Hotel Club du Lac Tanganyika Bujumbura

... Burundiland, werd ik ingekwartierd in 'Chéz Jean-Luc Kesche', een guesthouse met de warmte van een gezin, eten dat moeders kost benadert en, tenminste tijdens die eerste dagen toen ik daar was, meer dan genoeg volk om elke avond een feestje te bouwen.

Nu, aangezien Burundi vakantieland een nog niet al te bekend televisieprogramma is in de rest van wereld, zijn de meeste mensen hier voor een of andere professionele reden. En voor de ...

... of
andere gunst moest vragen.



Here goes:

“Al zo snel nieuws van die
malle Jef, daar zit zeker iets achter!



Maar eerst effe kort berichten over
mijn eerste dagen in Oost-Afrika. Jullie weten het ook, ik word
normaal niet zo snel zenuwachtig, maar de avond voor het vertek naar
een onbekend continent voor 2 jaar, zou zelfs de meest koelbloedige
kikker tijdens slapeloze nachtmomenten het koud ...

... saying he was wrong, foolish, and ending my tirade by calling him an idiot. He looked directly back at me and turned as if to leave, but he still stood there with his body sideways to me. I could tell he was losing face, that he too wanted a solution as much as I. My friends were slinking away wisely. They offered me the money that was needed, and the man, his bluster fading, agreed. This was my introduction to Burundi, at a distant border in the far ...

... of the rainy season. I did however encounter innumerable technical difficulties after Christmas, including a digital camera charger that quit working, frequent power outages - one of them lasting 4 days straight, a lightning storm that rendered my computer charger 100% useless, and an internet connection that seemed to not work more often than it did. All of it became rather discouraging at times, and so I gave up on the blog altogether. So as not ...

Because the U.S. celebrated Thanksgiving this week, the Johnsons, my adopted family in Burundi - the family of the girls I tutor every morning - hosted a large gathering to remind us of the season. In true First Thanksgiving style, people of many nationalities (American, English, Egyptian, Korean, Indian, French, and Burundian) were invited to feast together and share dishes from their respective countries ...

... together to live this year so they can attend school with the help of a sponsoring church in Texas. Although 40 high schoolers together in one house may sound disastrous to those of you from outside Africa, I assure you that it works well here, partly because many of them are already in their 20's as a result of having to take years off frequently in order to save money for school fees, supplies ...

This happened several weeks ago, but I realized that I have never written about it and I've gone too long without posting any entries, so here is a belated story about a wedding my former housemates and I attended. As you know, through Amahoro Africa, I have the privilege of working closely with the Batwa people here in Burundi. (If you haven't read about them yet, you ...

This morning I was up at 5:00 to get ready for departure. I wanted to wait until 6:00 am, the opening time of the Fairview's wonderful breakfast buffet, included in the price of the room. But even early traffic can be heavy going to the airport. In light traffic the trip takes 20-30 minutes, but at other times it can take over an hour. So pushing the thoughts of their eggs florentine out of my mind, I took the taxi at 5:45. The sky was lightening over the Athi River plane ...

This week I went over to the house where the 40 Batwa students will be living whom I'll be attempting to teach English and writing stories about for a church in Texas who is supporting them. I got to chat with a few of them for a little while - through a translator, of course, and at the end of my visit, one of the young men asked if they could sing for me before I left. Of course, I said yes, and without any ...

... any suggestions, I'm quite open to them.) I completely love this place and wish that I could have you all over for tea sometime so that you could see it, too. As that's probably a bit impractical for most of you, here are some pictures, so you can get an idea of my new teacherage. P.S. Since some have already asked, the P.O. Box from before is still the address at which I will receive mail, so nothing new there.