebecca also constructed a T-rex puzzle out of wood.  Since Oren is fully in his dinosaur infatuation phase, he really loved it.  (Thanks Grandparents!)

On Sunday evening we gave both kids buzz cuts and they do look really cute.  (And are alot less itchy.)

Although all the fun was crammed into one afternoon and evening, it did really feel like a weekend.  Next week, more travel.

Retreating Under Volcanoes

Felix, our program assistant, relaxing with a book during our retreat this week.



Today has been a day of rest, more or less.  It is not often that we do not go into work on a Monday.  It is generally a good way to begin the weekly routine, especially when we are finally once again back into routine.

Last week I mentioned that I was writing from Kigali where we began the week before proceeding on Tuesday afternoon to Gisenyi. This town is situated on the North end of Lake Kivu, right at the border where one crosses into Goma in Eastern Congo.  Among the interesting features, besides the Lake in this region, are the numerous volcanoes that rise up majestically above the hilly countryside.  The Goma volcano erupted in the last decade, pretty much destroying that town, and it's still particularly impressive, as one can see the glow of lava from the crater reflecting up on the clouds above at night.

Although the town feels quiet enough, there is something that seems prehistoric about the region, the volcanic soil that produces prolifiic vegetation and the houses and walls constructed out of black porous volcanic rock.  Not far from here is the home of the "Gorillas in the mist" and the dense forest climbing the hills looks like a place where mountain gorillas would hide.

But our visit was neither tourism nor nor science.  We were here as part of a regional MCC spiritual retreat for the Great Lakes region.  So we had our entire Rwanda/Burundi team as well as teams from Uganda and DRC (Congo).

Arriving together was not without its complications.  While most of us did get there on time arriving by both public and prviate transport, the Congo family were delayed several days waiting for exit papers for their adopted daughter.  They were able to join us half way through on Thursday afternoon.

Since Rebecca and I were the primary logistical organizers as well as the ones responsible for the schedule, it was not exactly restful for us, (especially Rebecca) although we were able to have most everyone else share in the responsibility of leading evening devotionals as well as recreational activities.

Generally the format was to have a thematic study and discussions in the morning, with the afternoon off for activities.  The group provided many opportunities, including embroidery, yoga, water color, and origami.  The hotel we stayed at, although modest by western standards, had some interesting perks including a small pool, exercise room, and sauna and steam room.  There were also some nice grounds to sit around and read in.  There was so much to do in the afternoons that we were not even able to do all the acitivities planned on the schedule.

The themes in the morning were focused on parables of the Kingdom, specifically the sower, the parable of the wheat and weeds, and the parable about the woman baker working yeast into the dough.  The challenge in all of them seemed to be to accept the mystery of the growth of the kingdom that does not depend on our efforts, but may require much patient endurance on the part of the workers (especially to allow the wheat and weeds to grow together).

It was generally well received and it was good to have the discussions lead to opportunities to talk about the rewards and frustrations of working within our particular assignments.  I think the SALTers and service workers from the different countries enjoyed getting together to share experiences.  I am struck that overwhelmingly the SALTers are young women.  There just do not seem to be that many young men with the focus to do such a volunteer program out of college.  It is a shame because I think this kind of experience could be very valuable as a part of finding future employment, and even a vocation.

We were also very blessed to have great child care as two young women accompanied us, one was Katherine Deckert who works with MCC in Winnipeg and was out for a visit/vacation.  The other, Mireille, is a teacher at the Ecole Belge in Rwanda and a friend of Ruth and Krystan.  So the kids really had a blast.  (Oren was the oldest of the group with David a close second.)

For me, one of the highlights was Friday when we invited a special guest to share with us on the topic of facing injustice on a personal level.  (What can we do in the face of injustice as individuals?)  The facilitator was a Rwandese pastor named Joseph Nyamutera.  He has a fascinating life history and I am sending a link to his bio here.  (Nyamutera bio)  He led us through a 3 part series of discussions beginning with identity. He asked us what identities we possess and the ways that we might be either victims or oppressors because of them.   He himself is Hutu, and although he was not involved in the genocide directly, he was aware of the killings as they happened. But when the RPF came in he was forced to flee to Congo where he spent several years in a refugee camp and lost many family members.

He has had the experience of being perceived as both oppressor and victim.  He went on to conclude though that as Christians. we profess our primary identity to be in Christ and all others to be secondary, even if they are natural, like gender or race or ethnicity.

The second section was on wounds and trauma healing, and ended with us bringing our pain and wounds to the cross (where we symbolically nailed them) to be released from them.

The 3rd section I found particularly meaningful.  It began with a discussion about repentance which Biblically is both individual, but also corporate.  (Israel repenting as a nation is an example of that.)  Here we looked at ways in which we as Christians might, using Peter's description of us as a royal priesthood, be intercessors, or stand-ins to confess corporate sin of the groups we belong to.  He told us about how he has stood as a Hutu before Tutsis and confessed and asked for forgiveness for the sins of his people.  He has done the same thing as a Rwandan before Congolese.

He has described remarkable transformations in relationships between groups in his experiences of this kind.  Normally we come ready to rationalize or justify rather than to confess. By contrast, to come in with humility and penitence is quite liberating.

I was struck by the possibility that such confession might liberate one from the feeling of acting out of guilt--an emotion that drives much giving and foreign aid, I believe. Perhaps if we begin with confession as development workers and a request for pardon, we might be able to act more in the interest of others rather than out of guilt.

Pastor Joseph also warned about the trap of reparation that is motivated by guilt.  He observed that often reparation is usually not possible.  He gave an illustration of a priest in South Africa who had his hands blown off by a letter bomb during apartheid.  He said that if someone had come and apologized for committing this injury, he would ask him how that person would want to offer reparation? Wash his clothes? Help him dress? and for how long? Today? Until next month? Forever?  His point was that it is not possible to return the loss.  When the perpetrator asks for forgiveness, it is in recognition that reparation may not be possible.  It is up to the victim to decide to forgive.

What a heady idea to imagine confession, by individual Christians, standing in their priestly role as intercessors, to Native Americans, Jews, Palestinians, Illegal Immigrants, Colonized Countries.  I would be interested in seeing a forum for public confession for Christian leaders. (Although in our country our Christian leaders seem more fixated on righteous moral outrage and judgment and not on public confession and repentance.)

Saturday, our last day, we took the morning off to go to a beach on the lake.  It is nice that there are no hippos or crocs in this lake.  But it is a bit unnerving that there is methane gas in the bottom of the very deep lake and once every 10,000 years or so the Lake 'inverts' killing everything within hundreds of miles of it.  (Right now there is a pipe down to the methane and it is being harvested for fuel.)

But the lake is nice, and we played on a 'beach' made of volcanic rock.  The kids swam and even caught a crab.  We had a nice lunch at a hotel on the beach and the day would have been perfect if someone had not stolen a couple hunded dollars in Rwandese Francs from Rebecca's purse in a brief moment when she was not looking.

On Sunday we all headed home.  I took the Burundi crew home in the jeep which left about 7am for the 10 hour drive.  It was rough with the kids who pretty much took turns having melt downs most of the way back.

We arrived back exhausted Sunday evening and took it easy.  On Monday Rebecca woke up feeling sick so I took the kids to school and swam before coming home to do some emails.

There is a feeling of accomplishment to completing this retreat and it was clearly appreciated by all who came.  We will probably do it again in the future as this is the first Great Lakes Regional retreat MCC has had to my knowledge.

Small Miracles at the Hope School

Three year old Emilie reciting her vowels in front of the Premier Maternelle class at the Hope School for the Batwa

“Listen, Look, Touch.”  Beatrice, the education coordinator the Hope School repeated the words to me she had learned in last summer’s (2010) teaching seminar where pre-school teachers were introduced to modern pedagogical methods for the instruction of young children.  The occasion was a field visit this past Tuesday.  It was time to write a report for MCC and I went up alone on Monday afternoon to Burasira and stayed the night at the Grand Seminare nearby the school.  I went up to the school early Tuesay morning and had a meeting with the principles and Beatrice before visiting all the classrooms in the secondary, primary, and preschool. 

I am including some of my report in this blog entry because many who read this were involved in a book collecting project that is beginning to have impact at the school this year.

The Hope School for the Batwa Maternelle (nursery school and kindergarten) was excited about putting the new ‘listen, look, touch’ methodology into practice and began last year with extensive changes to the look of a traditional Burundian classroom.  Rows of desks were pushed around the edge of the class to form a large circle where students could interact actively with instructors, even writing on the floor rather than the chalk board to ‘reorient’ learning more toward the perspective of wee ones.  The children accepted the new methodology with enthusiasm as evidenced by smiling faces and attentive participation.

But there remained a challenge with the new ‘listen, look, touch methodology.  In a classroom in one of the poorest and marginalized communities in the world, a westerner would be shocked at the utter lack of material, visual, and tactile, with which the students can interact.  No posters, pictures, blocks, legos, toys, paper, scissors, paste, or any supplies, even electricity for that matter.  Most strikingly though—there is not a single book anywhere—here or in most other preschools in the country and certainly not in their homes!

There is simply very little to interact with in the classroom beyond tables and chairs.  Last year the teaching team was very creative in finding old magazines and even MCC calendars with which to create visual materials which was a great success.

This academic year though, thanks to a small miracle in the form of a container of children’s books collected by Mennonite and MB churches as well as other groups (organized by Jean Sack) and sent by MCC, there has been a virtual renaissance at the preschool.

It is an emotional sight to see the 4 and 5 year olds opening colorful books of pictures of tropical fish, wild animals, construction vehicles, planets, aircraft and ships, and stare in awe turning the pages with slow intent concentration.  Others play with alphabet blocks, or small toys.

The visual and tactile experiences have truly unified theory and practice.  Teachers are able to use the books and other materials to give children the necessary visual and tactile experiences to enhance the aural learning (rote listen and repeat).  Listen, look, touch is now a reality in the classroom and it has transformed learning so much this year that parents and neighbors in the commune and even neighboring school districts are taking note.

“One of the most exciting outcomes has been a much deeper involvement of parents in their children’s education” exclaims Innocent Gihimbare, the principle of the primary school.  We now have a very active parents group that meets regularly and has a new genuine interest in the school.”

Challenges remain, for the nursery school as the simple brick and mud constructed rooms have no secure windows or doors and there is fear that these treasures, which may look to Westerners like Salvation Army give-aways, have high market value and may make the school a target for thieves. 

6th Grade Class which has 50 students in one small room
this year.

Nonetheless, with a newly reanimated parents committee there is hope that parents will take responsibility to hire and pay 2 night guards to protect the classrooms at night.

“We don’t want to lose these gifts” said kindergarten teacher M. Silas.  Children used to come to school crying dragged by their parents, now they come running ahead of them and arrive laughing.”

I am always deeply moved and often stunned at the obstacles students must overcome to even go to school in this country, especially in a remote rural commune like the one where the Hope School is located. 

The school, for instance does much to keep Batwa girls going beyond 6^th grade.  But it is a huge struggle and there is about a 6 to 1 ratio of boys to girls in the secondary school.

Girls who do go often have to overcome even parental opposition to their continuing their education.

The most extreme testimony of hardship I heard came from a girl in 8^th grade named Athanasie.  She was very marginalized at the school in her commune and eventually forced to leave.  She came to the Hope School which she enjoys very much, but must walk 2 and a half hours each way to school and back.  Her mother, fortunately, does encourage her to go.

When I asked her what she wanted to do when she grew up, she said she wanted to be a teacher.

I left the school after 4 straight hours of meetings and visiting classes.  (It did not seem long to me at all.)   I drove back to Gitega with Beatrice and dropped her off before continuing onto Bujumbura.  I arrived back hom about 4 on Tuesday.  Just on time to meet Oren at karate class. It was a very inspiring trip.

The rest of the week was filled with work. We are trying to prepare for a program evaluation (something that happens once every 5 years).  A group of 4 sent by MCC will interview all of our partners and help us to discern some strategic objectives in the next 5 years.

We also have an audit in the beginning of December.  But the most concentrated work has been on preparing for a retreat in Rwanda where we are hosting the entire Uganda and most of the DRC team.  We have been preparing a program, arranging logistics like childcare, etc.  (and by we I mean mostly Rebecca.)

At this writing we are in Kigali waiting to go up to Gisenyi our meeting point.  I will say more about the retreat in next week’s blog.

Felix has also been very busy this week getting the book container, sent to Burundi, to continue on its way to Rwanda where books will be distributed to schools of the Friends Church.  (The books came up to Kigali yesterday and they could be cleared from customs as early as tomorrow).

We actually left for Kigali on Sunday after church, which meant we got on the road around 2:30 pm.  That is later than normal for church, but we had a special day there because we officially installed our new pastor and had a very nice celebration afterwards. 

We really had a car full with the whole family plus Felix, Janelle and Yolanda.  We arrived in Kigali around 8:30 pm, pretty tired, but not too much worse for the wear, especially since both kids fell asleep the last hour of the trip (when the real whining can begin.).

We had meetings all day today (Monday) and connected with the rest of our team.

I will post more about the retreat next week.

Bonus photo:  Oren in Karate Class. 

Power Struggles and David's Birthday

T-Rex (me) vs. Stegasaurus (Oren) at David's Costume Birthday Party.


The family is actually relaxing in front of the TV this evening (watching Vegi-Tales).  We have just finished cleaning up from David's Birthday party this afternoon (Sunday).  Preparation actually began in earnest on Friday as we were blessed with a long weekend (national Holiday).  The party planned for Sunday was a week ahead of David's real Birthday but I was not supposed to be in town for it next week.

Despite the fact that it is still early for Halloween, we did decide to make it a costume party, so preparation meant, not just baking a cake and decorating the house, but also constructing costumes (as there are none commercially available here.)

It is kind of fun, if one has the time, to do everything oneself, and that was the case this weekend.  All of us took part. Rebecca made 2 cakes--(a brownie one decorated as a ladybug and a bundt cake that was decorated as a millipede).  Oren made a picture of an elaborately decorated 23 layer cake on which the kids played a game called 'pin the candle onto the cake.  (The idea was to hit a particular layer).  My contribution was dinosaur masks for the kids and a piniata.  Rebecca also contributed to the costumes helping Oren design a stegasaurus spiny back and tail to go with the mask.  Oren was very excited to help on every project and from time to time he was actually a help.

Saturday we did take the afternoon off to go to Entente Sportive for a swim.  This is Oren's preference these days as he now loves to jump off the 3 meter platform about 30 times every time we go.  He was very excited to see that his 'friend' was there.  This was a kid who would count for him before jumping and would jump with him on the adjacent platform.  Weighing at what I would guess was about 250 pounds, he made quite an impressive splash every time he jumped off the board.

We were going to get food out for dinner but discovered that we did not bring enough money so we stopped at a boucherie and bought hamburger meat and had burgers and salad that night while watching Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.  It was a nice family evening together and David and I actually got through half the movie before falling asleep.

Sunday was quite a change of pace from the relaxing two days preceding.  The morning was complicated as we had to pick up someone at the airport at 8am, then Rebecca was preaching at church at 9.  We decided to send Rebecca for the pick up so she could have some quiet time while I dealt with the kids and brought them when church started.  It all worked out well and we were all at the church by 9:10.

 Rebecca preached on Acts 6.  The passage about appointing deacons to resolve an ethnic conflict in the early church.  (Between Greek and Hebrew widows.)  She made some excellent point about leadership:
1) Leaders recognized their limitations and stayed faithful to their call
2) Leaders gathered the assembly to acknowledge and address the conflict and built consensus
3) Leaders came up with a solution but then handed power over the the assembly to choose the delegates to resolve it.

The involvement of everyone and the humility of the leadership were important lessons here where participation is not always encouraged and leaders, even in the church can be quite autocratic.

She also reminded us that most church settings these days in the West and here are monocultural, and that we have both a privilege and responsibility in participating in a multicultural church.  But practically speaking, conflict will arise even as we try to love each other.

(She gave an example of a day when a meeting was scheduled from 11am to 4pm.  She came at 11:30 knowing it would not start on time.  But it was raining and what she did not know was that normally here, when it rains, all activity is postponed until after the rain, then everyone picks up where they left off.  She waited for the meeting to begin for about 2 and a half hours.  When they did meet she stayed until 4:30 but then had to leave having been gone from home all day.  As she was heading out, one of the leaders who was just arriving passed her on the steps and said in surprise: "You're leaving already?)

Rebecca told it in a humorous way and everyone in the congregation, Burundian and foreign, laughed out loud, but the point was well made.  It is hard to connect culturally when our different perceptions and responsibilities sometimes permit us to only meet each other in brief passings coming and going. (She suggested that probably Greek and Hebrew widows had very different needs and lack of sensitivity to that might have contributed to the conflict.)

Her final challenge was for the congregation to recognize that when the leadership asks us to take responsibility that we do so.  It is not right to expect that a small minority do all the work that is required to build a loving community.

The sermon was well received by all who heard it.  I was able to enjoy about half of it before David's restlessness required me to take him out of the service.


After church Rebecca was obliged to stay for a committee meeting while I took the kids and our guest. Violette (who is here to teach at GLPI) home.  Rebecca got home an hour later and we began the frantic last minute house cleaning and preparations for the Birthday.

We invited families with some very young children. this included Scott and Danika with their 2 young sons (link to their blog here).  They are a new mission family with Food for the Hungry.  We also invited Kirsten with her daughters Emily and Rebecca as well as Ann Glick and her husband with their 2 boys and Tim and Jeanette with their daughter Isabel.

We did have plenty of activities starting with a parachute that someone gave us this summer that the kids loved to run under.  We also had a costume parade, played pin the candle on the cake, opened presents, ate cake and knocked down the piniata.  It was a good Birthday for David as you can see in the pictures in this blog.

The week preceding was one with several trials.  The first was the continued lack of power which lasted until Friday.  After a couple days without any power, our back-up system cannot keep up with demand, especially since it rained Monday- Wednesday which meant there was no solar power to help charge the battery.

We spent several nights in the dark which makes many things difficult in terms of getting the kids to bed.  We also had to provide the dogs with a feast of all the left-overs we had not used in the refrigerator which once again served only as cabinet storage space.

Power shortages have been getting worse and worse and there is a lot of speculation as to why.  My favorite rumor has to do with the large new nickel mining operation that has begun in a province up country.  According to the rumor, a South African mining company is doing the extraction but under the contract is obliging the Burundian Govt. to supply the power to do the work.  They need about 245 megawatts and Burundi produces about 11.  So most of the power is going up there.  The govt. is saying that there is generally an increase in demand and has not mentioned the mining at all.  (Which makes me suspect even more that this is part of the problem).

But as far as our neighborhood, when I was complaining to my gardener about the lack of power he told me that if I looked outside at the transformer for the neighborhood, I could see that it was open and all the fuses were stolen.  Sure enough he was right.  We alerted the power company who was aware of this and said they were planning to fix it the next day.  Amazingly they actually did come the next day.
They told Rebecca that this problem of fuse theft is growing and in fact this was the second time in 2 weeks that all of these fuses were stolen.  (They welded a metal plate onto the transformer making access at this time impossible.)  That should keep the theives out as well as anyone who may need to repair it in the future.

Activites parascholaires (extracurricular activities) have been in force this month and I taught my first ballet class for little kids this Wednesday.  Sadly interest this year has dropped of significantly with the change in date to Wednesday (not my choice.)  Particularly the class of the older more advanced girls had to be cancelled because I only had 1 student.  (I am thinking of adding an adult class in its place.)

The other activity we have added is for Oren, who now goes over to the Ecole Francais for Karate every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon.  He had his first 2 lessons last week and got measured for his uniform.  I will get a picture when he wears it next time.  He seems to like the class and it is another opportunity for him to be exposed to and practice French.

We continue to have many guests pass through.  Jodi was with us for lunch on Wednesday and I mentioned  Violette who was with us on Sunday on her way to GLPI.  We also had Yolanda pass through last night as well.

Generally our family has been healthy but one of our staff had a very sick baby suffering with severe diarrhea.   The mother took him to a local clinic seriously dehydrated first thing in the morning.  The nurse told her she would have to wait at least until 3 in the afternoon and to take the child home and come back later.  Fortunately our worker let us know and we sent him immediately to a less busy (more expensive) clinic where they started an IV (with difficulty) soon after they arrived.  Again another poignant reminder of the healthcare system here and the lack of access to those without resources--eventhough it is austensibly free for children.  If our worker had not had the means (through us) to pay for a better clinic, I fear the child, in severe dehydration, would not have survived until he could have been seen by a doctor.  Please pray for continued healing of this child as he is not well yet and still has the diarrhea although he is receiving treatment.

**update on the situation:  Rebecca went to the clinic today to see the child.  He had not received any tests yet (waiting for payment).  When Rebecca showed up the treatment for the child took on a new seriousness.  Apparently if it is true there that if a rich mzungu takes an interest in an individual their chances of getting necessary life-saving diagnoses and treatment improves greatly--a sad truth that has been our experiences in other health crises as well.  

This morning (Monday) I am off to Mutaho to visit the Hope School and get some photos and interviews for reporting.  Rebecca will be home with the kids.  I will return on Tuesday.

Bonus Photo:  David brandishing the scar on his forehead he got while playing with his dog Noel.  Looks a bit like Harry Potter, but the hair is Draco Malfoy.  

An Entente in Abyssinia

Ethiopian Airlines arriving in Bujumbura on Wednesday afternoon to take us to Addis Ababa.



A Challenge:  You are charged with bringing together representatives from several countries in West Africa-- Chad, Burkina Faso, Congo (DRC), Nigeria, Rwanda, and Burundi.  You want to minimize travel time for each one, so where could one meet that would allow everyone to arrive in 1 travel day?

The answer would be Paris, France or Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

It would seem reasonable that a common meeting place would be more centrally located in Africa rather than the far east edge of the continent or in Europe, but not when you consider travel routes available for these countries.  (West Africa is not particularly well served by airlines, particularly between countries.)

So once again the MCC Reps. from the Central West Africa region (CWARM) gathered together for our semiannual meetings, this time, for reasons stated above in Addis Ababa.  For all of us, the travel time was to be reasonable.  (about 5 hours from us counting a stop-over in Nairobi)  But as usual, Africa did offer up some frustrating logistical hi-jinx's for several of us that completely undermined our best laid plans.

For the Rwanda Burundi crew (our family) we had bought tickets to leave on Tuesday, only to be told on Monday that our flight had been cancelled.  We rebooked for Wednesday but that meant we would miss the first day of meetings.  Gopar, our regional peace rep, who is from Nigeria but was with us in Burundi last week was virtually assured a visa up until the moment we were to leave on Wednesday and then was told he could not have an Ethiopian entry visa.  (He was able to obtain a transit visa and was with us for 1 day.)

The worst situation were the Nigeria reps, our good friends the H_____n-S_____s (names omitted).  They live in the North, in Jos, and had to make a 4 hour dangerous trip down to Abuja to catch a flight to Addis. They were having trouble getting exit visas, but had been assured by their lawyer the night before that the papers were signed. They made the trip down only to find, as we so often do, that this assurance was in fact a 'false hope' and their exit visas were not granted after all because of some small irregularity discovered at the last minute.  So their trip to Abuja was completely in vain and since they had to miss the Wednesday flight they were not able to get to us for the meetings at all.

This was a big disappointment for all of us at the meeting, even for our kids as they have an older son and daughter that Oren really likes to play with.

The good news is that we were joined by 2 new families as Chad and Burkina Faso both have new representatives.  The Burkina Faso reps, (Chad and Isa) have 2 kids about the ages of our kids and Oren and Conner hit it off extremely well the whole time.  (They share a common interest in trains.)

The Chad reps Doug and Naomi have an older daughter Hannah (college age) who was with them and graciously offered to do childcare with one of the MCC Ethiopia service workers.  All the kids seemed very satisfied with this arrangement and had a good time playing together in the hotel garden in the morning and watching a movie while the little ones napped in the afternoon.  Oren and Conner also produced reams of drawings of trains, dinosaurs, hotels, volcanoes and other things.

So despite all of the aforementioned snafus we did have a good set of meetings.  As the more senior members of the group now, Rebecca and I did feel we had a share of good advice based on our experience in the field.

We were also able to have some good conversations with our Area Director Mark Sprunger as well as Tim Lind the DRC rep. with whom we share some common interests being so close to Eastern Congo.

I will say though, it is humbling to hear the challenges that the other countries in our region face.  Even with the incresased instability here, our life in Burundi is far less complicated and difficult than say our colleagues in Nigeria who, in Jos, live with a civil war on their doorstep.  The insecurity is palpable, there are parts of the city where a Christian even passing through without stopping would be killed immediately (and vice  versa).  The school their children attend is closed frequently because of bomb scares or other threats of terrorism.

DRC (Congo) is a challenge because of the daily assault of corruption which one must confront daily even driving to work.  Tim Lind described doing programming there like "setting up a fine china tea service on a boat in a hurricane."  (the things that will go wrong are completely out of one's control).

N'djamena Chad, where our reps live face temperatures that soar up to 120 degrees fahrenheit.  To make matters worse, they have electricity at best a couple hours a day.  So they live in this climate without airconditioning.  (They do have fans that run on solar power.)

Burkina Faso, is also terribly hot although enjoys more political stability than some of its neighbors.

As I said, when we look at what other reps in our region face, I feel I have no right to complain when we arrived home and have been here for 48 straight hours with no electricity.

So meeting together is also an opportunity for us to encourage each other.  I will say that Mennonites as a rule are not very verbose evangelists, or comfortable in the victorious Spirit-filled language of Charismatic Christians, but their witness of service in these very challenging places speaks volumes about their faith and what it means to serve Christ in the world.  I come away from these meetings feeling a sense of awe and pride that our family is able to be part of this witness, however cushy our assignment is by comparison.

The days were mostly but not all work and no play.  Although we did not get to go out on any extensive field trips, we did get to go out one evening for Ethiopian food.  For any of you who love it (the injera bread with those incredible spicy sauces) imagine having that in Ethiopia!  It was awesome!  I admit I get a craving for it every time I think of it.

A group of us also did go out one evening to get some Gelato.  This was a real treat for the kids who love icecream.  As you can see from the picture, Oren, David, and Conner enjoyed it thoroughly.

We did go out one evening for a walk in the neighborhood around the hotel as well.  While the Tegen Hotel was a lovely well appointed place, it was located in a fairly poor neighborhood.  Nonetheless, even in that brief sortie into the neighborhood I could sense a profound cultural difference between Ethiopians and Burundians.  Even as we passed numerous children, none of them were remotely interested in following us.  Those engaged in playing ball on the road would occasionally kick it to Oren to get him to join in, and one little kid came up to kiss David, but there just was not the fascination with 'mzungus' that we experience in Burundi.

There could be a lot of explanations for this but certainly Ethiopia's history is part of it.  An ancient culture with even its Christian roots going back to AD 300.  It was never colonized (except briefly by the Italians during WWII who were then routed by Emperor Haile Selassie who had been in exile.  All that to say, that Ethiopians all seem to exude a cultural pride that does not make them particularly enamored of Europeans.

The other thing worth mentioning is that it was REALLY COLD THERE!! That is to say it was like autumn weather in the US.  We had to wear long sleeved shirts, jackets, etc. and slept under very comfy down duvets.  Despite all the coziness, I did not sleep particularly well as I am now acclimatized to sleeping in fairly warm conditions.  I had a terrible time with a stuffed and runny nose that kept me up at night.

The meetings ended Saturday and we all headed home on Sunday morning.  The flight which stops in Nairobi both ways was not bad.  The plane for this trip was a wide body (boeing 757) and it was full to Nairobi, but only about a dozen of us continued on to Bujumbura.  It is always odd to feel like you have this enormous jet all to yourself.  The kids did enjoy the trip a lot as they like to go on airplanes and have their routines down both in the airport and on the plane.

Oren particularly likes to get meals on the flight and usually keeps his tray in front of him for over an hour to savor it all.

It is quite a contrast to fly on non-US carriers where serving food is standard procedure even for a short flight.  Between Nairobi and Addis which took about 1 hour 10 minutes we had a full meal which even included a free bottle of wine.  (In the US I have flown from Seattle all the way to NYC without hardly a snack.)

We got home Sunday afternoon and made plans to go out with our missionary friends Jesse and Joy Johnson.  Their kids and our kids ran around the grounds of a Chinese restaurant that Rebecca and I had never been to before.  It was not bad, and we had a great visit with Joy and Jesse who will be on a 5 month furlough in a few weeks.  They have not been home in 2 1/2 years so it is really needed and well deserved.

That about wraps up the highlights of the week. 2 milestones worth mentioning:
1) David's potty training seems about at an end.  He regularly gets himself to the potty.  (Oddly he prefers to squat on the seat and not sit.)  So I think we will not be buying anymore disposable diapers when this last bag is done.

2) He misplaced his pacifier on Monday and we told him it ran away.  He was not pleased the first night but has gone 8 days without mentioning it so I think those days are done as well.  It is good not to worry about always having to find it at bedtime, but I do feel a bit sad to see him growing up so quickly.  Next thing I know, he will be driving.

Bonus photo:  The boys with a lizard the dogs caught last Monday.  We brought it into the house and put it into a box thinking it was about dead.  But an hour later it was gone.  We found it the next day in our living room climbing up the screens of one of the windows.  It looks like an iguana with a very blue head.