American Visitors Part 1 - Heading Upcountry

  Mwaro, Burundi
Thursday, November 13, 2008

Last week I learned that two American women, Leigh and Heidi, would be coming to Burundi on a trip for an organization called Global Support because they wanted to learn more about the Batwa and whether or not it would be feasible to plan future trips for small teams of people wanting to come here and work alongside the Batwa for short periods of time.  I have had the privilege during the last three days to travel out of Bujumbura up into more rural areas with them (in case there's any uncertainty in your mind, everything outside of Bujumbura is rural) to visit various Batwa villages and a few scenic locations and to act as a tour guide of sorts, though fortunately for them, we also had two native Burundians, Evariste and Cadeau, along with us as well.  In case you don't know, Evariste is a university student who acts as the head of the household of Batwa students to whom I teach English, and Cadeau is both my translator when I teach English and the brother of Claude Nikondeha, the head of Amahoro Africa who helped set up things for me to come to Burundi.

Evariste, me and Cadeau

 
 

Kibunge

Uninhibited dancing

On Tuesday we went to the village of Kibunge in the province of Mwaro where the Batwa living there greeted us with their traditional singing and dancing and even invited us to dance along with them in the rain, which I loved, as those of you who know me can imagine.  As I've experienced repeatedly here, people can express deep joy in spite of having very little.

I'm not a giant, the Batwa are just small!

We also met with a local pastor, one of the first Batwa preachers in Burundi, who told us of his dream to train other pastors and to establish churches where people of all ethnic groups could worship together.

The pastor's home

Heidi and Cadeau surrounded by villagers

 

From Kibunge, we headed east to Gitega where we spent the night in a small inn, the first night in a hotel for me in Burundi.

The hotel

I discovered that approximately $6.50 will procure a private room containing two single beds and the use of a community bathroom down the hallway. 

Not a bad room for 8,000 fbu

Not only does the inn offer these basic but comfortable necessities, it also includes amenities not commonly found in the U.S. - a hotel monkey and an outdoor television viewing area.  It doesn't get much better than this!

Hotel Monkey

T.V. room