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

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



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

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

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

Jodi's house.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

Phases of 50 Part Three: The Grouchy Pragmatist?

Meeting with partners in Kigali to discuss their action plans.


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Kids playing in our room at Amani guesthouse Kigali.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

at Sola Luna, an Italian restaurant in  Kigali

Measuring Our Impact--Reputation vs. Character

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



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

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

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


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

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

Felix at the office at work.

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A Return to Normalcy

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Attempting Great Things for God

Welcoming ceremony at the Hope School for the Foundation for Hope in Africa mission team.



Committing to leading a team of short-term missionaries on a week-long visit to a remote part of Burundi and offering to bring your mother-in-law along to boot while leaving your wife behind might sound like a good scenario for a situation comedy, a recipe for disaster, or a bold leap of faith.  I prefer to think of it as the latter, but as the time of this event approached I really began to wonder what I had got myself into.

For some reason I was reminded of a time as a young man when I was running a ropes course for a youth camp in Colorado.  While I was wating alone for a group of campers to arrive I was reading through a book of survival skills for mountain climbing.  I found a diagram of how one can make jumars (a kind of clip that one can use to ascend a rope) out of ones bootlaces.  I unlaced my shoes and followed the detailed directions carefully on how to do it and I succeeded in making them and began ascending the rope up the cliff face.  When I was about 15 feet up, it suddenly donned on me that I was all alone ascending a cliff on a rope using two pairs of bootlaces to hoist myself up.  I had been so involved in the details that I had completely lost site of the big picture.  I quickly descended down the rope before I got into a worse situation.

I can't say that this was a perfect parallel but there was something about focusing on all the parts and details in order to prepare for the trip that the challenging reality of the whole was somehow escaping me.

But let me back up a bit and fill in some of the background. I was contacted about a year ago by a pastor, Dr. Robin Wilde, representing the Foundation for Hope in Africa.  He was interested in finding some areas of intervention in Burundi for his foundation.  I connected him to our partner who works with the Hope School for the Batwa.  After several visits, Dr. Wilde's foundation supported the completion of several of the classrooms in the secondary school.  He also inquired about the possibility of sending a mission team to the school to participate in one of the building projects.  After some planning by email, I agreed to help facilitate the team visit and we made an itenerary for them which would have them fly into Kigali, Rwanda and travel overland by bus to Burundi and down to Burasira where they would stay at a seminary and walk over to the Hope School daily which was 'nearby' on a neighboring hill.

As the time of the trip arrived, we found that it would correspond with the visit of Rebecca's mother, Jean.  Since she had recently been instrumental in getting a container of books sent to Burundi for donations to the Hope School and was anxious to see the results, I offered to take her with us during the visit while Rebecca stayed home in Buja to keep the kids in school.

It all seemed so simple and logical on paper.  But as the date approached (2 weeks away) I realized that the two translators we hired would probably not be sufficient as none of the arrivees spoke French and I had proposed that besides working on the construction site, the team could break into small groups in the afternoons and visit classes to interact with children in English language instruction, crafts, and singing.

We did not have the budget to hire more kirundi translators, so I decided to invite our Rwanda SALTers Bethany and Annie to come along to help with translation into french at least which the older kids understand.  They agreed to come along.

Another afterthought which proved to be vital was bringing my car.  I had originally thought of taking a bus to Kigali and join their bus on the way down but changed my mind and brought it as an emergency vehicle.

All of my last minute decisions proved to be fortuitous and I was glad my judgement was good.

So last Sunday I drove to Kigali by car followed by Jean on Monday morning who arricved by air.  We took the opportunity on Monday to visit Rwanda partners and to see the libraries of our Rwanda partners that were fortified by some of Jean's contributions from the container.  She was quite pleased to see that many of the 8000 books that had arrived were already catalogued and on shelves.  We also did banking in the afternoon and had a nice dinner at our favorite Indian restaurant ZAFFRON with the MCC Rwanda team.

The Hope for Africa mission team arrived on Monday night around 3am and we met their bus heading out of town at about 9am.  Pastor Wilde got them to that point then returned to Kigali to make a trip to Zambia while the team followed me, Jean and the two SALTers in our car.  The trip took about 4 hours including the border crossing which mercifully did not involve any search by customs.  (The mission team had quite a few gifts for the school on board that might have looked like merchandise for sale.)

We arrived at the Seminary about 2pm and had lunch then headed up the hill to the school.  It was at that moment that I realized that many of the team were retired and older and a mile walk up a steep hill in the hot sun was not going to be part of the daily repertoire for all of us.   We did all make it to the top that first day though and were met by the drum team and most of the school who gave us a rousing welcome.  Our translators and the UCEDD team were there as well to greet us.  We had a short opening ceremony, surveyed the work site that was well underway then went back down the hill through the Batwa quarter to see the houses they lived in.

The batwa are poor and for the most part, the immediate reaction of seeing such abject poverty is compassion, but there is something about this kind of compassion that is distanceing, not a feeling that draws one nearer.  One wants to help but also to push it away, because it is too difficult and overwhelming to look at for too long.

I know that is often the first reaction one has to encountering the school and neighboring community.  But I felt it as a personal mission to help this team move beyond that kind of 'otherness' compassion toward a more intimate connection and understanding of what the real struggles are for the kids in the school and to wrestle with them over how to overcome their challenges rather than feeling like throwing money and stuff is the only possible response to such need.

Over the week I do feel like we succeeded overwhelmingly at getting connected to the school, the teachers, the students, administration, and even parents.  We generally divided the day into two parts, in the morning most of the team did construction on the 10th grade classroom and in the afternoon the team split into small groups and went into different classrooms to do small workshops in English, crafts, and singing.  In the late afternoon we did prayer and worship together the first 2 days and sports on the third day.

In the morning we had breakfast at the seminary prior to ascending the hill.  I drove my jeep up every morning to bring about half of the team up who needed assistance.  We would go back down for lunch then return at 2pm and stay until about 6.  We returned to the seminary and had dinner about 7:30 pm and usually had a team debriefing and planning meeting for the next day.

It seemed that all aspects of this went off very well.  During construction I think the workers there were stunned to see mzungus doing menial tasks like moving bricks.  There were also several skilled masons on the team who helped mud and lay brick as well.  Again, I think modelling a respect for manual labor was well received by those who were working.

At one point 5 Burundian women with 7gallon jerry cans hijacked one of the young women on the team to help carry water (womens work) to mix with mortar.  They were gone about an hour and when they came back she told us they walked over a mile down hill to fill up and back up.  When they came back Gwen was struggling mighily to carry the water jug up in her arms while the 5 others balanced the full jugs deftly on their heads, several of them with a baby in tow on their backs.  (It did give me the opporunity to talk more about women's work in this country and how they do most of the labor especially water bearing, cultivating and childbearing.)

In the afternoon I did participate in some of the team activities, particularly the singing group.  The intention was to teach some simple english songs like 'If You're Happy and You Know It' which we did but when we asked them to sing some songs they knew to us we felt really put to shame as even the youngest primarly classes would break into choruses with soloists and responders in 4 part harmony, while the mzungus struggled to stay in pitch with our simple melodies.

In the teaching I was very happy to have two of the mission team who were teachers get more involved in teaching english lessons and interacting with teachers as well.  We actually had the team sit down with the primary and secondary school teachers and talk to each other about what challenges they face as far as helping students succeed in school.  The American teacher (Judy) said that behavior problems was the biggest obstacle to learning for many students in the US while the Burundians said that absence due to hunger was the biggest obstacle they faced in trying to get students to learn.

On Thursday we were also able to set up some one-on-one interviews with individual students.  Two men interviewed two boys and two women interviewed two girls.  They asked them questions about life and school.  The women told me they were very surprised by answers the girls gave, particularly to the question about challenges they faced in order to succeed in school.  To this the girls said that what they needed most were candles because they had to do chores after school during daylight hours and at night, without electricity it is too dark to study.

During the afternoon Bible study time, we enjoyed singing by the students and on one day I preached to the group (a challenge to preach cross culturally) and another day one of the team preached as well.

On Friday we went down to the seminary soccer field in the afternoon and played soccer with the kids.

During all of this time, Jean Sack worked with the library books sorting them into age appropriate categories and also went into most of the classes to read some books and demonstate to the teachers how books can be used to stimulate learning.  Her work was greatly appreciated by Beatrice the coordinator of education.

I did take the opportunity on several of the early mornings to attend mass at the Seminary where once again one can hear beautifully and chanted liturgy.  It was good preparation and a time to pray for the work of the team in the morning.  In the evenings most of us were quite tired and fell asleep shortly after dinner.

The lodging is modest to say the least, there was neither electricity nor water much of the time, but the simple rooms were comfortable.  I had warned the team not to expect much.  "If you think of it as camping you will be pleasantly surprised by the amenities, if you think of it as a hotel, you will be quite disappointed."     I never heard a single complaint from anyone the whole time.  I think working with those who have so little puts much of this in perspective.

On Saturday Dr. Wilde arrived in the bus in the morning and we went up the hill together for a very nice closing ceremony.  There were many pictures, and very positive sentiments.  The team also distributed some gifts (toothbrushes and flip-flops) to the kids.  The ceremony ended in good time for the team to go back to the seminary, pack the bus and head down the road back to Kigali before the border closed at 5:30 pm.

Jean, Bethany and Annie and I headed back to Bujumbura to connect up with Rebecca and Janelle (the other SALTer)  There had been some hope that Rebecca, Janelle and the kids could join us upcountry on Friday night and we could come down together, but that was not possible as Rebecca did not have a ride.

It was good to be home!  We had a full house Saturday night with all 3 Salters and Jean with us.  But Annie and Bethany headed back up to Rwanda on Sunday and Jean boarded Brussels Airlines on Sunday evening to return to the US.  It was hard to believe she had been here nearly 4 weeks.

In retrospect it was interesting to consider that in time Jean was here, she spent 2 weeks with me alone.   Two weeks ago she helped me watch the kids while Rebecca was in Uganda and last week when Rebecca came back, she went with me to the Hope School.  All in all her visit went quite well for all of us.

The end of this week was an important landmark as it demarks the time, since homeleave when all of our big projects have ended.  Rebecca and I knew we were going to face the toughest 6 months of our assigment right after homeleave.  We oriented new workers, had an evaluation, an audit, a visit from our supervisor, a short vacation, then her trip Uganda as worship leader and my leading the mission team to Hope School this past week.

We could not have done it in our own strength.  In the words of a famous missionary (William Carey) I feel like we have lived out his motto in the last 6 months:

"Expect great things from God, Attempt great things for God."

Rebecca and I dropped the kids off at school this morning and went to Club du Lac T. and enjoyed a quiet breakfast and time of reflection together, in gratitude for the completion of these tasks.  It was tiring but we both have felt enriched by our experiences.

All of us are now coming down with colds and flus and David has a fever.  I think the timing is good and expected.  We can let down our guard a bit and get sick for a few days.  Amen.

New Creation and a New “We”

Rebecca with Pastor Acher, our pastor in Burundi, who
served as one of the translators for the Institute.

Last week, as Paul posted this blog, I had already left the family in Bujumbura and was busy at work in Uganda. He and my mom had a fairly uneventful week in Bujumbura. Of course, they both worked hard, especially my mom, making the most of her time to volunteer at Hope Africa University library. Still, there wasn’t much new to report. So, Paul said that I should be the one to write the blog this week.

I had been invited to facilitate worship at a weeklong gathering of Christian leaders, seeking a way forward for reconciliation in the African Great Lakes Region. For more details on this “movement of restless leaders” you can visit their website. www.dukereconciliation.com But rather than giving you a professional summary, I want to try and describe the experience of being part of this week, on a journey through lament, pilgrimage and towards a new creation.

The Assignment: Getting Started

I arrived in the afternoon on Friday, in Entebbe on the shores of Lake Victoria. As I came out of my room I was stunned at the sight of giant kingfishers over the wall, and a flash of vivid red and black gliding down from a tree (a bird I’m still waiting to identify) – someone neglected to tell me that I would be longing for my binoculars in Uganda! The bird life was immediately striking, and I had time, so I took a walk down to a botanical garden nearby. It was beautiful, right on the lake, filled with majestic trees of every variety – and also filled with people getting started on their (loud) Friday night parties. It was refreshing to be able to take a walk in a fascinating natural setting and not be an object of fascination myself. That evening, I was able to meet informally with many of the leadership team members of GLI, and also have some time to prepare myself with prayer. I was thankful for that opportunity for a few hours of solitude and rest.

On Saturday morning, the leadership team headed out to Ggaba Seminary outside of Kampala, the site of the Great Lakes Initiative (GLI) Institute. Again, I had a little time to explore the spaces there and contemplate again the particular challenges of facilitating worship for this event. First of all, this Institute is intentionally inter-confessional. I needed to be ready to help Anglicans, Pentecostals, Catholics, Quakers, Methodists and “confused people” like myself all enter the presence of God in worship. Second, the Institute is international, and, for example, worship in the new nation of South Sudan takes on quite different forms than it does in Tanzania. Third, the region and thus the participants, are multi-lingual. We used English and French to communicate during the Institute, but neither one is the heart language of most Africans from the region. I felt a special burden to be sure francophones felt included and valued in what could be an exclusively English setting. As I prayed and planned for this responsibility, I was repeatedly grateful for my experience with Donna Dinsmore in the Chapel Planning Group at Regent College, where we planned weekly worship, dealing with the same challenges.

Oh, did I mention another challenge? I couldn’t help but feel insecure about being a westerner, asked to facilitate worship for Africans. Do you get what I’m saying? What do I have to bring to people who really know how to worship with enthusiasm and devotion?  I think there may have been something important about having an “impartial” facilitator. I insisted on asking the Planners for a co-facilitator who was from the region, and they found a very capable and willing young man named Liberty. But he was quite sick with malaria by the time I arrived in Uganda. So during the time we might have had to get to know each other and practice together on Saturday, he was resting, trying to recover enough to join me on Sunday. Thus, I practiced alone in the beautiful octagonal chapel, marveling at the light coming in from all sides and the amazing acoustics, and also wondering at the images of 22 African saints carved into a set of windows. And then I also spent the afternoon as part of a planning meeting of all the partners of the GLI.

Worship in the Ggaba SeminaryChapel

On Sunday morning we had a very simple and powerful prayer time for the GLI, led by one of the faculty wives. And then each of us was off and running on our tasks. Participants started arriving. Arriving faculty needed to be briefed. My co-facilitator Liberty finally arrived, but we were not able to really start planning for the evening worship until 5 pm. And then we had to tackle a whole host of technical problems with the newly installed sound system and PowerPoint—no big surprise to anyone who has ever dealt with those things before. As a result, Liberty and I found ourselves starting to lead the worship time with very little idea of what would happen musically.

Fortunately, I had planned quite carefully for worship the first night, in terms of non-musical things. We were remembering Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, and read a portion of one of his speeches. There was a scripture read as a bi-lingual litany. We had a corporate prayer of confession, and then I offered words of assurance. The songs went fairly well, although I mostly had to lead them myself with guitar. I sat down to listen to the keynote speaker, a Catholic Archbishop from Uganda. And next thing I knew he was talking about how challenging the GLI is, in a positive way: “Here, we are, in a room full of bishops, and who pronounces the absolution? You there, Rebecca, are you even ordained? (“Not yet”) And not only a layperson, but also a woman! And not even a big, tall woman, but a small one! And we bishops, we just sat here and accepted it. This is subversive!” I was just about crawling under my seat at that point, though his point was good-natured. I had completely forgotten another major challenge facing me in this assignment: being a woman in a culture where church leaders are almost exclusively male. There were some other critiques from the leadership team of the worship and opening plenary that night, and I went to bed wondering if I had done the right thing to be in this place.

New Creation

Our seminar group.

During the first full day of the Institute, we tried to get a sense of God’s vision for making all things new. Professor Wilfred Mlay helped us read through scripture and understand that reconciliation is God’s business; he has been making all things new, starting from the first page of scripture when he brought new creation out of chaos, and ending at Revelation, when the new heaven and the new earth will descend and God will come and himself dwell among his people. We heard stories from two amazing peace artisans, demonstrating how this new creation can be glimpsed even here and now. Bishop Tabane from South Sudan spoke of all he survived through decades of war, being called “mad” and “stubborn,” remaining with his people for the entire time of war – his whole religious career – and now remains to encourage a community of peace amongst divided South Sudanese. Sister Rosemary from Northern Uganda blessed us with her story about how her community, through a family-oriented vocational training center, has been able to transform the lives of thousands of young women who had been traumatized after being abducted by the LRA.

Liberty and I were able to begin to find people to help us in worship by bringing their gifts of music, reading scripture and prayer, and right from Day One in worship, things turned around. We began to experience the richness of the possibilities for worship when people from the region were brought together. A group of Tanzanians were willing to bring us a Swahili song the next day, and Mama Faith Mlay said that she was feeling led to pray the next day, so we asked her to lead our prayer of intercession the following evening.

Lament

We were inspired and encouraged as we remembered that reconciliation is God’s business and that things can be done to witness new creation. But still tremendous suffering and evil seem to reign in our region. One of the major challenges for Christians here is to honestly name those truths and lament over them. We were able to have a very contemplative, focused worship time early that morning, praying to the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, God at his most vulnerable, but also God who is on the throne.

Prayer in the plenary session.

Dr. David Kasali from NEGST was charged with helping us understand how to lament—and the Bible is a rich training ground. He spoke on the first chapter of 1 Samuel, leading up to the lament of Hannah in the temple, stressing that before we bring our lament, we need to thoroughly understand the context. I have studied and preached on that passage several times myself, but I never had such a rich and deep view of the contextual problems Hannah was facing. The African social and political and religious context has much in common with the context of ancient Israel. Dr. Kasali was able to discern 10 different problems facing Hannah, both with a theological understanding, but also feeling a visceral commonality with her. It was an incredible teaching and left me mourning the fact that most of our western divinity schools miss out on so much that scripture has to offer because they do not have African biblical scholars on their faculties. Dr. Kasali’s treatment of 1 Samuel opened new doors into the scriptures, but also powerfully illuminated challenges in the region.

We heard from participants from Congo (DRC), South Sudan and Kenya trying to understand their particular contexts in this time and place. Dr. Kasali then asked Faith Mlay to lead us in a corporate prayer of lament for our region, and God had already prepared her for that assignment – it just came earlier in the day than we had planned. It was a powerful experience to be led by someone who is clearly comfortable walking in step with the Spirit and the prayer was not simply emotional, but a very deep time of identifying with those who are suffering and crying out on their behalf.

Later in the day, we had a meeting with all the Institute participants from Burundi. They had truly been struck by the idea of lament as a positive discipline, something they had never considered. Culturally, “men’s tears run from their eyes into their bellies,” i.e. grown men don’t cry. Theologically, the church teaches people to rejoice rather than mourn at the time of death for those that know the Lord. Politically, those who lost loved ones in 1972 and later crises were forbidden to mourn their dead, as it was considered treason. We all had the feeling that there is a great deal of lament in Burundi, bottled up and turning bitter in people’s stomachs. The discipline of open lament and naming what is wrong may be something that this country needs.

That evening, we had something of an adventure, as one of Burundi team members got more and more sick. I had noticed that he looked pretty ill in the morning, put him in contact with a doctor in our midst and urged him to use the malaria test kit I’d brought with me. It was positive, so I also had treatment to give him, but he was actually too sick to take it. By evening it was clear we needed to take him to a hospital. The one car/driver on campus hadn’t yet arrived back from errands. So as a last resort, we asked a high level Ugandan person on the leadership team to please be his chauffeur. When the patient got in the car, the driver said, “Hey, is that you??” Apparently the two of them knew each other fairly well, and the patient had even eaten in the driver’s house several times in the past. The driver had phone numbers for good doctors, and took the patient straight to a private clinic where he got swift and effective care, even at 10 pm. So God was really at work on Tuesday, doing things in his time. All day, Plan B or C turned out to be far and away a better Plan than the Plan A that I had been hoping for.

Pilgrimage

We rose early and boarded busses on Wednesday morning to drive to the shrines established for the Ugandan Martyrs—the saints carved in the chapel windows I had noticed earlier. Their story is remarkable. In 1886, less than 10 years after the first Anglican and Catholic missionaries arrived in Uganda, a new king came to power. He felt threatened by the new Christian religion, particularly since the pages and slaves in his palace were among those who were the most promising new converts. Apparently, these young men were truly inspired by Jesus, but also by their new identity as human beings with value; when they returned from worship and catechism to the royal court, they were once again treated as slaves. Over several months, tension rose; the king grew more and more uneasy as he heard them praying “Our Father in heaven, hallowed by your name. YOUR KINGDOM COME…” Whose kingdom? What threat was this? The king finally demanded all those in his household to declare themselves: renounce Christianity or die. A large group of thirty young men, Protestants and Catholics together, decided that they could not chose loyalty to the king over loyalty to Christ.

Artistic rendering of the execution site at the
Anglican Martyr's Shrine

They were led on a long march to the execution site for commoners. Along the way, the executioners stopped several times to kill one of the young men in an exceptionally cruel way, hoping to scare the others into renouncing their faith. Limbs were hacked off, men were fed alive to dogs, others were burned from the feet to the head, but the group of young men continued to hold fast to their faith. Upon reaching the execution site, the men were sent out to collect the firewood with which they would be burned. Over several days, they were tortured. The chief executioner’s 14-year-old son was among these Christians, and he took the boy to his mother to see if she could convince him to escape and live. But he refused to renounce his faith by fleeing: “Mama, I’m going to heaven. Don’t try to stop me!” he said. Finally, the executioners gave up trying to break the men, and resolved to kill the 25 who still lived on June 3^rd. They were rolled up in reed mats and stacked on top of firewood as the radiuses of a large circle. The fire was started at the center, where their feet all came together – to give them time to reconsider. But rather than crying out in fear, the men continued to sing and encourage one another until they died. Later, even the executioners regretted that they had killed men of such courage. The king who had ordered their death was himself eventually baptized.

The testimony of these martyrs was a powerful catalyst for the growth of the Christian church from that time onward. The missionaries fled, but local leaders continued to teach and train younger people and the church flourished. Eventually, in 1967 the Ugandan martyrs were beatified and a lovely church was built in their honor in the midst of a large park. Every year, a million people come on pilgrimage to celebrate mass there on June 3 and remember the courage of those men who died for their faith. Their testimony continues to impact people who come by foot from as far as Tanzania and Congo. Our group visited the Anglican shrine as well, built at the site were the men were actually burned. It is a more humble establishment, but houses a seminary. We were blessed to share spontaneously in their morning worship service at the end of our visit.

Altar art at the Catholic Uganda
Martyr's Shrine

Personally, I am still grappling with the challenge of the martyrs, their commitment, their willingness to sacrifice, their endurance of horrific physical pain, their sense of unity, their legacy. How does one know the right moment for sacrifice? How much sacrifice? When we pray, “thy kingdom come,” we need to realize that other kinds will be threatened.  “Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it can bear no fruit.” What a gift those men gave to Uganda and the Kingdom of God. We all deeply considered what it means to become a “new we,” finding unity as Christians and humans in spite of what divides us.

Part of our evening worship was led by the team of 10 from South Sudan. Since the South’s independence last July, life for Christians in the North has become increasingly difficult, and martyrdom is a very real and present possibility for them. It was good and sobering to realize that all the above questions apply right here and now in a personal way for Sudanese.

Leadership

The concept of servant leadership is very counter-cultural in Southern Africa, as we have discussed many times in this blog already. So it was appropriate to spend a day on this topic, and try to understand also what it would mean for us to be discerning as leaders, knowing what our nations need to do as we read the signs of the times. Christian leaders need to struggle daily to be both humble and effective, but when they are able to lead following Jesus’ example they have a powerful impact. Dr. Celestin Musekura helped us interact with one another to identify the opportunities and challenges in leadership.

Participants in our seminar group.

One aspect of the week I hadn’t yet mentioned is that most afternoons we were divided up into small groups to meet with a seminar leader on a particular topic. I chose to take the seminar on “Self-Care for Caregivers.” Our teacher was Violette Nyirarukundo, a Rwandese woman we have known since we arrived in 2008. She has been a valuable advisor to MCC, and is a trained Biblically based counselor. I selected that seminar partly just because I wanted to be around Violette and learn from her, and I will admit that it was simply refreshing to go in that room and sit in her calm, gentle – yet spunky – presence. She is a grandmother, full of wisdom, having lived through great trials and yet always laughing. I also felt it would be good to have some more insight into how to care for ourselves in the midst of draining work, and how to help our partners cope as they pour themselves out on behalf of others.

Spirituality

One of the challenges of coping with all these burdens of lament, pilgrimage and leadership is developing spirituality for the long haul. How do we not burn out along the way, or become disillusioned with our fellow travellers when they seem to fall short? We listened to some good teaching on this subject from Chris Rice and Faith Mlay and heard some even more powerful testimonies from people who have been walking in their callings with perseverance for years. One impressive woman is a Tanzanian who was born an albino. In her culture, most albinos are killed at a young age because of fear, hatred, or else for profit (the body parts of albinos have high value in traditional witchcraft). Somehow, she survived physically into her 20s but struggled with utter lack of care from her family and the reality of constant threat and isolation. She attempted to take her own life numerous times and didn’t succeed, but finally heard a clear assurance of God’s love for her. That carried her through school, Bible training and into ordained ministry as an evangelist in her church. She goes into communities and tells people, “bad things happened to people like me in the past, but I’ve forgiven you. So let me tell you about Jesus.”

We ended the day with a special worship service, including another community prayer time and then an opportunity for individual prayer and blessing. I asked the Kenyans to lead us musically to begin with, and they did a suburb job of helping us dance and sing and praise the Lord. By the end of the week, we had added several more very adaptable musicians to our team, and a rotating group of people kept stepping forward to play the chapel’s drums. The theme song for the week, “He Shall Reign,” was written by Tom Wuest, a fellow Regent grad. (See http://brasstrumpetpublishing.com/ for more on his work and to download songs). We had to Africanize the rhythm, include a French translation of the verses, and even change the chorus – at the urging of one of our speakers – to include both the future tense (He shall reign) and the present tense (Yes! He reigns) and remember the tension between already—not yet. I’m not sure Tom would quite have recognized the song by the end of the week, but it was certainly a celebratory closing as people danced out of the chapel…

…And then, I had to run, throw my stuff into a suitcase and jump into a taxi for the airport. It was a shame to leave so abruptly and not savor the end of a wonderful week with new and old friends over a celebration dinner. That was indeed one of the biggest blessings – the encouragement of being with so many motivated, exceptional people.

The return journey was not ideal: my flight left at midnight and I had the prospect of staying the night in the Kigali airport, waiting for an early morning connection to Bujumbura. But I did have the blessing of sharing the cab and the first leg of the journey with Violette, my seminar leader. I was thankful for more time with her, and things went smoothly. I even found a decent couch in Bourbon Coffee shop to lie down on for a few hours. Paul and the kids met me at the airport and it was awesome to see their smiling faces. I thoroughly enjoyed yoga after travelling all night. And that evening some friends invited us to come share ice cream with them. It was a good homecoming, and just enough time to catch a little breath with Paul before he left for Kigali today. More on his adventures next week!

Bonus photo: Moms serving kids at our Saturday ice cream social.