Today is a huge day in my life. It has been exactly 1 year
since I had my Achilles tendon reconstructed…and wow, there is so much to be
thankful for! After not even being able to walk for a few months, I can now
walk, swim, ride a bike, jump, jog, and even sprint! I’m not 100% of what I was
a year ago, but God continues giving me encouragement to keep getting stronger
and to use my body for His glory.
Achilles severed Less than 8 months after one of the worst athletic injuries
possible on a bicycle, I was on my bicycle riding across the USA at 100+ miles per day. It’s a
huge praise. My surgeon was amazing. My dad took really good care of me during
the time around the surgery. Sarah, who is now my girlfriend, looked after me
amazingly…and we had only been on 2 dates before I had my injury! She’s a
champ. I knew she had to be my girlfriend when she brought me peanut butter ice cream ;) Oh yeah, and yesterday she found and cataloged a brand new tree species in Botswana!
Me with the plant princess
My buddy Josh, who had a bad leg accident about 2 years prior to my accident,
encouraged me last summer to keep growing and depending on God through the tough times. Finally,
my best friend Goose and his wife Kelsey let me stay in their house while I stumbled around on crutches and was not able to
contribute much in terms of household chores. I’m so grateful to have such
amazing friends and family in my life J
Achilles reconstructed!
Now I’m so much more thankful for the use of my body…and I
hope to never take it for granted again!
Finishing the cross country cycling trip 8.5 months after Achilles reconstruction :)
3 girls from Charleston, who
were volunteering in Burundi
for the past month, went to the zoo yesterday. The zookeeper decided to let
them in the cage with one of the monkeys. Not only did the zookeeper let them in there,
but he locked them in. The monkey did not like people in his space, so he began
jumping on the girls and he bit one of them 3 times! He even drew a bit of blood…so
guess what? That girl is rushing back to the USA to get rabies shots. One of the
girls who was not bitten videotaped the entire ordeal. It was actually a pretty
hilarious video. But pray that this young lady, who shall remain unnamed, doesn’t
have some sort of weird disease.
Holding a crocodile's tail
Last night Zack, JD, and I found a scorpion scurrying up the
wall in JD’s room. Needless to say, we caught it and are keeping it as a pet.
Now we’re searching for bugs to feed it.
Lastly, planning for GitegaInternationalAcademy is going well. JD
and Freddy are going to Kigali and Kampala this week to
recruit teachers.
Gitega International Academy (GIA)
YFC Bujumbura office, where we are planning for the opening of GIA
Thanks for the support. Good things are happening here.
Things are different in Burundi. Sometimes there are power surges that surge protectors don't stop...then all of the computer chargers instantaneously break. That happened. Bummer. But we are learning how to cope with the technical difficulties and are still working away to get Gitega International Academy up and running.
Barack Obama has lots of stores in Burundi. Freddy says, "Yes, he's a very rich man!" People here will sell anything with his name on it...even bubble gum!
If you slept well the previous night, you don't say "I slept like a log," "I slept like a rock," or "I slept like a baby." Rather, in Burundi, you say "I slept like a breast." Interesting...
Speaking of which, for ladies to be dressed decently, it doesn't matter how much of their upper body is covered up. Guys here are apparently extremely attracted to knees and ankles, so this is why ladies wear long skirts to cover up...can't say an ankle has ever caused me to do a double take...
The beach here is nice!
Memorial for 100 kids that were burned alive in the Genocide. The writing says "May this never happen again!"
Holding the cute little impene (goat) that Tyler Heights Elem donated
I played volleyball on the beach last weekend and one of the guys referred to me as "fried chicken." I was a bit confused at first, but then I realized that I was wearing my Kentucky t-shirt that my lovely girlfriend's family gave me.
Speaking of which, this past week was my 1 year anniversary of dating Sarah. It was sad to not be with her, but I took a picture on the top of a mountain I climbed and pretended she was with me. Even though it's tough with communication, it's great to write letters back and forth. We're also studying a book of the Bible together, which has been very nice.
I saw Burundian drummers for the 1st time this week. The rhythms are amazing and are intensely powerful. It almost feels like the beat is kicking you in the chest. They dance and play the ridiculously heavy drums while they are balanced on their head. These guys are crazy talented!
After work in Africa, I don't watch TV or use the computer. I either read, play football (soccer), play cards, other games, or I teach the sport of lacrosse to Burundians. Here is a picture of the first Burundian to EVER play lacrosse!
I'll put pictures of this up soon, but we had a ridiculous visit to the zoo. We fed guinea pigs to a leopard and a crocodile. The zookeeper put deadly vipers on the ground less than 10 feet away from us, and we fed a chimpanzee tea. JD gave the chimp his mug and we watched it try to figure out how to unscrew the mug. It took him a few minutes, but then he thoroughly enjoyed the tea. Oh yeah, and I grabbed the tail of a 12 foot crocodile.
Lastly, here is the trailer for the Bike for Burundi book. It will be available for order in about a week.
2nd week in Burundi...still overwhelmed by the learning curve
I visited the Gitega Homes of Hope for the second time. One of my favorite little kids, Desiree, was obviously dressed for school by one of his older sisters. He is basically as masculine as a little 2 year old boy can be, yet he was wearing a denim skirt and a bright pink and baby blue jacket to school. Hilarious! That was an extreme example, but it's actually pretty neat how fashion isn't obsessed about here the way it is back home.
Desiree aka "The Boss"
There is a pretty interesting thing that happens in Bujumbura on Saturdays. Since this is such a poor country that is not able to raise much revenue in taxes, they have mandatory community service for everybody on Saturday mornings. People are supposed to go around and cut crass, landscape, pick up trash, etc.
Kids from the Neighborhood in Cibitoke
The Belgians did a lot of terrible things when they colonized Africa...but the one amazing thing they left with the Burundians is the love of frites, or fries. Wow, they are so good and they bring me back to my days in Brussels.
All of the taxis have bubble words or designs on the back window. I suppose the purpose of this is to make them distinct. The things that are written on the back of them are hilarious. Of course you will see Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal, and other "futbol" teams on the back, but you also see some that say things like John Cena, Boyz 2 Men, and NSYNC. Wow.
This past week Eliza & Charlotte showed up. They are 2 Charleston girls that are helping out at the Homes of Hope in Gitega for the summer. After about a week, it was nice to have some people to speak to in English.
Eliza and Charlotte aka my little twin sisters
I learned that in Burundi, if you want to marry a woman, you do not go to her father and say "Can I please have your daughter's hand in marriage?" Instead, you go to her father and say "I need a cow!"
Not quite worth as much to me as the woman I will one day propose to
This week I used my first latrine. Pretty good experience ;)
Latrine
Here is a picture of an animated sign in a bathroom with a regular toilet.
Not a latrine
We drove to a province called Cibitoke this week to go to church and check out YFC's second Homes of Hope orphanage. On the road there, it was extremely bumpy because of all of the craters in a road. It was a reminder that even though this place seems very peaceful, the holes in the road are less than 10 years old, and they are from bombs during the civil war.
Joseph, a kid at the Cibitoke Homes of Hope orphanage
JD (Headmaster of GIA) and Zach (Geography & Computers teacher) arrived this week. It's been great to get started on work for the school. We are planning schedules, making policy handbooks, and working on organizing promotional events for the school in Bujumbura and Gitega.
Gitega Int'l Academy Logo
I had a few good conversations with Olivia, the woman who is running Great Lakes Outreach in Burundi, this week. One conversation was about how as Americans it's easy to avoid lots pain by distracting ourselves. Then it led to us taking about how even though Burundians have been through so many struggles in their lifetime, most of them still exude joy. Olivia said it's like the verse, "We rejoice in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope." -Romans 5:3-4
All of the Burundians who have lived through the war have chosen to persevere, and the result for many of them is hope for the future.
Youngsters at the Future Hope School
One of the fun parts of the week was when I got together with a few people to watch a documentary called "I Am." It's essentially about the physics of interconnectivity between organisms...how we are much more connected than we may think...and how we are created more so for cooperation rather than competition. Good stuff. Check it out.
Other than that, it's really nice not having a television or internet access at home. Life is so much easier to process that way, and it gives lots of amazing time to read scripture and pray...definitely excited about that.
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
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:
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...
