Orienting and Reorienting to Burundi and Rwanda

SALTers Bethany, Annie and Janelle being oriented by Yolanda (on Oren's bed.)

I am trying my best to get back to the discipline of a weekly blog.  I am realizing that this is necessitated by the fact that I am having trouble with any recall beyond about 5 days.  I did not succeed this week, but that is partly because of how busy we have been since we arrived back home.

This is definitely a good place in the week to recap a bit.  It is about 10pm on Saturday and the kids are in bed.  We just had dinner with Onesphore and his wife Innocente.  He runs our partnership Moisson pour Christ which is the place where our SALTer Janelle will be working this year.  It was a nice evening and our children are about the same age.

Rebecca and I have somewhat different stories for the past 2 weeks since we had to divide up the work most of last week, and I ended up going to Rwanda with our new volunteers while she stayed in Buja with the kids.  We will tell our stories separately, here is her account: `

We have hit the ground running with our three new SALT volunteers. They are all sensible, well-travelled young women, and I think they will do well in their assignments. We've been trying to give them the important information they need to get started practically, culturally, emotionally.

Although our most important task was orienting the SALTers, we did not have the luxury on concentrating solely on that. As soon as we arrived back, our phones started ringing non-stop. Lots of people were calling to welcome us back, others were putting in their requests, reminding us of their existence, hoping for some kind of windfall, etc.

Also, entropy is a powerful force in Burundi – you can’t leave the country and expect your house to be the same as you left it, no matter how good the house-sitter was. We've had to repair our kitchen sink plumbing, toilet, back up power system, and other small electrical things. Our internet is totally not working in the house during the day, so we had to go into town to check email during our first week. It's just par for the course, I guess. But it's been hard that the basic systems were not running well when we're trying to do lots of work.

Paul had to squeeze in at least one very essential meeting. We were trying to get caught up with our program assistant Felix on all the important news. So it was very hectic. The kids were not getting nearly enough attention -- although they were really excited to be back with their familiar toys and trampoline. Oh, and I forgot to mention jet lag…not very good for helping the little grey cells get moving and working in the morning.

We were scheduled to take the SALT volunteers to Rwanda last Sunday as a family. But on Saturday morning, Paul suggested to me that he go to Rwanda without me and the kids. Since Felix was available to join him instead for backup, that sounded like a better and better plan. It turned out very well that we planned that way because everything went really haywire with our planning in general. One of the SALTers didn't get visa permission to enter Rwanda in time, so Paul had to leave without her (planning to send her on the bus tomorrow). But then about an hour into the drive, Paul realized that there was a problem with his passport and they had to come back. The consolation prize for this sad development was that all the SALTers got to meet our other Burundi volunteer Yolanda on Sunday night.

(Paul’s interjection—Actually Rebecca is being diplomatic here.  The ‘problem’ with the passport was that I had driven about an hour upcountry when I realized I had grabbed Rebecca’s passport rather than my own.)

The Canadian SALTer still did not have visa permission the next day, so Paul and the other two SALTers and Felix left Monday instead without her. I helped her start the visa application process again at the embassy here. I know it was a disappointment for her, but she and Yolanda were able to go out and tour Bujumbura on foot for a day, a nice additional orientation activity. The volunteer was finally able to get her visa on Wednesday morning and got straight on a bus to Kigali within the same hour. It was a bit of a nail-biter, but I was really thankful that this young woman felt secure and confident about taking a bus in a country she’d never been to before.

By Wednesday afternoon, I was finally able to work on our other major task: establishing a better routine for our kids and getting them ready for school. Because our house had been so full, and because of jet lag, we were all keeping crazy hours and sleeping (all four of us) in one bed.

The kids started on Thursday morning, Oren in first grade and David in the youngest level of preschool. I am positively impressed by both of their teachers, and both children were willing to go to their classes without tears or drama. I was particularly touched when I ran into Oren’s teacher from last year, Mdme. Christelle. She gave me Oren’s “Graduation Certificate from Kindergarten”, which she had saved for him because we had left the country before the ceremony. I asked if she might consider tutoring Oren as he tries to learn to read in French. She said that she already had this in mind that she wanted to remain involved in helping Oren learn French, since he knows and trusts her.

When I went ot pick up the kids, I found David asleep in the class. His teacher told me that at about 9:30 am, after snack, he started crying and crying. She told him he could lie down, and he did and fell asleep – until I came to pick him up at noon! This is unheard of for David! I think it was his way of getting out of the first day of school.  In any case, by Friday, I felt pretty good about the kids being used to their own bed again, getting up on time for school, getting us all there on time, even in a taxi!

Over the past week, I’ve seen some signs that Oren is feeling more at home in Burundi (in contrast to past years). Even as the plane landed, Oren said that he was really kind of excited about being back. Last week on our veranda, he said a very long prayer of thanksgiving that included thanking God for many of the good things about Burundi, (as well as other things like thanking God for outer space). Another night, our neighbor friend Cedric came over to play for a few minutes, and Oren's play-ground french seemed to return easily. They boys are really happy to be back with their dogs, and actually have done a super job of entertaining each other and not competing too much. 

Bethany Janelle and Felix with Ruth, Krystan
and baby Misha.

Paul Again:

The trip up to Rwanda was packed with what I would characterize as ‘relational work’ with our partners as well as the host families.  We arrived Monday evening with Felix and Bethany (Annie was still in Buja waiting for visa approval.)  We met Ruth and Krystan (and baby Misha), checked into our guesthouse and went out to dinner together to plan for the week.

We began full throttle Tuesday with extensive shopping to get the SALTers set up with supplies, phone and internet connectivity, pharmaceuticals (malaria kits) etc.  On Tuesday afternoon we took Bethany over to meet her host family.  Augustin Simparinka (the husband) is the legal rep. of the Friends Church and lives in a very modest home near our partner Friends Peace House and about a 10 minute walk from Ruth and Krystan.  By modest I needed to take a deep breath and appreciate what ‘middle class’ is in Kigali.  The house was small and Bethany’s room was the size of a walk-in closet.  (It really is great that they even had a spare guest room)  It had no furnishings except a twin bed and a small broken refrigerator.  She shares the house with Simparinka, his wife, and their 23 year old daughter. 

Bethany with host family.

We went as a group to drop Bethany off and I felt like a father leaving his daughter off at College.  As the MCC rep. I had the responsibility of making the official speech and presentation of Bethany to the family, almost like a marriage betrothal.  It felt a bit awkward but I think Bethany will be well received and cared for while she is there.  They are a very kind, generous family.

Wednesday was a bit unusual in that we had two simoultaneous field visits.  Felix went on a field visit with Bethany, Janelle and our Friends Peace House partners upcountry to the North to see the work of some women's groups.  I, on the other hand went south, back to Burundi to the Hope School for the Batwa in Nyangungu with Dr. Robin Wilde, the director of Hope for Africa foundation--a group that is supporting some building projects at the school.  He wanted to go down in preparation for a mission team visit in January.  I acted as guide and translator.  We met Innocent and Beatrice (our partners) and inspected some of the construction that was underway.  We also confirmed some lodging for them at the Seminary (next to where Jodi used to live) then headed back to Kigali after a 2 hour visit.  It was exhausting as the trip itself was about 3 hours each way. 

(One side benefit of doing this visit was being able to see the many cartons of books that had arrived from the US thanks to the efforts of many to send them here.   The next challenge is to build some shelves on which to put them.)  Innocent was very, very appreciative for this gift!!!

Innocent with books in storage at Hope School

We all (MCC team) rendez-vous-ed again in the evening at Ruth and K’s house.  By this time our third SALTer Annie had arrived.  (Her visa finally came through.)  We all had dinner together at an excellent Indian restaurant in Kigali called Zaffron. 

Thursday was the day we visited the SALTers workplaces and made introductions.   Bethany will be working at the training school for street kids called Mwana N’shuti, and Annie will be working as a capacity builder at the Transformational Leadership Center.  We then had lunch with Annie’s host family and took her over in the afternoon and installed her in her new home.  She also has a very modest room in the home of a couple (Jean-Paul and Jeanine) who do not, as yet, have any children.

Dr. Wilde with Twa elder
visiting the Batwa community.

Friday morning Felix, Janelle and I were definitely ready to leave.  We were quite exhausted from all the work of setting up the SALTers as well as from the numerous meetings with partners that I did not mention specifically, but happened, thoughout the week.

We arrived back Friday afternoon and found Yolanda here again for the weekend.

Saturday was good in that we had our regular morning Yoga class and visited some friends in the afternoon.  We had dinner with Janelle’s ‘boss’ Onesphore and his family.  (He is the director of our partner Moisson pour Christ.) 

All the SALTers will begin their terms with 3 weeks of intenstive language study in Kirundi before beginning work at their offices.  But the dinner was a nice informal setting for introductions.

Sunday was another day of visiting after church.  We had lunch with Janelle’s host family (she will actually move in at the beginning of October).  Then we went to one of our ‘school’ friends houses to meet some new American arrivals.  One was the head of the UN mission here.  It was nice to get to them and for Oren to play with some Anglophone school kids. 

Sunday evening brought one more interesting surprise (for regular readers).  I went to the airport at 7pm and picked up Jodi Mikalachki!  She is back in Burundi, not with MCC this time, to work back up in Burasira near the Hope School.

Epilogue:  Coming back at the end of the dry season is a tough time.  The water supply and electricity are at a low ebb, so we have less than 12 hours of either per day, and often less.  (We do have a water tank and solar power to soften the blow.)  Also, as Rebecca mentioned, the ‘entropy’ of life here takes its toll when you are gone for 2 months.  We have had a plumber visit, 2 electrician visits, and 2 internet visits to get things back up to speed.  I have not even begun the quest to restore our landline phone service yet.  To add to this I would describe the political climate here as tense and a bit pessimistic once again.  There is increasing violence with back and forth killing between rebels and ruling party militia groups.  Innocent neighbors, though, tend to be targets as well.  Many, many people are being attacked by bandits in their homes in the popular quarters of town.  The dollar is very strong here which means there is inflation and the currency is not stable.

Despite this we are happy to back to our routines and have been overwhelmed but feeling what we are doing is worthwhile.  (The only thing we might change is to arrive back from a long break with new volunteers in tow.  It was hard to get our household set up again at the same time that we were orienting them to their new places.)  Live and learn.

I am posting this morning having just gotten the kids off to school Monday morning.  Oren told me he had a dream that he went to school without his pants on.  I remember having that dream but I did not know that kind of anxiety started at 6 years of age!  I think school is harder on kids these days then when I was young.