A Visit From Some Very Good Friends

Zachee, Bridget and Tim, our surprise visitors,  chillin' by the pool at Club du Lac Tanganyika.

I am definitely guilty of letting too many days go by at this point.  The truth is I have been having too much interest in living life this week to want to sit back and reflect.  OK, there were some times of escape, like watching an episode of Downton Abbey on Monday evening.  (It is amazing that we have internet fast enough to stream it these days.)

I am trying to remember the highlights of the week. I do know that I did spend some time getting our bed rebuilt.  For anyone remembering a past blog where I mentioned bedbug problems, our intermittent skirmishes broke out into a full-blown war a couple weeks ago when we jettisoned the mattress and took the frame apart completely and had a carpenter re-varnish every piece of wood on it including the screw holes.  We bought a new mattress and had the frame reassembled with a new mosquito frame last week.  We also rewashed all linens and pillows several times as well.  

I think we finally have it under control, and have enjoyed being back in our room after two weeks away.  

Teri-Lynn next to her gigantic rosemary
shrub in her backyard.

That was one of several small crises that have had to be managed.  On Monday evening I also got a call from our SALTer Teri-Lynn saying that she was out of everything (cooking gas, bread, oil, sugar, money) and needed a supply run.  I had not planned to go up this week but did make a trip up on Thursday to Burasira.  It was not a major inconvenience to drive up, although on the way I hit a pretty big bump at a good clip and caused the 30 kilo gas canister I was carrying to jump up and land on the loaves of bread I had in the trunk.  

I am actually quite impressed at how well Teri-Lynee does in her very remote setting with none of the local language and limited French.  There are absolutely no mzungus anywhere nearby either.  Yet she teaches English at the Hope School with admirable dedication and is committed to seeing her students pass their exams this year.  

The trip up to see her takes just over 3 hours and the road continues to be a challenge.  Because I did not want to lose any days of work in Bujumbura, I went up and came back after swimming on the same day.  I spent a short time at her house dropping off supplies then we swung by the school on the way out to see the progess on the construction of a new library that is being built there thanks a grant from the Foundation for Hope in Africa.  As it turns out Innocent and Beatrice (the Batwa heads of the organization that runs the school) were there.  It was good to see them and talk a bit about how things were going at the school as well.  I took a picture of them with Teri-Lynn in front of the library which is going up fast.

Teri-Lynn decided to ride back to Bujumbura with me since it looked like classes would be cancelled in Friday for meetings.  We got back to town in the early evening and picked up Oren, Rebecca, and David at karate and we all went and got icecream at Iceworld.  (Our Thursday-after-karate family tradition)  It is the only place in Burundi where you can get soft-serve icecream.

Friday was fairly normal with ballet in the afternoon.  Teri-Lynn did join in 2 of the classes as she was a dancer before coming to Burundi.  Not the first MCCer that has taken my ballet classes, but I have not had any for a while.  The day was also one of preparation for some other guests we were very excited about and who’s visit I have not mentioned in the blog until this posting...  

Oren was extremely excited about the fact that Zachee, Bridget, and his best friend Timmy were coming to Burundi for a week from Canada!!!  

They left here about 2 years ago and have not been back since.   We did have the good fortune to see them in Baltimore last summer as the surprised Rebecca on her 40^th Birthday.   They told us of their plans several months ago but asked us to keep it a bit under wraps because they did not want everyone to know.  

Their plane arrived about 2 in the morning and we were spared the task of picking them up from the airport as they took a cab.  Oren could hardly wait for Timmy to wake up on Saturday once he got up.  Understandably they slept in and did not emerge from bed until after our morning yoga session.  

They emerged looking tired but terrific and it was great to see them.  Elias and Aviaja and their mom were over early as well as they were also great friend’s of Timmy’s.  We went to the beach with them (Club du Lac Tanganyika) later in the afternoon and the kids swam in the pool and the lake.  It was a perfect evening to sit by the pool during the sunset which has got to be the best tourist selling point of Burundi.  (Bujumbura at sunset)  The breeze was perfect as the sun disappeared behind the DRC mountain range.  We had fish brochettes, French fries, and pizza and reminisced about the old days and the many changes we have seen in the past two years, for better and worse.  

Sunday morning was very special because it was a day that Rebecca was preaching.  It was definitely one of her best sermons and somehow during the past week she was able to prepare for it despite many other claims on her time.  

She was given the task of speaking on the role of the Holy Spirit in achieving Christlikeness—a dauntingly Theological challenge to say the least.  She however went the route of story-telling and used the passage of Jesus’s temptation in the desert to talk about the way He, being filled with the spirit was able to fend off 3 temptations to use and abuse power offered by the Devil.

She very effectively played the devil’s advocate (using his voice) to flesh out each of the three temptations and the kind of power they elicited.

               1) The power to help himself for personal gain.

         2)   The power of the state to advance his agenda by force.

         3)   The power of celebrity to accomplish things (and avoid the cross).

The problem with all of these is that none of them represented a path of obedience God had laid before him.  Jesus resisted them all.  But he did so without resorting to any kind of power (even though he was ‘full of the Spirit.)  He did no miracle whatsoever to defeat the Devil.  He simply answered him from scripture.  “Like a stubborn child who knows what is right.” as Rebecca put it.  

Among the important things she reminded us was the fact that Godly ends can never, never be accomplished by UnGodly means. I have to say I am surprised what a trap that is for all of us, especially Christians.  If we know what is right and a good end, can’t we take any short cuts to get to it?  Can’t we lie just a bit to trap a dishonest person, say.  The Christlike answer is of course, No.

The sermon really hit a chord, especially because I think here, the Holy Spirit is usually thought of as giving us super-natural power to do miracles and wonders.  But to see how Jesus handled this very difficult ideological challenge without resorting to any extraordinary means is a very important model as well for us who follow him.  We do not need to impress anyone with signs and wonders to do the will of the Father.

Rebecca was pretty wiped out after church but had to stay a bit longer to prepare for a women’s service for next week that she is worship-leading.  We rested at home in the afternoon and then had small group in the evening.  The sermon was a take-off point for some good reflection there.

We restarted the week well with Zachee and Bridget still with us.  Monday night was uneventful, but on Tuesday the women went out: Bridget, Rebecca, Naja, Tanja, and Jeanette.  This is most of the old group that used to go out monthly when Bridget lived here.

I was the babysitter for Timmy, Oren, David, and Isabel (Jeanette’s daughter).  I did manage to get them all in bed before the women came home.  Wednesday night was quid-pro-quo with the men going out while the women stayed home.

Zachee and Bridget are with us until Wednesday when they go upcountry.  They will come back for an open-house at our home Saturday and then leave Sunday.

We are sad it is such a short trip.  When they were here our lives were very interdependent and as a result we were very close, particularly Oren and Timmy who spent at least 2 days per week together and often more.  

It is interesting to note how, at this point in our time here, we have many old memories from Burundi, not just recent ones.  People come and go a lot here, the good thing is, there are bonds that are made that endure.