Residence "St Rose" Bujumbura

... pak meer stressende en wenende filmmensen rond. Het was laat om nog aan het werk te zijn, en dan moest ook de kamion nog helemaal geladen worden met filmmateriaal. Bedrukte gemoederen sleepten zichzelf met beetje bij beetje materiaal heen en weer tussen guesthouse en kamion. De arme stakkers konden best wel een beetje hulp gebruiken, en zo zou ik tenminste het gevoel hebben later die avond dat ik een pintje had verdiend.

De frisse moed ...

... net
niet?

Tja, en wat loopt er allemaal op de Afrikaanse
savanne rond op plaatsen waar zelfs hollandse toeristen niet geraken?
Bijtende, krabbende, vertrappelende mieren, luipaarden, leeuwen,
hyenas, olifanten (die per jaar meer mensen doden dan leeuwen), en
allehande ander onguur tuig... ZUUR!!

Tegelijk lieten ze
een zekere crocodile dundi aan het woord met een paar extra
overlevingstips en ik luisterde met ...

... but finally me and three of my teaching colleagues from the program had packed our bags and headed south. The above incident was a product of a society still groping its way towards relevance. There still exist elements where corruption is rife, and the seeking of bribes a common event. The man was a border crossing agent, and since I hadn’t had exact change for the visa, he was all too willing to accept too much rather than offer me the money ...

... eating as much as we possibly could, we then gathered round the tree to read the Christmas story and distribute and open gifts. If you've never had the privilege of watching 10 children open presents simultaneously, I'd recommend it; it's enormously entertaining.

And if this weren't enough excitement, on the day after Christmas I flew home to Phoenix to surprise family and friends, according to a rather sneakily organized plan of my dad's. In ...

... Mini Pizzas (from India with a spicy kick) Baked Fish with vegetables (an Egyptian dish) Desserts Galore: spice muffins, mango tarts, chocolate cream pie, applie pie, mango pie, ice cream, banana cake, and even pumpkin bread and pumpkin pie - thanks to a few choice good smuggled in from Kenya! *My apologies for a shortage of pictures, especially of the food. I was too busy eating to remember to take photos!

... said, "cat." I laughed and said that cat is NOT a food but then immediately had to correct myself when I remembered a friend telling me that people here, especially in rural areas, do eat cats. When I'm not engaged in tutoring or teaching English, I can usually be found walking the streets of Bujumbura running errands, still rather unusual for a white person; jogging or reading in the "Jardin ...

... arises from the idea that since the man's family is gaining a worker to help support their overall family unit, they must compensate her family in some way for their loss of a worker. The inability of the majority of Batwa families to pay the bride price, however, leads to couples having children but never actually get married; men who can manage to pay taking multiple ...

... planes to our 737. The deep blue of the sky contrasted with the bright white clouds edged in silver. The flight left on time and we arrived in Bujumbura on time as well. No one was there to meet me, but such things happen: cars break down, police checkpoints are time consuming, someone falls ill. I caught a taxi to the Novotel. On the way in, I asked the driver about the situation in the country. "Everything is calm" he assured me. "No rockets falling on Bujumbura?" I ...

... of doing it, and I don't think a recording would have captured the spirit of it anyway. You would have loved it, too, I'm sure. I believe it was a tiny taste of what heaven must sound like. Though I couldn't capture the sound, here are a few pictures of some of the students and their new home. * The pictures were taken on more than one day, which is why the singing and dancing pictures have more than 4 students in them.

... It's the second deepest freshwater lake in the world and forms much of the border between Burundi and DRC (Congo). I have been told to stay out of the water when there are no waves because that's when the crocodiles and hippos, which are not always happy to see humans in their territory, come up to the shore, but so far I've only been at the beach on windy days and haven't gotten to see any of the local lake wildlife.