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