Back in Bujumbura, Eyes Wide Open

The Family wading in the Gunpowder River near Fallston, MD.



I had said I was going to try and write this blog in flight between Baltimore and Bujumbura.  I was not sure I would actually have the discipline to do so as this can be fairly distracting with 2 small children, but everyone is asleep on this second leg of the trip and from the window of the A-330 I am flying in, I can look down on a clear sunny morning over the Swiss Alps.

It is an interesting place to begin to write this entry as travel time between the very different worlds that currently comprise my identity is an odd space, physically, mentally, and emotionally.  I know as soon as I hit Burundi soil the memory of home-leave will seem to be as distant in time as it is in space.  (The converse was true when I arrived in the US).  17 hours may seem like a lot of time on planes, but it is almost too short considering the magnitude of the transition.  I often think of early missionaries (like my Grandparents) who would have taken weeks to arrive in China by steamship, and would not have returned home once in 6 to 10 years.  Now the world is much smaller and a jump between continents takes about a day.  Convenient yes, but extremely surreal, like passing through some kind of time/space worm hole. 

--Especially going back to a place like Burundi which could not be more different than the quiet, pristine Baltimore suburb where we spent much of the past 2 months.

One thing that was nice to experience about a week before we left was that subtle change of season that is so familiar to me as an East Coaster.  The movement from summer to Indian summer.  One day the air was just different and I could tell that the earth’s tilt would not sustain anymore blistering hot days.  I associate this time (from my academic life), with preparing syllabi and getting supplies to start the new school year.  It does not have the same meaning in Burundi of course as our work does not follow an academic calendar.  The change of season also happens later, in October, with the first rains heralding the end of the 3 month dry season.  (I think one becomes more sensitive to seasonal change with age, probably a valuable capacity to agrarian societies of yore who respected their elders.)

The last week in Maryland was pleasant and almost reflecting the new seasonal mildness, we found ourselves focusing more on ‘being’ in our last days rather than ‘doing’.  We squeezed in a few final visits with life-long friends who we only need to see occasionally to reaffirm relationship.  Jeff Kenney, who was best man at my wedding drove down from DC and we met him half way at a restaurant for a happy hour entente.  It was good to see him and catch up on his life.  It struck me that we managed to see most of the people in our wedding party or involved in our wedding in some important way.  (Sorry we missed you Amy, Adam, Richard, Lani, Barb and Sarah). 

We also did some outings to enjoy nature, something that is sadly most difficult to do in Burundi, without being a public spectacle.  (It is hard to find a place to be out alone in the woods there).  We went as a family to a place on the Gunpowder river where Oren very much enjoyed riding on his belly down some shallow rapids with Mom while David and I went wading.  It was one of the last things we did before our visit before our first departure to Burundi so this return to it after our ‘half-time’ break seemed appropriate.

I also enjoyed running during my time in the US.  Although I have found swimming very renewing in Burundi, I used to love running long distances through the country side of the Hudson River Valley and through parkland in Maryland.  I was able to do several runs around Loch Raven, a watershed north of Baltimore.  It is about a 13 mile loop the way I run it and I have run it often at significant times in my life.  (notably several times the week before and the day of my wedding.)  I also ran it several times during my discernment about going to Burundi.  I ran it twice in the last week before we left this time.  It was always more than exercise, and is a place I have really heard God’s voice in a very direct and prophetic way in the past. 

Another outing into nature was a final return to Charter Hall, a retreat center partially owned by Rebecca’s parents along one of the furthest estuaries from the Chesapeake Bay.  It is a lovely place that teams with waterfowl, and fauna.  We saw bald eagles, beavers, 12 inch bass jumping out of the water, and numerous ducks, geese, osprey, blue heron, kingfishers and the like. 

We enjoyed kayaking, canoeing, swimming, even some kite flying.  We were thrilled to share this final weekend with both sets of our parents as well as Rebecca’s brothers’ family (cousins too)  But also several folks from our small group in Poughkeepsie NY came down to pay us one last visit.  (Wendy Hart with her kids Justin, Alecia, and Lance, and Don and Rosaura with their kids Gabriella and Raphael).  We played games and did church together Sunday where our small group members prayed for us and vice versa.  It was great to hear updates about our church in New York where they had just finished another very fulfilling Mexico youth mission trip.  (A tradition Rebecca had started in 2004 and they have continued ever since.)  Our church youth developed a strong relationship to a church in Ensenada and have deepened ties with many of the youth there over the years.  Hearing about this was very encouraging to Rebecca and I.  (There is a passage in the Bible where Jesus says you will harvest where you have not sown and sow where you will not harvest.)  I think that is meant to be encouraging and that is how these testimonies seem to us.

We were also able to celebrate Grandma Jean’s Birthday while we were up there which brought several other family friends (Charlene, the Ballards, Stan, and others) as well who were happy to wish us well on our return.  The kids enjoyed decorating Grandma Jean’s cake for her.  It was an appropriate last hurrah for our final weekend in the US, and we got back to Baltimore late Sunday night.

Monday and Tuesday were dedicated to packing except for our ‘last supper’ on Monday in which we took our parents out for Thai food.  (The kids stayed with their cousins and ate pizza.).  We wanted to have a chance to thank them for their generosity in giving us a place to stay the past 2 and a half months rent free , and for taking our children out for enriching activities (especially the Grandmothers).  They assured us that it was their pleasure to do this but we know what a blessing it is first to even have all of our parents still living, but also to have them having the will and means to be able to host us so completely.  This is not something we take for granted as MCCers.

We left for Dulles after lunch on Tuesday, my mom and Rebecca’s parents accompanied us.  Once we crossed behind the security gates and they were out of sight we knew the shift to our other reality was now irreversible.  This was even more evident in that we knew, waiting for us at the gate were three new SALT volunteers, Janelle, Annie, and Bethany who would be accompanying us on this flight back to Bujumbura to begin their one year term with us.  They will stay at our house the first week.



Accomplishments:

I am not sure if I would measure the value of our leave time by the extent to which we succeeded in completing any stated goals we had set out for ourselves before leaving.  But then again, a lot of our job is reading reports in which just such ‘indicators’ need to be exemplified.  So here goes:

1) We did want to do a bit of continuing ed./ spiritual renewal and I feel the Psalms course at Regent Seminary and week in Vancouver fulfilled that desire.

2) We certainly did our fair share of nature walks in parks, etc, and visits to playgrounds with our children.

3) We had some specific goals for Oren, learning to read in English before starting French first grade was top on the list.  We did not succeed in this at all despite some efforts by us and his grandmothers.  BUT Oren did learn how to ride a bike really well, something he loves and is very proud of, so that was an unexpected benefit.  (Sadly not something he will be able to do in Burundi.)

4)  For David our sole goal was potty training.  This was a complete failure as he managed to allude us every time he wanted to poop and would deliberately hide in a corner and finish his business before we were ever aware no matter how vigilant we tried to be.  On the other hand, his vocabulary and language skills exploded and he speaks in clear sentences now, something he could not do before we arrived.  (He also can ride a tricycle now.)

5) Videography.  I did have a desire to archive some of my choreography on U-tube while I had high speed video.  I had some success and put up about half a dozen works in the last week we were there.  Hopefully I can add to that when I am back again next year.  If you are interested, the web address Is http://www.youtube.com/user/pamosley99.

So are we ready to go back?  It is a good question, about 2 weeks ago I had real sense of dread about leaving, then last week I felt very antsy to back to a normal routine as soon as possible  (It is hard to try to live every moment to its fullest day after day with no routine.) 

We have been in Burundi 3 years and will probably do at least 3 more to finish our assignment, so this break was the half-way point as I mentioned earlier.  Going back though, is very different than going for the first time.  There is so much spiritual momentum and energy one gets from going into a new challenge.  One does not know what to expect and is hopefully flexible and open to anything.

But we are going back with our eyes wide open.  We know what we are returning to, and have been blessed as well as bruised from the first 3 years there.  We can’t return with the naïve openness of our first arrival.  But we hope that the homeleave has revitalized us enough to remove the cynicism that can be a result of too many diminished expectations from the naïve hopes of our initial arrival.

I believe we are ready to return to a clearer, more realistic, hope for our next 3 years.  We will be overwhelmed with work the first 3 weeks or so, but hopefully will be able to come up for a breath by the middle of September.  I will do my best to post faithfully once a week again, and I hope you will continue to share this journey with us.

Postscript:  Landed in Bujumbura at 7:05 pm Aug 23rd where Felix picked us up in 2 cars and we were home by 8:30 pm to 2 very happy dogs!!