My Bike for Burundi Video

Karibu (Welcome) to Burundi

So I have officially been in Africa for 1 week. On a surface level Burundi is a lot like I thought it would be, but there are still obviously tons of things I don't understand about the culture and the people. In my experience so far, however, the people are very friendly and hospitable. The people I have been working with at the Youth for Christ office in Bujumbura are great. You can see pictures of them and learn about them at www.burundiyfc.org/staff/ For the past few days I have actually been completely remodeling the Youth for Christ website. I'm close to being finished, but you can check out the organization I'm volunteering with at www.burundiyfc.org Hopefully the new updates will bless the ministry, as before I started working on it, the front page was still talking about the Christmas season. Also, here's a little video of my buddy Simon talking about Burundi and Youth for Christ. It's 5 years dated, so the ministry has actually grown a lot since.

I'm in the hot city of Bujumbura now, which is on Lake Tanganyika, the worlds longest freshwater lake, 2nd deepest in the world, and 2nd biggest in volume of water. I saw my 1st wild hippo there a few days ago.

A few days ago Freddy, the national director of YFC, and I went to Gitega to check the progress on construction at the Gitega International Academy (GIA), the school where I will be teaching. Gitega is 100 km from Bujumbura, but it takes 2 hours to get there because driving on these roads is nuts. On the drive up to Gitega, there were tons of people walking on the side of the road. Some carried huge loads of stuff on top of their heads. They must have strong necks. Anyway, one quick funny story...on the way up to check out GIA and visit the precious kids at the YFC orphanage, Freddy takes his plastic soda bottle and chucks it out the window, missing a little 3 year old kid's head by maybe a foot. I thought to myself. "Dang, I thought Freddy was a good guy, but he's a jerk!" Then Freddy proceeds to say, "The little kids up here love to have bottles like that." I told him I thought he was being mean, but he insisted "No! I was blessing him." Ha. It's great how appreciative the kids are for even a little gift like a plastic water bottle.

Once we arrived at the orphanage I was very revitalized by the probably 1000 hugs that I received. The kids were so joyful and well looked after that it was a bit tough to remember the rough past that each of them has had. The trip was great, but there are still a lot of things that need to get situated before the opening of GIA in September, so pray for the money to hire enough builders.

View from the bathroom at the YFC office in Bujumbura 

I found this on my desk when I arrived. This is the yearbook of a school that is less than 2 miles from where I grew up in Annapolis. Crazy! It made it 7000 miles across the Atlantic Ocean to where I am...so weird!

Some crests up in the mountains on the way to Gitega. At about 6000 ft elevation. I sort of expected a Gorilla to jump out in the middle of the road when we were driving up there. Beautiful country!

Since there's over 70% unemployment in the country, everybody is out and about during the day. The sun rises at 6 am and sets at 6 pm every day. At 6, everybody gets up. Then it seems that they all walk or ride bicycles / mopeds / cars in the middle of the road. There are seemingly no rules of the road here, and I feel like I'm in real life Mario Kart. But even while safely in a car, I definitely stick out. Very little kids get scared when they see me because they are not used to seeing white people. In fact, during my first 5 days here I saw thousands of people, and only 4 were white. So kids who are old enough to talk, they point and yell "Muzungu! Muzungu!" aka white person. It's pretty ridiculous that I'm seen by them as a novelty, but I should probably get used to it. It would be nice, however, if they realized that I'm just a normal person.

A few of the classroom buildings at Gitega International Academy

I feel very blessed to be here and am thankful to those who helped get me here. I'm trying to help out wherever I can, and I am excited for JD and Zack, the two other Americans that will be helping run Gitega International Academy, to arrive in 2 days. Once they get here, we will start working out curriculum and school procedures. It should make for an exciting summer.

More updates to come...

Grace and Peace in Christ,

jeff

Freddy in the middle of the construction at Gitega International Academy

In 3 days...Moving from Richest to Poorest Country in the World

On Monday I drove my lovely girlfriend to JFK airport in NYC so that she could fly to Botswana. She will be doing an ethnobotany project there for 10 months called the "Useful Plants Project". So now she is about 7,900 miles and 6 time zones away from the east coast of the USA.

In three days I will fly to Bujumbura, Burundi, which will place me about 7,200 miles and 6 time zones from the east coast of the USA. This will put me only 2,000 miles from my lady ;) We're probably just going to send loads of letters back and forth like in the old days (cute, i know).

The excitement is starting to kick in and I'm eager to get over there. Like said in the video below, "With privledge comes responsibility", and I feel very privledged. According to these guys, I am leaving the richest country in the world (http://www.aneki.com/richest.html) and am moving to the poorest country in the world (http://www.aneki.com/poorest.html). This is why I feel such a strong desire to take action to help the needy, for Christ's glory. It will be amazing to go teach and live with these children for near a year. The man in the video named Freddy will be my boss, as I volunteer with Youth for Christ by teaching English and Computers at the Gitega International Academy. The other guy, Simon, is one of the men that I rode a bike across the USA with. He will be back out to Burundi with his family in August.

Please watch the video so you can get just a small idea of why I want to go serve in Burundi.

I want to be a "voice for the voiceless" and an "advocate for the powerless"

If you want to write me while I'm in Burundi, send mail to:

Jeff Hennessy
Burundi YFC
BP 459
Bujumbura, Burundi

I will need about $7,000 to cover living expenses as I volunteer in Burundi for 10 months. So far, near $5,000 has been donated. Thanks to everybody who has supported thus far! Even after I have left the USA, you can still make a contribution by making a check out to:

Jeff Hennessy

On the memo line write...

Burundi YFC

Mail check or cash to:

Jeff Hennessy

123 Pinecrest Dr

Annapolis, MD 21403

Thanks!

Moving to Africa

About a month ago I finished bicycling across the USA. We rode 3050 miles in 30 days to raise awareness and money for different aid projects in Burundi, Africa. So far $303,551 has been raised! 

After cycling across the USA for people in a far off land that I don't know, I now want to meet them and volunteer for them. This is not the ideal time for me to go, but it never will be, and I believe God wants me to love Him and love people, even in Burundi.

I leave on May 20 for Gitega, Burundi, where I will be volunteering with Youth for Christ for 10 months. I will be helping start the Gitega International Academy (secondary school) and will be teaching English and Computers. Other than that, I will be helping out with odd jobs around the Homes for Hope orphanage and the Future Hope School.

I will need about $7,000 to cover the costs of me going to volunteer for 10 months. Please pray for my time there and please make a donation. There is a donor who is willing to match all other donations, so twice what you donate will be given to support my work in Burundi! If you want to know more about the trip, call me, facebook me, or email me. There are tons of obstacles in the way when going to serve and show people love in the third world (Burundi is the 2nd poorest country in the world), but knowing that you're praying for me as I go out on a limb will mean a lot.

Me and YFC Burundi director Freddy Tuyizere

To support me and Youth for Christ as I spread the love of Jesus to the kids in Burundi...

Please make checks out to:

Jeff Hennessy

On the memo line write...

Burundi YFC

Mail check or cash to:

Jeff Hennessy

123 Pinecrest Dr

Annapolis, MD 21403