#100

The pictures in this week's blog were all taken this past Friday afternoon when we visited Cercle Hippique after Oren's French lesson.  David and Oren love to see the horses.


It is hard to believe, for me, that this is the 100th blog entry I have published since I began writing these posts 2 years ago.  We are fast approaching the end of our second year here, and I all I can say is that time flies.  Actually time does go faster as you age.  When I was a child, 2 years was a good chunk of my life.  Now it is not hard to imagine planning holidays in detail 2 years in advance.

When I look at the hit counter at the bottom of the page, it does seem to indicate that a fair number of people read it every week, and I sometimes wonder who I am writing this to.  Do I have a picture of who reads it?  I could say I write it for myself, but truthfully there is some sense in me that I am writing it for my children. I tend to see a lot of our experiences through Oren’s eyes, and I do imagine him someday, as an adult, going back and reading about his childhood in Burundi.  (David too, of course but Oren is old enough to remember right now.)

This week was another blessedly routine one.  We were in town all week and able to stick to our routines.  I swam every morning before work which gave me real patience for the things we had to do.  I continue to do Kirundi lessons on Monday afternoon and I have to say, after 2 years, I am beginning to feel a breakthrough.  It is still difficult to understand what is being to said to me, as there are so many ways of saying the same thing, but I can now say just about anything I want to. 

It is kind of amusing because the text, which is very good, was written by a missionary and much of the vocabulary has an evangelical thrust, especially at the beginning.  Many of the early exercises were translations of sentences like:  “The old man has many sins, he needs to repent.” There was also a lot of vocabulary based in rural life so I learned very early how to say “My parents are hoeing in the garden.”   (I was always waiting for the opportunity to use that phrase.  Actually my in-laws do more gardening so I did have the occasion from time to time to say: “My wife’s parents like to hoe in their garden.”  Abavyeyi b’umugore wanje barakunda kurima mu murima yabo.  But now I can say considerably more than that. And I try to use it when I talk to people.  I find it particularly helpful to talk to the many people who ask me for money, especially children.  I will say that often they are so taken aback that a mzungu is speaking Kirundi that they are incapable of answering.  (strange but true.)

The last thing I will say about the language is that pronounciation is VERY important as many of the same words mean very different things.  The most striking example of this I have come across is the verb kumaramara.  Depending on the pronounciation “ndamaramara” can mean eiher “I am finished (the job) completely.’ Or “I am deeply ashamed.”  I don’t know if I should read too much into the fact that finishing completely and being ashamed are the same word. 

Enough Kirundi lessons.  The other thing I have been doing a lot of this week is thinking about Eastern DRC (Congo).  As you might know, Burundi borders Eastern Congo and the border is about a 30 minute drive from our house.  And yet we have never been there.  There are several reasons for this, but the main one being that Congo is out of our jurisdiction as MCC reps.  MCC Congo, based in Kinshasa administers the whole country.  The problem is, unlike Burundi Congo is enormous.  Kinashasa is about as far from Eastern Congo as Denver is from Washington DC.  And there are viturally no roads connecting them and almost no direct flights  

So it is hard for MCC Congo to administer the whole country.  After our regional meetings, we have been talking about ways that MCC Burundi might be able to share or support the work in Eastern Congo with MCC Congo.  I am hoping to visit there 3 times in the next two months to meet with the MCC rep there while he is in the east. 

If any of you have read anything about Eastern Congo you would have to agree that it is the most God forsaken part of the world ever.  It is sadly, rich with some of the most valuable minerals in the world, especially Coltan which we all have in our computers and printers.  But it is a region of terrifying lawlessness as a result as many groups are trying to extract it, mostly illegally.  This even includes the Rwandan army as well as the Congolese army.  But hidden in its jungles are also numerous murderous rebel groups including left over fugitives from justice who started the Rwanda genocide (Interahamwe), tas well as the terrifying Lords Resistance Army know for abducting young children and turning them into 4 foot killing machines.  Eastern Congo is also now considered the rape capital of the world and rape is systematically used as a way to terrorize the population there.

In spite of all this, the President of DRC (Congo) Joseph Kabila is very keen on having the UN peacekeeping force out of there by July and wants the Congolese army (sometimes implicated in the same kind of activities listed above.)to take control.  I shudder to think what will happen if the UN leaves the region.

All that to say, there is real need for MCC work such as trauma healing and reconciliation training.  I am hoping, that we might be able to get an MCCer stationed in Bukavu, Uvira, or Goma who could work collaboratively with MCC Burundi and Congo.  The challenge is, of course, recruiting someone who would be willing to work there, but also trying to work in the unbelievably corrupt context of Congo where paying off everyone even for humanitarian work is business as usual.  If you are not up to date about problems in Eastern Congo, it would be worth it to find out more and even advocate for more attention to this region of the world.  It is like a bizarre secret as it is considered to be the world’s deadliest regions, an estimated 5,000,000 people have died there in the last decade as a result of war, lawlessness and violence.  That makes Iraq and Afghanistan pale by comparison. 

This has definitely been a bit of a good news/ bad news week.  The good news is that Bella, our dog is well.  She was quite sick last week and we really began to worry about her over the weekend.  I decided to track down a vet and was glad to find there is a veterinary clinic in Bujumbura.  It is not like the US where clinics are well appointed and full of pet toys and other merchandise.  It was basically a row of examining tables.  There is really no diagnosis, and treatment is just a bevy of shots, dewormer, antibiotic, multivitamin.  But the combination did do the trick and Bella is better again.  The episode did make us realize how much we appreciate having the dog though.

This was punctuated even more when we found out that our other volunteers here in Bujumbura, the Horst family, were robbed this past week.  Bandits jumped over the wall and stole numerous items that were outside the house.  (They did not break in.)  It was done in stealth.  The nightguard was questioned and he insisted that he missed the theft as he was in the back doing the ironing very intently.  The truth of his testimony drew some suspicion as he would have had to have been so concentrated on his task that he did not notice that both the iron AND the radio he listens to when he irons were taken in the heist.  He later insisted he was in the bathroom, but it is clear he was asleep. 

I think most nightguards sleep on the job, and that is why a dog is such and essential part of the alarm system.  A dog will wake up everyone in the house and also is a great deterrent as people here generally have a great fear of dogs.  We are now working to help our volunteers have better security for their house.

The weekend was very relaxing.  We spent Saturday afternoon at the pool where David is making great strides in being able to stick his head underwater.  He just cannot get enough of the pool.

Sunday was also very nice.  Rebecca and I taught Sunday school together in the English service.   We did a lesson on the Holy Spirit leading us.  When I read the story of Phillip and the Eunich in the book of Acts I opened the Bible to find a mysterious envelope.  I read it and it sent us on a treasure hunt.  We went all over the rainbow center grounds following clues and ended up finding Rebecca.  She played the Eunuch and I was Phillip.  It was pretty cool.  (We probably have been watching too many Dora the Explorer videos with David.)  We ended the class with a trust exercise where people are lead around an obstacle course blindfolded that I used to use in teaching dance and improvisation class.  (the guiding technique is to have the blindfolded person gently touch with 1 finger the up turned palm of the guide.  By the subtle movements of the hand as the guide leads them around, they know which way to turn.  The lesson is that they are drawn, not forced to choose a path by the Holy Spirit.)  The kids really got a lot out of the lesson and loved it.  I hope we can be that creative in the future.

That is it for now.  I have to take Oren to school.  Hey, since this is posting #100, maybe some of you could post a comment to let me know that you are reading this, where in the world you live, and what things you like to hear about.  I am curious.  (FYI when you post, your email and name to do not appear so do not assume I know who you are unless you say so in the comment itself.)