The Unexpected Visitor

Oren watches Jodi's nightguard Lazarre clean a fish he caught in the river.


One thing I am coming to understand about parenting young children--and I am sure that this does not just apply to missionaries— is that often the life we make for ourselves presumes that both parents are firing on all cylinders at all times. (I know that many single parents have to do it alone and I cannot imagine how) But I am sick with the flu since Friday and it has made this a very challenging week for us to balance our obligations and childcare.

Because of this I am going to keep this entry short and hopefully be able to say more next week. As I said last week, we have a new routine which includes scheduled time for work, childcare, exercise (swimming), as well as language study, and teaching a ballet class for me on Thursday.

One break from the regular routine happened on Tuesday as I was about to pack up from the office. There was a commotion outside the office than several Burundians led a ‘60ish’ mzungu (white person) into the office. He introduced himself as Don and said he had just arrived from the airport. He was Canadian and had come with no money so he could not buy a visa. The airport authorities had kept his passport and allowed him to go in town to get some money. The problem was, he could not use his credit cards here. He was out of ideas when he checked hi computer for a Burundian he knew. This turned out to be Innocent, our partner in Gitega who runs the Hope School for the Batwa. Don told me the cab driver used his cell to call Innocent and Innocent had told him to find us at our office at the Friends Church.

Lucky for him I actually was aware that a photographer from Canada (friend of Jodi’s mom) was arriving and going to the school this week. I put 2 and 2 together and figured this was him. It is not completely surprising to me that someone from the west might think that you could use ATM cards, credit cards, travelers checks, etc. when coming here. The fact is, the only acceptable foreign currency here is 100 dollar bills dated later than 2005. I trusted his story and gave him $400 for a visa and spending money, then invited him to come to our house and stay the night with us until he headed up to Gitega the next day.

Not exactly a Good Samaritan story, but it was a good deed. He did come and stay with us and then headed up to Gitega the next day. The money issue was still there and we suggested he call someone at home to wire him some cash via Western Union. He said he would do that when he got to Gitega.

He left our house Wednesday morning without much money, no charge in his phone and only a vague idea about how to get a bus to Gitega (where Innoent said he would meet him and take him to the school.) I called ahead, and long story short, they found each other and he got to Burasera.

Interestingly enough, we also had a plan to go up to the school to see Jodi that Friday, so we offered to take his suitcase up with us so he would not have to take it on the bus.

Friday morning we went up early. We had an ambitious day. We wanted to pass through Gitega where there is a one month peace training sponsored by MCC. We wanted to check on its progress, then continue on (full speed) to Burasera to have a meeting with Jodi and Innocent about some future projects for the Hope School.

We got on the road in good time, 7:30 am with the family as well as our night guard Gaspar and his daughter, who was down for some dental work. He was taking her back to their home near Gitega. (Gaspar gets to see his family about once every 2 months, like many who work in the city to support his family upcoumtry.

We were about 20 minutes up the treacherous mountain road when we found all traffic was at a dead halt. We did not know what the problem was and whether we should wait it out or go home, but when we remembered we had Don’s suitcase we realized getting to Burasera was imperative.

We waited for about two hours before we heard from people walking down the road from above that a truck was passing a bus (both going uphill aroumd a corner) a large truck coming down ran right into them as he was not able to stop fast enough heading downhill. (This is an accident that I would think happens daily with reckless driving of overloaded trucks.) But this was the worst I had seen.

Actually we did not see it until we had sat about 4 hours waiting for traffic to move. When we got to the wreck, I could not imagine how this would ever be cleared. There are no huge wrecker tow trucks or jaws of life to tear apart a truck. Human power is what is available and it was already in evidence as they had already excavated away the internal embankment of the mountain to make a single lane around the accident.

Since we were now about 4 hours behind our schedule, we skipped the trip to Gitega and took the shortcut to Burasera. We were disappointed to have to cut this out, but will try to get back later this month.

We got to Burasera just in time for the meeting and it was about then that I realized I was coming down with a fever. By the time it was over I was really sick and asked to be excused from dinner with the priests at the seminary that night.

The good news was that we did find Don there and Jodi told us about some really amazing photography projects he was doing with the children at the school. He and Jodi had lent their cameras to them to take pictures, then he gave critiques and helped them understand more about framing. I was amazed when I saw the results, some were worthy of National Geographic. What was most fascinating to me was that, unlike National Geographic, these were photos of people from another culture, BY people of that culture. The fact that many of these children may not have even seen a camera before this and yet were able to grasp some aesthetic ideas about photography was even more amazing. The seventh grade girls, for instance, did a photo essay on girls who do not go to school. (Keeping Batwa girls in school beyond 4th grade is a huge issue in Burundi.) They went out a did shots of their friends who are not going to school and contrasted them to pictures of themselves studying, etc.

Don and Jodi are trying to think of ways of using this project to help the school in some way, any ideas would be welcome.

Don was staying at the seminary so he was joining Rebecca, Jodi, Oren, and David with the priests that night. (I stayed in bed.)

Although I did not go, Rebecca brought back an interesting report. First she told me that Oren was amazingly good. When he walked in the room he went to every person, 1 by 1 and shook hands and greeted them. (Burundian kids all do this) Then he sat down in a chair next to one of the priests and began looking through his child’s Bible with cartoon pictures. He recounted many of the stories to the priest who was quite impressed. All of this was done without one bit of prompting from his mother or anyone there.

Apparently it was one of the more hilarious evenings with one of the priests crawling around on the floor with Oren and David.

Don also hit it off extremely well with the priests but not so much by his piety as much as their mutual fondness for the local banana beer. Jodi said it was one of the more amusing evenings she had had with the priests. I was sorry I missed it.

We left on Saturday morning to return to Bujumbura. I did not feel well, but I thought that if I was getting worse, I would rather be in Bujumbura than upcountry if I was goimg to get seriously ill.

Before we said our goodbyes Don gave me back the loan I had given him when he arrived and also announced that he was also going to make a $400 donation to the school as well because of my willingness to help him out with the money and hospitality when he arrived.


We got back on time Saturday for Rebecca ( and David) to go to a Dot (Dowry Ceremony) for our very good friends Francine and Jean Claude. Again, because I was ill, I was not able to go, but I am hoping she will be able to write a bit about it in the near future.

Sunday was our day of rest once again and after church we went to the beach. Oren learned how to use goggles in the pool and really enjoyed trying to retrieve rocks from the bottom.

I was feeling better this morning, but have been going downhill since this afternoon. The power was also just cut again, so I think it is time to quit.




Bonus Photo: While waiting for traffic to move I took a picture of a woman farming. Notice how here upcountry there are no terraced fields so people cultivate and grow in very steep conditions. Apparently there are many injuries from people falling out of their gardens.