These are the most beautiful and stunning places I have ever seen. Burundi was certainly already on my top 10 list, but after my trip this past weekend, “The Heart of Africa” has officially entered the top 5.
Click on this to make it bigger...such a sweet valley!
On Friday the boys and I headed up to the Muyinga Province of Burundi (in the Northeast, next to Tanzania) to visit a friend’s church and a DRC refugee camp. As we cruised around the Congolese UNHCR Refugee Camp, flocks of children swarmed. This was nothing unusual for us, but the funny thing was that this time the entire group was convinced that I was Lionel Messi (arguably the best soccer player in the world). There have been about 10 other people during my time in Burundi to tell me that I look like Messi. It’s hilarious because I look NOTHING like the guy. The only thing we have in common is that we’re both 5’7 munchkins. I look like I am straight out of Ireland, and he is Argentinian.
So anyway, I thought it would make the kids happy if I went along with their idea and pretended that I actually was Messi. Their faces beamed with smiles and it was not long before 50 children started chanting “MESSI! MESSI! MESSI!” at the tops of their voices. Zack, JD, and I were all dying of laughter, and it was certainly a memorable experience.
The Kids who thought I was Messi
Refugee camps are renowned to be severely overcrowded and full of poverty, which is definitely what we found at the DRC camp in Muyinga. Poverty, however, is a very relative thing in Burundi. The people in the camp probably survived on something atrocious like $2 per day, which actually seems like a lot compared to so many others that I have seen here. Wow! I can’t believe that this thought even crossed my mind while in the camp, because these refugees still lived in tiny shacks with maybe only 2 pairs of clothes! But it was definitely a nice change to see that even though they were in terrible poverty, nobody looked severely malnourished. So even though these refugee camps still have loads of problems, I am definitely grateful for groups like the UNHCR, the International Rescue Committee, and the USAID.
Refugee kids
USAID Corn...lots of it was definitely being sold at the market
Batwa Boys
My little malnourished Batwa buddy in his house
Batwa crew that I had fun playing toss with
The same day that we visited the refugee camp, we had the absolute “pleasure” of attending a 7 hour African church service. Wow, the music was great, but I don’t have the endurance for that type of thing. My energy has hardly ever been so sapped, and all I did was sit and stand and sit and stand for 7 hours. I can definitely say that staying in the same place for so long is much more of a challenge than riding a bicycle 100+ miles in a day. During that 7 hour church service, JD preached on leadership for about 2 hours. At the end he tried to be smooth and end his sermon with a little Kirundi; but JD isn’t so hot with foreign languages. He wanted to say “Thank You,” which is “Murakoze,” but instead he said “Mwaramutse,” which means “Good Morning.” It was 2pm. Hilarious! Zack and I laughed about that one for a while.
Other than the stunning beauty of the area, visiting the refugee camps, playing with little Batwa (pygmy) children, and on the drive back all three of us having a delicious breakfast of coffee and 2 igitumbura (donuts) for the grand total of about $1.10 US, the best thing about the trip was that we found a pet. We originally wanted a chimpanzee, but then we figured we would choose a pet that isn’t illegal to obtain here. The smaller monkeys were pricier than expected, so we were hoping to find some sort of reptile. We saw a green mamba on the road a few days ago, but since their venom can kill you in 2 minutes, we decided to not keep it. This weekend, however, we found the best possible pet! It’s a 5 inch Chameleon. We named it Karma, you know, after the song that goes “Karma, Karma, Karma, Karma, Karma, Chameleon.” Chameleons move ridiculously slowly, so we don’t even need a cage for Karma in our house. It’s extremely hard to lose her. And watching her eat will probably never get old. Now we are almost hoping for more flies to infest our house so that we can have the amazing entertainment of watching her sticky tongue booyah flies from about 5 inches away. Thanks God for making such an incredible creature! And thanks for allowing me to come face to face with so many overwhelmingly good and bad things that I would have no idea how to process without your guidance. I pray for myself and the readers of this for more compassion, love, joy, and an intense hatred of injustice. Spur us on to good deeds.
The Snake
Karma
Karma came to school to booyah some locusts and flies
Bay, Does Raining mean what I think it means? Also, I love that Booya is a verb to you :) Annnd that you love lying to large groups of precious, easily misguided kids! haha - now they will list messi on the list of celebrities they have seen for the rest of their lives! You are ridiculous. Glad you are seeing God's beauty in his creation, people, and provisions! Can't wait to hear more, as always!
Bay, Does Raining mean what I think it means? Also, I love that Booya is a verb to you :) Annnd that you love lying to large groups of precious, easily misguided kids! haha - now they will list messi on the list of celebrities they have seen for the rest of their lives! You are ridiculous.
ReplyDeleteGlad you are seeing God's beauty in his creation, people, and provisions! Can't wait to hear more, as always!