BURUNDI September 2013

We arrived in Burundi late at night, or rather early morning, at 00h30 and we were met by the Cahoons the wonderful couple who do everything in the Church there, and who left us some food. The first thing we noticed was the size of he bananas, both girth and length, one is as big as two in the Congo.

The next thing we noticed was the comfortable apartment.

The office area in the apartment. I could use one of those office chair inserts at home.

Nice kitchen. The table and chairs are a pain though.

This a panorama of the front yard at the apartment building. 

The entrance and parking area from the apartment balcony.

Balcony

Bedroom.

Friday we visited COPED Conseil Pour l'Education et le Développement, a Catholic Humanitarian NGO. Abbé Emmanuel, Director, and Jean Joseph Administrative Director and Financial officer.

Aloys Rumuri, us, Cahoons, Abbé Emmanuel, Jean Joseph, in the COPED offices.

The building that houses COPED.

Our friend and Public Affairs Director for Burundi, Aloys Rumuri, Tutsi, and yes, he is that tall.

Entrance to one of the Branch building compounds.

One of the buildings which houses offices and classrooms. Inadequate for Sacrament Meetings.

View toward one of the three entrances to the Church compound.

Classroom

Elder Cahoon and Jean Paul, a young returned missionary who contracts with the church to do grounds work and other maintenance.

View across the compound. The covered patio shelters Sacrament attendees until the Church renovates the building in the distant background for Sacrament meeting.

Sacrament meeting space.

Some critter likes proximity to this tree; any ideas what it might be?

Jean Paul, maintenance contractor.

Another noticeable difference here are all the bicycles used for transporting everything.

Aloys likes this restaurant which was very clean and quite good.

Restaurant again.

Fish and salad.

Front yard of villa where the Cahoons live.

Side yard of Cahoon's. Prospective missionaries live behind this home in a small building, are trained as guards, and maintain the yard. They raise vegetables to help feed themselves

Panorama.

Prospective missionary watering the garden.

Interesting plant in the pot.

Entrance.

Sue and Sister Cahoon.

Elder and Sister Cahoon.

Garden bed for starts.

Across the back fence women worked all day hoeing up the grass.

Roofing material.

Mostly red brick construction.

Building with brick.

At the border to RD Congo on our way to Uvira for a baptism.

The border was closed until 10h30 so we waited. This is the view to the side of the truck.

Panel when entering Burundi.

Brother Aloys Rumuri and us.

Curious boy stopped to stare. He has a bike kickstand which he carries on his head.

Uvira meeting house entrance.

Local curious children. 

Branch compound entrance, Uvira.

View up the street from the entrance of the Branch.

Sue and Sister Cahoon on the entrance porch of the Uvira Branch building.

Uvira meeting hall, much too small now.

Baptismal font, Uvira.

Font

We heard music from inside the branch compound. We recognized the distinctive Kimbanguiste brass band tune. One of the branch members guided us to the sound at a nearby Kimbanguiste church where a wedding was underway. This is the path we took.

On the way in the distance you can see the hills that surround the plain that borders Lake Tanganyika. It is the country of 1001 hills. The marriage and church is in the distance to the left. For some reason the photos of the wedding procession didn't load.

We passed this bamboo walled building from which emanated rousing cheering and loud conversation. Our guide said it is a TV establishment where locals pay to watch Soccer matches.

Congregants assembling for the baptism.

The baptismal candidates, and branch president, and on the right, the husband of a missionary couple, the Kalala couple, from Mbuji Mayi who serve in the Branch. The president is flanked by his mother and his son.

Inside the baptismal font.

The Branch President baptizing his mother. I probably shouldn't have taken this picture, so I put the camera away quickly in order not to set a bad example.

After the baptism, five missionaries opened their mission calls. Two went to Cote d'Ivoire, and the rest to Lubumbashi. On our way home we met sixteen missionaries returning from Gana for their missions in Lubumbashi. One was sister Ntumba whom we had met in Kinshasa when we visited her family. What a delightful meeting.

One sister among the newly called missionaries. The Cahoons have a goal to prepare thirty missionaries from the area before they leave. Their projections look as though they will meet the goal. This is a second cohort.

Comparing notes and reading the missionary calls, Elder Cahoon assisting.

The Branch President, his mother and son.

Group picture. Branch President, us, the Kalala couple, the Cahoons.

View of a hillside when driving through Uvira.

View of Uvira from the car.

Walking to the beach on Lake Tanganyika between some abandoned buildings.

Cactus growing inside abandoned dwellings.

Boats on the beach.

Boats and beach.

Water's edge, a bit of flotsam and jetsam.

Always a curiosity.

A bit hesitant.

Dinner at the restaurant. We ate dinner at restaurants most nights.

The menu always contains something cryptic. Waiters must get exasperated with us mundeles.

Hotel grounds where the restaurant was located.

On the beach at dusk.

Most of the restaurants are outside or under a roof with open sides, at least the few where we ate in the evening.

Salad.

Best avocados we have had.

Local fish and veggies were wonderful.

Meeting hall at Branch 2 in Bujumbura.

Leased building for Branch 2 in Burundi.

Another view of Branch building.

Entrance to the Branch.

Branch President.

Branch President of Branch1 Bujumbura and part of his family. He was baptized by President Jameson.

Sue liked these sandals and asked permission to photograph them for those with a footwear fetish.

Sue, Sister Cahoon, the newly called Young Women's President.

Clump of fruit on the oil palm tree. The grounds around the Church building contain coconut palms, mango trees, oil palms, avocado, and  some other trees I don't recognize.

Inside the Cahoon's home.

Sisters relaxing.

Brother Métuselah and his family.

Working breakfast?

Red brick is the building material of choice. The brick is stacked leaving vaults beneath, then mud plaster on the outside. Fire is set in the vaults which fires the bricks then the pile is disassembled and used to build.

Beginning to climb the mountain to inspect the water project with COPED. Sign on the right mentions the Church which financed the project.

The road up the mountain was recently graded and is quite smooth, for the moment.

Wherever we go we see children who have made various forms of the wheel and push stick which they deftly maneuver wherever they are going. They are made of all sorts of materials, but often from plastic bucket lids cut out in the middle. The push stick is bamboo with a hooked wire attached, the wire is bent in such a manner as to ride smoothly on the "tread" of the wheel as it rolls along.

View down the mountain toward the village and school on the distant ridge.

The water committee chair who had decorated the distribution sites with lovely flowers of which she offered us a sprig.

Aloys washing hands in the spring water. There are several stations that stretch 7 kilometers down the mountain from the main spring high up on the mountain.

The gentleman on the left is part of the Water Committee and met us up the hill at the second station a couple of kilometers up the switch backs. He arrived on foot. I asked how he had made it so quickly. He paddled his hands to indicate he had run up the hill, obviously in a straight line, a prodigious feat. He was in his mid-fifties. 

Each water distribution site is accompanied by a reservoir like this one.

Decorated with flowers.

By the cistern.

A water distribution site.

We love the children, and they are always there.

I liked his walking staff.

Another water delivery site.

This little girl carried her sibling.

Then she picked up another.

View from the cistern.

Water and latrines in the background, part of the project.

Latrines.

Latrine interior.

Brick kiln next to a construction site near the latrine and water distribution site, by two schools.

Classroom

Hand washing distribution site at the school for the students. It must be turned off to get the kids to go back to class.

Bikes everywhere in Burundi. These containers are filled with banana wine.

The explorer Livingstone cut his mark here in 1871. He is the first to explore the Congo River to the sea. His account from 1877 is one to be read.

We were there as were a couple of observers on the rock.

I tried to estimate the weight of these bunches on this bike.

Pavé de Capitaine, sauce gingembre miel, exquis.

Salade Mixte.

The Branches in Bujumbura have negotiated usage of this land adjacent to an orphanage for members to begin raising their own food. They purchased manure from a man who has several cows in an enclosure on the property.

We visited a location where fisherman caught these from a jetty where Hippos were known to cavort. We missed the hippos the first time but photographed these little fish, mostly cichlids.

Artificial flowers made by members.

University in Bujumbura where Aloys attended. Great view of the city from its location high up on the hills.

Soccer Field at the University.

View of the city, misty day. Too many fires.

Rice paddies on the edge of town.

Green house.

Second try we saw the hippos.

Restaurant by the hippo site.

Veggie curry dinner at a restaurant. 

Duck a l'orange, who serves a wing and a backbone? But it was tasty and the veggies were delectable.

Yup, them's hippos alright.