Goodbye Grammy, Hello Ressler-Horsts

David welcomes his new friend Ella to Burundi and introduces her to some of his favorite activities.



I feel like I was just here composing last Sunday---probably because this was such a busy, event-filled week that the days seemed to fly by. This is also the second week where I feel so exhausted this Sunday evening that I am daunted by the prospect of finishing this entry tonight. I am really more of a morning person, although Oren tends to get at 5:30 am with me if I do get up then.

We had a very narrow gap this week, (one evening) between the departure of my mother on Tuesday, and the arrival of our new service workers, the Ressler-Horsts, on Wednesday.

I am happy to say that both of my parents got home safely. We took Grammy to the airport Tuesday morning after dropping Oren off at school. She emailed us to tell us she had a problem-free trip back and even did a bit of sightseeing on her stop-over in Nairobi (where they had lived in the 1980s).

We enjoyed our Tuesday evening as the one supper in the week where did not have any visitors.

On Wednesday work was interesting because I participated in a large conference organized by World Vision and World Relief which brought together leaders of all the major church denominations. I mentioned this last week, as part of an effort to have the Church in Burundi can be a voice of positive change in the country. Since the majority of the population in Burundi professes to be Christian, there is a real opportunity here. On the other hand, for the same reason, if the election process disintegrates into violence, the church would own some of the responsibility for failing to act. I feel that this is a time of testing for the church Burundi, and there are many here and abroad that are praying that it might rise as a strong, prophetic voice at this historic time in Burundi.

Wednesday evening was the real event for us though. I went to the airport to pick up the Ressler-Horsts, Nathan and Lara and their two children Jal (6) and Ella (1). When I arrived at the airport the plane was there already and people were exiting. Eventually I saw Lara and Jal come out to tell me they needed some more money for visas. (The price had gone up recently—fortunately I had it.) Then a security guard asked me to come in to help them.

When I got in I could see why. Between the for of them they had about 30 bags, including, strollers, child seats, etc. It was quite amazing! It did remind me a bit as well of our own family’s arrival a year and a half ago. With the help of 4 porters we loaded up the car, including the roofrack. (I was thankful it was not raining.)

It was not until we got home that it was discovered that three of the carry-ons, that had been stowed in Dulles had not arrived in Bujumbura. But it was after 10pm when we got home and we decided to deal with that the next day.

Fortunately our house is big enough to temporarily accommodate two families and life here the past few days has not been too difficult. Jal and Oren enjoy playing together, as do David and Ella.

Beginning Thursday, we continued our house-hunting, which despite much effort to find something before they arrived, has not been fruitful. I think the biggest problem is that Bujumbura is changing. Many more foreigners are arriving and the housing market is rising. We could not find anything comparable to what Rebecca and I have (or had before our move) for the same price. We did know that we got our house at steal, but now we have a better idea of just how good a price this is. We will be continuing the search this week.

We are also orienting them this week in other ways. We have taken them on sightseeing trips of the city, they met Cassien at Help Channel, where they will be seconded. Help Channel has very generously made a vehicle available to them, so they do have their own car. They have also paid a visit to the Ecole Belge where Jal will very likely go to school. Oren has had several friends over this week whom Jal has met, most notably Timmy.

On Friday evening we had a team gathering for all of our workers, SALTERS, and Zachee for dinner to greet and welcome them. It was a nice evening and everyone seemed excited to have them here.

The SALTERS seem to be doing very well, and were back again on Saturday morning as I have been offering to teach a yoga-stretch class on Saturday morning on our front porch. Nathan joined us as well, despite jetlag. I enjoy doing this and I have heard from several other individuals who want to be part of this. We will see if this activity grows in the future. It has been a good team-building activity in my opinion.

Saturday afternoon, we, in true Burundian style, went out and visited quite a few friends and introduced the Ressler-Horsts around. We had an afternoon gathering of our regular group of Saturday missionary families at the house of Thomas and Naya. It was a very nice time and gave Jal a chance to meet some more kids at the Ecole Belge.

Sunday we went to church in the morning, then took the new family to the beach at Club du Lac Tanganyika. Despite the rain, and the fact that they have introduced a small beach using fee, it was a nice afternoon and we all ate pizza and fish briochettes under a large umbrella by the pool in the rain.

We went to the English fellowship in the afternoon where I led Sunday school that day. We were also able to get some leads there for housing for them. Among our options now is a temporary housesitting situation which would take some pressure off of finding housing in the next 2-3 days.

Hopefully things will continue to go well. We have a very busy week coming up involving a trip to Rwanda, and a visit from our area director Mark Sprunger. He will be coming from Nigeria.

Bonus photo: Oren has been really into drawing. We found at the end of Kung-Fu Panda video a little tutorial on how to draw the characters. Oren was enthralled and spent a lot of time drawing ‘Monkey” step by step. I was quite surprised how well he did as a 4 year old!