Once again I find myself beginning this
entry at a very late hour-- 10pm. I feel that we might actually be
hitting 'the wall'--that is to say the limit of our ability, at least
for me. The last two weeks have been very interesting and unique in
the relational time they have offered. But the travel is really
beginning to burn me out, and I am feeling a need for a rest, which
is a bit ironic to say considering we were on a team retreat the last
4 days. (Of course many of you know that when you are the organizer
of the retreat, it is not always very restful.)
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| Melody |
The biggest challenge has been the
travel. I am writing this blog from Kigali tonight where I have just
brought Matt Gates, our new food security consultant, along with our
two SALTers. The day's drive began in Bujumbura with 8 passengers.
We let off Yolanda and Melody in Gitega, Teri-Lynn at her house in
Burasira, then continued on to Kigali where we arrived this evening.
After having a meal at Bourbon Cafe I dropped off the SALTers at
their host parents' homes, and then installed Matt, Felix and myself
at the Amani guesthouse. On Wednesday morning Matt will be formally
introduced to the Friends Church (who we are under in Rwanda) and our
partners. I will also be setting him up with an internet a bank
account and language study in the next two days before returning to
Bujumbura.
This is the third straight week of
travel. Last week we got back from Zambia (all flights that began at
2am) and then within 24 hours, loaded up our team (of 14) who had all
gathered at our house to await our return, and take them to Kigoma,
Tanzania for a team retreat. In case anyone thinks we are bad at
scheduling, the truth is these two events were further apart until
the All Africa meeting was moved forward to end the day before our
team retreat began on fairly short notice after we had made our
bookings.
One of the major factors that is
contributing to stress during travel here in the region has been the
intensity of the rainy season this year. I don't think I ever
remember seeing one quite so wet. There are many days when it rains
the entire day or more. Driving in a driving rain for long hours is
difficult, espcecially when unpaved roads and long waits at border
crossings are involved. Loading and unloading vehicles in the rain
and mud is difficult, especially if one is also trying to manage
children who are happy to get soaked and filthy before climbing into
a crowded car.
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| Felix and Alice |
Fortunately on the days we were on
retreat in Kigoma itself, the weather was great. Kigoma is a place I
have written about before, (at this link). I appropriately entitled
the post 'Paradise, Thy Name is Kigoma.” It remains true to the
memory, so I will backtrack to last week and fill in some details.
As mentioned above, we arrived back in
Bujumbura after an all night flight last Wednesday. Our team had
already gathered, most at our house, to wait for us. Included in the
group were Michael Sharp from the MCC DRC team as well as newcomer
Matthew Gates. (picked up by Felix and Jennifer.) We had an opening
liturgy on Wednesday evening at our house, after finding places for
everyone to sleep. Felix surprised us that evening when he showed up
with his fiancé Alice!
Rebecca and I had met her the week before, but this was the first
time she was introduced to the team.
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| Yolanda and Safi |
We also did some fun activities
including a costume contest, since it was Halloween. It was kind of
like the show Iron Chef. Three teams were given identical materials
and asked to create a costume. There was judging afterwards. The
materials were challenging and of the 3 entrees, 2 were aliens (Oren
and Teri-Lynn), Rebecca was the statue of liberty. Oren's team, who
made him into an 'alien mummy' were the winners. Yolanda and Janelle
carved a pumpkin into a T-Rex head, much to Oren's approval as well.
We went to bed fairly early despite all the activity. Needless to
say, our family was beat after the trip from Zambia.
On Thursday morning we packed two
vehicles with all of us and our stuff and headed south along the lake
to Tanzania. I remembered last year the drive not being too long,
but I had not factored in the extra time it takes to get 14 people
across a border. We spent at least an hour on each side.
Fortunately I remembered that the Burundian border crossing is 28
kilometers before the border itself. (You have to go back if you
forget to get your exit stamp.) We continued on to Kigoma, the road
is generally good and arrived in the late afternoon.
With the number of us going, we
occupied a tent (permanent with a thatch shelter built above it) as
well as two cottage. (The proprietors—the Jakkobson's made their
cottage available to us for the days we were there!) I tried in my
last account to describe the rustic but well appointed beauty of this
setting. It is along the lake, but the cottages are up on a slope
that looks down on the lake from above from very charming porches.
The water in the lake in this area is clear enough to stare down at
least 50 feet. This makes snorkeling around the base of cliffs to
see tropical fish possible.) Above the cottages is a savannah that
looks out over a large penninsula. There are wild animals here
including antelope and zebra as well as monkeys and monitor lizards.)
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| team in Kigoma, Matt is at the back. |
The cottages are not connected to any
grid but have solar power and gas stoves and refrigerators and
lighting. So there are all the modern conveniences available in this
very quiet, remote, setting. Oren was adamant that our family would
stay in the tent, and although it only had 2 single beds, we were
able to sleep in it relatively comfortably.
The two days we were there (Friday,
Saturday) were beautiful in terms of weather and we all took the
opportunity to hike, swim, read, and relate. We also had morning and
evening worship and a session of reflection each day. On the first
day we talked about our assignments and shared one by one the way we
have been aware of God's presence in our work and also the ways we
have felt disconnected or even disappointed with God or ourselves.
It was a very good opportunity for us get to know each other better.
On the second day we each took the time
to do a “Spiritual Gifts Inventory” based on a kind of
questionaire. We used this as a take-off point to have small group
discussions about the assets we bring to our assignments and to find
ways to encourage each other in our work. We also prayed together in
small groups. Every evening we used an Anabaptist liturgy provided
by Yolanda to close our day. I felt that the retreat was a very
positive experience for building our team. I also think that for the
SALTers particularly, it was a nice opportunity to relax, being out
of the setting of their host families and away from the isolation of
their assignments.
We generally ate well. I thought
Friday night was a highlight when we roasted two large sangala (a
local fish that tastes like sea bass) over a grill. We all took
turns preparing meals and cleaning up, and generally ate together.
We left Sunday morning, and sadly our
timing was not ideal with regard to weather. The fact is, it poured
all Saturday night and continued relentlessly into Sunday. We did
morning worship and communion together and even delayed our departure
by an hour. But eventually we had to face the sad reality that we
would have to load our stuff in the cold pouring rain into the
vehicles. Doing this from a tent brought back to me a cascade of
fond but not entirely good memories of Boy Scouts and the numerous
camping trips that involved shivering in a wet tent and then trying
to pack the sopping tent and sleeping bag into a pack to head home.
We did get everyone and everything in
and made our way back to Burundi in the continuing rain. The border
crossing back was even worse than before and took us nearly 3 hours
as it was more crowded coming back on both sides. There was a lot of
standing around under awnings waiting for immigration officials to
fill out 3 or more ledgers with identical information for each one of
us. I am used to seeing this kind of redundancy everywhere here in
this French style bureaucracy, but it is especially trying when one
is waiting in the rain.
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| bluff overlooking the Penninsula |
We did get back in the early evening
and went over to the Ubuntu restaurant for pizzas (still raining).
We were all pretty exhausted when we got back to our house and did a
closing liturgy and went to bed.
On Monday morning I took the kids to
school for the first time in 2 weeks. (I think we only lost one book
of Oren's in our travels.) Michael Sharp headed back to Bukavu and
Rebecca and I spent the rest of the day doing orientation with Matt
Gates and Melody Musser.
On Tuesday morning we packed the car
again for a huge road trip through Burundi to drop off our SALTers
and service workers at their assignment locations. On board were
Yolanda and Melody, heading for Gitega, Teri-Lynn going up to
Burasira, and Matt, Alyssa, and Janelle going up to Kigali with Felix
and I. The first leg to Gitega was pretty uncomfortable for
passengers and on the way to Burasira we did again meet rain on the
dirt road. Fortunately it did not turn to mud. We had lunch at the
seminary with Teri-Lynn then headed on to Kigali and arrived in the
early evening.
I have been up since about 4 am
watching election results. Fortunately there is good internet here.
I admit that I have been relieved to be living overseas through most
of the campaign ugliness. While I do not want to make much political
commentary here, I do feel that the effect of the Citizens United
legislation has been to allow for far more partisan disinformation to
be disseminated without accountability. I long for the days of 3
networks and a sense of journalistic ethics to get at the facts
without propagating a particular political agenda. FYI: My
grandfather was a farmer, teacher, and Roosevelt democrat and I
continue in that proud political tradition- so my absentee ballot was
cast in support of Barack Obama. I have friends across the political
spectrum and while I can get caught up easily in political debate, I
feel as a Christian in the current political climate, this is more
and more a distraction from bearing the spiritual fruit that our life
in Christ requires. (Be the change you want to see.)
God bless all Americans today. Our
country has much to be proud of, and our electoral process, where
people can cast ballots without fear is something that should never
be taken for granted. Here in this part of the world, the
overwhelming sense about elections is fear, and a successful outcome
for a voter is not getting killed before the balloting is done.
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