Hotel Botanika Bujumbura

... al vroeger opgedane ervaring met het puzzelen van zware spullen in een kamion en een bemoedigend schouderklopje hier en daar, werden zodanig op prijs gesteld dat werkhandschoenen voor mij gekocht werden en ik de volgende weekend mee naar de filmset ging als geapprecieerde vrijwilliger.

Ambigu, vele verschillende en met tijden tegenstrijdige emoties. Er word veel gelachen op de set, grappen uitgehaald, stoer gezwaaid met machine geweren ...

... oren, tot ****ing kwart
na drie. Ik moest twee en half uur later opstaan, en dan is het
zover... koud slapeloos koelekikkerzweet....

maar daar
zijn we nu voorbij. nu zit ik aan een bureautje (nog niet het mijne,
daar moet ik maandag naar op zoek) in Buju****ingbura! Nice!

awel
kort een paar belevenissen;

ik kom aan in een
« internationale vlieghaven », van mijn ubercooole
bompa-troley hebben echter enkel ...

... I saw sitting on his desk. His obvious move was to tell me my money was too old (it wasn’t), and wouldn’t be accepted (where he meant, I haven’t a clue). When I argued my point, he only became enraged since the questioning of his authority was probably rare in this outpost where so many are chaste in the face of government corruption. I am no shrinking violet, though, and I dared not give in to such obvious attempts at skullduggery ...

... of a few minor leaks of information, the surprise was for the most part a tremendous success.

Moving House: In March a friend from the UK went home to spend a couple of months with her family and allowed me to stay in her house during my final weeks in Bujumbura for this school year. As much as I had enjoyed the apartment, it had become rather noisy with increasing traffic on the street in front of it, a bit lonesome as the family who had ...

In case you've wondered at any point during the past nearly four months what it is exactly that I do, here, I finally have an answer. For the first several weeks my schedule and responsibilities changed daily. Now, however, I have settled into a somewhat regular routine and can share with you what happens on a fairly regular basis. My main job has turned out to be tutoring 2 girls, Sarah and Carly ...

Taking advantage of the national holiday Burundi celebrated last week, some friends of mine and I - thank you, Duncan, for organizing and driving - went to Risizi National Park which is just north of Bujumbura off the road that leads to Congo and beside the bank of the Risizi River. For those of you who have ...

... the older of which are frequently cast aside along with their children when younger wives come into the family; or in the worst cases, women being kidnapped by men who want to marry but have no money. As a result of this, legally recognized marriages and permanent family units have become few in number, and women and children especially suffer because of it. Recently ...

... You were here when that was happening?" he asked with a big grin. "No there is no problem now" he went on "in fact the leader of the rebels is in town negotiating a peace deal. He only wants a lot: the ministry of defense, the foreign ministry, the ministry of the economy...." I asked about Chibitoke province. He said there was not fighting there but lots of crime and violence at night. "It has always been that way there, since the war began" he finished. The Novotel ...

After two months of living with American friends in a large, comfortable, sheltered even, house, I am now on my own and living in an apartment in the center of town. If you have an image in your mind of a trendy, cosmopolitan, multi-storied building filled with young urban professionals, you're picturing the wrong country, and maybe don't know me quite as well as you think you do. The building is actually ...

Next week marks two months exactly that I have lived in Burundi, and I think perhaps I'm beginning to feel a little bit at home here. I still stand out freakishly and hear calls of "Muzungu" nearly every time I set foot outside the gates of our house, but I can at least respond with a few strategic greeting phrases in Kirundi now, though my using them does seem to be reason for ...