Celebrating in Bujumbura

I woke up this morning in Burundi.  After months of wondering, then planning and finally flying... I am in Bujumbura for the summer.  How do I know I am waking up in Burundi?  The birds sing loudly here, and that is the song you wake up to in the morning.  So with the chorus of birds to remind me, I began the day in a new place and a new season.  

Just a day prior to our arrival, the final rebel group in Burundi signed a peace agreement with the government.  This was good news for Burundi, first and foremost.  But we were also glad to come to Burundi to share in their celebration of a new season of peace within their borders. We pray the peace will have traction.

Today we are setting up our new home... and what a home it is!  This home has a stunning roof-top patio with a breath-taking view of Lake Tanganika.  Across you can see the mountains of Congo, so close you imagine you can reach out and touch them!  On the roof you can feel a cool breeze, and I would venture to guess that this will be where so many evenings of conversation, reading and resting will take place.  So far, Africa is spoiling us rotten!

The kids met their new nanny this morning.  Nina is a Burundian university student on summer holiday.  She has some English, but I encouraged her to teach the kids kirundi over the summer.  We invited her to teach us, too!  Claude's Aunt Leonie arrived this morning to greet us - and we both embraced one another tightly and with tears.  She looks well - strong and vibrant in her green traditional dress.  She went on some errands for us, getting sundries like mosquito nets, hangers, hampers and even fresh fruit.  Such abundance - she brought back armloads of bananas, avocados and pineapple!  

Now we are sitting at Botanika enjoying a good meal and the free wifi.  All four of us are at a table under a flowered canopy, with our laptops all open and working... connecting with friends back home and abroad!  We are all about connection at Amahoro!  

So I wanted you to know that we made it here safely and we are well.  The photo above is from our first evening in town.  Claude took us to a favorite spot - Belvedre - for an amazing welcome dinner.  We learned later that we had been treated by our friend, Mark Shook.  (Thanks, Mark, we felt welcomed and blessed as we savored the view and the meal together!)  

We are here... sigh.

How to process...

Sometimes it is difficult to process these emotions I have surging in me, as I hear stories from those who have survived the genocide in Rwanda.  One element that really provokes a stunning sadness in me is that neighbors killed neighbors, those daily interconnected to each other failed one another during the days of genocide.  Here is just a personal attempt...a stream poem:

NEIGHBORS

We were neighbors

Neighbors who shared water

Water that is now filled with bodies

Bodies of other neighbors

Neighbors should share sugar

Sugar, sweetness and stories

Stories now come with salty tears

Tears because we were once neighbors.

Where were you?

Sometimes it is hard to download, decompress and disclose all that you have experienced in a span of a few significant days.  That is certainly the case for me as I reflect on the past few days of the Amahoro Conversation in Rwanda.  We have heard stories from the Hutu, Tutsi and Batwa people who inhabit this region of Africa.  We have heard from our South African friends - Afrikaans, English, Colored and Black.  And, to the surprise of some, we have also heard from Australians, Latin American friends, a Lakota brother from North America, another of Japanese decent and a few muzungus (white people!).  Each contributed something meaningful to our conversation about the complex dynamics of reconciliation in Africa and beyond.  Genocide and oppression have happened in Africa, but also in North America, Australia, Latin American countries and more.  We have to grapple with this element of human nature - we have all sinned and dehumanized others.  We did it, or our ancestors did it, or we are in the midst of letting it happen as we are too apathetic to address the reality.  So each culture, each country, each person is in need of reconciling, restoring, forgiving.  This is how we reclaim our true humanity and, in a spirit of restitution, offer that back to others.  This conversation is for all of us.

One question remains with many of us in the wake of the time in Rwanda:  Where were you in 1994?  This is when the Rwandese experienced the tragic genocide that robbed them of nearly one million people within one hundred days.  Where were you - not a literal location, but where was your attention?  Did you know this was happening?  Did you care?  Did you just turn the channel after learning of yet another blood-letting somewhere in Africa?  It is a penetrating question.  For myself, I was not aware in the least.  It would only be years later, after meeting Claude, that I would learn of the deep loss for the people of Rwanda.

So... Where are you now?  As there is genocide afoot in Sudan, xenophobia unfolding in South Africa, deep unrest rumbling in Kenya, even Mexicans being maligned in America.  Are you standing with the voiceless?  Are you standing for justice with your voice, your vote, your very energy?  Are you paying attention to those suffering injustice in the world and aligning yourself with them?  

I guess I am soul-searching in Africa.