Last week I mentioned the fact that this was not a 'normal' week in that we were going to be on the road again. I am happy to say that I am sitting in our family room this evening having returned Friday about 6pm. That means we had all of Saturday in Bujumbura as a day off. We did go swimming midday, but truth be told, the kids were so exhausted they seemed content to just lie around the house and play with toys for most of the days.
The reason we headed upcountry as a family this week is because it was fall break at Oren's school. We stayed in town Monday because Yolanda had come down on the weekend and planned to get a ride back up with us but needed to do some shopping errands before leaving. We also lacked at least one important car document to cross the border and needed to wait to pick it up on Tuesday.
I actually woke up sick in the morning (stomach virus or something) so I opted to stay home with the kids while Rebecca went out with Yolanda to help. The kids had both been throwing up the night before so I suspected I had whatever they had. By Monday afternoon Rebecca came home and confirmed that she had the same thing and was very nauseous. It was when we were calling friends to make some arrangements for the week ahead that realized that Zachee and Bridget's family, as well as all the Horsts, and Kirsten, our German friend were all sick with the same thing. What was very suspicious is that they were also ALL at David's Birthday. Rebecca and I frantically inventoried the food in our minds to figure out what could have caused it. We suspected the salsa because it was made with raw tomatoes, but there was also a ranch dressing made with mayonaise.
To be safe, we threw out most everything including the left-over cake. Yolanda, however, did not get sick and she was at the party and ate everything that we all did. In the end we were not able to figure out what it was and everyone who got sick, like us, felt it resembled a stomach virus more than food poisoning, so it is possible that the virus was spread at the party since David had had it earlier in the weekend.
Getting sick is such a part of life here that we seem to just accept it as normal. If you don't have typhoid or malaria, you count yourself as lucky.
There was some concern about leaving Tuesday morning with everyone extremely nauseous on Monday, but the next morning we all woke up feeling fine so we decided to proceed. We left fairly early (about 9:30), stopping only to put Yolanda's new rattan couch on the roof of our car before heading up. We had no covering for it so we prayed that we would not meet rain despite the rainy season.
The kids were very excited to be heading up country. This was going to be quite an adventure as we had decided on the ambitious trip of driving East to Gitega to visit Yolanda's home and have lunch with her, then head north to Burasira to have dinner with Jodi where we would stay the night. The next day we would continue north to Kigali Rwanda where we would spend 2 more nights and do some field visits and debriefing with Ruth and Krystan.
We do try to see all of our service workers once per month, but this was the first time we would see most of them at their homes in the space of 2-3 days.
We did get to Gitega without a hitch and only a smattering of rain. We left off the couch and had a quick lunch with Yolanda before heading up the 2 hour dirt road to Jodi's home. We were happy to find that the roads were neither muddy nor excessively dusty, and we made good time.
Jodi has been doing well and due in no small part to the fact that she had bought a small piece of land and was experimenting with farming it. She has farming experience from her work on a cooperative farm in upstate New York. She also had the opportunity to go to a training sponsored by a South African group who were teaching a revolutionary farming technique called 'conservation agriculture' or more popularly "Farming God's Way". Jodi was very impressed by what she learned there.
The technique is based on the idea that land should be altered and disturbed as little as possible when farming. For instance, ground cover is not removed by tilling. Seeds are planted very precisely in holes with fertilizer put directly in the hole. All areas between rows are covered with grass and the same rows where seeds are planted are used over and over again. What this technique does is help preserve the topsoil erosion and also helps fix water in the soil so that the ground does not dry up. Yields can be 4-6 times higher than what farmers get from using traditional methods here.
Jodi is trying it out and had her field done in this way. Because her field abuts a major foot path, people from all the neighboring villages have begun to ask about what she is doing in the field and many want to be trained in how to do this in their field. Jodi is waiting to see the results as she did half of her land with this method and the other half in the traditional way.
I realize, as I write this blog and think about what the word 'field' might conjure up in the minds of my friends and farming relatives in the US. A field is more the size of an average suburban backyard and would not need a tractor to turn over the soil. In fact all tilling is done with a large hoe like you can see in this picture. (The picture was taken of students at a school we support in Rwanda.)
When we got to Burasira we drove out to field as it was threatening to rain. The kids, as always made us quite a spectacle and soon we were surrounded by about 50-60 local children who watched David and Oren play on the mud bricks of a demolished hut. It always feels a bit invasive, but Oren and David are pretty good sports about it.
We left Jodi the next morning after making about 5 visits to the stables the seminary to see the cows, rabbits and pigs, and headed off to Kigali. We had an interesting twist to our plan this time. Zachee was working up country and had Timothy with him (Oren's best friend). He asked us if we would take Tim up with us as Bridget was in Rwanda working this week. We happily obliged as we knew it would make entertaining Oren much easier.
We met Zachee enroute in a town called Kirundo, had lunch with Tim and him then headed up to Rwanda. Fortunately we crossed the border with incident. There was some concern that we might look suspicious traveling to Rwanda with a Burundian child without his parents. Fortunately we know all the border guards so well by now that they did not even look twice.
That night (Wednesday) I went to bed with a very sore throat, so bad that I started a course of azithromyocin because I was sure I was getting strep.
Thursday, the plan was to divide and conquer again. Since I had made the last trip to Rwanda alone, Rebecca was going to meet with the partner while I watched the boys. Meeting with partners gave us an opportunity to talk about MCC's future strategic planning and what our partners should be doing in accordance with these changes.
One of the changes discussed was MCC's focus shifting more toward food security and sustainable development and less money directly for peace trainings and othe 'peace' related activities. (This was hard news for our peace partners.)
Oren, David, Timmy, and another kid played well together while Rebecca was gone in the guesthouse lawn.
After lunch we all headed into town with Ruth and Krystan to do shopping for items that are hard to find in Bujumubura. We met Bridget for dinner and had a delicious Indian meal at a new restaurant that recently opened up.
We got back on the road to Bujumbura about 1pm and drove straight back to arrive home after 6pm. It was a long day of driving, very tough on the kids, but they did hang in pretty well. (Actually, toward the end, they were laughing hysterically.)
I am happy that this coming week we are able to be homebodies (no traveling). We are also expecting an exciting visitor next Sunday evening. More about that next week.
Bonus Photo: Ruth Plett and Krystan Palikowski with baby Misha, our service workers in Rwanda.
1 comment:
So good to get your blog on Daylight savings Sunday evening!
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