I admit that there are some days that my enthusiasm for writing a weekly post wanes. But I never regret the effort put into it when I read back over the activities of past weeks. Sometimes I am surprised to find how quickly I forget the details of time past, even in the last month.
This week seems particularly important to get down in print. I would describe it as challenging and at times, a bit of a nail-biter. In retrospect I would say that the adage "all's well that ends well" certainly applies, but it did not begin that way.
Over the last weekend I spent some time ruminating over a particularly onerous task prepared for me on Monday. Sadly, one of our service workers had been experiencing theft by someone among their house staff. The service worker needed help to communicate the reason for dismissal cross-culturally, so Felix and I said we would do the job.
Firing people, especially very poor staff, is a responsibility that runs right up against my bourgeois sense of compassion. By that I mean that despite feeling very violated that a trusted worker in my house may be going through my stuff and stealing things, there is something in me that feels, in some way, that because of my privilege I deserve to have someone poorer steal my money.
I have talked with Burundians here (all of whom have house staff, usually a cook and a nanny) and this makes no sense to them. Many will dismiss a cook for shorting them about 10 cents on a trip to the market to buy food. They insist to me that there are people out there trying to find a job who are honest. Why reward someone with employment who is not honest?
Sadly, also, stealing by workers is expected by the Burundians I talk to. In fact, my Burundian friends have all told me that, to a great extent, the onus is on you yourself to keep valuables locked up at all times when workers are in the house. Leaving them out is an invitation to steal them and one should expect it. Most of the Burundians I know lock their bedrooms and don't let anyone clean in there. Rebecca and I feel we have enough trust to let our workers clean in the bedrooms, but I have to admit, I do not know a single person here who has not had to fire a worker for theft--even us in the first few months we were here.
All that said, the day arrived and Felix and I met with the staff of our service worker one by one on Monday at the office and dismissed four of seven. (The thief had bought a parcel of land shortly after one disappearance of money, the other workers dismissed were related to the person who stole.)
This was a hard but necessary job that took most of the morning. I was glad Felix was there to help me.
The week had no where to go but up after that set of meetings on Monday. Tuesday I taught ballet in the afternoon as usual. A propos to that, I am excited about the recent purchase of 5 large mirrors that I am having installed in the room where I teach. I was able to buy them from saving the small fees I have charged for classes over the past year; hopefully the installation will be completed next week.
Wednesday was definitely the highlight of the week. (I should mention here that Jodi was down from upcountry this past weekend and stayed with us Monday and Tuesday as well staying with us. Her reason for being here was to help with a task set for Wednesday). I need to give a bit of background though:
About a year ago, I received an email in response to my blog from a pastor named Dr. Robin Wilde. He told me was the director of an organization called Foundation for Hope in Africa (based in Wisconsin), which supported projects in Uganda and Tanzania. They were interested in doing something in Burundi. He asked me for some suggestions, and looking at the work they did, I suggested they consider a partnership with UCEDD, our partner who runs the Hope School for the Batwa.
We had several more correspondences back and forth between me, him, Innocent (who directs UCEDD) and Jodi (our volunteer seconded to the Hope School) and out of all this came a plan for him and his colleague Roger to stop briefly through Burundi between visiting a project in Eastern Congo and returning to Kampala where they had brought a small team for some work.
The plan required precision in timing that concerned me greatly in the African context. It involved them leaving Goma in Eastern Congo by a small chartered Mission Aviation plane at about 1pm and arriving in Bujumbura about 2. We would pick them up at the airport and zip them up the 3 hours to Nyangungu where the Hope School is located. They would stay the night, then I would zip them back down the next morning to catch their plane and get back to Kampala by mid-afternoon (the pilot was not allowed to fly after 5pm because he would exceed his maximum hours).
Things went typically African right from the start. Robin called me about 2 pm to say they were still stuck in Goma and were not given permission to take off for no apparent reason. (It turned out of course that the immigration officials were 'holding then hostage' in an attempt to extract a bribe.) When they were finally given permission to leave, immigration in Congo had delayed their flight for about 4 hours.
This created a dilemma for me because I realized that I did not feel it was safe to leave after 3:30 to drive to Nyangungu as we would need to drive on some of the smaller dirt roads after dark. There has been an increase in banditry by armed gangs on the roads after dark, particularly on some of the smaller roads we would be travelling.
I made a plan B to drive them half-way, to the town of Gitega (about 2 hours up the road) if they got here by 5, and then continue on to the school early the next morning. Plan C was to stay in Bujumbura and just describe the school to them--not a good option but I had decided that there was no way I could safely drive to Gitega after 5 pm as that would mean we would be driving in the dark at least part of the way.
I received a call from Robin at 4 pm that said they were given permission to leave and were on their way and would be in Buj. in an hour. Jodi and I drove out to the airport (Rebecca and the kids were not coming on this trip) and the plane touched down just before 5pm. Fortunately the airport was empty and they came out of immigration at about 5:05pm. This made my dilemma even more difficult. Should I try to drive to Gitega 5 minutes after my absolute deadline to leave had past? I said a prayer and decided to go for it. We got in the car quickly and I sped up the mountain. We were in Gitega just before 7pm.
We had no reservations anywhere in Gitega, but it really was not a problem. We stayed at a hotel on the edge of town that had rooms. Robin and Roger were exhausted from their ordeal in Goma and went right to bed after dinner.
Our time was going to be short. We only had about an hour 45 minutes to spend at the school in which we wanted to visit some classes, talk to the principles, see the Batwa community, consider some project sites, as well as visit the seminary to see whether it would be suitable as a guest house for potential future mission trips.
Jodi and Innocent gave them a whirlwind tour while I acted as cameraman. (Since funding would depend and convincing constituents of Hope Fund, good video and photos were important.) I would not have thought it would be possible, but we did manage to do a very good presentation of the school in our limited time.
We were back in the car at 10:45am heading down the mountain. We took Innocent and Beatice part of the way back so we had a bit more time to dialogue with them. (Jodi stayed at the school).
We zipped back to Bujumbura and I got them to the airport about 5 minutes before their plane was set to leave. I actually prayed and thanked God for the minor miracle of making the logistics of this trip actually work. I have learned a lot about not setting time limits when trying to do something here, but somehow he was merciful in working within the limitations we had imposed.
I was also blessed that Roger and Robin made a good connection with Innocent and were actually impressed and moved by the work that UCEDD is doing with the Batwa at the Hope School.
I got back home around 2pm, that Thursday exhausted but relieved. I think Rebecca was very happy to have me back to take a turn with the kids again. She was feeling particularly pressed by deadlines looming in the next 3 weeks due to the end of one fiscal year and the beginning of the next for MCC.
Friday was not a day off for me though, despite the long trip on Wednesday and Thursday. I had committed, several weeks earlier to do a lecture on Transformational Leadership at a conference run by one of our partners (Harvest for Christ). This is a lecture I had given before and I do enjoy sharing it because it is a talk that I have developed from spending time in this cultural context and I feel speaks directly to the challenges of leaders (church and organizational) in Burundi.
I had prepared lecture notes so I did not feel the talk would be difficult. However, on Thursday night I found that they in fact were not on my computer and I realized only then that they had been the casualty of a computer crash last year. I would have been in a panic had it not been for my wonderful, incredibly organized, wife who remembered where she had put a hard copy of the notes she had found, and I was able to use them. (Project for this week--copy them back into the computer.)
The talk was in Ruziba a commune just a bit out of town, and I only had minimal anxiety finding the location. The talk was very well received, especially the section about power and authority and the ways in which these function in an organizational structure. Generally in Burundi all authority is seen as positional--(that is hierarchical), the style is directional--(top down as opposed to team oriented with shared responsibility) and punishment is seen as the only way to influence others (as opposed to rewards, or even the concept of a shared vision.) This is sadly a result of the colonial education system still very much in use today, as well as the monstrous inefficient French bureaucracy that continues to be the only truly enduring government institution here.
This leadership style, though, is also the inheritance of the church here, and pastors often play the same role as an autocratic CEO in a family business in their churches, with the congregation as the hapless employees.
The idea of a transformative leader who instills a shared vision, leads by example, EMPOWERS OTHERS to carry out the vision, are very foreign concepts here where leaders are often secretive and obsessed with consolidating power. Also the concept of a learning organization that evaluates itself responds and adapts is equally foreign. The young Christian leaders to whom I spoke, though, were quite enthusiastic about these new ideas.
(Speaking in a Christian context, I was able to draw on Paul's description in the Bible in Corinthians as the church as a body with many members. In this conception every part is essential even though functions are quite different. The brain can hardly claim that it is more important to life than a liver, heart, or even a limb. Seeing an organization or even a local church as having the relationship of members of a body as opposed to a fiefdom with nobles and serfs was quite effective here because the passage is quite familiar, but the implications were quite a new revelation to those listening.)
Sunday we went to church then worked around the house trying to clean up from the neglect of the week. Things were a mess for several reason 1. Marceline has been sick all week, 2) Our cleaner has been doing substitute nightguard duty, and 3. The puppies are at that age where they are not yet potty trained but Bella (the mother) is not cleaning up their messes. Our porch gets pretty disgusting on a daily basis now. As cute as they are, I will be happy when we can start to pass them on to new owners (after Feb 20th).
We are looking ahead to another week of travel, this time as a family, to Kigali, should be back by the weekend though.
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