GOOD MORNING BUJUMBURA!!

Kilimanjaro sticking out of the clouds enroute between Nairobi and Bujumbura.

I was going to title this entry ‘The Second Coming: Baptism by Fire” but I thought it might be a bit too irreverent although apropos.

It is Saturday morning here in Burundi. We got back to Bujumbura yesterday at about 9 am after 3 days of travel. One of the reasons we took that long is that we spent a full day in Nairobi before going on to Burundi. (We wanted to pick up some anti-malarials among other things.—In the US they cost about $12 per pill, but in Nairobi you can get the same medication made by the same company for about 50 cents apiece.—Yes America, you overpay for healthcare.)

But where was I… Oh yes, the journey:

It is easy to romanticize travel, especially long journey’s involving relocation. I think of Out of Africa, where the beautiful young ingénue arrives in Nairobi with about 20 steamer trunks and a dozen hat boxe, and met at the port by an entourage of coolies who transport her and her personal effects on their backs to her new home in the Rift Valley.

My favorite description of post colonial travel though is in Barbara Kinsolver;s The Poisonwood Bible. It is worth reading the book for the description of the ‘unauthorized’ missionary family heading off to Zaire. To avoid paying any baggage fees they wore all of their clothes in layers on their bodies and carried all their kitchen utensils in their pockets. The amount of stuff they carry on their bodies and in their meager baggage allowance is really quite humorous.

I would say that our particular departure was more like the latter. All counted we had 13 pieces of luggage and two children that had to be carried, in tow. The breakdown was as follows:

3 suitcases weighing 50 pounds each with our clothes, books for the baby, etc.
3 50 pound oversized duffle bags containing among other things:
-a pack and play
-a double set jogging stroller (chariot)
-an infant seat and base
2 max size carry on suitcases loaded with electronics and books (about 40 pounds each)
1 carry on for Oren with toys for the plane
1 child carrying backpack stuffed with diapers and snacks –and Oren when necessary.
2 computer bags with 3 computers and cameras inside.
1 baby changing backpack

We also had a front pack for David.

We were taken to Dulles by our parents and between 5 of us, were able to get it all to the check-in agent in one trip.

Our plan was to get all this stuff to Burundi without paying any extra baggage fees. We did so all the way to Nairobi, but Kenya Airways hit us up for $100 for excess size and weight. All in all though, not bad.

The bigger problem was trying to move all this stuff and two kids from taxi to check in and then to gate with all of this in tow. All I can say is that it was extremely hard!! I may have ruined my back for life. We did get help from sympathetic custom agents, check in agents, and cabbies when they saw the absurdity of our situation.

We were the archetype missionary family and most people could tell we were going somewhere for a long time.


The baggage situation would have been bad enough but the journey had other complications most worrying being Oren’s health. Oren had had a stomach virus the previous week and had vomited several times in the night the week prior… Now I know every parent has a throw-up story, and probably the worthiness of repeating it has to do with the inconvenience and challenge of the situation. An overnight intercontinental flight is a great opening for such a story. The fact that there was turbulence for most of it which confined us to our seats for much of the time can only augment the climax.

I was sitting next to Oren, with Rebecca and David across the aisle. Oren complained of feeling sick, but I was not thinking he was about to vomit. During a brief respite of smooth air I picked him up to take him to the bathroom in the back of the plane. On the way there he suddenly barfed copiously on my shirt and his. When I got to the bathroom and locked us in, I was then stuck with trying to figure out what to do. I did not really have a change of shirt available to me. I cleaned us up as best I could and we returned to our seat where we stayed looking and smelling pretty bad for the next several hours. (He did vomit several more times after that, but I was able to catch most of that in something before it made too big of a mess.

In the airport in Zurich Oren continued to feel bad. We switched to Swiss Air (a marked improvement over United!) and as soon as we got into the plane Oren fell into a deep sleep. It was then that Rebecca and I noticed that he had a severe rash on his neck. (He had this once before from an allergic reaction to passion fruit juice, but he had not had any of that on the trip.) We were worried, and the head steward came by to check on us just before we took off. His exact words were:

“You are the parents, you need to let us know if you think it is OK for the plane to take off, or if we should wait.” ---Wow, I was relieved they were so considerate, but having the responsibility of holding up an A300 full of passengers bound for Nairobi was not a position we wanted to be in.

Oren seemed to be sleeping soundly and was not having trouble breathing so we told them they could leave. We laid hands on him and prayed for him as we took off. Fortunately he improved markedly on the flight and did well all the way to Nairobi.

We arrived in Nairobi in the late evening and planned to stay at the Mennonite Guest House there for an entire day before hopping over to Bujumbura. The place was truly idyllic. Nairobi has perfect weather and they had beautiful grounds with a large garden and children’s play equipment. Oren really liked the lion swing! We also visited with the MCC Country Reps for Kenya, Ron and Martha Ratzlaff while we were there. If you want to stay in a really nice quiet place on a visit to Nairobi, I can recommend it highly. The only unpleasant aspect of our stay there was Oren falling into the jungle gym and nearly breaking his nose (quite bloody). Fortunately it only needed some first aid and no ER visit.

We had to leave for the airport at about 4:45 in the morning, though and the last leg (an hour and a half) was as hard as any of the longer legs. Handling our copious amount of baggage, Kenya security, and finally Oren having a complete meltdown at the gate made for a very challenging morning...

I diverge here to observe something about traveling by plane. It is my experience that despite globalization and the maturity of the information age, there does not seem to be a single central database for any airline, much less between them. What I mean is, No matter how often you call to talk to a friendly travel agent or even directly to the airline, no matter how specifically you plan, confirm, reconfirm, print documentation, reservation and confirmation #s etc, there just seems to be a total disconnect between all of that advance planning and what happens at the check-in counter. I honestly do not know what happens with all the stuff that seems to be meticulously noted by reservation agents, but it goes into some kind of information black hole, I am guessing, and virtually irretrievable. I will say that we reconfirmed our Swiss Air flight4 times, and each time we were told our ticket was cancelled and had to be reinstated. In Kenya we were told they had no record of David Henry eventhough we held a ticket in hand! The good news is, it usually all works out after a couple hours.

…We did get to Bujumbura by 8:40 am though and were met by Zachee and Bridget (newly married). It was great to see them.

Sadly they were not driving our landcruiser as it had recently been in an accident and is out of commission. (We were blessed to find that one of our partners had an extra landcruiser they could loan us, so we are able to get around for the time being. Hopefully the parts for our car will come in soon.) That story will have to be told at a later date.

Despite being utterly exhausted, we knew that there would be a lot of people to greet when we got back. Sure enough, all of our house staff were there: Marcelline, Denise, Pacifique, and Gaspar. They all wanted to see the baby. Isaac our housesitter was there and he had bought food for us and made sure we had a good supply of cooking gas, etc.
(He had tried his best to get the hot water heater fix and had had about 6 visits with technicians over the past month. They even replaced it a few weeks ago. Sadly, as of this writing we have not enjoyed a shower with hot water yet. Looks like I will have to call the landlord again.)

Oren was ecstatic to see his au pair Denise. He really loved her and immediately dragged her into his room to play trains.

Other friends, Simon and Lizzie dropped by with food as well, and we really did feel welcomed and cared for when we got here.

At about noon I crashed until almost 5 pm. We then bid our staff a good weekend, distributed Christmas gifts to them, then began the task of unpacking.

I have to say, despite a difficult journey, it was good to be back here. Our house here does feel like home and I am looking forward to settling back into a routine. I even enjoyed having rice and beans once again for lunch! We have a busy week ahead though, there is a huge peace conference that we are part of, as well as Oren starting school (in French) on Monday. We really need prayers that this will all work out well.

I hope this all does not sound too grim, here is a spot of hope--I just went to the store today and discovered that since we were gone they have added two new items to their inventory-- honey nut cherios (for only $11 per box) and diet coke in cans! Move over Rwanda, Burundi is coming back.

Shout out to all you PUMCers reading this, we really miss you and hope to see a mission trip coming our way sometime, keep in touch!