Novotel Bujumbura

... improviserende, lachend en wenend rondlopende meerderheid in de guesthouse was die reden een kortfilm die in de heuvels rond Bujumbura gedraaid werd.

Inderdaad Holmes, dat had je goed gezien, die cameraman daar op de foto. Scherp!

Zaterdagavond, nadat ik, tegen mijn gewoontes in, de hele namiddag absoluut niks had gedaan buiten films kijken en wennen aan Tanganika temperaturen, liepen er blijkbaar een pak minder lachende en ...

... doen uitbreken.
Daarbij kwam dan nog eens bij dat ik om 2 uur 's nachts, nadat ik had
geoordeeld dat mijn bagage voldoende volledig en veilig was verpakt,
toch nog national geografic op heb gezet.

S.O.S.
survival; hoe overleef je alleen in de afrikaanse
savanne?

Uitgangspunt was een piloot die met zijn
vliegtuigje op een olifantentrail in de savanne was gecrashed, beide
benen verbreizeld.

toepasselijk... of ...

... of that forlorn country. It could have been a sign of things to come, but was rather the opposite. This man, this foolhardy agent of the fledgling government, was the worst we would encounter, and in fact much better was to come.

Bujumbura had quickly appealed to me since my arrival in Rwanda, a trip there that is, to the capital city of Burundi, a short 6 hours by road from Kigali. Circumstances had pushed the date of the voyage back several ...

... leave this journal unfinished, however, let me give the condensed version of the end of my first year in Burundi.

Christmas : I had the very great honor to be welcomed as a member of the Johnson household, the ones for whom I was homeschooling, for Christmas Eve. The celebration included an enormous feast with foods not easily found in Burundi, including imported European cheese and crackers, apples, homemade dinner rolls, and sweets galore ...

... who's quite adept at finding ingredients for "comfort food" from home, cooked up countless delights, and if anyone left the celebration either hungry or ungrateful, it wasn't for lack of food or opportunities for thankfulness. Le Menu Roasted Chicken (turkeys are rare and not so tasty in Burundi I'm told) Mashed Potatoes with Gravy Stuffing Green Beans Carrots Buttered Dinner Rolls Tossed Salad Fruit ...

... uniforms. While I'm with the students, I get to talk with them through a translator and learn their personal stories so that I can write the stories and pass them along to their partners in Texas. At the end of each visit with them, I teach English for about an hour, which usually involves much laughter as we struggle to communicate. During one class I asked them to name things you can eat, and one ...

... get a little background information from my entry on July 7th). The family structure of the Batwa has severely deteriorated during the past several decades for a number of reasons, many of them having to do with the poverty that is so common in Batwa communities. In order for an African man to get married, he must pay the bride price to a woman's family, a tradition ...

... we drove. Hundreds of people were already walking, dark silhouettes along the side of the road, going to work, going to school, going who knew where. The traffic didn't slow us down but for some reason the emigration formalities took a very long time, so it was good I left when I did. Shortly before 8:00 we were guided out of the departure lounge by a Kenya Airways agent, down the steps and onto the tarmac. The morning air was still pleasantly cool and we walked among ...

... or anything to keep them on pitch, the four teenagers I was sitting with began to sing a praise song in Kirundi that was breathtaking. The harmony was rich and full and as good as any professionally trained group I've ever heard. The sound filled up the entire house, and I almost wept for the sheer beauty of it. I wish I could have recorded it so I could share the experience with people at home, but there was no ...

Several people have asked me what a "typical" day looks like for me here. Hmmm... Well, so far, there is no typical day, though that could change once school begins in a couple of weeks. One thing that's fairly reliable, however, is the Saturday trip to the beach. Though the beach looks as if it's by the ocean, it's actually on the shore of Lake Tanganyika, which is one of the lakes in the Great Lakes Region of East ...