Phases of 50 Part 1: Mutama

Antiqued: Rebecca and I went out Thursday for a date night for my birthday dinner.



There are two compliments that still take some getting used to here in Burundi.  The first is the loud acclamation you may receive (especially if you are female) of how FAT you are.  Fatness is seen here as a sign of robust good health and well being.  The other expression which is most often reserved for men is MUTAMA.   It literally means 'old man'.  It is a sign of respect and ever since I have arrived here I have often been introduced as MUTAMA because I am the representative of my organization.  Again, being an old man is considered to be an honorable thing here, but I have not, until recently been able to hear it as a compliment.

But now I have decided to live comfortably in that expression, because I crossed a landmark birthday.  I am now 50 years old.  It does not seem possible, I don't feel physically different than I have for the past 20 years, (except for diminishing near vision) but here I am--a certified MUTAMA now.  I am not sure if I feel any wiser, but I am aware of having collected quite an eclectic array of experiences beginning with a childhood in South Asia (5th grade in Iraq notwithstanding), college and an early dance career in St. Louis (my 20s) and 30s in New York City, a brief stint in Seattle, then Poughkeepsie NY in my 40s, and now a career change to begin life as a missionary in Africa in my 50s.  What has it all taught me?  I think the proverb says it best that says:  "Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom."  But I think it took me about 4 decades and the birth of a child to understand that fully.

My Birthday was on Thursday, but we decided to actually celebrate it on Saturday.  Rebecca had sent out many invitations over the week, to our many Burundian and expat friends as well as team members.  We decided we would have an open-house, pot-luck, contra-dance, event between 3 and 7pm, as most of us had children.

I have written before about these parties we have had occasionally involving dancing.  Thanks to our predecessors the Carrs, we have found that we can put all of the living room furniture onto the porch for seating, then turn our entire living room area into a ballroom.  We had many friends stop by for a short visit or a longer stay and taught several dances.  The Virginia Reel remains the favorite though.  I think everyone had a good time, especially the many kids who played on the trampoline, watched movies, danced, and ran around the Yard.

Oren especially of loves Birthdays--anyone's--and he was very excited about helping mommy decorate a cake, wrap presents, put up balloons and streamers, and other projects involving cutting, pasting, painting, hanging, cooking, etc.  Here is a picture of him with the cake, he did the decorating with M&Ms and sprinkles himself.

That was definitely the highlight of the week.  The 'lowlight' has been a steadily worsening toothache that at this point feels like a migraine headache every time I eat.  (Actually fasting this week was a cinch because of it.)  While I have been reticent to consider dental work in Bujumbura, I had heard that a new 'modern' Egyptian dentist had started a practice in town.  Our SALTer Yolanda went to him last week and gave a good report.  I decided to go on Thursday.

The dental office looked like something I would see in the US and the dentist seemed to know what he was doing.  He even spoke some English.  He found a cavity around the point where there was pain and filled it quite quickly (without anesthesia) but really no pain as it was superficial.  He did say that he doubted this was the problem given the severity of the pain, and asked me to come back the next day if there was no improvement.

There was no improvement but I could tell more clearly that the pain seemed to be coming from deep inside a back molar.  He immediately diagnosed the need for a root canal. ...  Root canal are two words one does not really want to hear in third-world country.  I began to wonder what I should do.  He said he could do it and that it would take 2 visits.  I considered my options: drive or take the bus to Kigali several times in the next 2 weeks, or go to Kenya and spend a week or more there alone leaving Rebecca with the kids.

As unpleasant as it sounded, I am opting to stay here for the procedure.  (At this point the pain is so intense that if he had offered to yank it out with a pliers right then and there I would have taken him up on it.)

So that is where I am now.  I will have the first procedure Tuesday before the ballet class I teach in the afternoon at Oren's school.  (I am hoping I will not be too sore.)  I don't know how easily it is to get strong pain killers here, but I am hoping they are available.  Please pray that this procedure goes well and that I will not suffer any complications from it.


In other news, Oren was off from school all week so we took the opportunity to go upcountry on Tuesday and Wednesday to visit our partner in Gitega and Jodi in Burasira.  The weather has been wet recently and we were a bit worried about how bad the road between Gitega and Burasira would be.  (Burasira is about a 1 and a half hour drive off the main road between Bujumbura and Gitega.)

We got to Gitega midmorning and spent most of the day meeting with partners to discuss their final reports and 2010 plans d'action.  It was generally productive but the whole time rain clouds gathered and we had a huge cloudburst.  By the time we headed to Burasira the roads were very muddy and we had to use 4 wheel drive all the way.

We got to Jodi's home about 5pm and spent the evening chatting with her.  We had also brought her a jeepload of supplies including cooking gas, fruits and vegetables, mail, yogurt, cheese, etc. Oren was ecstatic about  being there.  He loves her house, the nearby seminary, her garden, her books, etc.  He enjoyed the whole experience more than any of us.

The visit was short as we had much work waiting for us at home.  We knew also that the roads would be worse as it rained most of the night.  Our 4wd had gotten us through before though so we were trusting it would work again.

When we began traveling we were stunned at how bad the roads were, nothing but trucks with 4 wheel drive could get through.  It was in fact so bad that it became good!  That is, our otherwise difficult trip home became an off-road 4 wheeling adventure that you would probably pay money to do in Colorado.  It was really cool!  I have become quite adept at this kind of driving now and we did some incredible climbing up a muddy slope that looked more like a steep river bed than a road.  Long story short, we got home safely and felt like we had had a real adventure.  (I am also appreciating now just how much muscle that truck has.)

Our truck is in for repairs right now because it has been getting pretty squeaky over the year and we have some funds left over from this fiscal year to fix it.

We continue to enjoy the internet connection in our house that allows us to video skype our families.  My parents had dinner with us several time last week when I set the computer at the end of our dining room table.

Just as a humorous not of closure on our DSL saga.  As you may know we gave up on it and got this other wireless service after waiting 9 months for someone to come and install it.  Well, exactly one week after getting this installed, a man came to our gate to hook up our DSL.  There was some sweet satisfaction in telling him it was too late, even if we do have to pay a bit more.  Hopefully the free-market system will leverage some changes in the labyrinthian phone company that held us in limbo for so long.

Tune in next week to hear about how a root canal goes in Bujumbura.

Bonus photo, this is me with my Burundian 'mutama outfit' complete with old man hat and pipe.  I am missing a straw and bowl of banana beer though.