Arrival

I'm in Africa.

I arrived late Wednesday night (or rather, early Thursday moring ) and was picked up by Ray Bale at the airport. I am staying with the Bales for a few days to acclimatize and get comfortable around here. They are wonderful people. Their adopted son, Boss David, is a riot. He never stops talking, and most of the time is asking questions. At age six he probably knows more than an average ten year-old (and he knows it; that's the problem).

I don't really know what to write. My head is spinning.

The last two mornings I accompanied Ray to Boss's swimming lessons at a nearby resort on Lake Tanganyika. The region has only recently begun to see peace again, and the resort is newly opened. I felt a bit guilty to be sunbathing and swimming at a luxury Western resort with so much poverty around me. Ray told me not to - in Africa you learn to live in the now, because you don't know if something will be around the next day (it is possible for fighting to break out within the hour). If you have something, you enjoy it to the full. The Bales have learned to live that way as well; right now Boss is taking lessons for a month and Ray is getting the chance to get some much needed R&R. I just came off a few weeks vacation, but Ray tells me to enjoy it - the next six weeks will be quite a bit different.

Ray is a wise man. I have already learned much from him. He pastored our sister church in Vernon for many years, and came to Burundi to take over as principal at a school here, seven years ago now (a story in itself - there was full-blown civil war at that point, and the missionary here at the time was desperate as most of the teachers were ready to call it quits). This coming school year will be his last. They are not sure where it will go from there.

I spent much of today reading. There is so much to learn and try to understand about this place - the history of Burundi/Rwanda/DR Congo is a confusing, messy, and gut-wrenching one. I have to stop once in while and just sit back and digest.

My schedule here will look a bit different than I thought (as I was expecting). Next week I will move into the orphanage that the Bales are involved with . We went and visited them Thursday afternoon - I cannot quite describe it in words. It will be a very rich time, I think. There are fifty kids, all orphans from the Second Congo War, and are taken care of by 'Mamas', Congolese widows from the same War. A few speak broken English - they all speak Kurundi (the Burundi language) or French. It shall be fun.

I'll be living with them for about ten days. Ray says the most important thing for them is just to be in relationship (as their clingingness in the short time we were there made evident). I have this feeling I will receive more than I will give. Tristan is arriving Sunday and will also be living at the orphanage (as well as getting stuff figured out for our trip to the Congo).

August 5th we head up into the Congo, and will be there for...well, I don't know yet. Ray is there till the 12th, but Tristan and I may stay longer (he needs to fly back on the 18th). My remaining two weeks in Burundi are uncertain. Possibly back in the orphanage, or helping out on construction projects with some handi-man guy who is coming to help out for a month, or...I don't know. Live in the moment.

I have nothing more to write. Right now I'm just trying to soak in things like a sponge - trying to put it down on paper would probbably take me all night. Unfortunately pictures will be scarce, as I am on a slow mobile phone connection.

Prayer requests:

I don't really have anything specific right now. I am doing well. Feeling healthy, eating well, sleeping well. Praise the Lord! (I learned the Kurundi word for that, but it has already escaped me). Just pray that I would be open and available - I think this will be a major theme here.

I'm going to need energy for when I'm in the orphanage - I don't have a lot of experience working with kids, so it's relatively uncommon territory for me (not to mention the language barrier).

Pray that I would be able to be present and absorb the things I'm learning. Right now I'm reading 'An Imperfect Offering' by James Orbinski (former president of Doctors Without Borders), 'Don't Waste your Life' by John Piper, 'Mere Christianity' by C.S. Lewis, a World Bank technical paper on household energy needs in Africa, and some good ol' Biblio (none of these are books that you can just read straight through, so I have to switch books occasionally). No wonder my head is spinning.

Tomorrow Ray is going to show me a bit more of the area, and in the afternoon I'll probably head over to the orphanage and play some soccer or the like (I did, after all, carry a few soccer balls around Europe for the occasion).

The Kurundi farewell is also 'bye' (I know, how disappointing), but with more emphasis on the last part, kind of like 'by-eeee')

Thank you for the support, friends.

Byeee