4.11.10

It’s a rainy Sunday afternoon, sitting in Aroma in downtown Buj with friends Abi & Shegz. We came for lunch (cheeseburger and fries!) & chill time on computers, reading, writing, and people watching. Great treat for the afternoon!

We said good-bye today to a group from the UK who have been here working with GLO. For their last night yesterday, the YFC drummers performed live for us and other guests, including others from the missionary community here in Buj. It was my first time seeing the drummers perform live here – and let me tell you, they are absolutely incredible! For any of you who come to Burundi one day, make sure you have the opportunity to see these talented men perform in person. The drumming is complex and energetic, demonstrating such athleticism and skill in these men – drumming on drums that they balance on their heads, even sometimes kicking the drums with their feet! A very Burundian tradition. Pretty cool that YFC has its own team of performers to be stewards of Christ through this tradition as they perform throughout the country. Check out the video for a taste!

Since the kids at Future Hope School are on break at this time, my fellow English teacher Abi & I spent the past week involved in some other projects of YFC. We went with the team to Ngozi (north of Bujumbura) to be a part of the work that is going on there with the Batwa tribe. The Batwa are the third tribe, the most forgotten of all the people in Burundi. Our group was there to assist in an distributing clothes, food (rice & beans – the Batwa rarely have these), and to work on one of the houses under construction. And ‘help’ we did, carrying huge red mud bricks on our heads like the locals showed us how –one brick at a time only! They are incredibly heavy. These bricks are made out of mud, left to sit in the sun and dry, and then transported to the site of the house, often by children of the community who are up to my waist in height, and have only a meal (of limited variety) to eat a day. I was absolutely exhausted from a morning spent doing this work… for the Batwa, this is daily life and work. No school. No education. Houses made of sticks and grass (houses of bricks, as I’ve mentioned, are in progress). Extreme poverty like I have never before seen in such close proximity.

To be honest with you, the whole experience being there felt extremely overwhelming… emotionally draining. It’s much easier to choose to believe that this kind of thing does not exist in the world. I think that God has used this world of the Batwa to majorly challenge me in my faith… “Okay, heather, you want to see need like you’ve never seen before? Here it is. Now what will you do about it?” I wanted to run; God said no, no running. “These people are my children too. Many have forgotten and ignore them, but not I. Now you see them too, and you have the power to do something to do things in their lives that no one has.” Christians of Burundi, will we answer the call?

many thanks to Olivia for helping me to see this too…

Only in Burundi…

One of my American bills was denied exchange into Burundian francs because of a minute tear in the bill.. I’m talking, 1/8 of an inch here. Turns out, any flaw in foreign money can potentially deem it “invaluable” as far as exchanging money to local currency goes!

Prayers…

*so important for the present and future of the country of Burundi!!! upcoming elections – including presidential. pray for strong Christian leaders for the country, for peace throughout the process.

the Batwa people.

for my own humility in the work that I do here.