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.