A Birthday and a Field Trip

Not every week is as full as activities as another, and this week at work, after our partners meeting, has been considerably more subdued. I have been using the opening paragraph to comment on the weather, and as expected, the temperatures continue to drop during the night and the days are not as warm either. It is subtle to notice the change when one is outside during the day because the rains have gone and for the most part, the cloud cover is gone as well. So we have sun for a good part of the day. In the direct sun it is quite warm, but inside one really wants to bundle up with a sweater and even a space heater and drink a warm beverage during work. The pool water is around 61 right now and I can't tell if the sun in the day will be able to balance the chill of the night or whether the temp will continue to drop in the next 2-3 weeks as we enter June.

Work has been focused, for me, around making sure that partners who intend to continue old projects or start new ones in 2019 have turned in 'concept papers' for us to consider in the months ahead. It is about a one year process from a proposed new project to final approval for funding. I think that seems quite slow for folks around here who would prefer that funding for a proposal would be begin shortly after it is presented. That is one of the tensions we must manage here coming from a culture of schedules and long-term planning, to one of spontaneity and a a mindset of uncertainty about tomorrow, much less one year from now. (I am often amused at myself when I send an email to one of our local partners to see if they are available for a meeting in mid-November--6 months out.) I don't think many even use an appointment calendar that tracks dates that far in the future.

Still, I do find the work rewarding and there continue to be new things to apply myself to. One of our partners recently received funding for some qualitative research to better understand why Maasai women in their project prefer to have births at home rather than go to a facility, even when they go there for other purposes (like ante-natal care). I am working with them to design a research project to investigate this.

Rebecca has been busy at work as well, following up on the child protection workshop she did with partners who run schools, and preparing for a team meeting this Friday.

We continued in our normal routine for the most part with a few highlights worth noting on several evenings. Choir practice continues to meet on Wednesdays and we are starting some new (more difficult) pieces for a special evening of music in June. On Thursday, our family was invited once again to Nai our housekeeper's house for a Birthday party for her youngest son Ezra. He was turning 4. This time we were wiser and made sure we had a way to get back in the back gate once we left. having learned the hard way last time that there is no easy route back to the compound except that.

We arrived about 5pm and found a much larger gathering than last time. It seems that most of the kids in the neighborhood were there, many friends of all of Nai's children. They were very excited to be part of a Birthday and get some food and cake. I was surprised that many of them spoke quite good English that they had learned in school. This feels like a nice gesture as Nai feels honored to have us come to her house, and Rebecca enjoys being able to contribute a Birthday cake to the party and a gift for the Birthday child. It is admittedly always a bit awkward being served food first and eating surrounded by 22 hungry children looking on, but refusing, even on principal, would be the height of ingratitude and impoliteness. I always take a very small portion because I know that all the extra food prepared for us that we do not eat, will go to the kids.

Ezra liked his ball and was thrilled to have a Birthday cake. David and Oren were both very nice the whole time. David is more extroverted and ran around the back of the house almost on arrival, to see the rabbits. He was thrilled to find a litter of puppies as well that he played with for quite a bit of the time we were there. Oren politely posed for pictures and stayed inside with group. He did confide in us later that he did feel awkward being treated in such a privileged way. He would have rather just been one of the kids, in his words.

We left after Birthday cake many photos of and with the children. Ezra liked the soccer ball we gave him and Rebecca's chocolate cake was a smash.

We took it easy on Friday and Saturday generally. Oren had a friend over to our house (one of the Abrahams) from school. They had a great time playing together. When we took him back home across town, we also attended another engagement we were invited to nearby. It was a good bye party for some people who have been here for a number of years. We did not know them well, but Rebecca was in a Bible study with the woman, Martha, and many of our friends that we have come to know here were there as well. It was a fun evening and a chance to be relational with many of our friends who live across town from us.

Sunday morning was another adventure with children for me. Rebecca was leading music for the service, and I was working with the Sunday school kids. We had planned a field trip to take all of the Sunday school kids to a nearby school where a large number of albino children attend school and are sponsored by Albino Peacemakers (PAC) who are affiliated with our church. PAC does a lot of work to champion the cause of people with albinism in TZ. They are led by Sister Martha who you might remember from a previous blog. The children from our church had been collecting offerings and were donating them all to PAC and were going to visit the albino children in school to present the gifts.

We boarded 2 buses we had hired. We had estimated about 30 would be coming, but in fact, there were closer to 75. Fortunately it was a short ride to the school. We crowded in a large classroom where about 24 children with albinism were waiting for us. They sang some songs and our kids sang songs that they had prepared as well. We also presented them with a gift of shoes for school uniforms, protective clothing, as well as juice and cookies, which we shared. It was a nice outing, although with 75 children that we had to get to and from the place, I would not want to attempt this more than once per year. We got back to the church about the time the service was letting out.

After church we went to the new Star Wars movie 'Solo' on Sunday afternoon. We opted not to go see it in 3D this time, although it was available here. We all enjoyed it, and at $4, movies are a much more regular family activity here than in the US.

Partner's Meeting and Local Birds

Dung beetle near our house, David wanted for a pet.

I was hoping to get this blog online by Sunday evening, but Sunday afternoons have generally been family time beginning with lunch out (usually pizza at George's). We often share our meal with others from church as lunch is a good time to meet up with people who live across town from us. Rebecca and I would probably prefer a bit of variety as far as going out to eat. There is good Indian and Ethiopian here, but David is adamant about his preference-- a sea food pizza featuring generous portions of squid tentacles. I think he has had that almost every week since we have been here.

Tanzanian bishop of some kind.

If you have been keeping up with our news weekly, you know that I was complaining quite a bit about rain last week, but was slightly optimistic that the months of continuous downpours seemed to be coming to an end. That has continued to be the trend, except for last Wednesday (the day after I posted the blog), which was the single heaviest rain in one morning we have ever had. Trying to get to work required a very high clearance vehicle and I was actually concerned our car might be swept off the road in some places in downtown Arusha. (I did see one cyclist get completely knocked off his bike which ended up going down a deep rain gutter nearly 50 meters before he managed to catch it.

Fortunately, with the exception of that morning, the rest of the week and weekend were devoid of rain. So I really do think we are done. Finally! That has not made the weather any warmer though. Temperatures continue to drop, (along with the pool water temp.) Most mornings the air and water temp are around 60 F. I can't say it is unpleasant, but I will say we came to Tanzania woefully unprepared for anything but short-sleeve weather. I should have packed along the lines of clothing for fall in Seattle. We are planning a trip back to the US in July where we need to go through and pick out some sweaters to bring back.

Weaver

Last week was spent first in preparing, then facilitating, our Annual Partners Meeting. This is a meeting of all of MCC Tanzania's local partners whose projects we support. We currently have nine. I am coordinator of all of our health and education programs, and Chrispin M. coordinates our agriculture projects. This is the only time of year that we actually gather all our partners together in one place, which gives us the opportunity to share general information that applies to all of them, as well as giving them a chance to network with each other.

Partners began arriving on Tuesday evening to Arusha. We had booked a conference hall and rooms at the 'Golden Rose' hotel and conference center, which could not have been more aptly named. It is an old building in the middle of town near 'Stendi Kubwa' the central bus station. As its moniker implies, the hotel looks to be a somewhat delapidated shadow of its former glory. Apparently it was an upscale place at one time. While it did have electricity and running water, it looked like it had been many years since its last paint job, and the large entrance hall was now an 'arcade' featuring various and sundry makeshift boutiques, a forex, internet cafe, and office supplie store.

Despite the flood, the MCC team as well as all the partners managed to be on time for our 8:30 start on Wednesday. We were about 25 all told. This included the whole MCC team, Sharon the Rep., Lucia our accountant, Neema our program administrator, me, Rebecca, Chrispin, and Zoe--our SALT volunteer who came with her partner organization. Rebecca led us off with a devotional about building on a foundation of stone rather than sand. This was followed by Chrispin leading us in a series of introductions in which we were asked to say who we were, what we most enjoy cooking, and something we wish for.

I led two longer sessions on the first day, before and after lunch. The first was on a framework for designing and evaluating development projects in a conflict setting called. 'Do No Harm.' It is a valuable tool to try to prevent  project resources from being misused, directly or indirectly, to exacerbate a conflict. It is premised on the experience of many, that aid (monetary, material) is not neutral. It becomes part of the context in which it is given. Secondly, every conflict context has both 'connectors' (things/people that bring different groups together), and 'dividers' (things/people that drive different groups apart). An aid project will interact with both of these in expected and unexpected ways. It is important to understand what the connectors and dividers are and how the resources given enhance or diminish them. Also, we must consider not just the aid, but the 'implicit ethical messages' sent by the way it is disbursed (including conduct of staff, hiring practices, lifestyle, etc.). The 'medium is the message' and can also have an impact on the connectors and dividers.

The whole framework is far more complex than I have time or wish to write down here, but it was well received by the partners. While it is true that none of our current partners in Tanzania are working in areas with active conflict, projects can still interact with communal connectors and dividers that can lead either  to localized conflict and misunderstanding, or improved social cohesion. Partner staff were able to offer numerous examples from their own experience during the course of the discussion. Our own experience of managing programs in post-conflict Rwanda and Burundi were also insightful for partners here.

After lunch I led another presentation more specifically on project management skills, namely, how to do a work breakdown and create a Gantt chart. It was a bit more dry, but I gave them 3 hypothetical projects to breakdown and schedule as 3 teams. The activity was challenging but also kind of fun. At the end of their session they presented their Work Breakdown Structures and Gannt charts which they did on flip chart paper. It was great to see them think through these ideas and many were taking photos of the results with their cell phones for future reference. (Ready-made projects).

At the end of the day we watched a movie about how women acted as 'connectors' in the Liberia conflict, by reaching across faith lines to get the men to stop waging war. They actually forced President Taylor to negotiate and reach a settlement with the rebel groups. The movie was disturbing to the extent that it showed quite graphically just how horrible and chaotic the Liberian civil war was. But it also showed the power of women to reach across ethnic and religious lines to bring peace. It was called Pray the Devil Back to Hell, and is available on Amazon.

Rebecca left early to get the kids from the bus drop off, and went on to choir practice which I had to miss that evening. She picked me and Zoe up from the Golden Rose afterwards and we all went to an outdoor Indian barbeque joint (Khan's) on the street in what I would call a Swahili quarter of Arusha next to the market. The sun had just set and the place had a certain charm under tungsten lights which illuninated a serving table laden with Indian chutneys, assorted naans, and various Zanzibar delicasies.  The spicy aroma of grilled meat filled the air with keema, mutton kebabs, and tandoori chicken, all roasting on half barrel barbeque pits nearby. Indian sweets like jelabis were also on display with the chutney's gathering flies--and looking delicious. We all enjoyed an assortment of meats and sauces sittng around a sidewalk table, people watching, with the call to prayer droning in the background. For some reason Oren felt that this was the best meal we had had in Arusha to date and he asked several times why we had never gone before. A place we will have to return to in the future.

Thursday, the second day of the partner meetings was a bit more complicated as school pick ups at the end of the day were going to conflict with a field visit we had planned to a local agriculture organization. Rebecca was more involved on the second day as we started off in small work groups to make sure all partners understood our financial, and narrative report protocols. Rebecca led a work group on developing child protection policies. This is a high priority for MCC and several of our partners run schools. They are required to have an active child protection policy in place in order to be in compliance with MCC grant requirements. This ended up being quite a large and active group and Rebecca led them through a framework on how to develop a policy with stakeholder involvement and make sure that children are aware of how to report abuse. A big challenge in this regard is the fact that teachers regularly practice corporal punishment at most schools and often do not have good ideas for alternative forms of discipline. Culture can be slow to change, but our partners are committed to leading in this regard.

After lunch we all headed to a kind of model farm called ECHO, which specializes in agricultural innovations to maximize yield and nutrition in the Tanzanian context. We all loaded into a bus and were given a grand tour of their activities when we got there. They showed us innovations in low tillage agriculture and water harvesting, as well as different kinds of plants and explained their nutritional content. People were loaded up with various new and interesting leaves for consumption or transplanting in their home gardens by the time we left and returned to the hotel for the final wrap-up session.

It was a good gathering, but it is always a relief to have it over and done with and we were back in the office after a cold swim on Friday morning. Friday evening our family went to a game night at the church thrown by our Tanzanian young adults. We played various games including spoons, chess, and chinese checkers before we finally went home at 9pm.

We took the weekend easy and spent some time Saturday walking around our compound. We saw quite a variety of birds that seem to be migrating through. I took many pictures that are on display here in the blog.

Sunday was my week to teach Sunday school. I came up with a pretty cool kind of paper doll craft that has a bunch of paper people linking hands when it is cut out. We painted fire on their heads for Pentecost. Our choir also sang two songs at the beginning of the service. Sadly Oren was really really sick on Sunday and spent much of the day vomiting. We were relieved to find that he was well by evening. Hopefully the rest of us won't get the same thing.


Bonus Photo: Group shot of MCC team and partners.

Rain, Monkeys, Blind Snakes, Etc.

David and his new blind snake.

Prior to the weekend I had a great introduction to this week's entry comparing the weather here to one of two winters I spent in Seattle. For those who read regularly you have seen that rain has been mentioned at least 4 times in the first paragraph or title. I spent the winter of 1998 in Seattle when I was in grad school and it rained for 90 straight days! I had never seen anything like it. Granted Seattle rain is more like a mist, but it seemed that nothing ever dried. I remember one weather reporter saying toward the end of the winter that 'Next year may be worse." I could not imagine what that meant--- 90 straight days of tornadoes?

Anyway, I would say that this rainy season has nearly succeeding in surpassing that 90 day rainy winter. It has been raining almost constantly for months, and until the weekend, there was no day in recent memory where I saw the sun for more that 30 minutes in a day. Fortunately, it has been confirmed through several friends who have been here long term that this is the worst rainy season they have ever seen. (So we can hope for better next year.) This much wetness though that does not dry has led to a number of problems.
1) A slick of 'black ice' style moss all over our back porch and driveway. Walking to the car is absolutely treacherous when it is damp. It is also deceiptive because it does not look slippery, and the temp. never gets below 60 degrees fairenheit, so it is not cold. All of us have slipped and fallen on our driveway in the past month.
2) The inside of any vehicle that is not used daily turns into mildew. I don't know why, exactly, they are closed up, but the two MCC vehicles that are not used daily (the landrover and pick-up parked at our house) have had their interiors turned into a green fuzzy mess. Fortunately I can pay someone to clean and shampoo them thoroughly. But how long will it last?
3) All of our woven baskets in our house are covered in mildew and we have thrown most away.
4) My leather shoes that I do not wear daily are also covered in mildew. They have never been worn out in the rain so I don't know how that happened.
5) Swimming in the pool has become an act of pure machismo when we have to drive to it in the pouring rain. It is 62 degrees in both the air and water. Overcoming the initial shock of the first plunge is an act of pure mind over matter. (Am I a better person for doing this? Not that I can tell.)
6) Finally, getting up at 5:10 every school morning to get the kids breakfast ready and their bags packed and them ready for school is hard, but when it is dark and the sound of a steady drizzle on the tin roof is perpetual day after day, the task becomes nearly unbearable by the end of each week.

And just when it seemed we could not take another day, we were shocked to find the sun out in full glory this weekend--both Saturday and Sunday. It felt really different, like maybe something was going to change for good. It is still a bit early to tell, but if the rains could be winding down, it would be a very welcome change.

Rebecca has been working on a synopsis of the past weeks since our return from Burundi. Here are some of the highlights:

These past two weeks, since we returned from Burundi, have been relatively uneventful. Perhaps we can offer just a few vignettes of ordinary life on ordinary weeks.

Bureaucracy: We have been driving here in Tanzania using our international drivers’ licenses, but this month, it was time to apply for official Tanzanian licenses. We had asked around and learned that we needed to dedicate an entire day to this project, and that it needed to be completed, from start to finish, on the same day. We were a bit intimidated, and put off going a few times, hoping the timing would be better for our Tanzanian colleague to come with us and help. But the stars did not align, and so Paul and I finally decided that we just needed to go try.

We turned up at the Tanzania Revenue Authority office, a few minutes after they opened. We got started quickly and so we weren’t sure what was going to take so long. Here is a short review of the process, more as a PSA for others coming after us.

1.       Go through security and write your name in the book (and never go through again during all your subsequent trips in and out of the office).

2.       Enter Office #1, speak to receptionist, almost get refused.  When you insist that your papers are in order, get sent to the back office to the license controller, who gives you a form to fill out, after accepting copies of your immigration documents.

3.       Take your completed application to Office #6, desk 1. Biometric data is taken (fingerprints and photo).

4.       Wait. Go back to Office #6, desk 1, and receive two identical receipts each.

5.       Leave TRA and go next door to the bank where you stand in line to pay twice for the same thing. What you are paying for is unclear.

6.       Come back with your receipt and report to Office #6, desk 3. Information is entered. Two new receipts are issued, both for driving tests.

7.       Leave TRA and go next door to the bank where you stand in (a longer) line to pay twice for the same thing.

8.       Bring the receipts back to Office #6, desk 3. You are now sent to see the police.

9.       Walk down the street in the rain, ask 3 strangers, and finally end up at the traffic police office. Wonder if you should join the line up of young adults who are preparing to actually get behind the wheel for a road test. Instead, knock on the door of the officer and somehow get access (and cringe at the privilege you just asserted). After he looks at your home country license, get his signature on your driving test receipt.

10.   Walk back to TRA in the rain and through the mud and report to Office #6, desk 3 once more. Show the signature on your receipt. Receive a third receipt for your license.

11.   Leave TRA and go next door to the bank for a third time, where you stand in the very same line (which has now become much, much longer) to pay the exact same teller for the fifth receipt from the same office. This is where you have plenty of time to talk with your companion and salute the diabolic cleverness of a system that works with carefully calculated inefficiency. There are no real line ups inside the TRA office, but everyone ends up in this same line at the bank, multiple times, for various reasons.

12.   Return to Office #6, Desk 3, waving your final receipt in triumph. Hope for a real license to carry out with you like a trophy. Instead, receive a half-sheet paper provisional license and instructions to return in a month for your little laminated card. Sigh.

In fact, we managed to go through the entire process before 11:30 – which we counted a great victory. 

Mona and David

Hosting: A colleague from the US visited us over the weekend, during a long work trip to the African Continent. Mona Bormet works for Christian Connections in International Health, and it was truly a pleasure to talk with her about the projects she is overseeing and to share about the work that Paul is involved with at MCC. MCC is a member of this networking organization, so Mona welcomed the opportunity to learn more about MCC in this region.

We also had some fun. Normally we have a family movie night at home on Fridays, but our kids were keen to go see Avengers: Infinity War in 3D before they heard too many more spoilers from their classmates. We were pleased when Mona said she would love to go with us. In the end, we realized that she was far more at home in the Marvel Cinematic Universe than we were, and she was able to explain a whole lot of backstory to us afterwards. Good thing! Mona was also so fun with the kids, and happy to play a game of Apples to Apples that she had brought as a gift.

Monawith MCC Rep.and friends.

Monkey invasions: I think I’ve mentioned that monkeys are sometimes seen at the kids’ school. According to David, last week, a troupe of 6 vervet monkeys actually organized and staged an attack on the kids sitting at the picnic benches outside the cafeteria. Many kids were so startled and frightened that they dropped their food as they ran. The monkeys then retreated. Since then, David has seen many more guards walking around with slingshots. A vervet monkey was also spotted on our compound yesterday. Perhaps this is a trend.

Studying: Exams are also coming up in just 6 weeks. Oren’s teachers have told him to start studying, because these are comprehensive exams covering the entire year. To us North Americans, this is a foreign concept. But in any case, we must help Oren learn to study this way. We’ve been reviewing the geography of South America with him and trying to help him conjugate his French verbs. On Saturday, we helped Oren get together with a classmate for some studying in the afternoon. I relentlessly drilled them on facts about tropical rainforests, but then they asked me to leave them alone. I guess they studied science for a bit before having some time to walk around the lodge gardens and play in the playground with David.

Back to Paul. One of the things we have been working on at the MCC office this week is preparing to host all of MCC's partners for a 3 day capacity building meeting. We are covering a variety of topics to help them improve the way the plan, monitor, and evaluate projects. I am teaching two modules in the retreat, one on Do No Harm, which is a framework for planning and monitoring development work in a conflict setting to try to avoid bad outcomes resulting from provision of foreign aid. The main premise is that 'Aid is not neutral,' it has an impact and can have as many or even more negative consequences than positive ones.

I am also doing a module on project management, focusing on scheduling, including doing a work breakdown structure and a Gantt chart (for any project managers out there.) We will also do a field visit to an NGO that does some innovative ag. projects. All of us in the office are working to be logistically prepared for this gathering which begins on Wednesday evening.

The last bit of news worth mentioning is Mother's Day. I was lucky to have some time to prepare and to have the kids do something special for Rebecca. She had a meeting on Saturday morning so the kids stayed and worked on very artistic cards. David did a very nice painting of a field of poppies (he learned about Flanders field at school) and Oren made a detailed illustration of characters from his new favorite video game (Five Night's at Freddies) all wishing Rebecca Happy Mother's Day.

I was able to sneak out of work during lunch on Friday and go to a local jeweler who specializes in Tanzanite and got Rebecca two small circle cut studs for her ears. They go perfecly with her eyes. She was quite surprised by cards and gift. We went to church, where Oren started his first day of Communicant's class, and then out to George's for pizza afterwards. When we got home we were delighted to find the sun shining and we all went down to the trapoline to play "Monkey in the Middle."

Bonus Photo:  David holding his new (temporary) pet, a Brahminy blind snake which he caught when he threw a baseball at an owl in a tree next to our house. He missed the owl, but it dropped its prey anyway and David caught it, still very much alive.

A Sejour in Burundi

Southern Red Bishop by Lake Tanganyika.

I left last week's blog with a cliff hanger, for those who are following this regularly. We had had a series of good and bad twists of fate that left us wondering whether we would be able to secure visas and get our passports back in time for a visit to Burundi in a very narrow time frame. There was a lot riding on the outcome as we had already bought plane tickets and paid for visas and an agent to get them stamped in Dar. If I were to continue the 'that's good, no that's bad' routine from where I left off it would have gone on for several more lines as the drama did not end up to the night before our plane left. Long story short, after a delay in the DHL flight to Arusha, I was finally able to go down to their downtown office and get the parcel with our passports at 10:00pm on Wednesday night. We left for the aiport at 6am the next morning. I could not even believe we were on a plane to Bujumbura that morning!

Zanzibar

A direct flight from Arusha to Bujumbura would take no more than an hour. But of course there are no direct flights between those cities. Kenya airways took us to Zanzibar, then Nairobi where we changed planes and flew the last leg to Bujumbura. We got there in the midafternoon, and a driver from MCC partner Help Channel met us at the airport and took us to Help Channel headquarters where we saw from friends, Normand, Emile, as well as two MCC workers seconded there (actually in transition and overlapping for a week). Cassien, the director, and a close friend was not there but we caught up with him the next day. Help Channel did provide us with a car for our use during our 5 day sejour in Bujumbura, which was a true blessing! (Although I did have to learn quickly how to drive on the left side of the road again.)

We drove up to the guest house where we were staying (in Kiriri for those who know Bujumbura.) It is a family home where they rent rooms to 'wandering missionaries'. The family are the Peake's who moved to Bujumbura shortly after we left. But we did meet John once before we departed in 2014.

The house was perfect for us, with the kitchen available to us as well as a swimming pool and trampoline! Even better, the view from their veranda of Bujumbura, Lake Tanganyika and the mountain range in Eastern DRC across the lake, were exquisite. It was great to have that view again and brought back much nostalgia for Bujumbura in the following days as we sat out and enjoyed our morning coffee.

We had dinner the first night with the Guillebauds. Simon, Lizzie, and the kids Zack, Grace, and Josiah. Zack was a friend and school mate of Oren's when we were living here. They had a great time reconnecting, which was good because Oren had some trepidation about returning to some of his old haunts and seeing friends long forgotten.

We had a good catch-up with Simon and Lizzie. They are getting ready for a sojourn of more than a year away from Bujumbura. The Guillbauds have been an anchor for missionaries in Burundi as Simon's grandparents first came here in the mid 1900s. Their family was with us the whole time we were in Burundi, and stayed in the following years through the election crisis and ongoing turmoil. It is interesting, because returning, Bujumbura seems fairly peaceful and life seems to be going on as normal. But Simon shared more the reality which he summed up as: "People here are tired, and alot thinner." The economy is way down from our departure and food and work, as well as foreign aid is very scarce. It is hard times here, despite some improvements in roads and infrastructure. (Side note: To find out more about the Guillbaud's and Simon, who is the author of several books, please check out this website at:  Simon Guillebaud Blog.


The next morning we got a call from Simon again to come and join him at 'Musee Vivant'. This is the local Bujumbura 'zoo' where we used to love to go when we were here. Simon is somewhat of a local celebrity there as he brings many people to visit. 'Zoo' is not the best description as it often feels like a private menagerie for those who visit frequently. The animal cages are not difficult to reach into and the animals are used to human contact. I was very happy to see Jango the leopard was still there who I used to scratch behind the ears, and he loved it. There is a somewhat gruesome 'fundraising' practice involving the purchase of a guinea pig which one can then throw to the predator of choice. Not for the faint of heart, but Jango was very happy to get a guinea pig from the kids.

Simon is famous (or infamous) for inviting people in to hold the tail of one of the large crocodiles (who are quite sedentary). The kids who used to watch the spectacle when they were very young, did join in this time and took turns getting photos holding the tail of one of the bigger ones.

Rebecca was very pleased to see Kita the chimp was still alive and seemed to remember us. She used to play games with David and Oren by putting a bottle out of her cage for them to grab. But right before they could take it, she would snatch it back in. A kind of 'keep-away', that she was very good at. Rebecca gave her peanuts which she liked to be fed by putting them right in her mouth.

Snake handling was also one of the enjoyable activities, especially the green bamboo tree snakes and the python. Our guide also took the gabon viper out of the cage who is also quite docile and let us inspect it closely.

We spent quite a bit of time at Musee Vivant and again enyoyed the nostalgia of remembering our times visiting there when we lived in Burundi.

That evening we visited another anchoring missionary family, Joy and Jesse Johnson, who also have kids Zack, Micah, and Elliot. They were also friends and school mates of our kids from the Ecole Belge. The Johnson's also stayed through the past 3 years and have been serving the Emmanuel church community established by Jesse's grandparents. It was amazing to see their work on the Discovery School. Something that Joy had started when we first new them and is now a large primary and secondary school that offers high quality education to children in the under-served Kamenge neighborhood of Bujumbura. They were also preparing for a brief furlough this summer and it was great to catch up with them after 4 years.

The next day was a Saturday, we began the day by visiting our friend and former MCC service worker Jennifer. She is back in Burundi working with IRC (International Rescue Committee). She made us pancakes and we had a long chat with her about her current life and reminisced about our time together in Burundi. It was bittersweet to remember the times and people we had known and lost. We have been able to keep up with Jennifer over the years and we always enjoy a chance to see her again.

When we left Jennifer's house around noon, we planned to go out and visit the Lakeside resorts, particularly Pinnacle 19 and Club du Lac Tanganyika as they were places were frequented on weekends in Bujumbura. Pinnacle 19 was the place where David and a special friend, a baby chimp named Avril who loved to play with him on the trampoline and on the beach. (She ran free on the property. We were not overly surprised to find the place a bit more dilapidated since our departure. Because of the political crisis in the years since we left, tourists and the expatriate community have largely left. Burundi is still on the 'no family' postings with the US and other embassies so there are virtually no expat. families here who are not missionaries who would normally patronize these places. Avril, who was now quite large was kept in an enclosure with another chimp. She seemed to remember us and was happy to take peanuts from our hands. The keeper there said she was generally quite 'mechant' (mean) and it does not surprise me as I am sure she is mistreated by most who visit there. It was sad to see this sight and I am personally against keeping chimpanzees in any kind of captivity.

We went on to Club du Lac T, which looked about the same as when we last left it. Even some improvements. A number of the staff recognized us and gave us an update on how things had been. Tourism has dropped dramatically and they were really suffering. Many of the rooms were permanently closed down, despite appearances. One big difference though were the number of people who were around by the pool and on the beach. There were no other families and actually no one in the pool for most of the day. When we left, there was never an open chair or table around the pool to sit at on a Saturday. The kids enjoyed playing in the pool and on the beach and we had a much coveted Briochette de poison with pomme frites with mayonaise and pili-pili sauce. (The fish around lake Tanganyika is the best in the world in my opinion. (We had sangala briochettes.)

The next day, Sunday, we were very excited to be going to our old church. BICC. We had many Burundian friends that we were very close to during our time there. Both Rebecca and I had been very active. The week before our arrival, when we told them we were coming, our friend and founder Emmanuel Ndkumana asked Rebecca if she would be willing to preach. So when we went that day, Rebecca did preach a sermon she had shared at our church in Arusha about the 7 bridesmaids.

It was so good to connect again with people there and though many had left, most of our Burundian friends who we were close to were still there. We had a very good morning being in worship, singing our favorite French songs (Recois L'adoration) and catching up with friends. After church we returned to the beach area, a place called Petit Bassam where we arranged to meet a few people who had been part of our small group from church. Not all were available, but we were very happy to see our friend Goretti who had been part of our group for several years. It was great to catch up with her and remember how God had been faithfully with us since all the many prayer requests we made as a small group. It was not uncommon for us to pray weekly over a year for the same thing, like someone getting a visa, etc. We thought back to all the difficulties we had been in and delivered from since that time. It was a special time.

The kids enjoyed playing on some of the playground and old carnival equipment that is kept at Petit Bassam including a kind of bungee--trampoline ride. Oren observed many times that things looked a lot smaller than he remembered them.

Monday was our last day in town and it was a whirlwind of last minute visits that began with a trip over to the home of a family where our former house staff Odifax is working. Odifax worked for us for about 4 years, and is also a pastor and leader of his church. He alse recently finished a theology degree. He looked to be in very good health and we had a nice visit with him to catch up.

We also stopped down the street to the home of Doug and Deanna Hiebert--former MCCers. Actually they were the Country Reps. before we came to Burundi. We really only spent short amounts of time with them for an overlap when we arrived in 2008 and then in the month before we left in 2014 they came back (not with MCC). But it was very good to catch up with them. At least as important, they were the family with whom we left our golden retriever Bella. We actually inherited Bella from them when we first came in 2008 and returned her in 2014 when we left. I was amazed she was still alive. She was however, completely deaf and did not even hear the honk at the gate. We had a very nice reunion and she seemed to remember us (not surprising after only 4 years), but she did not have a lot of energy to greet us. David was thrilled to see her as she was his best friend growing up in Burundi when he used to literally sit on her. (He was much lighter then.)

We went from the Hieberts to the house of our friend Jodi. Jodi was with us as a service worker in MCC in Burundi. It was a blessing to see her although we had precious little time to actually sit down and chat. She is back in Burundi working as a professor at the University of Burundi. Her story of the blessings and the challenges of being an educator there were touching. It was good to see her back in her adopted home country.

We returned to the Peake's house where we had a much awaited conversation with Emmanuel Ndikumana and his wife Asele. He was the person who had founded the church we went to, and did a lot of work with Rebecca on peacebuilding, especially with the Great Lakes Initiative. We spent several hours just talking and listening to him talk about life in Burundi in the past 3 years. He is very wise and had a lot of insight about the challenges the country is facing. He also seemed to be quite tired because working as a pastor and leader in this context is exhausting. But he is also very inspiring and we felt blessed to listen to him, pray with them, and encourage them.

We finished the day, in the evening at one of our favorite haunts, the Ubuntu restaurant. It is the first place we ever went when we arrived in 2008 and the place we ate our last meal in Burundi in 2014. It was a fitting place to close our visit. Cassien from Help Channel met us there as well as Jennifer. We had a very pleasant last meal with them. Unfortunately it was a rainy evening so we were not treated to the normally spectacular sunsets over the lake, but the crowned cranes were still there and the atmosphere there was still very nice. Oren and David did try to sit on the wooden crocodile that is still in the entrance. It looks so tiny now, it is hard to believe they both used to ride it comfortably.

We left the next morning but were surprised to find there had been a tremendous amount of flooding since our arrival as we headed toward the airport. We had some worries that our car would not even make it through the flooded road in some places. We ultimately got there and had a smooth albeit long trip home with a 6 hour layover in Nairobi.

It was good to reflect back on our time there and the experience was very renewing. Both Rebecca and I really liked to speak French again, and most of our conversations with Burundian friends were in French. It is amazing how easy it is to switch back when you are in the context.

We got back to Arusha on Tuesday evening, ready to go back to work and school Wednesday morning. It was pouring in Arusha when we landed and continued for the next 24 hours, a bit dreary. The pool was a chilling 62 degrees fairenheit. But it was good to get back to our normal routine as well.

Bonus:
Burundi Photo Album