Toilets 1/31/13

A toilet?  What kind of post is that?

In light of recent events, I thought I would post something a little different.

There are some toilets here, or at least where I live and at the school.  Some places, there aren't toilets, but holes in the ground instead. Some of the girls bathrooms at schools have holes in the ground.  Toilet seats are optional.  I'm very thankful there is toilet paper here.  In Thailand, the Thai people didn't use toilet paper.  Instead, they had kitchen sprayers attached to the water line.  Toilets here don't have a curve in the bottom, so I think the sewer gas comes up from underground and often bathrooms smell.  To flush the toilet you pull up on knobs in the middle of the back of the toilet.  This picture is a staff bathroom at school.  I think you can use the bottle to hold a candle at night.  At school, the water has always been on when I've been there, but when it's not, you have to get a pitcher of water from a barrel of water to flush the toilet.

Fire Follow-Up 1/31/13

The fire has been put out, but the market has been completely burned.  Thankfully, things around the structure are good.  Things haven't changed in Gitega, but prices will probably increase, and the Burundi Franc was devalued. 

I'm curious to see if it will cause problems getting medicine for the clinic.  Jeremy and Nadia have arrived here, and will slowly work to get the clinic open.  Jeremy is an ER nurse, while Nadia is a nurse that has worked with the homeless and charity medicine.  Their house isn't completed yet, but it's going well.  Yesterday, when I arrived at the Children's home, there were about 40 workers outside their house!  I'm not sure what all of them were doing, but that's the Burundi way.  Jeremy and Nadia have already helped with a couple kids that were sick at school.  I was delighted to here they brought some games!  They brought Settlers of Catan, Munchkin, Catch Phrase, and a couple others I'm looking forward to playing.  They are moving here permanently, so they brought six duffle bags.  Since I've been here, everyone's bags have made it to the airport.

Fire 1/28/13

When I've needed something in Burundi, people would tell me, "You can get that in Bujumbura."  Bujumbura is the capital in Burundi, and the biggest city.  Yesterday, there was a small fire in the marketplace at 6am.  The police didn't come fast enough, so the fire spread.  The building the market is in has burned down.  Some people were hurt from an explosion, and some people were hurt from trying to save the things in their stores.  It is a giant loss to the Burundi economy.  JR says that about 500 million Burundi Francs (not dollars) of merchandise was destroyed, and it sets the country back six months to a year.  Burundi simply doesn't have money for things like fire suppression systems, a lot of fire trucks, a lot of fire men, or good electrical systems.  The Gitega market burned down last year.

I was at an internet café for a short time yesterday.  I expected it to be packed with people getting news about the fire, but it wasn't.  Most people get their news over the radio or on a TV if they have power.  I was surprised...there was nothing about the fire on the CNN website.  Sometimes I think Burundi is a forgotten country.

The school didn't have power this weekend, so the kids weren't able to study at night.  Since the Academic Dean told me about the kids' concerns, I rescheduled the test for tomorrow.  It's probably for the better.  I showed the kids the pictures of the market, and it was very hard for some of them.  About a third of them have family or friends that work in the market.  The fire may have destroyed all or most of some of the kids' families belongings or businesses.
In class, I was able to talk to them about the fires in the US.  I was able to show them a picture of a fire truck that Project Cure sent to Nigeria, and I was able to tell them how my childhood church camp was surrounded by a fire, but the camp was miraculously spared. 

Prayer for Burundi during this tragedy would be greatly appreciated!

From http://www.iwacu-burundi.org/spip.php?article4684:

 

 

 

Volleyball 1/25/13

I haven't gotten a lot of physical exercise lately, although I do stay pretty busy, and I'm on my feet most of the day.  Tonight I had the opportunity to play volleyball...so I took it!  Our school's volleyball court and basketball courts have been repaired, and the kids have enjoyed playing on them.  Hanna teaches the girls' sports clubs the same time I have Arts and Crafts club.  Yesterday, she got a number of questions from people wondering why she had a big streak of red dirt across her front, a scuffed up arm, and a skinned knee.  I've gotten the impression from traveling that women don't really play sports. 

Since I'm not able to play when the girls play, I ended up playing with the boys.  I joined about forty boys on the basketball and volleyball courts.  One of the house father's was playing volleyball
too, so that was good.  We didn't keep score while playing, but there were some rules they followed: the ball was considered out if it bounced outside the lines, the ball switched sides when appropriate,
and double hitting was not allowed.  Other rules we might have in the US were not followed: the already too low net was pulled down for most of the game, and using your feet and kicking the ball was allowed (a plus for me), including during serves.  Every hit, the boys cheered, and
I learned it's ok for Burundi boys to squeal and scream like girls.  We managed to hit the ball over the wall twice, and thankfully we got it back. Sometimes, there are boys on the other side of the wall that
will either take the ball and runaway, or try to bribe people to give them money to give the ball back.  In between volleys, the boys would juggle the ball, and show off their latest soccer moves.  The ball would slowly work its way to the server.  A couple of the boys even figured out a foot greeting, similar to how some people have special hand shakes. 

I had a good time, and although it's been raining a lot today, I managed not to get too much red dirt on me.

Areas 1/16/13

I've been working on learning Kirundi, but slowly.  I've learned that Kirundi has the "ng" sound that Thai has.  No matter how I have tried, I can't seem to make the "ng" sound unless it's at the end of a word, like "sing."  Just like Thailand, people here also struggle with "L" and "R" in English.  They will often switch or mix up "L" or "R." Yesterday I taught the students how to calculate areas.  I tried not to laugh as my classes said "palallelagram" and "pararreragram" instead of "parallelogram."

The student class president I think has taken it as her personal endeavor to teach Jen Kirundi.  Hopefully, she hasn't given up on me.  Hanna has been helping me too.  I've learned "oh yeah" is no, and "ego" is yes.

Lost 1/16/13

Just like many things in life, some things you learn the hard way.  At school, you have to keep track of your belongings at all times.  I left my classroom yesterday for break, and came back and found my tape measure busted, chalk smash, and something written on my desk in chalk (I think it was "Peace") and something written on the chalk board.  So, today, I kicked the kids out of my classroom, locked it and took break with the other teachers.  Hanna left a pencil bag on her desk/table once, and half the pencils were taken.  Ryan and I went to the market yesterday.  He bought some clippers for his hair and beard.  He asked me this morning if I had accidently taken them with me when we went back to school.  Unfortunately, it looks like someone probably took them out of his van.  Then, I was subbing in typing class today when Jen came in and asked me if I had seen her journal.  She thinks she left it in the computer lab yesterday.  It's nowhere to be found either.  Not too long after that I was VERY thankful when a kid handed me my camera case.
(Dan, it looks like I still need some training!)

Club 1/16/13

Clubs started this week.  Clubs are after school, from about 3:45pm to 5pm.  Six people signed up for my Arts and Crafts club.  The school made a requirement that kids must be in one sports club, so this trimester fewer kids will be in the non-sports club.  There aren't any gym classes.  Every teacher is supposed to have a club.  On Monday, it was decided to give the students a choice of playing or watching a soccer match between the 7th and 8th grade, or doing club.  In an hour an a half, I had taught about six girls from different clubs to make a couple of origami boxes and a cootie catcher.  One girl already knew how to make a cootie catcher, and I'm not sure any of the other ones had seen one.  I think they all enjoyed it.  Jen made one too.  With a cootie catcher, you choose numbers and end up choosing one of eight random saying.  It was pretty funny when my choice revealed "No boyfriend" in Jen's cootie catcher.

In the market yesterday, Ryan and I picked up some yarn.  I could get by, but it was helpful that Ryan could say the colors of the yarn I wanted to the lady who was selling the yarn.  Ryan's Mom was here last week.  She taught the girls how to knit, and they have really enjoyed knitting.  Gloria told me the price of the yarn so I didn't get have to barter or get the mazungu (white person) price.  The yarn was  less than a dollar each (1200 Burundi Francs) for each of the small yarn bunches, and that's not too bad.  I haven't found embroidery floss or other string.  The stand with the yarn only sells about a dozen different colors of yarn and some plates and bowls.  So...yarn will have to do for friendship bracelets.  I taught the girls how to make twisted friendship bracelets, braiding, knots, and a pattern called Chinese staircases.  I had dreams of having everyone's undivided attention patiently waiting for my instruction, but alas, that's not how things went.  Instead, it was more like organized chaos of scissors and knots.  It all worked out, but I'll never forget holding four or five bracelets that girls were working on with my left hand, and then having one free hand to show another girl how to make the patterns with my right hand.