Genocide and Gazelles

While cycling through Austin, Texas on the Bike for Burundi tour, I met a Burundian named Gilbert who came to the USA as a political refugee. I learned that he was an accomplished runner who had survived a terrible attack during the genocide in Burundi in 1993. He now heads up a running club called "Gilbert's Gazelles" (www.GilbertsGazelles.com), and a non profit which raises money for wells in Burundi, called "The Gazelle Foundation" (www.Gazellefoundation.com). Some people involved with the Gazelle Foundation actually made a trip out here to Burundi last month.

This past weekend I read Gilbert's incredibly emotional memoir called This Voice in My Heart: A Runner's Memoir of Genocide, Faith, and Forgiveness. The story is absolutely amazing, and it shares not only his experience with genocide, but it also tells about his entire life and the culture of Burundi.

The back of the book says "This Voice in My Heart is the searing story of Gilbert Tuhabonye, a survivor of one of the most devastating genocides in recent memory. Though now a track star and motivationnal speaker, Gilbert once lay buried under a pile of burning bodies after the centuries-old battle between the Hutu and Tutsi tribes came to his school. Fueled by hatred, the Hutus forced more than a hundred Tutsi children and teachers into a small room and used machetes to slash most of them to death. The ones who survived the attack were doused with gasoline and set on fire. After hiding under burning bodies for more than eight hours, Gilbert heard a voice inside saying, "You will be all right; you will survive." He knew it was God speaking to him. Gilbert was the only survivor at his school. This riveting story will touch you from its first page and offer inspiration for years to come."

I highly recommend the read.

Also, here is a video of Gilbert presenting at TED Austin.

ps- Burundi is not anymore dangerous like it was during the war. People from the USA are still afraid to come here because of US State Department warnings. My opinion is that if the State Department thinks it's necessary to tell US citizens to not travel to Burundi, they should also put out warnings against Americans traveling to places like Washington, DC, Baltimore, and even "quaint" little Annapolis. For instance, my car, which is currently in "peaceful" Annapolis, had it's side window smashed by a thief a few nights ago. Luckily, I have no valuables so nothing was stolen.

So feel free to come visit Burundi! It's pretty great.

Birthday in Burundi

I just turned 24...mid twenties. Sarah's brother turned 24 while working as a missionary in Brazil, and she said that if a guy there isn't married by 24, they think he's not into women. Good thing that in Burundi guys don't get married until 28-35 ;)

I received a few nice gifts for my birthday. Sarah made me a great crafty collage to hang on my wall. Here is an example of one of the 9 panels. 

Good ole Pooh



My roommate JD got me a cool knife from his trip to Rwanda.

The Burundi YFC office staff baked a delicious banana cake.

The orphans at Homes of Hope gave me a fancy new drum set.

Just Kidding, they didn't give me this. But I wish...so much character!

Eric, the guy who runs the shop out in front of my house, gave me 3 Pepsi's.

3 Pepsi's doesn't seem like a good birthday gift, does it? Well, to put it in perspective...this guy and I are just acquaintances. He earns the equivalent of about $80 US per month. These canned Pepsi's are much more expensive than a bottled Coke or Fanta (which cost about 35 cents). Each of these Pepsi's costs $1 US. That means that this $3 present, which was given to me by a guy who isn't a super close friend to me, represents a sacrifice on his end of over 1 day's full wages. His generosity is huge, and I'm completely humbled. I'm grateful for this gift and I pray that I will be able to give as freely and willingly as he does.

To celebrate my birthday, we went out to a hole in the wall joint to enjoy a classic American meal of a burger, fries, and a coke. So good!

   

After dinner we found a nice friend outside of our house :)

In other news, we're still working hard to get the Gitega International Academy up and running. Classes start on September 24, so it's crunch time. Work in Africa moves more slowly than I'm used to, but we believe that everything will come together by the time the school starts next month. Check out this video that I made, which shows the building process at the academy.

In my free time, I still enjoy teaching kids at the beach how to play lacrosse. They have some serious natural skills!

I Chop My Money!

This is a song that you hear a lot on the radio in Burundi. It's called "Chop My Money." In the USA, rappers brag about having millions of dollars. But in this song, the guy brags about having "$50 in money." This is sad,  but when most people here live on less than a couple of dollars a day, $50 is a really big deal.

But this song is absolutely ridiculous. I haven't watched the video, because the internet bandwidth is too low to load videos, so forgive me if it's lewd and crude. Anyway, enjoy...

Best Athletic Loss Ever

Background:

This past week I have been up country in Burundi, working with a minority tribe called the Batwa. They have for a long time been ostracized by the greater community because of their differences. They are quite short people, and they live in primitive conditions. They are the poorest people in the poorest country, and their tribe has a life expectancy of just over 27.

Some Batwa men

I was helping them with their housing project, as they are trying to convert from living in tiny, nasty mud shacks, to living in decent brick houses. My job consisted of making mud, shoveling mud, moving mud on stretchers, making bricks, and moving bricks. It is tough manual labor that will make you strong in a short time. The Batwa people are small, but strong. If they had more to eat than a small amount of maize meal at night, they would be enormously muscular. After a few days of being the only Muzungu (white person) in the Batwa village, a group called Love Works came in from Canada.

   

Mud Hut

Field of Bricks

Finished Brick House

The Game:

We had just eaten lunch after a hard morning of manual labor. The leader of the Canadian team told us that after our food had digested, we would leave to play a friendly football (soccer) match against some of the locals from the village. Even though I'm not a football player, it sounded like it could be a fun time. I did not know, however, that the match would be one of the most beautiful things I have ever been a part of.

Twelve of us Westerners arrived at the football pitch in our bus. We scanned the place for our opponents, but there were only about 10 raggedy looking children who were kicking around a "ball" made of clumped plastic bags, help together by twine. Perhaps these were our opponents? If so, it seemed like it would be an easy enough victory.

Team Bazungu (us, the white guys) walked out onto the field and began to kick our ball around, trying our best to avoid the pot holes that riddled the field. We noticed that the goals were of slightly differing size; that they were made of skinny warped tree trunks; that there were no nets; and that the goal posts were not near being squared at the corners.

As we were warming up, a team of 16 ran over the hill, approaching us in two perfectly straight lines, while chanting a song and sporting fresh, crisp, blue and white Adidas uniforms. They looked like extremely intimidating junior high school kids, but upon closer observation we realized they were our Batwa men. These guys looked sharp and serious as they warmed up. As we observed them and the 500+ people from the community that were now entirely surrounding the field, we understood that the "friendly" match was turning into much more of an ordeal than had been expected.

Both teams singing together after the game

Wow! The atmosphere was intense. It was a full on battle from the start. The Batwa ran around looking like exceptionally coordinated little blue smurfs with no shoes on, and we ran around looking even more amusing to the large crowd. After about 20 minutes, the Batwa scored their first goal. The community roared and rushed the field in support of the home team; Batwa, Hutu, and Tutsi fans alike. It was a beautiful picture of restoration and unity in Burundi. Not very long ago, these people were all killing one another.

At half time the score was 2-1 Batwa. We wanted to win, but we understood that the most important factor of this intense match was to fellowship and build a stronger relationship with the Batwa. It was during the half time intermission that our entire team realized that the beautiful new uniforms the Batwa were wearing were a gift from the Love Works team. The Love Works leader kept it a secret from everyone. I smiled when I realized that the football team one of the poorest, most marginalized groups in the world, now had a greater sense of identity and significance because of their fresh uniforms.

The crowd, which created the boundaries of our field, cheered even more intensely in the second half; probably because the score had become Gatanu (5) to Rimwe (1). When the final whistle blew, the entire community ran out to the players. Everyone began hugging, shaking hands, giving high fives, smiling, and laughing. It was then that I realized I had just been involved in the best athletic loss in my life. The fans roared and raved for the Batwa victory. For so long they have been stamped upon and downcast, but in this moment they were basking in their glory. We love them, and even though they would have beaten us no matter how hard we tried, I was reminded of 1 John 3:16. It says "This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for one another." We gladly laid down our lives and our pride for them.

Celebrating after the game

Both teams rode on the same bus back to the village, where we shared cokes together. We drank, embraced,  prayed, and then had a good old African dance party together. A few speeches were given, which further made me relish the event. We were told that a few years ago during the war, thousands of Hutus, Tutsis, and Batwa were massacred on the football pitch that we had just played on. But today, all three tribes and even Bazungus (whities) were present as players or spectators. Even though the competition was serious, there was an overabundance of love and joy. It was a little picture of heaven :)

Little Batwa boys praying before receiving porridge (a ministry of Harvest for Christ)

Scorpions and Rabies

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 Gitega International Academy 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. 

Grace and Peace,

jeff

I slept like a breast

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.

The Learning Curve

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.

Turasubira.

Grace and Peace,

Jeff