Heading home

Tomorrow's the day. I'm leaving Kigali and beginning the long journey halfway around the planet for home. As eager as I am to get home, I'm feeling kind of sad about leaving this place. I really do love it here in Rwanda.

Since my last posting, I have also been to Burundi for two days. That was a very moving experience. Going from Rwanda to Burundi is something like crossing the border from the US to Mexico. Burundi is the poorest country in the world. But I had a wonderful time there. It is also one of the most dangerous countries in the world -- at least until today, when a peace agreement was finally signed with the last of six rebel groups, the one that has been staging attacks on the capital in recent weeks. I like to think that my presence there this weekend had something to do with the sudden outbreak of peace. It's much more likely that the people I was with who are building peace from the bottom up had much more to do with it. The people of Burundi are tired of conflict, and they have suffered much. They deserve to live without fear, and with hope for their future.

I have never felt more welcome anywhere than I did in Burundi. After driving for hours and hours, we crossed the border, bought our visas, and immediately faced crowds of people crying "muzungu, muzungu, give me money." You get used to looking at people and smiling, but then quickly turning your attention elsewhere, knowing that giving something to them is as likely to create more problems for them than it will solve. We watched as one person in our group gave some money to one little guy, who was immediately accosted by about three others. He became the object of resentment and hostility until he finally agreed to let them in on his windfall. It was the equivalent of about 20 cents that he had received. He thought he had struck the lottery.

One of our hosts in Burundi said to us, "Burundi's problem is not poverty. It's not violence. Those are the symptoms. The problem is bad leadership." One of the most encouraging things I observed everywhere we visited was the focus on leadership development. From the orphanages that take in infants to the Youth For Christ program we visited, to the churches that are being planted throughout the country, everyone is talking about developing a new generation of leaders -- leaders who have integrity, character, the independence to tell the truth, and a selfless devotion to the people of Burundi.

Having said that, poverty and violence are real. One of the roads we traveled on several times was considered to be the most dangerous road in the world -- especially between 1993 and 2003. It is still patroled by armed military about every 500 yards, which is the only reason it is still not the most dangerous road in the world. On that road people walk, and walk, and walk -- from village to village, to and from markets or from home to church as they were doing on Sunday. The women wear the most beautiful, brightly colored dresses, with bundles balanced on their heads -- walking for miles and miles along this road. The road is still closed from 6 pm till 6 am every night.

We visited two orphanages with children that just steal your heart! The first one we visited had 24 beautiful little children, dressed nicely, who were awaiting our arrival. They greeted us with big smiles and lots and lots of hugs. Sweetest little kids you can imagine. I wanted to bring them all home with me.

Bujumbura is the capital. It is a city on the western edge of the country, right on Lake Tanganyika. Across the lake you see the mountains of Congo across the lake to the west, and Tanzania as you look south down the lake. I first heard about Bujumbura in a Michael Palin travel video a few months ago. (He's one of the original Monte Python guys -- played Brian in the Life of Brian. And he does really great travel videos). This was the one about his travels from the North Pole to the South Pole, traveling all the way down the continent of Africa by land. He comes to Bujumbura, from where he gets on this unique boat and sails all the way down Lake Tanganyika to Zambia, I believe, about a thousand miles. When I saw Bujumbura on that video, I thought it was absolutely one of the most exotic places I could imagine, and never imagined that I would actually be there only a few months later. But here I was. We ate lunch at a beach restaurant on the Lake, right where all the local Burundian yuppies were hanging out, playing volleyball on the beach and having lunch. It was a marked contrast to everything else we saw in the country.

That evening we were welcomed to the capital by the same youth group that had provided entertainment at the Amahoro conference in Kigali -- traditional Burundian drummers that you would not believe. They did the same kind of welcome ceremony that this group or others like it would have done for their king a century ago -- highly aerobic dancing, to the most amazing rhythms coming out of very large drums that they carry on top of their heads in procession. Each drum weighs about 50 pounds, and I haven't a clue as to how these guys balance them on top of their heads, while playing them with big sticks waving out in front of them, and even kicking their feet up over their faces to hit the drum. This was the Youth For Christ drum corp. Not like the Youth For Christ group I belonged to. We received a solid hourlong (at times frenzied) display of dancing and drumming. I have no idea what the neighbors thought. We felt very special.

In addition to our wonderful Burundian hosts, we met lots of Canadian, British and other ex-pats working in Burundi as missionaries doing everything from church planting and evangelism to peacebuilding programs that are making a very big difference in the lives of people there. Some truly amazing people. I also got to see our own Massachusetts Episcopalian, Jody Mikalachki, in her new home here. Jody is working for the Mennonite Central Committee teaching in a school out in the mid section of the country. This former tenured professor of English at Wellesley College and former nun has just arrived a few weeks ago for her latest adventure, and is now learning Kirundi and will be starting teaching in the village school in the next few weeks. Her fluent French will certainly be a big help here. Almost everyone is fluent in French in addition to Kirundi.

I preached at a new church on Sunday that opened only a few months ago. Without saying a whole lot about that experience (which was a really good one), there was a young man who was translating throughout the service for the people who attend from various backgrounds. He was equally fluent in Kirundi, Swahili, French, and English (and perhaps others, but those are the ones he used on Sunday). From his accent in English I was sure that he had studied in the US. I asked him after the service, and not only has he never been to the US, but he has never been out of central Africa. He studied English at Bujumbura University. Amazing. And he is not unique among Africans I have met on my journeys this month. It is not uncommon for people to speak four, five, six languages -- fluently. I feel so stupid.

It's past 11 pm here right now, and I haven't even gotten us back to Kigali. And I've barely talked at all in my blog yet about the conference that was one of the main reasons I came to Africa. There is so much to say, I hardly know where to begin. It will take me a long time, much longer than I can take right now.

When I wake up in the morning, I'll do some final packing, and be headed to the airport by about 11 am. Taking off from Kigali will be bittersweet. I have fallen in love with this place and these people -- in both Rwanda and Burundi. It is hard to imagine never coming back. I have developed relationships that I know will be lasting. I feel as if I have a new home.

But, for now, I must say goodbye to Africa. :(