School’s End, A Birthday, and A Farewell to Friends

Oren and Gabriella at Club du Lak T on the last Saturday of Don and Rosaura’s visit.

OK, I am going to try to write this fast so I can go to bed soon.  It is 9:30 pm, but I have to be up at 4:30 am to take international election observers to their polling stations before the polls open at 6am.  That is my contribution to election observation for the Presidential election tomorrow (Monday).  It is a bit strange because every opposition party has pulled out of the race in protest, leaving the ruling party candidate as the sole contender.  The opposition parties have said they will not recognize the legitimacy of the winner of this election. 

There is some fear and expectation of violence by the opposition to disrupt the electoral process and we have been told to be out with caution tomorrow.

Despite this we are actually breathing a sad, but satisfied, sigh of relief as we loaded our friends Don, Rosaura, and Gabriela onto Brussels Airlines tonight without incident. They were not the only ones leaving on this flight: there was a veritable exodus of Oren’s classmates from the Ecole Belge as well as our service workers, Nathan and Lara Horst with their kids (Jal and Ella).  At this time we trust they are all on their way to Brussels. 

I did say that the overwhelming sense of this has been relief despite the fact that we were extremely grateful to have them with us. It was wonderful to be able to relax and share jokes and stories and just be ourselves. They were very supportive of us, and also did some very good work here with our partners.  We had really put them to work this past week, by having them lead a 3 day workshop on Bible reading and interpretation. However, the sense of relief comes more from gratitude that we did not encounter any serious security problems or election-related violence while they were here.  At certain moments, we definitely were a little worried that the situation might become more than we could manage responsibly.

But that is now behind us. Although we have our own safety to worry about (and our remaining team members) it is still easier than taking care of our dear friends who had already left their comfort zone far behind to come visit us. Actually Brandon moved out today as well; he will be house-sitting for the Horst’s while they are gone, and until he leaves. 

(Paul crashed, so Rebecca’s taking over)

So we are down to one family (our own) and are fairly exhausted after a very long day in which both Rebecca and I preached prior to taking our friends to the airport. Rebecca had the somewhat daunting task of preaching on the Sunday before a very uncertain election day. She looked at the response of the first Christians to intense pressure from political leaders (Acts 4) for some help. It’s good for all of us to remember to begin with prayer, and to begin prayer by first remembering who God is – and then naming the problem (not the other way around). And it is particularly important for Christians here to remember that our allegiance is first to Jesus Christ, not to a political party or ethnicity or nationality. So our words and actions should always imitate those of Jesus, who blessed and forgave the enemies who killed him.

Paul had to go off and preach alone while everyone else was at home getting ready for Don & Rosaura’s departure this evening. So we’re not really sure what he preached about. He said it was a good challenge as a man to preach about the tenderness and compassion of God.

Today has not been the only busy day.  We have had quite a lot of activity this week.  I mentioned that 3 days (Tues-Thurs) were occupied by teaching for Don and Rosaura (which meant that Rebecca and I tag-teamed babysitting 3 kids.)  They were able to help equip Christian leaders from around the country (from the Harvest for Christ Ministry) so that they could plan and lead their own Bible studies. The workshop was very well received by young Christian leaders who have so few resources to help them. Rosaura’s notes were translated into Kirundi as an added gift to the students and a resource for the future.  Oren’s school also ended this week on Thursday, something I can already tell he misses.

We went to a parent-teacher conference on Friday. We were glad to hear that Oren is a keen and willing student, who does his work well and conscientiously. He seems to be blooming into quite an artist, drawing his own designs and then coloring them. He’s pretty comfortable with letters, too.  He still struggles a lot with French, but that seems to be slowly improving. We were so pleased that he’s really diving into interaction with Francophone kids. We were invited to a lovely dinner at our friend & partner Onesphore’s house on Wednesday night. His son Jim and Oren had a great time running around, playing soccer and being crazy for a couple of hours.

We decided to have an early birthday party for Oren this year, in order to include more of his friends. So on Friday afternoon we invited a number of our friends over with their kids. At one point I think we had 14 kids of various ages running around. They played a scavenger hunt that took them around the garden and led to goody bags for each friend. Marceline had worked hard to cook and bake the two days before, so we had lots of yummy snacks. And we ordered an awesome birthday cake, made in the shape of an airplane. There were overall very few tears – none from Oren! And it was nice to be with friends on that afternoon and say goodbye to a few families we won’t see again till August. Don & Rosaura were also able to see at least one of our partners a final time.

We all felt like we had been running around like crazy for the past three weeks. We did have one brief reprieve on Friday night to join the world in watching Ghana defeat the US in the World Cup.  It was obvious Burundians were rooting for Ghana because at every Ghanaian goal we heard a whoop go up all over town that was audible even in our neighborhood.  

On Saturday, we also took it slower. After morning yoga, and some sermon-writing time, we went out for a final swim and relaxing dinner at the beach. It was a nice time of refreshment and closure for Don & Rosaura’s time here with us. We are really glad that we will see these friends again in just a month, along with many, many others. Our trip to the airport tonight whetted our appetites to be the ones traveling back to see loved ones very soon.  (We go on a 4 week vacation to the US on July 21)

6:00 am Monday (back to Paul)

As Rebecca said, I fell asleep and was up at 4:30 am to pick up International election observers in town and deliver them to polling stations.  The streets were very quiet and I am glad I was able to get everyone to their places by 6:00 am when they officially open the ballot boxes then open.

I should probably add one final note on elections here following up on some previous blogs.  The group we have been working with Amatora mu’mahoro (Elections in peace) released an official report with the final results from the communal elections.  According to them the ruling party CNDD-FDD got about 65% of the vote, and the major opposition party the FNL (the former Hutu rebel group) got 15% and Uprona (a tutsi party) got about 5%.  The remainder of votes went to other smaller parties. 

The opposition parties have pulled out of the race because they are accusing the ruling party of massive fraud—something that about 3000 observers failed to find.  It is true that the original results listed a majority for CNDD of about 80% but that was not the final result.  That said, my own sense is that there may have been some scattered incidents of fraud, but I think the CNDD did get that majority because as the ruling party they have tremendous advantages as they are perceived as being the group bringing food, schools, etc. to the masses.  The president is also very popular.

Burundi is not a country where there is any polling done.  (and it would be hard here because people are very guarded and rarely honest when asked direct questions.)  When I talked to people I knew in the FNL, for instance, they were absolutely convinced that they would win a 60% or more majority, as were other opposition parties.  I think the results stunned them because they were in such disagreement with their personal beliefs about the strength of their party, but not grounded in any statistical facts.

It is unfortunate that there is this problem because while the first election was not necessarily perfect, the reaction by the opposition seems extreme and not based in reality either.  Sadly, if this election is not seen as legitimate, Burundi may be stuck for another 5 years (until next election) in the stagnation of political insecurity and random acts of violence.

I can only say for myself, that I do not hold out great hope for true democratic institutions in this country for quite some time.  I am hoping that whoever is in power in this country will be committed to good governance, and in providing good education programs, family planning, and an economic climate that will promote growth and a reasonably fair distribution of wealth and opportunity to  its citizens.  Unfortunately there is little precedent for that in this part of the world.

Lying Low and a Trip to Kigali

Sunday evening:  Paul and kids enjoying a movie after a very long drive home from Kigali. 

This is one of those weeks where last Monday seems like last year.  I don’t know why my memory seems so hazy about the week’s beginning.  Perhaps because so much has happened in a few days, or maybe because we have just returned to Bujumbura from a long exhausting ride from Rwanda.

But I will do my best to sum up and maybe with the aid of Rebecca, Don, and Rosaura, I will not leave out anything important.  

As those of you know who have read the last week or so, we are currently hosting Don and Rosaura and their 3 year old daughter Gabriella from Poughkeepsie, NY visiting from our home church.  We have continued to enjoy sharing Burundi and seeing it fresh through their eyes--that is, by people who are new to both the country and even the continent of Africa.  

We have continued to keep them busy and during the first part of the week Rosaura was asked to do another tour of the campuses she visited last week to give her talk on a Christian perspective on environmental stewardship.  She did comment to us that she is used to speaking to a group about once a month and here she has already given about 9 lectures over 10 days.  (and next week promises to be even fuller.)

The lectures had been going on without a hitch until Tuesday evening.  I finished teaching my final ballet class that afternoon (we ended with a little showing for the parents which the kids loved.) and I was planning to accompany Don and Rosaura to an evening lecture on the campus in Kiriri, the upper part of the City.

As  was leaving the ballet class, a nervous mother passed me and said “Don’t go to Kiriri, the police are arriving there and there has been fighting.  They are arresting the leader of the FNL." (opposition political party)  I was surprised by what she said and began to drive home when Zenon called me and told me that the lecture at the campus had been cancelled because of an attempted arrest of the leader of the FNL in Kiriri.

I drove home to tell Don and Rosaura about the cancellation, then Rebecca and I began listening to the radio to figure out what was going on.  (We also called Zachee.)  From what we could piece together, a large group of police had gone to the leader of the FNL’s house to arrest him, but he had alluded them.  In the meantime, his followers had gathered there to blocade them, there had been fighting and shooting and several fatalities.  The official press releases however did not seem to be confirming any of this.  (Don and I were driving to prayer Wednesday morning, however, and saw the police blockade in Kiriri as can be seen in the photo below.)

This is, for Rebecca and I, another indication of the growing instability, especially in Bujumbura, surrounding the Presidential election.  The most unsettling part of this has been a nightly barrage of grenade attacks.  3-5 per night at seemingly random nightclubs and other meeting places.  Several people have been killed.  The strange thing is, no one is taking credit, and the motive is very unclear except to create instability.  But who that benefits is debatable.  Some say the opposition, and some say the ruling party.  Anyway, the official crackdown on the FNL is ostensibly related to these grenade attacks.

We have received advisories from the US Embassy to not go out to restaurants at night, and we are taking that advice.  My own opinion is that these attacks are aimed at being disruptive, but I do not believe ANYTHING will gain traction to pull the population into war again.  I get the sense that people are sick of war and are just waiting for these elections to be over.  There seems to be little question that the ruling party will win, and I do sense that the President is a popular man.

But coming back to hosting guests in this country, it does put us in the uncomfortable position of trying to assure Don and Rosaura that everything is alright, while admitting that we need to take precautions--like not going out to restaurants at night.  For us this is still within the range of normal (remember all the Homeland Security alert level warnings of yore in the US?) but it is not ‘normal’ in the way that we would necessarily consider an ‘acceptable risk’ in our own culture back home.

We also have the responsibility of letting the MCC team know what precautions to take, we spent much of the week fielding calls from our SALTers and other volunteers about what they should be doing or avoiding.

So we are balancing assurance with caution here and wishing that it was a more secure time for a visit, but on the other hand, I believe God will use this time and experience that he is subjecting our visitors to, to develop them spiritually as well as us.   They will have some stories to share about life here in difficult times without a doubt.

Despite the insecurity at night, the days here are perfectly normal and no one acts as if anything out of the ordinary is happening.  Kids are all in school, I continue to go swimming and to work, traffic is as bad as ever, etc.

That said, we have not missed the opportunity to entertain our guests, and have done many things around town during the day, and at home.  Gabriella, for instance, enjoyed cooking with Marceline and learned how to make tortillas.  We also watched a couple movies as two couples after putting the kids to bed at night.  The kids have also really enjoyed playing together.

---Break----
I need to interrupt the flow here to report on another unusual event.  I got a call on Wednesday morning from one of Brandon’s housemates saying she needed to talk to me.  I met her that evening with Brandon where she told both of us, to our surprise, that her father had been diagnosed with terminal cancer and would be moving to Bujumbura immediately and needed Brandon’s room for the rest of time he was to be here.  So the next morning Brandon packed his bags and moved over to our house with us.  He has one month left in his term so we will not look for another live in, and he will probably house sit for Nathan and Lara Horst while they are on vacation in the next several weeks.

In a way, Brandon’s arrival was fortuitously good as it meant we had a housesitter while we were in Rwanda.  We had had plans to drive up to Rwanda this weekend and did not feel that anything about the security situation here necessitated changing them.  Our plan was to leave Friday after school.  The main reason we were going was to help Ruth and Krystan get ready to leave for Kenya on Sunday where they will have their baby.  We got to Kigali Friday evening without incident.

Actually there was one small matter of us still waiting for Oren to get his resident visa.  All the rest of our family has had ours for weeks, but they lost Oren’s dosier somewhere in their Orwellian filing system.  (Don’t get me started on French bureaucracy and filing again.)  Suffice it to say that although we are one family and always apply together for visas, they have four separate portfolios, one for each of us, that are not even filed alphabetically.  (Maybe by visa #)  Anyway, everytime we need to renew it is an arduous process of waiting and wondering if we will get all 4, they invariably are never finished at the same time and someone’s folder is always lost or left on the desk of some supervisor waiting for a signature while he is on an extended vacation and has locked his office.

OK enough about that.  Zachee managed to get the passport out of immigration about 10 minutes before we left town.  Otherwise I would have had to go alone.

Making the trip up to  Kigali with 2 families which include 3 small children is about as hard as it sounds.  Fortunately they were about as well behaved as they could be.  We made a couple stops and they really enjoyed running around at the border.

In Kigali, we were sorry to find that the Africa New Life Guesthouse where we usually stay was booked up.  So we stayed at a place closer to Ruth and Krystan called Amani.  It was not bad, not very western, but there was an attempt to have hot water.

We all went out together with Ruth and Krystan on Friday night to the starbucks like coffee house called Café Bourbon.  It is crazy to see people out everywhere (in Kigali and Bujumbura) watching the World Cup, bars and restaurants are all packed during gametime and there are large screen TVs set up everywhere.

We got back to the guest house late and got the kids to bed.  The next day we had a nice breakfast at the guesthouse then went into town to do banking and shopping.  Again it was interesting to see this all through Don and Rosaura’s eyes as we have become so used to this routine.

We had dinner with Ruth and Krystan again on Saturday.  This time we went to a new Indian restaurant.  Long story short, the food was excellent and the kids were reasonably well behaved.  We got back to the guesthouse worn out and ready for bed and looking forward to being back home Sunday.

We did say goodbye to Ruth and Krystan one more time and said a prayer with them before heading out of town.  On the way out we took Don and Rosaura to the Nyamatta Genoside memorial.  A very disturbing sight, but probably worth seeing once in one’s lifetime.  It is not necessary to go twice.

We continued on to Bujumbura, but mada a brief stop along the way to meet Jodi who came to a nearby town on our route to get some supplies from us.

We will see her again in about 2 weeks.

The next week promises to be busy with both Rebecca and I preaching and D and R leading a 3 day Bible study.  Please pray for our work and continued security in the country.  The Presidential election is next Monday.

One thing I will say about having friends visit, it gives us a chance to share our life with them, but it also reminds me how much I miss the communities I left in the Hudson River Valley, shout out to PUMC, small group, KAIROS and Vassar dance dept.  Looking forward to visiting briefly this summer.

Homies in da Hizzie

Our family chillin' at the pool, photo taken by Don McNeil.


I should mention right from the start, that I am writing this blog on a new Macbook.  It is really great and it comes with a good (mysterious) anecdote.  By way of background, you might be aware that my old Macbook died about 4 weeks ago.  Unfortunately my back up drive, for no apparent reason, ceased to function as well the week before this happened.

I was a bit sad at the prospect that these 2 events would mean I had lost some difficult to replace documents.  Particularly grad school and dance company archives that I had kept.  But also there were about 3000 pix of Oren and David on there as well, not to mention Ipod music, calendars, contacts, etc.

The new macbook was purchased on line, then brought out by Don and Rosaura (more on them soon.)  When I got it I put the necessary software on, and just as a chance plugged in the back up drive that had not worked earlier…nothing.  I tried a dozen more times plugging it in and taking it out but to no avail. 

I was sad about this, but that evening, as I put Oren to bed I actually prayed that God would give me one shot at opening the drive.  I went to bed but slept fitfully.  I woke up at 4am and could not go back to sleep so I got up to fiddle with the new computer.  I decided to try once more to plug in the hard drive.  I did, and to my shock it spun up and the icon appeared on the desktop.  I opened it trembling.  All the files opened.  I rapidly started downloading everything I could.  All the aforementioned files, grad school, MCC stuff, and all 3000 photos as well as some various and sundry things.

When I finished I unplugged it.  The drive has not worked since that time.  I got my one shot and was able to rescue those irreplaceable documents. 

I am not one to claim that God is behind everything that happens to go right for me in some random circumstance.  (It could be the devil ;-) but I was really blessed by this answer to prayer.  I am also not claiming to be called to a hard drive healing ministry so please do not ask me to pray for or lay hands on your hard drives. 

As far as the calendar and contacts, as well as music, I found that I had all of these things stored on my ipod, so I was able to back load it onto the computer.  I really feel lucky to have lost relatively little in my computer saga.

So as I mentioned above, the reason why a new mac appeared in Burundi is because it was carried in by Don and Rosaura.  Don and Rosaura are friends from Poughkeepsie New York.  We went to the same church (Poughkeepsie United Methodist Church) together there and were in a small group with us as well.  Rosaura also works at Vassar.  She is the campus coordinator of the Intervarsity Christian Fellowship there. 

They arrived on a rainy Sunday evening.  We went as a family to pick them up and when we got to the airport, the plane was already there but no D and R.  We waited quite a while then began to drive out of the airport wondering what connection they missed when my cell phone rung and it was Rosaura.  She told us they were in the airport filling out missing baggage forms in customs.  We went back and found them at the airport. 

I would have been more upset about baggage that had not arrived had this not happened at least 3 times before when people have come here from the US via Brussels Airlines and it was always found.  We were able to confirm that it was indeed in Belgium, the only problem being that flights only come twice per week so we had to wait 3 days to get the bags. 

We were able to lend them some of our clothes though for the next 3 days until their baggage arrived.

It was really exciting to see them and Oren immediately took responsibility for entertaining Gabriella who is 2 years younger than him. 

Although the main reason Don and Rosaura came here was to visit us and give some moral support, we made some arrangements to put them to work as well.  Since Rosaura works as coordinator of a campus ministry, we made an arrangement for her to meet and speak to some different campus chapters of the Union Group Biblique de Burundi (counterpart of Intervarsity here.)  Zenon, who is one of our partners is the General Secretary of the UGBB here.  He was happy to make an opportunity for her to speak and actually set up about 8 opportunities for her to speak in the first 2 weeks they are here.

Rosaura is also an environmental engineer by training so she did teachings about the Biblical basis for Environmental Stewardship. The topic was quite interesting if novel to the students on campus.  Although Burundi is a country that has been devastating its environment in the past 2 decades due to war and overpopulation, there is not a lot of discussion, knowledge, or activism around environmental issues here. 

I am still doing my best not to cringe when I watch even the most educated Burundians routinely throw trash, bottles, etc. out the window of their car while driving.  (It is so taboo for us in the US.)  Other evidence of environmental degradation here that students talked to her about when prodded to think about it was destruction of wildlife (no big game that used to be plentiful here live in Burundi as they were all killed and eaten by rebel groups during the war.—except hippos.), massive deforestation, and pollution in Lake Tanganyika.  I thought the topic was very timely and appropriate and was well received by the students. 

Don did a lot of help with childcare as we took Rosaura around to the different groups, but this week he will be helping do some training on doing Bible studies with another one of our partners who works with students: Moisson Pour Christ (Harvest for Christ.)

One of the really interesting things to me about having visitors see us from home, is to see how they react to the way we live here.  There is so much we get used to and consider normal like no electricity at night, no running water in the middle of the day, no trash pick up, driving on terrible roads, seeing serious traffic accidents daily, even being gawked at as the only white people most places we go and being asked constantly for money and hearing “mzungu” shouted everywhere we go.  Don and Rosaura have never even been to Africa before so this is all quite a big shock to them.

It has also been interesting sharing with them other more subtle cultural differences.  It can be a challenge to teach cross-culturally because of assumptions we make.  As an example, Rosaura wanted to talk about God’s creativity and gave an image of her daughter Gabriella coloring with crayons and magic markers.  The translator had great difficulty translating this and  I had to tell Rosaura later that it is doubtful that many of these students had ever colored or even seen crayons in their childhood as they would not have been able to afford them at home, and primary school here is a matter of sitting in chairs and doing rote repetition and memory, orally and written.  Coloring or any creative activity are not part of primary education here at all.  In fact, most Burundian children would probably not play with any ‘toys’ like blocks, legos, or other constructing materials either at school or home.

So we have had some really thoughtful conversations together many of these things and life in an impoverished country has been quite eye opening for them.

Time with them has not been all work and no play though.  We have taken them to several of the more touristy places in Bujumbura including the beach by Club du Lac Tanganyika, and Entente Sportif, the pool where we like to swim.  (The photos on this week’s blog are mainly from Don’s camera at Entente Sportif on Saturday).  We have had a lot of fun together and Gabriella has really enjoyed playing with Oren and David here, particularly jumping on the trampoline.

The weekend was relaxing Saturday and Don even did yoga with us in the morning.  Sunday, they had the experience of a long morning worship service in 2 languages at PTI then I preached in the afternoon at the English service.  (I fleshed out my thoughts on a Theology of the Future that I described in last week’s blog.)  After church Thomas and Naja, our Danish missionary friends invited us over for dinner and we had a very nice evening together. 

Other news from Burundi: Election news continues to be concerning.  Out of protest of the bizarre election results, all the opposition parties have decided to boycott the upcoming Presidential election, leaving the ruling party candidate the only contender.  The election commission has decided to have the election anyway.  We have been waiting for other reactions but things have been calm up until Saturday when we heard there were about 5 simultaneous grenade attacks at different restaurants in town Saturday night.  No one has taken responsibility but it is undoubtedly related to the elections.

The US embassy has advised caution about going out to public places, but we have not been told that this seems to be any indication of a largescale deterioration of security here.  It is being treated at this point as more of a disruption than the beginning of a war.

Sadly grenades here are ubiquitous.  It seems like most everyone has a few leftover grenades from the war and we often hear about people even settling domestic disputes by throwing a grenade at someone else’s house.  This is another fall out from a country that had been at war for so many years and another reason why our conflict resolution training is of such value here.  It is essential that we get people out of the mindset that killing someone is a reasonable way to settle differences.

But please keep us in prayer that we might be able to stay out of harm’s way.  We do not feel in any way targeted by the violence I mentioned above, but we don’t want to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

I think I stop there except to say that Rebecca and I extend our greeting to all of our friends at our home church (PUMC) who helped make this visit by Don and Rosaura possible. 

Next week we will be traveling with D and R to Rwanda!

Malaria and a Theology of the Future

Oren and David on retreat.

Monday morning 4am.  I am having trouble sleeping tonight.  One reason is because I did not get anything posted on Sunday about the past week which really was quite full.  I can't believe what a shift in gear this has been from the week prior when it seems we were obsessed with election results.  Although the issues as far as elections are still very much unresolved, life, for us, did not wait for any outcome.

Last Sunday I mentioned Rebecca not feeling well and skipping our weekly pizza outing to Ubuntu.  On Monday morning she woke up feeling dreadful, weak, sweaty, like something she had never felt before.  Although I had been sick the week before with a nasty virus, we suspected this was not the cause.  We had malaria test kit that we decided to administer.  A drop of blood on a test strip gave a very quick positive result.  We called the doctor who confirmed that her symptoms were consistent with the test and she began treatment.  The next 2 days she might describe as some of the worst of her life.  We Americans just do not really have any idea how debilitating these virulent tropical diseases can be.  Despite beginning treatment, she could not get out of bed or barely even move.  She described headaches that felt like her brain was splitting in two.

Malaria is a terrible affliction even with good treatment, it is hard to imagine that there are children here that may contract it 12 or more times per year.  It can also be fatal, and often is if untreated.  For us though, the great challenge that this brought for us was a retreat we were planning to lead in Rwanda for our Burundian and Rwandese partners.  This is an annual event that takes a considerable amount of preparation, then a lot of energy to lead and facilitate on over the 3 days it happens.

Rebecca fell ill Monday and we were scheduled to head to Rwanda with 28 people in tow on Thursday to lead a 3 day conference.  It was a dilemma as no option sounded good.  Canceling seemed almost unimaginable after having made such extensive preparation and work to get everyone available for the date.  I considered going alone and leaving Rebecca with the kids, but in her condition that would have not been much better than being at the conference with childcare.  I even considered taking the kids and just leaving Rebecca, but I could not see how that would be possible either if I was to be the sole leader.

We decided the only thing that we could do was to pray and wait until Thursday morning to make a last minute decision based on how Rebecca was feeling.  I spent much of the rest of the week preparing to leave in many ways.  This included getting materials printed and photocopied, and solving the massive logistical puzzle of how to get everyone up there using 3 vehicles and asking some to take the bus.  (We sent the SALTers on the bus with a couple of other young partners.)

By Thursday morning Rebecca was very weak but feeling considerably better.  She was very weak, but the headache and fever were gone.  We decided that in many ways, going to the retreat was the least exhausting option as she would be able to sleep much of the time since we had 2 childcare people coming with us.

Mercifully the trip was uneventful as far as driving.  We all got across the border without incident.  This included our whole MCC team as well as many Burundians.  The place we stayed was in a town called Butare, closer to the border than Burundi. There is a beautiful Catholic monastery there called Guhindamuyaga.  The guest rooms were modest, but the grounds felt a bit like the palace of Versaille, with enormous lawns and gardens.  We got there and by 8 pm the people from Rwanda arrived there as well.  (They were delayed when the wheel of the car they were riding in fell off and rolled down the road beside them.  You get used to these kinds of things around here.)

I will try to do a synopsis of our time together, but long story short, we really had a great and meaningful time together, especially the MCC team for whom this was probably the last time we were to be together as the SALTers leave in July.  Ruth was looking great and about ready to pop from her pregnancy (they head to Nairobi soon), and it was great to have Zachee and Bridget with Timmy with us as well.  The growing MCC kid family included, Oren, Jal, Timmy who played together as well as the son of one of our partners Joshua, while David and Ella, the young kids enjoyed each other as well.  (Although Ella's favorite game seemed to be to push David down when he ran away from her.)

We try to have a theme around which we organize talks for this retreat, and this year I called it Developing a Theology of the Future.  It was a theme that I felt has relevance cross culturally because I feel the Gospel critiques both my own culture as well as contemporary African culture in an interesting way in this regard.  I will describe the summarize the premise briefly:

Normally I begin a critique of culture with my own.  I used the passage at the end of Deuteronomy where Moses is on Mt. Nebo, just prior to his death, looking over the Promised Land which he will not enter.  I considered how Moses might have felt and suggested that the view was one of great comfort to him, because his faith taught him that the best things were prepared for a future generation, not his own.  Thoughout the Bible we find this 'theology of the future.'  The hope that the best is not in the present but rather, the future.

I told my Burundian colleagues that the generation of my grandparents and even parents believed this fervently, having lived during the Great Depression and World War II.  I believe that my grandfather's maxim in life was that his children would have a better life than he did.  That kind of thinking changed at some point in the 1970s.

My generation, by contrast, believed that the best things should be ours in the present.  We were even told and assured that getting what you want now was actually a good thing, that it drove an economy from which all would prosper.  Savings was disparaged and borrowing became a moral virtue.  In the past decade, for the fist time in our history Americans have more debt than savings.

I look at us now, we are might be compared to a generation of locusts, the current financial crisis is a result of our massive wager that borrowing from the future to have it all in the present is a virtue.

This obsession with the present is not only evident on Wall St. (take what you can and get out) but is also a part of Christian Faith.  I am referring to a Gospel of prosperity that tells us that 'God wants to bless you right now abundantly, and all you have to do is ask."

But that was not the faith of my grandparents.  Certainly they believed in God's blessing, but they also believed that "I am sure that this present suffering is nothing compared to the glory that is to come."  In other words, even in our faith lives many of us have rejected the belief that the best is prepared for a future generation and not for us.

Burundi also suffers from a theology of the present.  But it has different roots.  It is based in a kind of fatalism.  After years of trauma from war the sense for most is that they have no control over what will happen to them and they and their families could be dead tomorrow.  There is no hope that a future generation will have it better than the present.  People don't think ahead, beyond finding the next day's meal or other need.  (Interestingly, the Prosperity Gospel, which we export wholesale is widely popular here as it offers a false hope that God is going to come in and solve all the problems of poverty and despair without them taking any action to change behavior or patterns of living.

In both our cultures we suffer from a sense of hopelessness (or disinterest) in the future.  And as Christians that is really tragic, because we have historically put our hopes and dreams for a future that is better than the present as a key element of our faith.  I personally regret that the word 'sacrifice' in terms of doing without or saving was really seen as 'quaint' or 'ignorant.'

I challenged our partners, in their organizations to think beyond the present or even their own terms as leaders of their organizations.  (I gave the example of my dance company, which existed for 20 years under the name Paul D. Mosley Dance Inc.) I joked that it was certainly not very future looking, as once I quit, it ceased to exist.  But I asked them to what extent their own organizations, though not bearing their names, were essentially the same thing in practice.

The talks and debates over the weekend were very interesting as well as the time to relax.  I enjoyed walking with Oren and David in the morning before breakfast.  Rebecca recuperated and by Friday was able to lead us in some times of prayer and worship with the guitar.

By the time we came back on Sunday we felt exhausted but satisfied with the work we had done.

We had dinner on Sunday with Zachee, Bridget and Tim at Ubuntu in the pouring rain.  (A surprise in this season) then we prepared for our next adventure...

We went to the airport about 7:30 pm to pick up Don and Rosaura Andujar McNeil and daughter Gabriella from Poughkeepsie, NY!!!  (For those of you waiting to hear, they did get here safely but I will write more about them next week.)