Moments for pause and to push forward

Saturday mornings in Burundi are dedicated to community service projects. This generally means that it is frowned upon to be up and about if you are not participating in a project. Christine had found the one and only breakfast place in town that was open on Saturday mornings, and it was because the owners were Greek (multiple generations in Burundi, but ethnically Greek).  The Kapa Bakery was delicious and we had Goma cheese croissants with our African tea. I am sure Bjorn (her replacement fellow- http://burundibjorn.wordpress.com/ is his blog) will be frequenting there as well! Then, we (Christine, Bjorn,

Flower sales and Batwa pots

 Dennis and I) met-up with Julia (who preferred not to be moving around town until after 10:30 because of the community work), and began our trek up the mountains toward the president’s home and the liberation monument overlooking the lake. Now, Monday, July 2^nd is the day Burundi celebrated its liberation day (technically July 1^st is the actual date), so the city was painting fresh white, red and green coats all over the city in preparation. Flags were being hung everywhere (though a good number were getting caught on barbed wire fence tops), and people were bustling around getting ready for the holiday. Flowers were being sold on the sides of the roads, and Batwa pots were full of them as we wandered by.

Cake anyone?

The climb-up out of the city was a steep one, and a hot one! The temperatures were the highest I’ve felt since getting to Rwanda and I was extremely thankful for the sunscreen I had been loaned by a fellow intern! There were no clouds, so the sun just kept blaring down on us. By then the croissant definitely didn’t feel like a big enough breakfast! We did a lot more wandering before we came to the monument. When we finally arrived, the view was quite beautiful, but at the same time there was a sense of disappointment in that we were not allowed to walk up one more set of stairs to the monument itself. Between the freshly painted white stones, and the baked and cracked red dirt I was surprised not to see any Burundian people at the monument. In the US, the July 3^rd means all of our monuments are swarming with people taking half a million pictures. Here there was no one expect a few men shoveling and patting down gravel to hide the caked ground and perhaps fill in the potholes that had become more pronounced since the last leader visited.

Monument for Progress and Unity

We walked around the monument (gated-up) until we got to a gate that might open. It had a lock on the outside as though it was saying- you are not allowed inside, but in the end we were. Julia’s polite French and our promise not to take photos allowed us entrance. At first I felt awful thinking that only muzngus were allowed in by this military guard, but Julia assured me she had been in before with Burundian colleagues (again she’s white even if they weren’t but perhaps it just takes requesting permission). We took a few pictures overlooking the city (away from the monument) and were allowed one photo on one camera of the monument as we went to leave. I had taken many walking up to the place, so I didn’t feel a distinct need to take one, but at the same time, this strictness seemed so far from the reality of American tourism. No pictures of a national monument.

When you don't have an amusement park- make one!

After this visit, we continued our walk past the president’s home (3 blockades and 3 lorries of soldiers later) heading to the town’s main market. This put Kampala and Kigali’s markets to shame. It was huge! The stalls were immense and watching your bag through the crowded market’s narrow walk ways was definitely important in the utter maze that surrounded you. There was so much food and stuff that again it is unbelievable that anyone goes without. We weaved our way through before ducking back out into the sunlight. By then, we had all been sweating for a good long time, but we stopped in a new bakery in town- and let me tell you, this was a classic French bakery plopped in the middle of Bujumbura directly across the street from the American Embassy. It had the most delicious pastries I have seen since stepping onto the cruise ship with Scott’s family last year. My 4000 Burundian franc custard, pastry, and icing treat was just what the doctor ordered! Deliciously enjoyed in an air-conditioned room (the first I have been in since arriving- ok maybe the second, if you count the Sheraton in Kampala)!

Club du Lac

Then we passed through the butchers to get some ice cream for Dennis and Julia before dropping by Christine’s dress tailor- he literally only charged the equivalent of 8 bucks for a dress to be custom tailored- in the US they need to drop those prices! Costs more to hem a pair of jeans…but c’est la vie and TIA (This is Africa)! Then it was off to the beach for an afternoon dip, which after eating lunch so late turned into an evening dip! The beach resorts have pretty lovely sand, and besides the bit of trash that had washed up (or were in the first set of waves), the water was not half bad. The beach got pretty windy at night with some nice sized waves, but they were so warm that it was fun to go bobbing around in them! I was glad to finally feel clean (ironic in such silt-filled water), but after trekking around all day with loads of sweat, sunscreen and dirt- it was definitely refreshing.

Christine and I, and a FABULOUS sunset!

After enjoying all of the sunlight hours we could, our group headed back to town in a Club du Lac employee transport shuttle for showers before dinner. The shower that evening was also warm and much desired before dinner out. The restaurant was delicious yet again! With steak dinners around, it was hard to believe that a place with fondue pots could possibly exist in Burundi- but it did. When Natasha (a fellow Spark intern) had described Bujumbura as European looking and feeling it was so true! From the architecture to the food, western influence was clearly strong in the places we were eating. Since it is the only notable city, it was also interesting to see how centralized the expat population was (whether or not they knew each other). There were tree lined roads, big garden traffic circles and more. One of the traffic circles was where people took wedding photos, because it had a big fabulous tree, but the irony of the situation was the Toyota dealership (or maybe Nissan?) in the background. If your photo was taken from the wrong angle, you ended up with a lovely tree –and a billboard. Classy indeed!

All good things do come to an end, and some shorter than others. With a three day visa, there really weren’t many options for this one! So Sunday morning (there are only morning buses to Kigali), Dennis and I hit the road back to Kigali. Both of us were pretty beat and with some ‘Goma’ cheese and a few gifts more than we had come with, we headed back to Kigali. The trip home felt much longer than the one there, but the seats were comfortable and between reading and drifting off, we slowly but surely made our way back to Kigali. We passed little water falls, and many people traversing the mountains on foot. There was a river we followed for a while that I attempted to get a few half decent pictures of, but to little avail. The mountains were incredibly steep and yet there were crops growing on each and every one of them! Past tea, maize, sorghum, beans and plantain we finally were getting close to the border with the introduction of coffee to the colorful plants that went flying by through the window pane. I am still slowly reading a few pages here and there in my book (Man seeks god), but this weekend is the section on Buddhism. The ideas of good energy coming and going seem continuous and really are fascinating to question in a place as poor as this. There is always a need to give into the world to receive things back from it, but sometimes here, there seems a 

The view was often blurred on the road to Kigali

plethora of reasons not to give (aka tons of negative unintended consequences). Even in Kigali though the trip was not over, Dennis and I made our final destination for the night Musanze. He kept going straight from Kigali, but I hopped-off and onto a moto to stop by Hotel Exotica before catching a 6:30pm bus to Musanze.

Fondue for people to be fond of

It was great to see Natasha to catch-up. We chatted for a little while, as I munched on mango and some other snacks before hitting the road again. I didn’t want to miss the next bus though, so I wasn’t able to stay too long. She’d had a pretty relaxing evening after having Ethiopian with Dennis and me on Thursday night before we’d headed to Bujumbura. Since the last Saturday of each month is a community service day in Rwanda, (only one day as opposed to four in Burundi) the government is far more strict about participation. It’s generally best to lay low and not expect there to be much transport. Natasha will also be working with two of the younger interns that come in this week, so she has been preparing for them to arrive as well. She’s going to give them a few days to acclimate in Kigali before bringing them up to Musanze (as well as a day trip to Gisenyi next weekend). I have a feeling that Dennis and I will only cross paths a couple of times right off the bat with the girls, but I am excited to meet them nonetheless!

Banana stands flying by my window!

At the Border- Heading Home finally!

Once again, I was plopped on a bus thinking- I hope this is a short two more hours…but this was the first time I had been next to a muzngu other than Dennis! A lovely british lady named Jane who has been living here in Musanze for the better part of a year. She works with local education management (but by local, I mean 30+ schools!). She has been helping to connect donors to projects and train teachers about quality education, creativity, and instilling the importance of learning in the young primary school students in the Musanze area. While she was clearly as sleepy as I, we decided to talk more later, but that is when the young man sitting next to me (Rwandese) began to chat with me. Apparently, this guy had been assisted since primary school by a US football coach in going to school through secondary. It allowed him to get funds to go to university part time (still 5 classes a semester) and work. He works part time in Kigali at a new burrito serving place (maybe called maize fresh?), and now he is able to help is little brother to go to school… he definitely is a success story in aid, and shows how helping even just one kid through school is an incredible benefit to a family and in the end perhaps a community. He is studying computer programing and seems quite smart and well versed in his English. I look forward to seeing how he is able to use what he’s learned for good, and hopefully to make a successful career for himself and his younger brother. There are some people I love to meet here and this is just one reminder of why a little boost of help is needed, and why people are needed across the board to make a difference!