Ingeregere I Burundi: Gazelles in Gitega

Saturday July 2 – Monday July 4

Sorry for the delay between posts. This place is crazy! We're always on the move, and free time to sort pics, write blogs, etc. is hard to come by, and decent Internet connections don't really factor into the picture. I'll try to finish up some text below I've been inching away on for the last few days and bring you up to speed. If you're strapped for time, you might at least page down and skim the pictures.

Gitega is the second largest city in Burundi, and nearby is one of our main destinations on this trip, an orphanage called the Centre De Jeunesse Pour Christ. Saturday we traveled from Bujumbura to Gitega, spent some time at the orphanage, and then finished the day off at the home of Gilbert's cousin, Stany.

But first, after a late-night blogging session Friday night (I'm such a sloooow writer), Saturday morning Michael and I took off running at 6AM from KCC (King's Conference Centre, our hotel in Bujumbura) towards Kiniri University, which sits on top of a rather significant foothill on the eastern edge of town. (I believe Gilbert spent some time here around '95 or so, but I don't have his book in front of me at the moment.) A bunch of folks trekked over with Debbie from the CRS the previous morning while I was snoozing, so of course I had to take a crack at it myself!

After the warmup miles to the base of the hill, we started up the winding road to the top. It was crazy! It's maybe 2.4 miles from the base to the top, and a zillion runners were going up and down that hill. It's a long grind to the top that never really lets up, and it's pretty steep. At the top, we encountered a ton of runners all doing coordinated exercises (circle of trust style) that we would've loved to have captured on video. We're gonna try to return next Saturday morning before we fly out, this time with cameras in tow.

Enough about recreational runs. We're not here to run, of course, but it sure is fun and interesting to go out early while others snooze and see the area and people from that perspective.

Everyone hopped into the bus and we drove to Gitega. What a drive! The road is, surprisingly, paved with asphalt, but it's a curvy twisty narrow strip of pavement going east up and through the Burundi mountains. And there's a lot of foot and bicycle traffic on both sides of the two-lane road. See the pictures down at the bottom to get the picture. It was more than a little scary at times, though our driver is obviously an experienced pro in these parts. (He also seems to know every third person in the country, though how this is possible we have been unable to ascertain.)

Burundi is a very beautiful country, and the people are mostly very kind, courteous, and forgiving of our poor to nonexistent language skills and ignorance of the land. On our drive we saw a wide variety of lush vegetation, countryside, and all sorts of people on our trip. Most folks get around on foot or bicycle, and watching so many trekking up and down steep mountains in flip-flops with heavy loads on their heads or backs was amazing to me. Fields of grain or similar were stretched up mountain-sides, banana trees everywhere, tea plants, and all sorts of others that I can't identify. Bricks were being made in the dirt next to the roads, lade out to dry and for pickup. (As we got into the mountains lots of the dwellings were made out of the red clay bricks.) Unfortunately, an at-times thick haze covered the mountain-tops in the distance. On the way back, the haze was even thicker. There were lots burning of trees or something everywhere. I'm guessing from chopping down trees to make room for agriculture fields, but I don't know for sure.

As we drove into Gitega I was surprised at the city and the level of poverty present. There's a wide range, from the extremely poor and poorly-clothed, to the well-dressed, huts and shacks, to neat houses and buildings. Unfortunately, the former outnumber the latter in both cases. It's hard to capture the experience in words, perhaps a sampling of pictures will help my poor description.

We visited the orphanage both Saturday and Sunday afternoons. We originally were slated to help lay some concrete, but the effort to level off the dirt in the area was behind so that work will be taken up by another group of volunteers later. Instead we got to spend our time with the 32 children at the orphanage, which was so much fun for both the kids and adults, and very rewarding.

The orphanage is quite a gem in the rough, a lot of time and effort has been put into the grounds and buildings. It's located on a long narrow strip of land on the side of a big hill/mountaintop. The flat areas for the buildings and soccer/play field were I believe leveled by hand. Shegz, who runs the orphanage, told us how volunteers moved the dirt with just shovels and buckets. The orphans are well-clothed and fed well, there are even a few cows to provide the children with fresh milk. They're appearance is in stark contrast to the other children in the area, who were clothed in tattered, dirty worn-out shirts and pants.

The unfortunate thing is how many orphans there are in Burundi compared to the orphanages – 10% of the population or around 800,000 orphans. Many were orphaned due to the war that until recently took place between the tribes. (Due to the culture, out-of-wedlock children are apparently not numerous.) It's possible for foreigners to adopt orphans from Burundi, but time-consuming. When successful, it can take three years. Interestingly, all the orphans in the Centre De Jeunesse have been officially adopted by the orphanage.

Also on the site is a kindergarten and primary school for grades 1-6, with 13 teachers and 300 children both from the orphanage and the surrounding area during the school year. (Trivia bite: it costs $35/month to teach each student.)

I don't think I can do justice to our experiences with the children while at the orphanage. All I can say is that it was terribly worthwhile and fulfilling, that the very well-behaved and open children were extremely pleased to spend time with us, and that I'd love to come back again someday. I had a great time with 3-4 kids in particular, including a fast little guy in a red shirt named Blaise who loved my hat and sunglasses.

At the end of the last day, the folks running the orphanage gathered everyone together in a big circle outside, a couple of moving speeches ensued, and then we knelt down while the kids laid their hands on us and prayed for us for quite a long time. More than one tear were shed. Enough said.

Let's see, what else? Saturday night we were invited to dinner and drinks at 7 with Gilbert's cousin, Stany (Stanislas), his family, and his brother Ajeed (may not be spelling that correctly). Stany manages a Brarudi brewery and bottling factory near Gitega. (Brarudi produces the brands Primus, Amstel, Fanta, and Coca-Cola.) They live in a charming house inside the gates of the factory. (Gilbert is one of our running coaches in Gilbert's Gazelles, as is Gilbert's cousin, Bernard, and Michael, who's our guide and trip planner extraordinaire on this trip.)

We all had such a great time meeting and talking with Stany, his family, and Ajeed. The dinner was spectacular, and we got to hear stories about them as well as the younger Gilbert. It got pretty chilly out there in the mountains at night, and amusingly by the end of the evening we were all wearing their spare coats and jackets. Guess we didn't come prepared for the mountain weather, oops!

Meals at the Gitega hotel were at times comical. When we arrived Saturday around lunch we were in a hurry to get on to the orphanage. Some folks ordered vegetable soup. Somehow, 17 portions arrived! A language misunderstanding, apparently, or maybe just confusion as the Burundi Secretary of Energy arrived while we were there. Oh, and Michael and I ordered what were we were assured were 5-minute hamburgers, to go. We don't speak French or Kurundi, the waiter didn't speak English. 50 minutes later (!), our burgers and fries finally arrive, on plates. Our attempts to explain that we want them to-go lead to the waiter first taking the plates outside to and outdoor table, and then he starts walking toward the bus with our plates of food. Finally we give up, sit down, and race to eat them. Michael handily won the burger-eating speed contest, but I caught up in the french fry-eating portion of the competition :)

Today we visited a coffee bean plantation near Gitega, and then very briefly the Kibimba Memorial, dedicating the site of the petrol station where Gilbert's Tutsi classmates were burned by the opposing tribe back in 1993. We had originally been slated to get out and be allowed to walk around etc., but apparently there's still some tribal or political tensions, or some other such concerns. I'm not sure. So instead just a couple of folks were allowed out of the bus for just a minute or less to snap a few pictures. For awhile it appeared we might not even be able to do that, so that was fortunate at least.

Ok, we're heading off to Ethiopian for dinner here in a bit, and I'm starving! Take a look at the pics below and I'll talk to you all another day!

Dan

Photos from our drive from Bujumbura to Gitega, Burundi: