Healthy Smiles

We are happy and healthy - see!  This photo was taken in honor of fathers - mine and theirs!  Since mine was in California and theirs was in Brussels on Father's Day, this was our way of sending smiles to our great dads!  Now we have another great father in Montreal, too, so we cannot forget to wish him a Happy Father's Day also!

As you can see, Emma and Justin are adapting well to life in Burundi.  They seem to enjoy this house filled with friends, family and great helpers.  Justin loves Nina, his nanny.  He also enjoys playing soccer with Eric and watching him open and shut the big gates. ("Mama, someday I want to open the gates like Eric when I get bigger" he told me!)  Emma adores her Aunt Leonie - which is no surprise to me because they have a very similar way about them.  Emma's biggest smile came when her Aunt dressed her up in her own African skirt and taught her to dance... she danced with abandon (but no rhythm, sadly)!  They are having fun with Aunt Anna, Uncle Cadeau... and then Ron & Sarah and Grace.  So many friends around all the time - Justin is loving the relational opportunities!  But they are eager to start school - which is coming soon!  Justin does miss Miss. Angel and his friends from his school, and Emma has asked when the yellow bus is coming to take her to school... so they are ready to get back into a classroom, back into the mix with new friends... more activity for their curious minds!  They do enjoy going with Aunt Leonie to Sunday School every Sunday... they are the only ones in the Sunday routine!  

I am well, but waiting for Claude to return.  He is stuck in transit... in Brussels right now.  But soon he will be back - and my smile will be all the wider!

What I am (not) doing in Burundi

I am not doing a lot of things in Burundi that were normative for me back in Arizona.  Here is a starter list:

• I am not doing laundry
• I am not cleaning house (or even making my own bed)
• I am not going grocery shopping
• I am not cooking
  
• I am not driving around town

So this brings another question to the forefront - what am I doing in Burundi these days?  Here is another list:

• I read (three books so far... I might even run out before the summer is over!)
• I write in my journal
• I listen to music and podcasts
• I correspond (mostly via email)
• I spend time in long, unhurried conversation with friends

There is a pace of life here that is unheard of back home - one that is not dominated by the watch or clock, not determined by the long list of tasks that must be accomplished in short order.  At home there is time to do, here there is ample time to be.  When you have the unhurried opportunity to just be, you gradually become more human, as was intended by our Creator.

I mentioned it before, but the thought returns that Sabbath, with good reason, is a biblical imperative.  When we cease from frantic activity, we can begin to untangle some of the knots we've gotten ourselves into over time.  We can relax and let those tense places in our psyche unclench and loosen.  Gently and without hurry we can begin to pull things out and begin to reflect more deeply on who we are and what drives us.  Busyness can drive us - but it does not fulfill us and does not define us in terms of God's intent for us.  

So this is my Sabbath season, a time to rest and read and reflect.  A time to re-imagine what might be ahead for me and my family.  As years of hurry fall off like scales, I can begin to find a deeper peace within my own soul and be in a place where I can imagine new things.  Here you don't have to rush to answers, to quickly determine outcomes or react to anything with immediacy.  You can let questions linger, you can take time to discern and watch things unfold before making a premature move to solve or correct.  

We have been encouraged, since Creation, to follow God's example and rest every week.  Every week there is a time to sit back and refrain from the frantic, fast-pace demands of life.  Every week we take a day off, a day to declare that we are not our job, we are not defined by our production, our worth is not determined by our paycheck.  We take a day to receive holy gifts, as Walter Brueggeman so elegantly says.  Sabbath is a time to receive from others - chiefly from God himself (who loves to give good gifts to his children, the Bible says), but also from those around us.  We receive, and that reminds us that we do not live on our own merits alone, we live by the grace of God who makes the sun to shine, the skies to rain and the sweet fruit of summer to ripen on the vine.  We receive from our family and friends gifts of deep laughter, unhurried conversation, unspoken affection... reminders of our inter dependance - things we can only accept when we take time to be present and undistracted.  

When was the last time your Sabbath (maybe Sunday for you) was a day of unhurried receptivity?  A day not of rushing to a church service, or doing several loads of laundry or spent in front of the computer on a work project?  But a day when you sat back and received all that is good in life, the things you cannot create or work up on your own, but must just accept with open hands from others?  I am convinced that we need to receive in order to be fully human, as God intended.  We need to stop running - and rest, receive and be restored.

Sabbath is not just for Africa (though it is so abundant here), it is for America and all the world that God created.  So I wish you each sabbath - a time to (not) do something, a time to be who you most truly are created to be as you receive from God and others.

Look what I found!

Here I am, having a (diet) Coke* and a smile!

*Well, Coke Light is what they call it here.  And yes, it is an import from the Middle East market.  It was the lone silver can in the cold case, and I could not resist.  The taste was not the same - but close enough to garner a smile!

Saturday

Today is our sabbath, our day to play, contemplate and rest in Bujumbura.  We are at club du lac, a local resort perched on the edge of Lake Tanganyika.  On most Saturdays you can walk past the pools down to the sand and join a game of sand volleyball with the expats - if you are into that sort of thing.  If you know me, you know I have to be elsewhere!  So while Ron & Sarah and Grace hit the beach, I elect to be cloistered up in the lounge.  Here there is a strong breeze blowing across the open room, there is a sweeping view of the lake and waves (yes, lakes this large do have waves) and internet access!  So I come here to read and write, to think and be a bit free from domestic distractions.

Right now the kids are taking a nap at home with Nina and their Aunt Leonie present.  Joseph and Eric are keeping the home in order.  The day is quieter for most everyone.  Saturday even begins more slowly, as it is designated as a community works morning.  This means that there is to be no traffic on the roads (paved or dirt) before 11am, and people are encouraged to come out and clean the streets, repair roads damaged by heavy use or heavy rains, etc.  So there is little movement on the streets till late morning.  So Saturday begins slow, and seems to keep that relaxed pace throughout the day.  

For all the noise of Africa, there is a stillness and slowness that opens the door to contemplative pursuits.  There is time and space for reflection, for reading, for imagining new possibilities.  (If you are a writer with a book in you - this is the place to come and let it grow and burst forth!)  I have already completed 2 books and am well into my third.  So my mind is well nourished.  This might be fertile soil for introspection and the birth of new adventures.  I hope to make the most of this time, this open space for dreaming and daring to ponder new things!

So goes the Saturday Sabbath on the shore of Lake Tanganyika!

Patient Prisoners

Key to the work of God's Kingdom is bringing release to the prisoners.  Today we witnessed such a work. 

It is a sad truth that many who come to the public hospital for medical care end up becoming imprisoned by their caregivers.  Once medical needs have been met and a person is ready to be discharged, if they cannot afford to pay their bill they are detained by the hospital.  These people are known as patient prisoners.  The hospital will keep them in their bed, feeding them enough to keep them alive, but refusing to release them until their bill is paid in full.  

For the past week Claude has been visiting the Prince Charles Hospital, one of three local public hospitals in Bujumbura.  He has been meeting with the chief social worker to learn about patient prisoners in their facility.  What he discovered is that there were 12 men and women currently detained in this hospital, ranging from the age of 17 to 73.  Some had come to the hospital in late 2007 to seek medical care, but upon recovery have been kept on-site because they do not have the money to cover their bill.  Looking at the release dates reveals that some of these men and women could have returned home 4 or 5 months ago – if they could have only paid their bill.  The good news is that today, 12 of them would get to go home due to kindness from someone they never met.  We got to be midwives, mere hands and feet, but what a joy to be a part of such a story. 

Pictured here is Hakizimana.  Tonight, after months of detention for an unpaid bill, she will go home to her 7 year old son.  This is good news, indeed.

I will try to share more later, but you can imagine how emotional the day was.  By the end we saw 12 people go home because God moved on their behalf through others.  Some days God's love is so tangible you cannot fight back tears, and you can only be in awe of such holy moments when prisoners, even patient prisoners, are given their freedom.   

 

The Noise of Africa

I was on the roof-top this morning... and noticed the noise.  Down the street is a local carpenter shop, and the sawing and sanding create a rhythm line for the neighborhood music.  There is the rooster(s) next door that are incessantly calling and strutting their voice at all hours of the day. Always there is a child crying from one direction or another (sometimes even my own!).  Cars honk randomly throughout the day and night, honking for someone to open the gate so they can drive into their home.  On Sunday you can hear a choir singing songs in harmony - so there must be a church nestled somewhere in our vicinity!  The noise indicates that Africa is alive - people are working, visiting, worshipping and living.  I am so glad we are in this neighborhood, surrounded by life!  We could have been in an upper-class place, but it is more quiet there in the hills about the city sounds.  Here we are part of the life and the noise.  Our contribution is our broken kirundi, heavy with an american accent!  The constant clicking on our laptops might be another texture we add to the mix.  Here we get to be part of the African song, the neighborhood noise.

From the roof-top we can watch all the other families.  They are washing (by-hand) and hanging clothes to dry, they are rocking their babies to sleep, they are cooking over an open fire or sitting together drinking fanta.  Sometimes a small child will look up and see us - point and laugh!  We just wave and smile.  There is also a lot of construction going on in this place - we must be in the Surprise of Bujumbura!  The building tactics here are quite different, to say the least.  But it is good to see that sign of life and growth, the confidence people have when they are building their future and planning to live here.  The structures and colors would surprise you - no HOA or COA here!  But this is a place where neighbors do talk to one another, so everyone seems to be in on the local action.  I love seeing the community from my roof-top.  I am learning as I watch.  Now, who is watching me?  Would they learn anything of use from me? Hard question... I think I need to stay in a learning posture here!

Family Photo!

Here is our most recent family photo!  This was taken by our friend, J., while all sitting in the Kigali Airport.  We were waiting for our Rwanda Air flight to Burundi while the others were awaiting an Ethiopian Airline flight to Dulles in D.C.  It was our last time together in Rwanda... Gotta love those smiles from the kids!  This is real life.