Night Terrors and New Years Resolutions

A cormorant in a tree outside our cottage on Bushara Island in Lake Bunyoni.  All photos are from our trip to Uganda but not necessarily related to the text.

To try to capture a visceral experience in words, that is the challenge here.  Perhaps the scenario will resonate most with those of us who are, or have been ex-pat. parents in a place where urgent care is not readily available.  I will say that among the private anxieties that we as parents harbor here is what we will do in the case of an emergency medical crisis with one of our children.  Where would we go?  Who could we call?  How reliable is the treatment?  I admit that we are far more privileged than the average Burundian here, as we have the resources and connections to access the best medical care in the country.  But in a place like this, that may still be far from sufficient.  

I admit that I have on my cellphone, the number of the air ambulance service that supports MCC, based in Uganda, they can get to us in as little as 4 hours in Bujumbura, and can get us to Kenya in under 8 from the first dial-up.  But that assumes that I am in a place with phone service or a landing strip for a plane for that matter.  Probably my past experience as an EMT makes me a bit hyper-conscious about urgent care.  We spent our Christmas vacation on a small island in a remote part of Southern Uganda, a great get-away, but imagining a need for emergency medical care from there, at night, say, is the stuff of nightmares.  I honestly would not know where to begin.

I am reflecting on this because we had, the day before yesterday, such a night.  Actually our vacation was at an end and we were returning from lake Bunyoni in Uganda to Burundi.  We had spent the vacation with our friends Tim and Jeanette Van Aarde and daughter Isabel. I will go back and fill in more of the details, but on the way home we stopped in Kigali to spend the night at the Amani guesthouse--  a familiar haunt to Rebecca and I as we are often there on our visits to partners.  We had been passing around a virus beginning with Oren on Christmas day, and eventually hitting David then Rebecca during the vacation.  Rebecca was miserable on the drive back but David was on the mend when we got to Kigali on New Year's Eve, or so it seemed. In fact when we arrived we spent the afternoon at a small playground where the kids enjoyed playing on some broken-down carnival rides that were set up as playground equipment.  (not very child-safe)

When we got back to the guesthouse after dinner, Rebecca went to bed early and I tried to put David down as well shortly thereafter.  He had been fine, but as he fell asleep he began to breathe in short laborious grunts and something definitely seemed wrong.  Hoping he would improve and not sure what else to do, I went to bed next to him and listened to his his halted panting.  I fell asleep for what turned out to be an hour when David began 'waking up'.  He is going through the 4 yo phase of night terrors where he will wake up without actually regaining consciousness.  It is a bit eerie, but even worse on this night.  His eyes seemed to bug out, he was babbling nonsense, breathing laboriously, and crying.  It was obvious he was in great pain but did not seem to be able to articulate anything.  We asked him about his ears, nose, and throat as an infection seemed possible, but he seemed to indicate that this was not the problem.  I did a simple assessment of him checking airway, breathing, pulses, then felt his abdomen.  To my alarm it was extremely rigid, and he nearly screamed when I touched it.  This was the first time David had ever complained of abdominal pain in his life. 

Kigali City

It was 2 am, on January 1st, and I realized then that this was not something we could leave until morning.  I told Rebecca we had to find a way to get him to a doctor at this hour.  We had a phone number of a doctor in Kigali but were not able to contact him.  For better of for worse we actually had considerable experience with urgent care as Oren had broken his arm on one occasion and gashed his head on another in Kigali.  We knew about King Faisal hospital and decided to go there.  

It is interesting to consider the calculus that went into our plan to go there.  First we had to get the car keys from Tim, sleeping in an adjacent room.  We thought of what we should bring and passports and health cards were high on the list.  Neither of us had to articulate to each other what we were both thinking: one of us might be accompanying David on an air ambulance to Kenya before we returned to the hotel.

Scenes on the road.

We woke the night guard to open the gate of the guesthouse and headed to the hospital.  We were glad to find the ER was pretty empty and there was a doctor on duty!  (Not something you will find in most hospitals in Burundi after hours.)  She ordered an abdominal X-ray.  It was weird that David had no fever, but did remain doubled over in pain.  

As children and siblings of doctors, we were quickly on the phone with Rebecca's dad and brother to get an idea of what to look out for or rule out.  Our worst fear was a bowel obstruction, appendicitis, or maybe meningitis (he was holding himself very rigidly).  The X ray did not show any abnormality in the gut and we did remember that he had had a bowel movement earlier in the day.  She also ordered a blood test.  The doctor gave him a large dose of Tylenol and suggested we either admit him into the pediatrics ward for observation overnight or to bring him back early in the morning to see the test results.  We opted for the latter as he seemed more calm after the tylenol suppository.

He slept somewhat better the rest of the night, although it was 4:30 am by the time we got back to the guest house.  We slept as much as we could then had breakfast with our friends and Oren and made a plan to stay in Kigali rather than return to Bujumbura before we felt David was stable enough to travel back with.  There was a deadline if we were to leave that day which was 1pm in order to avoid driving upcountry in Burundi after dark.

We went back to the hospital to get the test results which showed there was some kind of infection and now David had spiked a very high fever.  He was given IV tylenol as well as rehydration fluids and slept peacefully in the ER.  We were able to call Joel Miller, our physician friend in Burundi and get his advice.  He concurred with the ER doctor that this was not a surgical emergency and that we should be able to come back to Bujumbura.

The anti-climactic ending to the ordeal was a great relief to us.  But we were still under some pressure to get David released from the hospital before 1pm so we could drive to Burundi.  The problem is, that unlike in the US, no one here is particularly anxious to get someone out of the hospital.  By 10am on New Year's Day the ER was quite busy.  The one doctor was not really available to write out an essential discharge form and give us a prescription for an antibiotic and anti parasitic medication.  I had to almost impede her in the hallway after sitting for several hours by David in one of the ER beds.  I did succeed, but finding a nurse to remove the IV was an even bigger challenge.  (only 2 on duty.)  The hardest step though was to pay.  Although the bill for everything (tests, Xray, ER visit, consultation) was under $50, the cashier was no where to be found for another 45 minutes after I was ready to go.

Taxi boat from Bushara to Mainland

Rebeca had gone back to the guest house in the meantime and packed our stuff and she and the Van Aardes pulled into the parking lot at 12:45.  I finally got out just before 1 and we headed out to Burundi.  We had to make good time to avoid driving after dark but had to stop for some gas. 

The border, a potential place of delay, was going well until the last step.  I saw a familiar customs officer and greeted her in Kirundi with a cheerful "Umwaka Mushasha Mwiza!"  (Happy new Year)  She answered and asked how we were (in Kirundi) I told her Rebecca and David were both very sick (playing on her pity to avoid being searched to thoroughly.  She responded (all in Kirundi) that since it was New Year's, maybe I had a 'gift' for her.  I told her I could not give her any money.  (I know if I ever do that once I will have to do it every time I pass.)  She was not very happy and pointed to the covered suitcases strapped down on the roof rack and asked to see the contents.  It took some time for me and Tim to unstrap them get them down, let her inspect 2 large bags of dirty laundry then put them back up and baton them down again.  We lost about half an hour there.

Nonetheless we did make good time the rest of the way and got in by 6pm.  Sadly, as soon we got back, it was Rebecca's turn to go to the ER as her condition had deteriorated.  Jeanette and I took all the kids to our house while Tim dropped Rebecca over at BUMEREC, the hospital that is most convenient to us.  She was happy to find a decent doctor there that did a series of tests including malaria and typhoid and found she had an infection as well.  She and David are both on antibiotics now and doing better.

David's condition improved markedly the moment we got home.  He barely moved on the car trip and was a pale and unresponsive as a corpse.  But as soon as we got in the driveway and he saw the dogs he jumped out of the car and asked Isabel if she wanted to go on the trampoline.  A remarkable recovery!

I slept well the night we got back when everyone was finally back at the house, car unloaded and Tim and Jeanette back home as well.  Despite the stress of the past 24 hours I felt fairly peaceful.  I am grateful that this does not happen often, and that we have been able to cope and make good decisions when it has, and that we do have friends and family that can give us good advise in the moment.  The one thing it is important not to forget is that we don't face these crises alone, even at night, if we have taken the time and effort to build a community around us.  We have felt very supported by our friends and family near and far in all the ordeals we have faced in the past year.

Tim, Oren, Paul on Taxi boat.

Backing up, it is worth saying something about the vacation itself.  I would say that because of illness and other factors, it was not exactly the best vacation we have had, despite the fact that we were really looking forward to be spending the time with our friends the Van Aardes.  Bushara Island Camp, on Lake Bunyoni is a very rustic getaway, maybe one step above Gilligan's Island.  It is not the first time we have been there.  We were there with Bridget and Zachee in 2010 for New Year's as well.  The tiny Island located in Lake Bunyoni near Kabale Uganda, is a charming get-away as long as one is not too attached to electricity or running water.  It does feature some of the best bird watching in the region though and all of us were equipped with binoculars and cameras.  Swimming is also possible but the lake is fairly cold.  

Besides illness, which hit just about everyone in our family during the 4 days we were there, the weather was not great.  It was quite damp and overcast most of the time we were there so it was actually cold.  We did prepare with warm clothes and at dinner the open air restaurant always had a roaring fire going in a large fire place.  The food was not bad, especially if you are a fan or crayfish.  They offered it prepared in about 10 different ways from Mexican tacos to curry and chowder.  Despite the lack of electricity, I was pleased to find that hot showers were available on demand.  These are provided by the staff who bring down several gallons of hot water to one's cabin to fill a bucket with a shower head attached in a small stall next to the house.  It is quite labor intensive but very enjoyable for the guests.  Toilets are an eco-friendly 'long-drop' that are kept clean with some advance methods of biodegradation.  (You pour a spoon of ash in after you finish your business.)

David and Isabel on the dock

When the weather was not nice enough to walk around we did some reading and played games.  We particularly enjoyed playing Carcisone which we taught to Tim and Jeanette.  The 3 kids played fairly well together as there was a small playground there.  David also loved to go down to a dock where there were crayfish hiding among the rocks and roots in the shallow water.  I kept a close eye on the little kids as I did have some anxiety about them going off somewhere alone and falling off a dock.  All the kids did like walking around the island which could be circumvented in about 30 minutes.

To save money we did bring breakfast and some lunch food for the firs 3 days and cooked them on Tim and Jeanettes portable gas grill.  (They are South African so they have all kinds of great camping stuff!)  We did birdwatching together most mid-mornings, and saw a number of interesting species including, cinnamon chested bee eaters, various varieties of iridescent sunbirds, boubouls, cormorants, kingfishers, kites, crowned cranes, robin chats, and more.

Despite the darkness at night without electricity, we did enjoy story time in the evenings with David and Oren (by flashlight).  Oren is definitely old enough to appreciate longer chapter books and we brought The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe along with us.  The kids really loved to listen to it before going to bed.  It was nice not to have other options like movies and TV there.  

We did the trip in two days both ways, staying the night in Kigali both times.  On the way there we did see our service workers Janelle, Alyssa and Matt briefly to wish them a Merry Christmas and make sure they were OK.   The drive was generally not bad either way, especially having done it before.  

I am sad to say that illness prevented us from staying up for the New Year, but I did take some time to think of some New Years resolutions--nothing new really.  I resolved to read the One Year Bible again, (11th time?) and to continue to write this blog on a weekly basis.  Happy New Year to all who share in our lives by reading.  I especially thank those who supported us in the small crisis with advice prayers and direct help:  Tim and Jeanette Van Aarde, Drs. Paul and David Sack, Dr. Joel Miller, and our parents.  I do trust that our New Year's Eve will not be the precursor to a difficult year, but even if it is we feel equipped to face it because we know we are not alone in this world.  IMANA IDUHEZAGIRE, TWESE!  (God Bless us, everyone!--in the words of Tiny Tim.) 

Christmas 2012: Creative Offerings and an Amazing Gift

David attempting to raid the Christmas cookie jar.  The higher we put it, the more precarious his attempts became.



Usually I can write this blog in a way that focuses more on importance rather than chronology.  This week, however, amazing and unusual events came as such an onslaught that I am hard pressed to know where to begin. 

This was the last week of Advent and the kids were in school Monday through Friday.  It was a bit of a challenge at work as we limped toward the end of the year on borrowed computers.  But we did manage to get last minute emails written about planning for next year’s programming.  

Things started to get interesting fairly early as visitors and guests started to arrive as early as Tuesday.  Teri-Lynn our SALTer at the Hope School was down all week and it was interesting to talk to her about how teaching was going.  She told us about the rewards and challenges (sense of isolation being high on the list.)  She also talked about different cultural perceptions of teaching.  I was fascinated to hear how some of her colleagues advised her that-- “The teacher should always be the last to arrive in the class and the first to leave.”  It is so interesting how this is exactly the opposite of what we are taught. 

The perception here is that the teacher is the most important person in the classroom and is accorded a place of very high respect. In our culture education is focused on the student with the teacher playing more of a facilitator role.  The Hope School would like to be more of a child-centered-learning school, but it is clear from the perception of some of the teachers that they have a ways to go.

Teri-Lynn was down several days before the arrival of her parents who came on Thursday afternoon.  Teri-Lynn surprised them at the airport as they were not expecting her to be down in Buja on that day.  They spent the night at our house and then Teri-Lynn took them on a tour of her home upcountry.  They rented a car and driver on my recommendation to help them get around.

Things did not go exactly according to plan as she had planned with her cook to have an elaborate Christmas dinner planned while they were up there to welcome them.  When they arrived, the cook was completely AWOL and never showed up the whole 3 days they were there. 

Unfortunately the trip continued to get worse when they returned Sunday in a rain storm and the driver, who was speeding drove off the road into a ditch on the mountain side of the escarpment they were descending.  They were quite livid about his recklessness and after they were pushed out her dad took the wheel and drove home. 

There were several very tense minutes when she was trying to call us on her cell phone to tell us what was happening.  The site of the accident had terrible reception and the phone kept cutting out everytime she tried to tell us what had happened and how they were.  We finally got the story and just when I was preparing to get in my car and rescue them we got a message that some folks in the vicinity and hoisted them out of the ditch and they were on their way down.

They arrived just in time for our Christmas party on Sunday afternoon, but I will come back to that in a minute.

Yolanda, Melody, Jennifer, and Michael Sharp all
passed through Bujumbura this weekend.

Friday was a fairly busy day with expected and unexpected guests.  Melody and Yolanda arrived in town, and after school we offered to take Janet Miller’s 4 kids home as they had an unexpectedly long graduation to attend at the University.  (They are an American family with 4 kids (husband and wife are both physicians) who are serving at a clinic run by the Free Methodist Church and teaching at Hope Africa University.) 

I taught ballet that day and spent some extra time rehearsing a piece for our Christmas Party.

Saturday was a big day of preparation.  After exercise Oren and I set to work on a fantastic gingerbread house.  He was to be the architect and used his magnet blocks to build a church with a high-peeked roof, a bell tower and a smaller gabled roof.  Once he built it with magnet blocks, Rebecca made dough and I laid out pieces on the dough we rolled out and set in cookie sheets.  It took 3 trays but we baked all the pieces.  We learned an excellent gluing technique using  melted sugar which we dipped the edges of pieces in.  It hardened like epoxy, very quickly.  I also used a cheese grater as sand paper so we had very square pieces.  I also made the royal icing to stick the candy into on the roofs.  (powdered sugar and egg white.) 

Once it was completely built and stuck together, Oren and David decorated it.  It really looked quite fabulous, and was the centerpiece at our Christmas party.

Sunday was the actual day of our Christmas party.  (December 23^rd)  We had been planning this for a while and were calling it a Christmas Dance and Offering of the Arts.  People were asked to bring a song, dance, piece of visual art, or some specialty food or tradition from their culture to share. 

We had a very large group as usual and after most had arrived we had a time of sharing.  Rebecca had organized a group of us to sing some acapella Christmas carols, one of our friends, a teacher at the Ecole Belge performed a flute solo.  We had several families show off some of their specialty foods, Oren showed his gingerbread church, (which every kid ooohed and aaahed and said how beautiful it was and asked if they could eat it immediately).

There was some handicraft and toward the end I performed a short dance I had created for Christmas.  I will try to mount it on the bottom of the blog.

We ended the offering of the arts with a sing-along to the Hallelujah chorus.  (We did print out sheet music.)

After that we went right into the dancing and did some old favorites including Cotton-Eyed Joe and the Virginia Reel.  What really impressed me was the number of kids this time who joined in.  We had several squares of kids in one dance, and Oren was my partner in the Virginia Reel, which he really loved.

From MCC, Jennifer, Yolanda and Melody were all in town.  Michael Sharp had also been there the day before and they had gone out together, although by Sunday he was on his way to Kampala with friends for a vacation.

It was a really fun party and we ended it with a potluck.  Since we began about 3pm everyone was gone by 8 except for a few who stayed around and gave us a hand cleaning up.  We did end by singing a couple Christmas carols and Silent Night in the language of everyone represented there.  It was great to share this event with our friends here.  Rebecca and I even decided that we will try to do three of these events per year with the offering of the arts as part of it from now on.

Monday was the first day the kids had off so we were not really able to do any work.  I did do a bit of Christmas shopping and we wrapped some presents for each other and others we were going to give.  Melody, Yolanda and Jennifer was around as well.  Rebecca did practice the piano some for the evening event we planned to attend.

We were very excited to be going to a Christmas Eve service at Joel and Janet Miller’s house.  Oren and David really like their 4 kids and were happy to see them twice in 3 days. 

Despite the loss of two computers, the returns of the Holiday Season had been happy indeed and we were looking forward to sharing this evening with friends in a Lessons and Carols Service.

What I was not expecting to receive was a call, on the way to the service, from a friend who is a missionary who works with street kids, calling to tell me that someone in the thieves network had contacted him with a White Macbook to sell.  (Apparently they found it fairly useless without the powercord.)  He told me to come out and meet him immediately.  It was a bit awkward as I had to borrow Jennifer’s car but the place he was parked was enroute to the party.  I met him and was able to buy back my macbook from him after he bought it off a thief. 

 I could not believe I had gotten one back, although there had been some people praying for just this, that we would recover at least one by Christmas. 

I walked triumphantly into the Miller’s house brandishing the computer.   We had a lovely Lessons and Carols service with Rebecca playing the keyboard competently for the songs we sung and some very creative dramatic staging and readings for the service.  We ended by singing Silent Night by candlelight.

We returned home and the kids fell asleep in the car on the way home.  I did some inspection of the computer and found it was working well and really had not been used very much at all (because the battery died).

We did Skype our families to tell them the good news.  At this time we are still holding out some hope that the other will be returned as well, particularly since it is password locked and may not be that useable either.

The kids were up early on Tuesday for Christmas. We had a very modest Christmas this year since we did not have visitors from the States.  The featured toys were two wooden tow trucks that we got at the Marche de Noel the week prior.  

As an aside I would add that they will probably receive a few more gifts in the mail.  A parcel with their Chocolate filled Advent calendars still has not arrived.  So they will be able to enjoy that in February probably.  In the same vein, we did get a parcel for our SALTer Janelle on the 22^nd.  Just in time for Christmas.  Unfortunately it was not for the Janelle who is a SALTer this year, but Janelle Tupper who was our SALTer last year.  Her Grandmother sent it to her in November of 2011 and it just got to Burundi on Dec 22, 2012!   We told Janelle about it and she said to go ahead and open it as it might be food that would not be good anyway.  (She is currently back in Washington DC).

We did open it and it would definitely qualify as one of the best gifts for naughty children, probably even better than coal or switches.  Apparently cookie dough packed in a tin had exploded enroute making the address hard to read.  You can imagine how rancid that was. It was on everything including some dried fruit, other cookies, mixed nuts (which tasted OK) and some fiber bars.  The look and smell in the box were really quite dreadful.  I think it must set some kind of record for belatedness though.

The kids had fun with them as well as with a lego kit and a new Magic Schoolbus Video.  We spent the morning playing games with the kids and watching the new videos.

Sadly Oren started spiking a fever by mid-morning and it was obvious he was coming down with a virus.  Nonetheless, we did go to a final Christmas dinner at the Kings Conference Center hosted by Simon Guillebaud.  Many of the same folks were there who had been at the two previous parties so it was one more chance for all of our kids to play together.  Actually, after the delicious buffet meal we had the kids watch a movie while the adults set up several games of ‘speed scrabble.’  (or bananagrams.)

We went back home and by mid afternoon Oren’s fever was up again.  We did a malaria test (negative) that evening and gave him more aspirin.  Before bed we began packing for our trip the next day.  We are going with Tim and Jeanette Van Aarde to Uganda for a week vacation at Lake Bunyoni.

This final post of 2012 is being sent from Kigali where we have stopped for the night enroute to Uganda.  More in the New Year!

Bonus video, click here for a link to a video of the dance I did.

Another Goodbye and a Very Wet Fete

Hippos I saw driving back from my meeting in Cyangugu.  This was in Bujumbura near Ubuntu restaurant.

I think enough time has elapsed to leave everyone hanging after the announcement last week of a computer theft.  Unfortunately no news is not really good news.  We hold out hope that our connections to the thieves network here will disseminate information about a large reward to the right people.  Since neither computer has a cord and Macs are not supported in any way in Burundi, we are hoping the thieves will see the good sense in trying to sell them back to us.  I have put out a notice on a Bujumbura Professionals website to be on the lookout for someone trying to fence 2 Macbooks.

So we wait and hope, but we have not really slowed down.  I am happy to see that in comparison to Monday, the rest of the week seemed pretty good.  We received a lot of sympathy from friends and even many acquaintances who have heard through the grapevine. 

We were able to borrow a small netbook so we are able to work together with 2 computers and have been able to keep up with work and emails.  I mentioned that I had delayed a trip to Rwanda I was supposed to go on Monday, but did go on Tuesday.  Actually it was not as far as Kigali as I was helping convene a meeting between MCC Rwanda and MCC DRC partners on the border between the two countries near Bukavu.  The town was called Cyangugu and it is about a 3 hour drive from Bujumbura.

I left after school on Tuesday and got to the guest house by 5 pm  (This is Peace Guesthouse in Cyangugu run by the Anglicans, excellent!).   I only had a bit of trouble crossing the border because I realized my car insurance had expired the day before.  The Rwanda police harassed me but amazingly let me go on if I promised to buy some temporary insurance in the next town.  (I did promise but never got the insurance.) 

I was the first to arrive and enjoyed an hour of sitting on the balcony of the restaurant overlooking Lake Kivu.  Our Rwanda partners arrived about 8pm.  We had dinner and went to bed.  The plan was to meet the Congo partners the next morning when they crossed the border and take them to the guest house when they arrived.   Michael Sharp and 3 members of a partner organization of MCC came over.  We met for about 4 hours and discussed a refugee repatriation project being implemented in DRC that needed some follow-up in Rwanda.  There was interest in seeing whether our partners could work in collaboration with each other across this border, especially with the tension between Rwanda and DRC.  There did seem to be a sincere interest in mutual collaboration so we will see if this project will take off in the next year.

 I will say briefly that the gist of the project is to use testimonials from returnees in Rwanda to entice ex-combatants from the FDLR to lay down their weapons voluntarily and agree to be repatriated.  (If not the combatants themselves, their families and relatives that have been in forest with them.)

I headed back to Bujumbura right after lunch on Wednesday and was back home in 24 hours.  It was a short trip but quite valuable.  I was glad it did not require me to be away all week.  I met Rebecca at soccer where I found she and Jeanette practicing guitar near the soccer field and David and Isabel playing together.  Isabel, (Tim and Jeanette’s daughter) is David’s best friend these days.

Getting back into the swimming routine Thursday morning was great and helped take my mind off the loss of the computers.

 

Rebecca was a home with the kids and is contributing a bit about her activities this week:

This is Rebecca chiming in with a few mundane details to dispel the murky mood of post-theft reality. I don't think we've mentioned anything in this blog about David, our prolific artist. The poor second child never gets much notice when he starts doing all the things that were so captivating in the first child. Well, when David started his second year of preschool, he could hardly even color in a coloring book. But at this point in his school career, drawing is his favorite thing. When he gets to school, he ignores all the other interesting activities on other tables, laid out by his teacher. He gives me a kiss and a hug and then gets to work coloring. He happily produces 6 to 8 well-colored-in Christmas pictures a day in school. He can draw freehand a perfectly recognizable, very kindly Saint Nicolas. And when he gets home, he empties out the drawer of scrap paper and goes to work again. There is always a 10 square foot area in the corner of the living room littered with his drawings: a christmas tree and a dinosaur, a rabbit, 5 guinea pigs, a dinosaur peeing on St Nicolas. He is getting pretty good with the scissors, too. I won't bore you with my grumbling about cleaning up those creative efforts. ;-)

And Oren's news...last week he and I were having an interesting conversation. He finally told me that he loved school! I asked, what changed? And he said, well, I probably just got better at school. I'm good at it now. I love school. Take me to school right now! He claimed to love school more than karate or soccer. But he actually seems pretty motivated about those as well. Last week, there were competitions and tests in karate. And Oren actually passed, getting his third yellow stripe. What's more, he cared about it. He came home saying, “Mommy, I got my third yellow stripe. And you know what comes after that? A yellow belt!”

Other unusual news: a yoga friend and I learned that we both enjoy singing early music in small ensembles. At least, we'd enjoyed it when we were younger! After much talk and little action we finally found a bass and soprano to join us. And on Thursday night when the kids were in bed, the four of us got together for some very fun quartet singing. The Christmas carols (“Quem Pastores” and “In dulci jubilo”) sounded lovely right off. We started tackling a few more challenging pieces which will be fun to work on more in the new year. But's it's really a delightful surprise to get to sing with a quartet again, with singers who have a lot of experience.

Finally, me and the kids were able to join friends for some nice baking projects during this past week. Joy Johnson invited us to join her for her family tradition of making gingerbread houses. She has really perfected the method of gluing her gingerbread pieces together with melted sugar—foolproof, even in humidity! She had created enough gingerbread houses for many families to come together and decorate. Different folks brought candy decorations (not easy to find in Burundi!) and we worked under a tent in the yard for a while. The boys were briefly interested – long enough to plaster the roofs with bubblegum and hard candies. The girls pulled off some beautiful designs. The conversation was fun – just good to be together. And on Friday afternoon, friends from our cell group came over to help me make sugar cookies and gingersnaps to bring to our church Christmas celebration on Sunday. Again, it was good to work together on a Christmas-y feeling project.I'll sign off with that...

Paul Again…

The week, as busy as it was seemed to be building up to a grand finale at the weekend.  To begin, Teri-Lynn Jordan, our SALTer who is teaching at the Hope School was down for the weekend.  I did not teach ballet on Friday because the school was using the studio to prepare for the Marche de Noel.  This is the annual Christmas event at the school that serves as a fundraiser as well as a craft bazaar for local merchants who want to offer their wares to Christmas shoppers.  It is usually a lot of fun and features tons of food, the requisite bouncy castle, and many interesting shopping opportunities.  It is outdoors however and thus risks being negatively affected by rain.

 On Saturday we had one of those rare ‘all day rain’ kind of days.  It was cold and clammy and felt more like London than Bujumbura.  We did brave the elements about 3pm to participate in the Marche, but it was very wet.  Rebecca had agreed to work at a booth for the Mom’s prayer group so we stayed around about 2 hours.  David took advantage of the mud puddles to get himself completely filthy and all the kids seemed to enjoy the bouncy castle even in the rain.

We did do some Christmas shopping while we were there, but it was definitely a bit of a let down because of weather.  Nonetheless, I did see just about every ex-patriate I know in the country at this event.  Definitely a place to be seen.

It is hard to believe this was to be topped on Sunday, but this was a huge day for us.  It began with a youth and kids service at church.  Sort of like a Christmas pageant although it was a week early because many will be on vacation next week.  It was a huge event where the kids ran much of the service and it was organized for them.  The chairs were put in a large circle with mats laid on the floor in the center of the room.  There were many children’s songs led by Andy Wisdom, the older son of a missionary family who is here working at the King’s School. 

The service was as full of people as I have ever seen.  We went about 2 and a half hours but it was really awesome.  Afterwards we shared a giant potluck then played some crazy competitive games led by Simon Guillebaud.  The favorite by far was tug-of-war and we played off some National rivalries in a kind of tournament.  We have enough different nations represented at our church to have a mini Olympics or a World Cup.

It was a great morning although Rebecca was so exhausted afterwards she fell into a deep sleep until late afternoon. 

There were things planned for the evening.  One of the sadder events was going over to say goodbye to Saffy, our short term volunteer at the UCEDD (who sponsors the Hope School).  Saffy has been a great addition to our team, but even before she was with MCC we have known her in Bujumbura.  She, like me, had a dance career before going into International Development and she was a regular attendee at my adult ballet class.  She also taught classes here as well.

Saffy at our house with Jennifer and Teri-Lynn (and St. Nicolas)

We went over to Jennifer Price’s flat (which they share) and took about half an hour to say goodbye.  She is returning to the UK from whence she came.  Her next plan is Grad. School at this point.

After saying goodbye to Saffy, our family drove over to some friends of our from Ethiopia.  He works for Catholic Relief Services and they are in our small group.  Since we did not have small group this week they invited us over.  Although we were completely beat we could not resist the offer of a traditional Ethiopian meal.  I love Ethiopian food and this was the best I have had.  Like a restaurant but even better.  They even ended the meal with Ethiopian coffee made in the traditional way.  (They even roast the beans themselves.)

Oren and David amused themselves thoroughly with our friends’ children watching satellite TV which had every channel in the world.  They caught up a few episodes of Sponge Bob among other things.  It was a real treat for them.

Although our weekend completely wore us out, we could not have had a more enjoyable time to end it.  Next Sunday is our big Christmas Dance and Offering of the Arts Party.  If you live in Buja and did not get an invite, send us a note.

 

A Devastating Loss

Oren, David and Mommy at the pool at Club du Lac this weekend.

Too many days without an update and this will not even be a good one.  I am writing in a bit of a raw emotional state this evening because of a devastating event that happened today.  Fortunately is was not a death, but Rebecca and I did lose, in a theft two Mac computers.  They happened to be together in a briefcase which was by my feet in the front seat of the car.  We dropped the kids off at school and in the 5 minutes we were in the building with the car parked just outside the gate, a thief got in and grabbed the briefcase.  Although I am in the habit of locking, there is usually a momentary chaotic blur of children in the street and cars passing can be a distraction.  The scene is quite busy and I am amazed that someone would be so gutsy as to grab something out of a car there under the noses of security guards, chauffeurs, and arriving parents, but they did.  Definitely not a random event, but something well planned and professional.

It is a devastating loss because replacing 2 expensive personal laptops is out of the question.  The fact that Rebecca just returned from Kigali last weekend with one of them freshly repaired with a new hard drive makes it even more painful.  While I do not want to be overly materialistic, I will say we loved to work on these computers, they made our jobs much easier with a quick, easy to search mail program.  We also had many things for the kids, photos, and movies on them.  Fortunately our work is backed up on Dropbox (a cloud program) and we have another hard drive back up in the US, but our back up drive here has failed as well after being mishandled in the process of reinstalling some stuff on the previously broken Mac. 

We spent the day trying to track down the computers.  We have let school officials and the security company they use know.  But we are also getting the word out through a network of informal connections that there is a reward for their return.  I think there is some chance of this because the power cords were not with the computers and those cost over $150 here.  There is also no support for Mac here, so selling them back might prove to be the best option for a thief.  We will see what happens but for now I am feeling very sick, nauseous with a massive headache.  I delayed going up to Kigali this morning which was my plan before this all transpired.

I will go up tomorrow although not to Kigali but to Cyangugu on the border to Bukavu, DRC.  Our partners are going to meet with some MCC DRC partners to discuss some collaboration on a refugee project.  I don’t what will happen, I do sense that with the ongoing rebellion in Eastern DRC in which Rwanda is implicated, there is a lot of tension between Rwandese and Congolese.  I think especially that Rwandese partners have some paranoia that there may be some government repercussions for collaborating in such projects.  Anyway, we will sit together Wednesday and discuss the possibility of this, but I am not entirely optimistic.

Rebecca was in Rwanda last week while I took care of the kids.   She came home after 4 days thoroughly exhausted.  Apparently meetings were challenging and even a bit tense.  Some of this is because we have new personnel that are still finding their niche, and we are working towards some new directions for our program.  I think partners are nervous and jockeying for position hoping to get something good out of the new  work here or at least some assurance that they will not be excluded.  

Backing up a bit, Oren was invited to two Birthday parties this past week.  Zack Guillebaud’s was first and Oren and David were excited to get to go to Musee Vivant, the zoo, for the party.  Zack’s Dad Simon has a reputation for going into the crocodile cages and he did not disappoint on this day.  He got them to jump up and lunge at him several times.  We also arrived in time for feeding time at the snake cages.  Very sadly though, the chimp had died the week before of malaria. 

The kids also played some competitive games for prizes and there was a cake in a play area near the zoo.  I think our kids had a lot of fun.

The second Birthday was on Monday afternoon last week for Sam Miller.  Sam is in Oren’s class and Oren went home with him and several other boys after school.  They stayed until about 4 then David and I went to get him.  The Miller’s have just moved into their new house, the former house of Travis and Astrid.  It is a house that is familiar to Oren and David. 

It was good to be the one staying home all week with the kids.  I enjoyed swimming every day and doing things with the kids.  Among the good habits I have added to my daily routine is walking the dogs.  The kids really like to do this too, although the two dogs are really too big for either of the kids to handle.  Oren is OK  at holding Bella though.  Dance has been going well on Fridays and it continues to be a nice change of pace from the normal routine of the week.

Rebecca got back on Thursday and it was very good to see her after she was gone for 4 days.  As I said she was exhausted when she came home.  We did have a nice relaxing weekend with our morning yoga exercise class followed by a singing rehearsal of some Christmas music. We are preparing a few things for our Christmas folk dance and "offering of the arts" party on the 23^rd of December.  We had about 4 people join us (including 2 service workers) to learn some songs.  Yolanda and Melody were also in town over the weekend.  Yolanda headed out for a short vacation and Melody spent the weekend at our house, returning to Gitega today.

Among the interesting and challenging questions at work has been a request from MCC for those of us in the Great Lakes region to think of an advocacy position regarding Eastern Congo, that can be shared with our constituents. MCC also does to advocacy at the UN and in DC and Ottawa, so there is interest in finding a position for MCC around the issues of the region.  We have been doing a lot of research and inquiry and it is hard to reach a consensus.  The issue has become pressing because of the activity of M-23 rebels and the recent UN report that they are being supported by Rwanda.  (Rwanda denies this.)  There is some question about whether there should be advocacy for economic sanctions against Rwanda to pressure them to abandon their support of this group. 

Feelings in the International community are mixed here; Rwanda is seen as a very positive model of progressive development and low corruption.  Still, like its neighbors, it seems to be taking advantage of the power vacuum in Eastern Congo to exploit resources like gold and coltan.  In talking to our advisors in Rwanda, we have been told that resources are not at the base of the conflict and there is a lot of ethnic tension.  Our advisors are in favor of a regional solution that does not involve US or other nation’s sanctions, but rather theri support in brokering talks.  One thing that is becoming clear to me is just how complex the situation is and how much it resists a simple reductionist explanation.  The role of countries like the US are particularly hard to understand in this as their influence is ambiguous at best.  Although ‘conflict minerals’ do exist in the region, for instance, it is not clear to what extent they are at the root, the cause of the conflict or whether they simple exacerbate the ethnic tension and lawlessness there by making it possible for rebel groups who control the region to have access to some money to continue to propagate their regimes.  I am putting a map created by BBC that shows some of the groups operating in the region.  As can be seen, M-23 is just one of many.  In my opinion it seems like more of a feudal system of fiefdoms that exploit and terrorize peasants to keep them fed and armed in exchange for some protection.

I am not sure I have more to say right now.  I am hoping to have some good news to report in the future about recovering the computers.  Pictures are also a bit sparse because they are harder to get up on the web without our macs.  The other constant that has been relentless the past 2 weeks is rain.  It has rained almost steadily for days now.  Usually rains come hard for part of the day, but that has not been the case recently.  It seems particularly hard when we are going to drop off or pick up the kids from school.  I guess this is why they call it the rainy season.

Despite all, we are doing our best to get into the Holiday spirit.  We have enjoyed celebrating the Sundays in advent and Rebecca and I have been doing a fast during the weekdays of advent, eating only after 5 pm in the evening.  I am feeling a bit depleted these days, but humbled as well.  Looking forward to a nice break between Christmas and New Years.