Ingeregere I Burundi: A Little Work, a Little Play...

Been mostly volunteering in the YFC offices this past week, good stuff but not many photos others would find interesting. Great to meet and work with so many dedicated folks, both from Burundi and many other countries.

Thursday night was a big send-off party for the U.K. volunteer team, led by Stephen Owen, all students at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. It's been a real pleasure to get to know them, working with them both at new GIA school site as well as the Homes of Hope orphanage and at the main YFC site in Bujumbura. They've been here for at least three weeks, and drive back to Nairobi, Kenya on Monday (a 36 hour bus ride!), before eventually flying back to Scotland.

The night kicked off with a Burundi drummer team performance:

Friday night was big event for the brand-new Gitega International Academy (GIA), kinda of a parent info meeting. Hosted at the King's Conference Center auditorium (the hotel we stayed at on our trip a year ago), this is the event we'd been preparing for all week. We had over 50 parents in attendance by my count, and based on that and the type of questions the parents were asking, I'd certainly call it a success. We were all dressed up for the event (trying to get pics of the evening).

Yesterday (Saturday), we were privileged to be invited to an honest-to-goodness Burundi wedding. The Administrator of Songa's daughter married a local doctor in a very interesting (but long!) Catholic ceremony. Of course, Michael and I hadn't a clue what was being said, but the music was beautiful and it was quite an interesting experience.