Malaria and Other Seasonal Challenges

Although it has been a fairly relaxing week, for some reason I was so exhausted Sunday evening that while I was rocking David to sleep about 9pm, I found an unbearable urge to join him in slumber and went to bed shortly after without doing the blog.  I have committed myself to doing this weekly so I am starting it now on Monday morning.

We have been developing a Sunday routine that is really giving some meaning to Sabbath.  Generally we do not work at all on Sunday, but go to church at the Burundian fellowship PTI in the morning (usually goes from about 9 to 12) then we either go to the beach or home for lunch and play.  We enjoyed lunch on the porch yesterday after a very thoughtful sermon on the ‘discipline of giving.’  Probably most interesting were the questions afterwards about what this means in the Burundiain context.  Not so much that people are poor, but that there is already tremendous social pressure to give any surplus to the many needs of family, friends, etc, for any number of reasons from weddings and funerals to business loans. 

This in turn gives one leverage in the community to ask for money when these needs arise for them.  But this network makes giving in the sense of true charity difficult.  (That is giving in which nothing is received in return.)  Mzungus get sucked into this network as well.  Rebecca and I are, on a daily basis, asked by strangers, friends, staff, partners, etc. for gifts or ‘loans’ for any number of projects.  I feel in many ways we are far more ‘generous’ than we were in the US simply because a lot more people ask us for money. 

BUT I honestly cannot say I feel particularly good about giving away money this way.  First because we are not really part of this social network, so we don’t really have a quid pro quo relationship with these people in quite the same way.  Secondly, I really feel that this money reinforces a dependency relationship and reifies the belief that white people and white people’s money is the answer to the challenges in Africa.  I would say that the more I am here, the more I believe the opposite to be the case.  I have seen very few instances where financial inputs by us, have brought about sustainability or long term transformation in anyone’s lives.

A long diatribe to say that the sermon has encouraged Rebecca and I to rethink our giving and we have decided to be much more intentional about where we give and why.  We do, for instance want to support the vision of the fellowship we participate in.  We also do want to be able to help our staff take care of their families, but also build their capacity.  We are helping 2 of the 3 with education at this time, and that feels like something valuable.  The big challenge will be to say “no’ a lot more to the many legitimate needs that are brought before us that really should not be solved with a quick fix from a rich mzungu.

(continuing with the day)  Sunday afternoon we went to the English fellowship where Oren goes to Sunday school.  One thing I like about this fellowship is that I get to play the djembe when we sing from time to time.  We also help out with the Sunday school. 

The latest addition to our Sunday routine that is really enjoyable is after the English fellowship we head over to Ubuntu, a restaurant overlooking the lake, where they have half price pizza and drinks between 5 and 7 every day.  We are making this a weekly tradition and we usually invite friends (like Zachee, Bridget, and Tim) to eat with us.  What is nice about it especially are the enclosed grounds complete with crowned cranes, turtles, frogs, and even some cats, as well as large rocks and palm trees that makes a fabulous natural playground for the kids to entertain themselves while adults talk.  (We occasionally see hippos on the lake here in the evening as well.)

Yesterday we were there alone because Bridget was recovering from malaria  (It also rained while we were there).  It was still a nice time though with the family sitting under an open pavilion watching the rain fall and enjoying the cool breeze.

This is the rainy season and that means it is malaria season.  I consider it almost a miracle that no one in our family has succumbed yet since we have been here.  We are diligent about using mosquito nets at night, which I think is the most effective preventative measure.  We are no longer taking malarial prophylaxes as we did not have good feeling about taking larium weekly for 5 or more years.  But that has meant we really need to use those nets.

Malaria has been the cause of a great deal of absences of our house staff the past three weeks.  All have had malaria and have missed one or two weeks of work at a time.  This has made life challenging as we have had to do a lot of cooking and shopping, and cleaning on our own.  (I know that does not sound too hard, but in a place where there are no supermarkets or prepared food, even making a pizza means you start with tomatoes, flour, and a wheel of cheese). 

We did take some advantage of this on Saturday when Oren asked to do a cooking project.  He had found some cookie cutters and asked if we could make Christmas cookies.  I found a Betty Crocker recipe for sugar cookies and confirmed we had the ingredients then made them together.  He loves to do projects, be they crafts or cooking.  David was happy to eat, but also wanted to get on the table and help as well, much to Oren’s chagrin.

The big news for Oren though, happened on Friday and I am sorry I have no documentation of the event.  We were at Entente Sportive, the swim club, after work with the kids and some of their school friends.  Oren suddenly decided he wanted to jump off the 3 meter platform.  (There are 2 three meter platforms and a five meter platform on the deep end of the pool.)  I went over with him, and after about 30 seconds of looking down, he jumped off.  He came up out of the water with a tremendous look of triumph on his face and went back up and did it 5 more times. (One of the 'perks' of living in a third world country is that there are no safety rules governing such things as 4 year olds going on high diving boards.)

He loved it so much that he wanted to go the next day and do it again.  When we went Saturday though, he suddenly got afraid and refused to jump.  It was sad because I brought the camera then and was going to put a picture of him jumping in.  Maybe we will try again next weekend.

I seem to be working backwards through the past week and I will just say by synopsis that the work week went well with much of our work focused on election preparations (see press release below).  One thing worthy of note has been a teachers strike in the Burundian public schools. 

The teachers are on strike because they have not received their full salaries.  I am not exactly clear why, but it is a typical problem for govt. employees here.  The Belgian government even gave a grant to pay the salaries so the teachers could go back, but it seems the government squirreled away that money for other things.  (another typical problem.)

Now however, after more than a month of this strike and exams coming up, the public school students have decided to call a strike and to demonstrate against an unfair disadvantage they will have going into national exams vis-à-vis private school students who have not missed any classes.  (Apparently the national exams will happen as scheduled despite the extended teacher strike.)

So the public school students have been preventing private school students from going to class by going to the schools in the morning at throwing stones at them at school entrances this past week.  They have effectively shut down several private schools.  (Including the one behind our house.)

It is really sad to me to see another example of a completely broken system here.  Honestly, as I look more and more deeply at the problem of poverty I find less and less a spirit of compassion in me but rather a spirit of anger.  This is probably the second phase of being a foreigner in this context.  Underneath the suffering one almost always finds, not misfortune but structures of injustice that keep the poor miserable and stuck, while the wicked prosper.

And I won’t be simplistic, it is not a simple matter of wealthy first world nations raping the land and people, these structures are at every level and know no racial boundaries, they exist in the world, nations, states, communities, neighborhoods, households, and families.  The vulnerable have no power at all these levels and transformation has to happen in all of these places.  A change from the top will not change the injustices at the levels below, nor am I convinced that a change from the bottom necessarily will bring about change at the top.  It is a challenge to know where we can enter to bring about change that transforms all.  But it does reaffirm my belief that such work for change requires a supernatural patience and hope. 

I am thankful that our work here is through an organization that recognizes God as the agent of change, and we have the patience and hope that only a faith that extends beyond our individual lives can engender.  That said, I think I will end here.

I am including below a press release Rebecca wrote for our activities in Burundi related to election preparations.

MCC joins efforts to prevent election violence in Burundi
Rebecca Mosley
April 23, 2010

BUJUMBURA, BURUNDI – Burundi, still recovering from a 15-year civil war, is bracing itself for national elections in the summer of 2010. Past elections have triggered violent ethnic conflict; the current elections are a real test of Burundi’s progress towards ethnic reconciliation and power sharing. Burundi, one of the 10 poorest nations in the world, desperately needs a sustainable peace in order to concentrate on much-needed progress in education, health care, agriculture and development of infrastructure.

MCC and its local partners have joined together with other organizations from the historic peace churches as the Quaker Peace Network (other international members include American Friends Service Committee, Norwegian Quakers, and African Great Lakes Initiative; 7 local Friends NGOs are also key members in the network).They are recruiting and training election observers to help promote free, fair and transparent voting. They have also joined with a larger nationwide network to prevent election violence. Key people have been handpicked from every corner of the country to report incidents of election violence—as well as note pro-active work for peace. They aim to map any incidents to better understand causes of violence and work at resolving conflicts before they explode. A reliable network of information will help dispel the kinds of rumors which led to the violent conflagrations of past decades.

This network for preventing election violence, “Amatora mu Mahoro,” was launched on Friday, April 23. The president of the National Independent Election Commission (CENI) presided over the event, and gave high praise to this effort to change history in Burundi and safeguard a peaceful electoral process.

“Amatora mu Mahoro” has widespread support across Christian denominations. The Quaker Peace Network represents some of the protestant actors. But the closing speech was given by the Catholic Archbishop of Bujumbura. In a wonderful gesture of rare ecumenical cooperation here in Burundi, Msg. Everiste recognized that Christians of every confession have already decided to pray hard for these elections. “But not simply to pray. They have decided to work for peace with the faith that moves mountains.”

MCC Burundi is a small program with few financial resources. But it has supported these peace efforts through the rich relationships it has formed with partners in Burundi. It has been able to connect local grassroots peace activists – from University peace commissions to elders of village reconciliation councils – with these national efforts. In this way, the national network has access to reliable local information and people of integrity in remote corners of the country. And local peace builders are empowered to play a role in the national effort to solidify peace in their country.

A Remote Field Visit in Rwanda en Famille

Oren climbing trees with some kids in Kigali while waiting for us to finish some business with partners.



Another weekend that has only been partially restful.  This is the fourth one in a row where we have been traveling.  (Actually last weekend was our team retreat, but it was still a lot of work.)  We are hoping that the next three weeks will be easier as far as being in town and having some regular rhythms again.  This will be greatly aided by Oren's return to school after a week of travel to Nigeria followed by 2 weeks of spring break for him.  I hope he remembers something of his French after missing so much. 

This past week was spent in Rwanda beginning on Wednesday.  Actually we drove up on Wednesday with 3 passengers in tow besides our family. They were Ruth and Krystan as well as Jodi.  They stayed in Bujumbura for a day past the retreat to get a ride up with us.  We took Jodi about half way, to Ngozi, where she met one of the priests who drove her back to Burasira.  (I was glad to be spared that last hour on a really dreadful road going to Burasira.)  We continued north and got to Kigali that afternoon where we did some shopping, banking, and ate dinner before dropping off R and K and going to the Africa New Life Guesthouse.  

Thursday we ran around and did a few errands, tried to connect with some partners, and spent some more time with Ruth and Krystan.  It was not a very productive day especially since everywhere we went we were not able to find anywhere with a working internet connection.  So we were not able to catch up on email.

Having a productive day was not too big of a concern though, because we knew that the 2 days following were going to include an extensive field visit to several sites run by a partner called CAPR.  

For the field visit we traveled to an area of western Rwanda in a district called Kibuye.  Kibuye is also the name of a town on Lake Kivu that is supposed to be a tourist attraction in Rwanda.  It has nice lodging facilities along the lake with a view of mountains, including the volcano up the lake near Goma, DRC.  Although we are often reticent to do field visits as a family, we thought we could combine this visit with a little rest and relaxation in Kibuye along the Lake.  (We were also happy to hear that there was a good road all the way to the town.)

Friday morning, though, before heading to Kibuye, we did visit one project in Kigali.  It was way off the beaten path in a very poor section of the Asian quarter (next to a brothel) where they had established a self-help group and youth peace club.  Here we saw a group of women who worked together on income generation projects, particularly weaving intricate baskets which Rwanda is known for.  What was remarkable about this group was that it was not only inter-ethnic, but inter-faith as it included Muslims as well as Christians. This is rare because Rwanda's Muslim population is extremely small (about 1%).  But there is mutual suspicion in the quartier where they live so this group helps to develop some relationships between people of different faiths.  It was interesting to see the work they were doing together and to talk to them about challenges they faced.  It was exciting to hear the women talk about how this group was helping them make enough money to send their children to school and buy them books.  (Their biggest challenge is finding a market for the things they make.)  Rebecca and I bought some of their wares which are among the finest baskets we have seen so far.  (see photo-these are bowl shaped but hard to tell from the photo).  

We set out on our way around noon on Friday.  We brought along two of our partners, Eugene and Eustache, who were going to take us to the sites to meet some of the members of their organization as well as see some income-generation projects.

We were particularly interested in the activities of CAPR for two reasons. The first is because they have been able to organize what I would describe as self-help peace and reconciliation groups throughout the whole country, but particularly in extremely remote areas of Rwanda where no other NGOs are working.  (They made the observation to us that even though Rwanda is virtually overrun with foreign aid, almost all donors work in Kigali or other big cities that are easily accessible by vehicle.  No one works in the remote areas where much of the population lives.)

The other reason we were interested in what they were doing is because they are the only group we support (and know of) that actually has a system of 'membership'.  That is, participants in the group pay monthly dues. This money suppors most of the activities they do.  Much of what they do is lend it out to members for small income generating projects, but they have also been in the process of using the money to buy every member family a cow.  At this point they have bought 22 with their own money.  

This is really quite exciting to us because it seems to me more and more that the foreign aid/charity model of providing help does little more than create dependency and an expectation that 'white people's money' is the answer to all problems.  We are hoping to see to what extent some of our other partners might try to implement this type of 'self-help' model.

We talked about all of this on our way down the road to Kibuye.  We were about an hour and a half down the road when Eustache suddenly said, "turn right here."  I looked around, surprised we were leaving the main road but could only see a foot path that I would describe as no wider than the Appalachian trail going off toward the mountains.

I was surprised we were going off the road here and had he not assured me that this was the way I would never have thought of driving a car there.  He told us this was a 'short cut' to Kibuye.  We progressed very slowly up into the mountains along this narrow road, sometimes very close to the edge of the cliffs.  After about 2 hours of this treacherous driving we arrived at the top of a high hill where there was a small community.  This was the site of our first visit.  We got out of the car and were immediately surrounded by many many people and children shouting 'mzungu'.  This is not something I often hear in Rwanda, but out here in this area, I am guessing that the sight of a mzungu is extremely rare.  

We were led to a small home where we crammed ourselves in with about 30 people and listened to some reports and testimonies of the group.  It was pretty hard to keep Oren and David still, and they did create quite a scene as they squirmed around.  They were the only children in the room.

We then took a tour around the area and saw some of the cows that had been bought with CAPR group money.  It was interesting to see, mainly because of how remote it this place was.

Like most field visits this was more about the spectacle of us being there than us seeing the life of the community and the projects.  It is just not possible for a family of white people to arrive into a place and not completely disrupt the normal activities of the entire community.  Oren was particularly entertaining as he found many little hills to jump off of, and mud to play in at the bottom.

From this place we proceeded down the mountain (it was getting dark) and went to a place to stay the night (arranged by Eustache).  It was a small Pentecostal church with 2 guest rooms.  Rebecca and I had to smile as we realized our expectations of spending the night in a touristy guest house were not going to materialize.  (The district of Kibuye is much larger than the town of Kibuye.)  In fact, this was going to be a real village live-in.  The room was modest but did have 2 small single beds.  There was no bathroom or water, but there was an outdoor latrine.  

We were invited to the house of the local pastor who was very gracious.  Oren and David played with the kids there who took them to a back room behind the house where they had about 2 dozen guinea pigs on the floor.  The kids were very happy to play with them.  I asked the pastor why they had them and he said that they raised them and ate them.  

We had a delicious guinea pig-free dinner that night.  (We had beef instead).  Rwandese food is quite good because the staples are rice, beans and french fries.

We slept well enough and the next morning I did a second field visit while the family stayed at the church.  We looked over some of their accounting, to understand how they took in contributions and gave out small loans, as well then had a lunch together with everyone there before leaving around 10:30 am.

We dropped Eugene and Eustache off on the way back toward Kigali where they caught a bus and our family headed south for Burundi.  We drove without incident back to Bujumbura and got home about 5 pm on Saturday evening. 

It was tiring but not bad. In fact, it was good to have our expectations deflated as far as the visit and our plan to see some of the touristy beauty of the country.  It was better, I think, to have a chance to see reality--the parts of the country that do not benefit from tourism or even from development efforts that so often fail to reach the most marginalized.  I think that is one of the things I respect about MCC.  We do work with local partners to try to find people and places that are often passed over by larger aid and relief efforts.  

I am also amazed at how good our kids are becoming at going on long drives and being polite while they are often the central spectacle in the places we go.  I am hoping that this might help them develop patience and a confidence with going into new places and meeting new people.

Contemplating a Theology of Risk

Two peas in a pod. Oren and Timmy spent a lot of time together this week as they have both been on Spring Break.  


Beginning late once again on a Sunday night and I am dead tired.  The reason is because it has been a very full day beginning with me preaching at our church, PTI.  I was asked to give a sermon on reading the Bible as a spiritual discipline, as we are doing an ongoing study on being imitators of Christ.  We have looked at several spiritual disciplines in the past (prayer, fasting) so Bible reading was next.

I do read the Bible on a daily basis (the Bible in a year) and have been doing this for the past 5 years so I did have something to say, however it would probably not be the sermon topic I would choose had I been given a choice.

One thing I did in preparation was to check on the litteracy rate of Burundi.  I found that it was under 60 percent.  I also know that many children who are learning to read in school have bad eyes and cannot afford glasses.  Most people also do not have electricity so would only be able to read in daylight hours when other work needed to be done.  So I began the sermon by saying that in this cultural context Bible reading is first and foremost a privilege!  And that probably less then 50 percent of the population would be able to do so even if they wanted to.

I also raised the question about whether, given the importance we put on reading the Bible for spiritually maturity, the church needs to see as one of its mission here teaching litteracy.  I know historically the church saw itself as having this role for precisely this reason.

I ended the sermon with a warning about using the Bible to support a half-truth, which is, in my opinion worse than a lie.  I gave the example, in Burundi of the Hamitic doctrine promoted by many colonial Christians here that claimed that Tutsis were descendants of Noah's son Ham while Hutus were lesser indigenous people.  Consequently education was given to Tutsis and not Hutus.  This reenforced ethnic division that led to civil war in the 1990s.  I said that using the Bible to support an errant human doctrine was dangerous and easy to do if one takes scripture out of context of the whole biblical canon.

All in all it went OK, although I was more long-winded than I would have liked to be.


This has been a fairly normal week in some respects.  We have enjoyed being back from Nigeria and have gone back to our normal routines.  Swimming has been the most enjoyable one to return to.  One thing that is different is that Oren is out of school the next 2 weeks for spring break.  So he has been at home all day.  He actually seems to miss going to school and asks most mornings "Is today a school day?"

This has meant we are a bit more limited with how much work we can do.  I have been going to the office in the mornings and Rebecca in the afternoon.

We have also been trying to catch up with friends and we invited Travis and Astrud (missionary friends from US) and their 5 daughters to go get Indian food with us at Khanna Kazana.  It was a really nice evening.  It is also good to encourage them as their assignment seems more challenging than ours in that MCC does our support rasing for us while they must do their own. 

The other challenge they face is trying to get registered officially with the government as an NGO.  It is incredibly difficult to do if you do not want to pay any bribes.  They are committed to doing it completely honestly without bribes and the process is moving at a snails pace.  I do respect their committement to do this honestly although I can tell that the process can be disheartening at times.

The morning after we went for dinner Rebecca woke up with vomiting and diarrhea.  We suspected food poisoning but me and the kids were fine and so were Astrud and Travis' family.  (We had shared all the food.)  So we ruled that out.  She was quite sick all day and started an antibiotic that afternoon.  By the next day she was feeling better, but Oren started to get sick, first with diarrhea, then a very high fever.  We puzzled over the symptoms then tried an antibiotic on him.  He als responded well very quicly and has been well the past 3 days.

 We were blessed to have a visitor drop by this week.  It was Simon Guillebaud whom I have talked about in past blogs.  He has been with his family in the UK promoting his book and DVD, but did come by to visit some of the projects his group Great Lakes Outreach is involved in.

It was good to see him and to hear that things are going well with them.  They are still awaiting a resident visa for the US where he hopes to do some book and DVD promotion as well.  I have mentioned this in the past but I would like to encourage people who read this to consider getting this video for a Sunday school or small group or even better Youth group Bible study series.  It is really good, and very challenging to Christians to be 'dangerous' in our committment to follow Jesus' and embrace his priorities.  The link to the dvd is here: http://www.more-than-conquerors.com
Money raised for this all goes to supporting the work of Great Lakes Outreach in Burundi which benefits several of our local partners as well. 

We did take some time as a family this Saturday to go swimming at Entente Sportif.  Oren is gettng quite good at swimming now even in deep water.  David also loves to run around in the kids pool, although we have to watch him like a hawk as he falls over frequenlty.  He does have an instinct to hold his breath when he hits the water which Oren never had, so David does not come out coughing when we pull him up.  I will be happy when he knows how to get up himself though.

We had more visitors this weekend as well as Jodi, Ruth and Krysan descende upon us Saturday in preparation for a team reatreat we planned for this Sunday and Monday.  We are trying to have one quarterly.

This one was particularly poignant because having returned from our regional meetings where discussion of crisis contingency was a hot topic in Nigeria, we felt we needed to talk about this more in depth with our team.  Especially in this election year.

We have been developing a crisis contingency plan (what to do in an emergency) to share with our team.  But what came out of the Nigeria meetings was a discussion about preparing our team spiritually for dealing with crisis.  The Nigeria reps told us that what was hard was realizing that members of their team do not come with any uniform 'theology of risk'.  And some, on taking the assignment, had not even considered very seriously what their faith in God led them to believe about their own security.  Does one for instance believe that God will inded protect them from any harm, or that God would be with them in a time of danger or suffering and help them through it?  Or even, that God will in fact send as a test, circumstances of danger and suffering.  Some people may not even come with much faith at all that God is 'active' in any of this, and they need to 'take care of themselves'.

All tht to say, people come with different spiritual resources to be prepared for risk in an assignment.  Thus some might want to run at the first indication of problems, while ohers might feel called to stay with their work in the midst of a full scale war, for instance.

MCC has been historically known for its willingness to stay with and accompany others in times of danger, rather than being the first group to leave.  But there has been some concern that this had been excessive in the past.

So yesterday we did a Bible study as a team and read different passages about how Jesus and the Apostles dealt with risk in the Gospels and the book of Acts. What we found is that the response was quite varied.  Jesus, for instance did not let himself be killed everytime a crowd had a mind do to so.  He did 'slip through them in Nazereth, and in John 8 he hides himself in the temple after a dangerous provocation.  Yet clearly he knew at the time when it was required, he would sacrifice himself.

The same is true of the Apostles, sometimes, they ran away, or took council not to enter a place, or appealed for help from local authorities.  While other times they did accept stoning, imprisonment and death.

All that to say, that a theology of risk does not mean a wreckless willingness to put oneself in situations of danger, but rather some serious discernment about what is required in a particular circumstance.

We also had a chance for each of us to share our personal thresholds of risk.  What did we fear most?  Not surprisginly those of us who are parents had much lower thresholds of risk than the singles on our team.  Children add an entirely new dynamic as far as what we are willing to risk.

For me I realize that coming out here was an act of faith.  I believe that coming here was following a prompting from God.  But I do realize that I have been in situations here that made me afraid.  I realize that I do not have a faith that God will protect us from anything bad happening, but I do believe our lives are in God's hands.  I am also beginning to realize, as I develop a personal theology of risk, that I have to trust that he will give us wisdom to know what the right response is to a crisis.  There is no Biblical requirement to get ourselves killed. 
 
More later, the kids are getting out of bed and climbing on the computer so I will post and edit later if necessary.


Appendix:  If you want to know what we discussed in our Theology or Risk conversation today.  Here is a series of questions we asked ourselves and then assesed the answers together.  You might find the questions interesting yourself.

1. What do I strongly believe about God, His character, His relevance and care?

2. What do I strongly believe about God and prayer, His power and ability, His willingness
to intervene on my behalf, His promises to deliver, provide and protect? 

3. What do I strongly believe about living in a fallen world as a believer engaged in
ministry, a ministry that challenges the kingdom and powers of darkness?

4. What do I strongly believe about the importance and value of being part of a community,
with close relationships?  How do I account for the frailty and weakness of people, as well
as my own?

5. What do I believe about myself, my vulnerability or invulnerability to pain and suffering,
my readiness to endure, my resilience, my commitment for the long haul? What is it I
believe about the value of hardship and pain and suffering in my life?

 

Missing Easter

  David waiting for our flight back to Addis in Abuja.  Oren just gave him an M&M.  He sat there for several  minutes repeating the word "Yum!"



Happy Easter everyone.  I wish I could say that that is how it went down for us today, but probably 'Relieving Easter' would be the more appropriate expression.  Rebecca and I did make a vow that this would be the last time we schedule travel over Holy Week.  We have grown quite comfortable with the liturgical calendar, fasted for Lent, the whole 9 yards, but last week was really hard because it was almost entirely absorbed by work and travel.

We did get back into Bujumbura this afternoon after our 9 day journey to west Africa.  4 of those days alone were travel to get to and from Nigeria.  (It is amazing to think that we could get to Dulles Airport in the US faster than we can get to Abuja, the capital of Nigeria, from Burundi.)  Last week when I wrote we were in Jos, where we had about 3 full days of meetings with reps the central west African region.  The meetings were interesting, especially hearing about the work MCC is doing in Nigeria.  We met several of their partners as well in the course of the meetings. (Although we did no field trips.)

The most memorable partner is a local group called ERT.  It is an interfaith group made up of several Christians and Muslims who have committed to work together to relieve tension by working in their respective neighborhoods to prevent rumors from inciting violence.  (They contact each other and security forces by phone whenever they hear of a violent attack or threat of one from Muslims or Christians.)  They also go and distribute relief materials TOGETHER in areas where massacres against one group or another have left communities devastated.  Sonnie, one of the leaders (a muslim) described going into a Christian area with the group which posed a serious risk.  When he gave a young man a blanket he asked him, "Can you accept this knowing that I am a muslim?"  (Members of the man's familly had been killed the past week by muslims.)  The man said he would and they exchanged phone numbers and agreed to stay in touch with each other.

This kind of work is dangerous right now in Jos.  All of them admitted that the polarization of Jos is on the rise and that fanning this fire is in the political interest of politicians wanting to win an election in 2011.  (As we are seeing in our own society in the US, there are far more political points to be gained by being and uncompromising polarizer than a moderate.)  It was sad to hear that this is happening in Jos though.  I know that in Burundi, once the ethnic groups had been displaced and isolated themselves from each other, the civil war raged for 14 years.  I am praying for a miracle in Nigeria right now.

In fact, at the end of our meeting with ERT, we prayed together for their work.  One of us prayed as Christians and then Sonnie prayed as a Muslim.  It was interesting to hear him pray and ask God that those who please him would be revealed in their 'conduct' no matter who they are.  I was reminded of Christ's admonishment in Matthew 7 that a tree is known by its fruit, and a good tree produces good fruit, while a bad tree produces bad fruit. 

We finished the meetings on Thursday and the reps from Chad, Burkina Faso, and our family took the 3 hour car ride back to Abuja so we could return home.  Our flight did not leave until Saturday though, because it only went twice weekly in our direction, so we spent 2 days in Abuja.  We stayed at the home of our area director Mark Sprunger with his wife Angela.  We had to chase one of their son's out of his room which our family shared.  They were extremely gracious to us.

I can say, after being there 2 days, I have to say I am really, really, really, happy to be living in Bujumbura.  For whatever I complained about here over the past months, they have it worse.  To begin with, the weather is really hot!  The city is very big and you can get just about anything there, but many of the basic necessities are missing.  Case in point: Nigeria is an oil producing country that actually sells electricity to 2 of its neighbors.  But people in the city are lucky to have 2-4 hours of power per day.  There is also no water to speak of.  The Sprungers have to rely on a noisy generator to run air conditioners to keep the house barely tolerably cool.

Another thing that was shocking was the highway system.  This is a city that was planned as a new capital so it was built with the idea of having a planned infrastructure.  All of the highways are huge 6 lane monstrosities which allow drivers to have spectacular devastating wrecks.  But there is really no place for pedestrians, so as a driver, one is constantly trying to avoid killing people who are trying to dash across these enormous highways to get from one neighborhood to another.

The last thing is that it is clear that oil money is not being distributed in any just way.  There could not be a wider gap between poor and rich here.  As a result, crime is an incredibly serious problem and one can almost count on being robbed at sometime in one's life there.

There are a few redeeming features though.  They had a few big malls that were interesting to see after being in Burundi for so long.  There was also a zoo that we took the kids too.  Oren and David loved it, and it was not bad for a third world zoo.  The animals had plenty of room to run around, but like most such zoos, the human animal contact safety features are not in place, so Oren and David could feed the camel, giraffe, and ostrich who stuck there heads over the cages for a handful of grass.

There was also a really fun playground with a zipline and a kind of obstacle course, as well a rope jungle gym that went up about 30 feet.  The kids had a great time there.

As far as leaving the reps from Burkina Faso and Chad had a far worse time than us.  They were slated to leave Thursday afternoon but due to a truck wreck on the highway to the airport that bloced all lanes, they missed their flights and spent 5 hours stuck in traffic to get there and back.  They left the next day.  We left on Saturday without incident.

The trip back was OK.  Not great.  I am beginning to realize how tiring it is to travel for over 30 hours with two small children.  They were generally good, but the long lines in immigration and security at the airports took their toll.  We stayed the night again in Ethiopia which was really cool.  We got there Saturday evening and could see many Christians (coptic I think) holding vigils all night outside of the large churches. (I think since Friday night.)   We could hear them chanting and singing all night as they waited for Easter Sunday.

We began our trip back to Bujumbura through Nairobi on Easter Sunday and got to our house around 3pm.  The last leg of the trip was particularly hard as the kids had really had it.  Robyn, was here with the car to pick us up.  Robyn and Yolanda had been staying here as house sitters and Yolanda had  prepared us some vegetarian fajitas for dinner as well as avocado banana smoothie in the freezer.  It was really good to be home.  Tired, but a bit more grateful for the wonderful place we have to serve and live in here.

Bonus photo:  Here is a bird we saw in Jos that we were not able to identify.  Any ideas what it might be?

Retreating in Jos

David hangin’ out at the boarding lounge in Addis Ababa waiting for the flight to Abouja, Nigeria.

It might not occur to just anyone to choose an area of violent conflict and recent massacres to have a team building retreat, but MCC reps are not just anyone.  I am writing late this evening from a retreat center on the outskirts of Jos Nigeria where Rebecca and I (and Oren and David) are participating in MCC regional meetings known as CWARM (Central West Africa Regional Meetings).  Countries in this region for MCC include Rwanda, Burundi, Congo, Burkina Faso, Chad, and Nigeria.  It was Nigeria’s turn to host.

Planning to meet as a group of representatives from these diverse countries is no mean feat.  It is notoriously difficult to fly between Central and West African countries as they are really not linked by any air roots.  For us to get to Nigeria, for instance, (which is to our North west by about 5 hours by plane) we had to fly first south and east to Nairobi, then north to Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) spend the night, then fly west to Abuja Nigeria, then drive 4 hours by cab to Jos. 

The rep from Congo went South to Johanesburg! To get a flight to Lagos, then another to Jos. 

(I was talking to the rep who serves both Burkina Faso and Chad, which are adjacent, but to get between them one has to take a flight to Paris and then back!)

In short, it is a challenge to get together.  The purpose of these meetings is for us to talk to our area director and advocate for our programs, as well as support each other through difficult times.

We had our first day of meetings today and shared reports of highs and lows of our program for the past 12 months.  All I can say is that if you think you are having a hard time, take a moment to listen to someone who is having a worse time and you find a lot to be thankful for.

My heart really went out to the reps in Nigeria who are based in Jos.  The conflict here has been flaring up violently since January and they are faced with very tough choices about how much risk they are willing  to face personally.  There have been reports of suicide bombers in areas near their work, and even a bomb threat at their children’s school.  Constant curfews are making any kind of work and schooling, not to mention shopping for basic necessities more and more difficult.  While the reps do not feel like they are directly targeted, it is still a hard choice to decide when the risk is too great, or even if it is possible to do anything in the current instability.  Their big question is the worst over?  Is it getting better?  Will it stay like this indefinitely?  Or deteriorate into all out war?  There is really no way to predict the answers to these questions.

The conflict seems to be a war of identity between 2 ethnic groups one called Christian the other Muslim.  And there have been alternating raids and massacres by one group against another with increasing regularity.  It is interesting, coming from Burundi where I see two groups in conflict (tutsi and hutu) to which I feel no sense of belonging.  In this context I profess a family connection to the group called Christian.  And I am aware that the tension between Christians and Muslims internationally has been on the increase.  And yet, I cannot feel that this conflict reflects anything more than a kind of cultural  team sport.  I do not feel that Christians murdering Muslims have God or truth on their side any more than I feel the reverse is true.  I believe this conflict is cultural and generational but not a battle between good and evil.  Or I should say that I do not believe that the good are on one side and the evil on the other.  It is a tragic story of revenge and retribution which is a cycle that is extremely difficult to break.

As a Christian working in a small NGO that specializes in peace making and conflict transformation, it is hard to know where to begin to address this kind of conflict in the midst of a raging crisis.  I do believe that God revealed himself fully to us in the person of Jesus, but I do not believe that this ‘truth’ will be emanated through violent conflict.  The power of the Gospel is in showing His redemptive love for all people, it is not through victory in a savage turf war for land and resources.  I fear though that Christians more and more believe that precisely this hostility between Islam and Christianity is a struggle for faith around the world and the victory of the Gospel will be a military one. 

OK. Enough preaching.  It is just hard to be on a border town on this conflict and not feel angry about people being incited to kill each other by cynical politicians in the name of God on both sides.

So what is it like here?  It was good to arrive at midday in Abuja to catch a cab to Jos because it gave us a chance to see the terrain.  Abuja is hot, dry and flat.  It is a big city with a modern airport.  We drove in a minivan which met us there to Jos, in what is called Plateau State.  The drive was long and we passed through numerous military and police check points.  The roads are all 4 to 6 lane highways and the drivers drove insanely fast and dangerously.  We passed through some of the areas where the recent massacres took place.  Jos is at a higher altitude than Abuja and it reminded me a lot of New Mexico or even Mexico.  There are many jutting hills and mountains, many look like they are composed of stacked boulders.  It is dry and hot in the day but gets quite cold at night.

The retreat center is actually a school with some guest houses.  It also  has some conference rooms, a playground, and lots of boulders to climb on which Oren loves.  It is hard to keep him safe though, because he has great confidence in his ability to climb just about anything.

It is good to see our colleagues and Oren even has some playmates among the 2 other families here with kids who are just a bit older than him so that is fun for him.  There are also 2 child care workers to help out, while we are in meetings, with David.

Security concern is ever present as the school is surrounded by a 10 foot chain link fence with razor wire on the top.   The front gate is heavily guarded, and apparently there are guard dogs that are let loose on the property after 10pm at night.  Nonetheless, the center is relaxing and the kids are really enjoying themselves.

We are glad to be here on time.  I did not mention that the 2 day trip gave us some concern for a timely arrival.  On our first leg, we flew to Addis Ababa with a stopover in Nairobi.  When we got to Addis we the plane stayed in a holding pattern for a long time because of bad weather.  The pilot assured us that if it did not clear we could go to an alternative airstrip in Djibouti.  That did not give Rebecca and I much assurance since we knew that would mean we would miss our connection.

Fortunately we did land shortly after.  In Addis, Ethiopian Air put us up for the night in transit at a hotel.  That is something I was very grateful for, traveling with kids.  The kids liked the hotel, especially the taxidermed lion and leapord that sat at its front entrance.

Addis is a really huge modern city and is a place I hope we can come back to sometime to see.  I hear so much about Ethiopian culture and I am interested in seeing it more.  But this was not the trip.  We left town the next morning about 6am and, as I said, got to Abuja about  6 hours later.

We will be here a total of 6 days before our 2 days of travel to return.  We get back home midmorning on Easter Sunday.  That was not good timing for us, but we had little choice given the limited flight schedule.

So that is the short, hopefully interesting story of our trip here.  We are definitely schooling our children in good travel behavior and they were actually quite patient with waiting in line at customs,  immigration, security and in the boarding lounge.  We are also improving in the art of toting 2 kids and 5 carry ons around without having to make 2 trips between points or without the aid of an airport cart.  Hopefully the trip home won’t offer any unexpected delays.

A Really Good Day

I am beginning this blog well after midnight tonight and the power is already off.  I have noticed that our battery life is getting shorter, so I will probably make this brief.  I am tempted to collapse this whole entry into a discussion of today.  It was by all measures a really good day.  But there are some other interesting things that happened this week, so I will do my best to mention all of them as well.

The main deviation from the norm this week was my ascent up country to Gitega on Thursday where I spent the night and returned Friday.  We do have 3 partners up there and it is time to sign MOUs (memorandums of understanding) for the grants that begin this fiscal year.  It honestly does not make for a very exciting trip, but it is necessary. 

I did not go with Rebecca and the kids because we wanted to keep Oren in school all week.  He will have to miss an entire week of school soon because of an upcoming trip to Nigeria, but I will come back to this.

I did go up with Yolanda and Jean Claude. Yolanda is our SALTer seconded to Moisson Pour Christ, where Jean Claude also works.  They were going up to do a peace training with University students and asked for a lift.  I also wanted Yolanda to see some of the work of one of our other partners so we mada a plan to meet Friday morning for a visit to the commune of Bukira Sazi to see the work of one of our partners up there.

The trip was, as I said relatively uneventful but relationally exhausting as I spent many hours in  a short space of time catching up with the work of our three Gitega partners, seeing some of their projects, working through the particulars of the memorandums of understanding, all in French of course.  I stayed at the conference center of one of our partners and slept somewhat fitfully on an uncomfortable bed.  I was glad to head home Friday afternoon and got home before the kids ate dinner. 

Oren and David were apparently on their best behavior with Mommy over the days I was gone.  Oren really does his best when he is in a very regular structured routine.  So school days are very comforting to him in a way.  The big change that is happening between them is that they are really beginning to play together.  David is very keen on doing whatever Oren is doing, but now can actually ‘do’ some of the things Oren does.  Most impressive is his ability to jump on the trampoline.  I am surprised that as a 15 month old he is beginning to do this.

Last week I put a step up next to the trampoline he can get up on himself.  He loves to climb on it and we have to pay close attention to him.  (There is a net around the tramp so he cannot jump off of course.)  But now he and Oren can jump together on the trampoline which is something he loves to do.  They get each other really worked up laughing and falling over. 

When  David is not on the trampoline he is often in Oren’s room looking at his books.  He really loves pictures in books and will often go in alone to look at them.

Saturday was spent at home as a family.  I did the morning yoga stretch class then played with the kids.  Rebecca and I were both asked to preach this week, her in the morning and I in the afternoon so we also switched off trying to find time to finish our sermons.  In the evening we invited our friends over, the Thomas’ (Danish friends) and the Tanja and Stephan the German family as well.  We had a lot of children as they all came with their kids and we had Timmy also.  We had a very nice enchillada dinner together and the kids played on the trampoline and watched videos.
Oh, almost forgot, Jodi was also here.  She arrived on Saturday for a short visit to Bujumbura for examine week at her school.  She is picking up some supplies then heading back up country. 

We all had a good visit, then Rebecca and I worked late into the night Saturday to be ready for Sunday.


Sunday was one of those rare, nearly perfect days.  We went to church in the morning where Rebecca preached a very moving sermon on what it means to pray.  She talked about how real personal prayer is a kind of abiding with God.  Not coming as a petitioner, but as a close friend to whom God wants to make his will known.  She counseled the congregation to practice ‘listening prayer’ a prayer that is primarily spent in silence, perhaps meditating on a passage of scripture, and just listening for God to speak.  She reminded them that we are not beggars seeking crumbs from the Divine table but we are friends invited to sit with our Lord at his table.

It was very well received and is quite a radical conception of prayer compared to what one often hears here.  But I think the point was to invite people here into an intimacy in prayer that might make God less of a ‘big man’ and more of a friend.  (She did have to acknowledge the cultural differences we attach to the word friend as well.  In our culture a ‘friend’ is someone with whom we share interests, and an emotional connection, while here a ‘friend’ is always someone upon whom one can rely for financial assistance when the need arises.  In fact the idea that this might ‘taint’ a friendship is a very western idea.  To Burundians it seems that a friendship that does not involve mutual financial support is little more than a shallow acquaintance.)

After we left the service we decided to go swimming at Club du Lac T between services.  Oren has been wanting to go in the big pool and does go in and hang on the edge or swim between 2 corners.  Sunday was a major breakthrough though as he finally TOOK A BREATH WHILE SWIMMING WITHOUT TOUCHING THE BOTTOM!  He has been able to kick between two point for a while, but he has not been able to get his head up while swimming.  This was a great thrill for us as we have been hoping to see him accomplish this.  He received a small cup of ice cream from the restaurant for his reward.

We went to the afternoon service after a brief pass by home to change.  The afternoon service was surprisingly well attended and after some good worship music I preached a message on a Christian approach to conflict transformation.  Despite the fact that I did not think I was that well prepared I really felt the Holy Spirit overtake me as I began and I swear I preached the Gospel of liberation like Martin Luther King!  It went far better than last week’s discussion on stumbling blocks.  I was happy about that since I felt a bit disappointed about it last week.

What probably made the sermon effective were the many testimonies I have picked up of profound transformation made possible through forgiveness and reconciliation in the Burundian and Rwandan context.  I had many stories of murderers asking survivors for forgiveness and receiving it--And the reconciliation bringing healing to a whole community.

My premise was that conflict is a normal part of human interaction, and that rather than seeking to avoid, the Christian challenge is how to use it to bring about a transformational restoration of relationship, a deeper intimacy than what the individuals or community had before.  There are many examples of this in the Bible from Joseph being restored to his brothers in Egypt to our model in Jesus who won our salvation through the violent act of crucifixion, which of course, I believe, brought about a reconciliation of us to God that could not have been accomplished any other way.

So that was the gist of it.  Rebecca kept David amused on the slide while I preached.  (He can climb the ladder himself now.)  It was a really good day.

On a final note, I mentioned that we are trying to get visas to Nigeria.  For better or for worse, they finally came through.  (There was some hope that we would be denied and not have to go to this conference which is in Jos, Nigeria a place where there has been serious interreligious conflict—Christian and Muslim.  Last week 500 Christian villagers were killed near Jos.  This was retribution for similar massacres of Muslims by Christians.)

But God has made a way, we have our tickets, passports and will be leaving on Friday.  We will be gone for 8 days, so the next time I write I will be in Jos.  (If you don’t hear from me it could be because I do not have an internet connection.)  Please pray for us as we do have some concern  about the safety of travel.  We do have confidence in our colleagues who are there and are telling us that we should not have any trouble.

Thoughts on Educating Girls and a Trip to Kigali

David and Oren in Kigali.  Not many great pix this week, but they do like to get away from Bujumbura and explore new venues now and then.   Weather here continues to be hot, high 80s to 90 during the day.


As I sit here at 11pm starting this entry, I am amazed at how far we have come from the days earlier this year when I would rush to finish by 10pm before the power went off then would spend at least an hour on a dial-up connection to get the few pictures and text to upload onto the server.  Not that we are so far away from those days, something can always go wrong.  We do continue to have nightly black outs, but with a solar battery and a faster internet connection, it almost feels like I am in another country.

I do have to say, there is something to having a slower internet connection. (Our 'high-speed' here is still only about a megabyte every minute and a half).  There is a lot less temptation to web-surf or spend hours on the computer reading the latest spin on the political scene.  The little I get honestly makes me glad I am missing much of the blow by blow political debate in the US these days.

I did run across an excellent podcast recently of Bill Moyers interviewing Greg Mortenson.  He is the author of Three Cups of Tea and Stones Into Schools.  He is the guy who is building schools one at a time in rural Pakistan and Afghanistan (for those who don't know.)  I was interested to hear that his childhood was spent in Tanzania where his dad was a Christian medical missionary.  Here is a link to the broadcast: http://video.pbs.org/video/1387129274/ 

What he says about educating girls is one of the most thought-provoking things I have heard in recent days, and I believe his experiences would be born out in our context in Burundi as well.  To paraphrase: "When you educate a boy, you educate an individual, but when you educate a girl you educate a comunity, because she will educate her children when she is a mother, and will even teach her own mother as she is learning in school."  He has found this to be true even in very conservative Islamic communities where women have few rights.  It is good to hear a really inspiring story and such a contrast to the partisan political hype that seems to be such an obsession in the news these days.

Generally life here is good in that way.  Despite the underlying concern about the political climate here and the threat of insecurity, we don't spend a lot of time listening to the news daily.  I do have some email services send us updates on the situation in the Africa Great Lakes region on a weekly basis, but do not keep up with the news daily.  It gives life here a slower pacing in some sort of way.  When I check in from time to time though, I am always surprised that actually things don't change a lot from month to month despite the steriod driven pace of the media.  Maybe I am just slowing down because of age, but I do like the slower pace of information here now that I have been weaned off the high speed internet 'crack' I used to crave when I lived in the US.  For those of you still there, maybe a 'fast' from media would be a good spiritual discipline to try for what remains of lent.

Actually this week was fairly uneventful despite the fact that we made a trip to Rwanda.  We left after school on Wednesday (actually after some more dental work I had) which meant we left Bujumbura around 3.  It is later than we have ever gone, but we figured it would not be much of a problem.  Little did we know that the border we liked to cross closed at 6pm.  We arrived at 6:15 and were told they were closed.  We begged them to let us through which fortunately they did, since I am not sure what option we would have had besides staying the night in the car.  Driving back to Bujumbura after dark was out of the question, and there is really nothing by the way of guest houses near where we were in Kirundo.

We got into Kigali around 8pm where the Africa New Life Guesthouse had dinner waiting for us.  Oren of coure was thrilled to be back there and even David seems to recognize it and ran around to do the things he remembered from the last time he was there.  We settled in for the night and made arrangements to meet with partners the next day.  It is the beginning of our new fiscal year so among other activities we have to sign new contracts for the grants we are giving them this year.

We went to Friends Peace House the next morning where we saw Ruth and Krystan and had some meetings with our partners.  Among the topics of discussion was the security situation in Rwanda and what contingency plans need to be in place to protect Ruth and Krystan if things get worse.  It was good to hear, from some of our partners, that they did not think that the recent grenade attacks were indicative of a larger breakdown of stability in the country.  They seemed to accept that in these countries some violent episodes around elections aimed at creating fear and intimidation were not abnormal, but that generally things in the country seemed quite normal and stable.

I was happy to know that this was how our partners were feeling.  On the other hand, I did find out from our Guest House staff that pretty much all of the short term mission trips they had anticipated from the US this year were precipitously cancelled on hearing news of the recent problems.  So I do think, that if instilling fear is the objective, the attacks are hitting their mark to some extent. 

Ruth and Krystan seemed to feel fine about thier situation at this time.

Besides meeting with partners, I was drafted into participating in the graduation ceremony of the Mwana Nshuti program.  This is a trade school that we support for street children.  It does a very good job of getting street kids placed in foster situations and given training in numerous skills including sewing, welding, farming, english language, hair cutting, as well as some peace and reconcilliation education.  They graduate a class every year.

I was expected, of course, to represent in an official capacity and sat with the other VIPS at the front of the room where the ceremony was.  It was not too long, and we chose to have Rebecca stay outside with the kids, so it went pretty well.  The kids who were graduating danced, sang,  some VIPs gave speeches, then I was asked to read the names of the graduates as they came up to shake my hand as well as the hands of several others on receiving a certificate for completing their program.  (I noticed with interest that 24 of the 25 graduates this year were girls.)

Afterwards we all drank a fanta (coke) which is an important part of any ceremony here, be it a funeral, wedding, graduation, etc.

We left Rwanda on Saturday morning and took a long way home so we could visit several potential sites for a partners retreat this May of June.  The trip back to about 8 hours so we arrived tired to our home in the evening.  (We were pleasantly surprised that Robyn and Yolanda had bought some bananas and avocadoes for us to make smoothies when we came home.)  The kids were shot though and we struggled with them in the hours before bedtime.

Sunday was better as far as the kids, but was a busy for Rebecca and I.  We both had responsibilities at the English fellowship in the afternoon.  I was preaching and Rebecca was leading Sunday school.  We enlisted Robyn to help us with David during the service.  She was happy to oblige.  I shared some thoughts on 'stumbling blocks to Christian character.'  It was a topic assigned to me, but I found it quite interesting in my preparation.  I felt like I had some good insight into this from my experience in the Kairos prison ministry.  Somehow though, I feel like it did not make much of an impression here.  I am not sure if it was just poorly delivered, but the looks on the faces of people there seemed to suggest they were a bit perplexed or perhaps bored by it all.  Well, I will get another chance next week as I will be sharing again, this time on Christian responses to conflict.  This is probably more up my alley as an MCCer.

This coming week will be more of the same as far as work.  We need to get MOUs signed and I will probably go up to Gitega this week to do that with our partners upcountry. 

I should add a quick footnote after writing about reading the signs of the times on last week's entry.  It is good to get a range of perspectives on this.  We did learn, that the official UN perspective is far more optimistic than we would have thought.  Apparently the conditions now are far more stable than even the 2005 elections at this point in the campaign promise.  Nonetheless, there is still some anxiety among the official expat. community and it even seems that most of the mzungus in Oren's school will probably leave the country from May to September.  There is even rumor that the school may close early.  We don't know what will happen, but we are not planning to take Oren out of school early.  Despite what I wrote last week, we are alert, but not giving in to unjustified fear.  We are committed to being here and supporting the mission of our organization, which has a ministry of 'walking with' the marginalized, poor, and vulnerable, and to bring in word and deed the gospel of peace.