I mentioned several weeks ago the phenomenon here of the good and the bad here often being a zero sum game. So to offset the nearly perfect weekend the week before, we had a far less than ideal one as all of us were a bit sick and David and I were actually quite sick. All of us suffering with flu like symptoms, throat and ear infections, fever, etc. Although David's has been as high as 103.5 we have not suspected malaria because of all the respiratory problems.
The timing of this is about right for the infections that happen when kids are back in school for a month. Most everyone we know has been suffering with the same malady. So today (Monday) David and I skipped school and work respectively and went to the doctor to get a check-up and a prescription of antibiotics. I have said before that I have been on antibiotics here more in the past 3 years than in my entire life prior to arriving. But infections here are rampant. One of our friends poetically remarked that without winter 'nothing ever dies'. So it seems that it is easy to catch any number of infections, respiratory, intestinal, in the skin, etc.
So the weekend was pretty laid back. With fevers setting in on Friday we did get through morning yoga on Saturday, but decided to lie low in the house in the afternoon. That was good because I had asked our electrician to install a second solar panel on our roof (which we had in the garage). With the lack of electricity we are experiencing and the expectation now that change is not coming soon (the power company is not able to meet the growing demand), we are trying to keep our back-up power system as high-functioning as possible. (We still can't run the fridge on it, though.)
Despite not feeling great Saturday evening, we did have a very nice dinner with Tim and Jeannette (our South African missionary friends.) They invited us to arrive early for some surprise games they had planned. Indeed were quite surprised to find that they had brought back a Wii from South Africa on their homeleave this summer and the four of us played DDR (Dance Dance Revolution)--while the kids watched a movie. (If you don't know what DDR is, it is the video game where you have to do steps on a footpad corresponding to arrows on the screen in rhythm to music. (I confess I have had the chance to play this in the past so I was actually quite good.-- Why I played in the past is a long story but it has to do with an experiment in a Cognitive Science class I helped design at Vassar during my academic days.) In short, we had a blast!
We had dinner as well and it was really good to catch up with them. We have had a small group in the past together and we discussed the possibility of restarting it. One of the big problems last year is that we were the only 2 consistent couples, but with small kids one or both 'mom's' were off managing the children which meant that it left Tim and I and one other guy alone to do the small group. We acknowledged the fact in our discussion that having a small group with kids our age was going to be a serious challenge.
Sunday we did go to church even though David was definitely sick. I took care of him while Rebecca taught Sunday school. I did peek in a bit: she was teaching on the Lord's supper and had prepared a 'love feast'' for the kids with some pastry that looked like a donut hole and juice. It seemed to go quite well considering how many kids are in the class.
I also tried to hear most of the sermon, preached by a Congolese woman pastor about the role of a pastor and the expectations the community should have about pastoral care. I was struck by just how different cultural expectations are about pastors. For instance I struggled with her call for pastors to receive a 'double portion' of the blessing. And her call for members to bless the pastor with food and gifts otherwise "how can you expect him to pray for you if he is thinking, 'what has this person ever done for me?'"
All in all the sermon seemed well received by the Africans and the ex-pat westerners seemed non-plussed.
The rest of Sunday was again spent laying around at home while David nursed a high fever. We watched a lot of videos which gave me a pretty big headache.
Going back through the week though, I am happy to say that prior to Friday, we were all in good health and did not miss any work or school. It was, as I had mentioned, another travel week with Rebecca going to Rwanda from Tuesday to Thursday and me going to Gitega on Friday.
I will let her tell you about the trip to Rwanda:
On arriving in Kigali, I found our volunteer Krystan on the street. We had some errands to run in town, and then eventually met up with all the Rwanda team for dinner at an Indian restaurant. It was great to catch up with our two Rwanda SALTers and hear how their host families, language study and cultural discovery are going. Fortunately, there doesn't seem to be any major difficulties to report right now. It was also great to see how much Ruth and Krystan's daughter Misha has grown, and how she can express herself in sign language now.
I was staying on the Friends Church Compound in a room of the house of the missionary teachers there for a very reasonable sum. So it was easy to share breakfast with Ruth and Krystan, and then walk the 15 minutes up to Friends Peace House for a meeting. As usual, it took all morning, but it's good to check in with them. I also had the opportunity to stop by and see the Rwanda Children's Peace Library at the Friends' Church. SALTer Annie was there supervising a dozen kids as they were practicing their after school reading. The library looks great, with six new large shelves, semi-empty to receive the long-awaited shipment of books which left the USA in February. Unfortunately, there have been many major formalities to work through in re-exporting Rwanda portion of the books from Burundi, where the container arrived. It's not simple, but it looks as though we've jumped through almost all the hoops now. We sincerely hope the books will arrive in Rwanda for distribution in October. There was one more evening meeting before supper again with all the volunteers at Ruth and Krystan's house.
My final errand in Kigali involved picking up an anti-rabies vaccine from a Belgian doctor. In brief, one of our volunteers was bitten by a dog in August and has had to get a series of rabies vaccines. She was able to get good quality vaccine and bring it here to Burundi. We asked the best local private hospital to store it in their generator backed-up fridge, and administer the vaccine on the normal schedule. It all went well, until the volunteer went to get the last dose. She found out that the generator had been broken for two weeks! And during this time, our city has had power cuts that lasted up to two days. So her vaccine was no longer reliable. We felt that if the best private hospital couldn't keep their vaccine cold, we didn't know whom we could trust to have a reliable vaccine available anywhere in Burundi. So I brought back the replacement dose, wrapped up with cold packs and 3 frozen mozzerella cheese balls (something special from Kigali). Hopefully, this is the end of the saga! I arrived back in time to go with Paul and the kids to the horse place in Bujumbura for a little play time on Thursday evening. And back to Paul...
The trip to Gitega was interesting despite the fact that its purpose was not an activity I relish. We were celebrating the 15th anniversary of one of our partners MiPAREC. This peace and development organization was actually founded with the help of MCC during the crisis (civil war). It has had a significant impact in reducing tension and resolving conflicts in the countryside through local peace committees.
An anniversary celebration in this French-African culture requires certain things, a lavish banquet, music and dancing, (burundian drummers) a string of government officials and NGO partners to make speeches. And a long list of acknowledgement and presentation of certificates of appreciaton for just about everyone who has been involved and is on the invited list.
I actually went up with Janelle (our SALTER) and Yolanda (she was getting a ride back to Gitega). So they participated in the ceremony as well. I was one of the people invited to give a speech and I had it prepared and proofread by Felix ready for presentation. I even wore a suit, and it is the first time, I think, that I have worn a tie in Burundi.
Excellence M. Le Vice President
Excellence M. L'Ambassadore de la commission de Verité et Reconcilliation
Honorable Deputé
Honorable Conseilleur de Gouvernor de Gitega
M. Le Represantant Legale de L'Eglise Evangelique des Amis
M. Le Directeur de MiPAREC
M. Le President de l'assemblé generale,
Invitees Distingués
Mesdames, Messieurs...
I tried to talk a little about the history of MCC and MiPAREC even though I was not present for most of it, and did get one good line in about MiPAREC springing into bloom at the time of the crisis, like a flower in a battefield.
Anyway, it was well received and afterward we all went and shared a very large meal together which included several layer cakes. Afterwards we said our goodbyes in time to be able to get back to Bujumbura before dark.
We stopped at Yolanda's house briefly. which was the first time Janelle had had a chance to see where Yolanda lived. We spent about a half hour there then headed back down to Buja. The fever started hitting about midway home, and you know the rest.
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