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.

First Labs 1/11/13

One of my goals when I teach is to have the kids do hands on activities.  So, every Thursday and Fridays I try to do lab stations.  Students work on different activities in groups of five or six at four or five different lab stations.  So, my first week, I had four lab stations.

I thought stations would take about fifteen, maybe twenty minutes each.  They ended up taking about forty minutes for each station.  Some students didn't understand how to read the tape measure.  Some of the delay is that since there isn't access to a printer or copier, students have to copy down the  directions or questions at each station.  (I had to hand write the instructions for each station.)  Sometimes, one person will make a chart to write down measurements, while the others will just watch instead of doing something like start to measure.

I don't think the kids have ever done labs, or anything like labs before.  It's a completely new experience for them.  During morning break, some kids came back in the room.  They measured each other's height, weighed other items on the balance, and asked me questions.  For Station 4, I added food coloring to the water in the beakers.  Most or all of them had never seen food coloring, and I had to explain to them it was just water. 

I'm trying to encourage critical thinking, getting students to connect the dots, and getting them to come to their own conclusions.  I have to admit, when a group of boys finished early and tried to dye my chalk different colors, I laughed instead of giving them demerits. 

Stations 1: Measure the length of different items in cm, and with two other rulers.  Measure the inside and outside of items with calipers.

Station 2: Use test tubes and a bucket of water to show that air takes up space, and is matter instead of energy.

Station 3: Measure people to find ancient measurements from the Bible like fathom and cubit.

Station 4: Use a balance and find the mass of different objects.  Figure out how to find the mass of the water in a beaker, without including the mass of the beaker.

First Day of School 1/7/13

I prepared for classes and visited the school the day before classes start, but there were some bumps my first class.  Fifteen minutes before class, I arrived at school.  I found out that the staff lunch from the day before was still in my room, there were dirty chairs that were left out in the rain the previous day.  They had red Burundi soil on them, and were carelessly pushed into the room and left by the door.  In the rush of getting the chairs in the classroom, I think someone pushed a drinking glass off one of the tables, and it was lying in pieces on the floor.  Thankfully, the Academic Dean helped me out, and got students and staff to clean it up.  The first day of class, I presented a syllabus, tried to get seating charts figured out, and had the students rearrange the chairs for lab stations.  I think it went well!

Pencils 1/12/13

JR is the headmaster of the school.  Under him, is the Residency Director, and the Academic Dean.  If I have an issue, I go to them first.  In a way, you could say I have two bosses.  :)  I told the Academic Dean that I was working on my laptop, and writing up labs.  He asked if I had enough paper, and if I had pens and pencils.  I told him yes, and I showed him the pens and pencils in my backpack.  He again asked me, "But do you have any pencils?"  He thought the pencils I had were pens.  He had never seen a mechanical pencil.  I showed him how the eraser could be removed, and that lead could be added at the top.  Perhaps before I leave, I'll give him one of my pencils and extra lead.

Hoola Hoops 1/9/13

Hanna has returned from Bujumbura, and it's been wonderful getting to know her.  By doctor's orders, she's taking it easy for a couple of weeks so she doesn't have problems with malaria again.  She's still weak. She'll go back to teaching in a couple of weeks.  I believe Hanna is planning to stay a couple years in Burundi.  Jen is planning to stay a year and a half. Hanna is 21 and I think one of the nicest people I have met. I've heard various accounts of people getting mail, or not getting mail.  Hanna works through another organization than I do, and she has gotten packages sent to her.  On top of that, her friends who were recently visited brought her a number of things including...eight hoola hoops!   The hoops can be twisted into two loops, and put into a suitcase.  Most nights, the children in the Children's home come knocking on our door, and 'borrow' the hoola hoops.  They love hoola hooping.  They can fight over them though, and it can be difficult to get them back.  Often in the afternoon, Jen, Hanna, another lady named Gloria, and I are on the porch playing with the kids.

Jen, hanging out with one of the girls:

Hanna, having fun with the kids while they play with her camera.

Commute

I live a few miles from school in the Children's home.  I originally thought the school was next to the Children's home, but alas...the school is a few miles away.  Boy was I surprised the first day of school when I ended up going a few miles, instead of just next door. The Children's home is next to the primary school.  The second day of school, I didn't schedule a ride correctly, and I ended up being 30 minutes late to my first class.  Then, today, a yellow pickup truck picked Hanna, Jen and I up.  Unlike previous trips, there were a lot of bricks and people in the back.  I looked at the tire before getting in and thought, "I wonder if it will blow out."  Sure enough, it did a couple miles down the road.  I walked most of the rest of the way to school with another man before the headmaster (JR) drove by and picked me up.  I feel bad for not saying something about the tire, but I'm not sure they would have listened to me anyway.  The driver doesn't know much English.  There are three drivers and three different vehicles that are used to drive Hanna, Jen and I to school and back to the Children's home.

 

The "Grand Canyon":

Ditch:

Options? 1/7/13

Gitega is a larger city in Burundi.  It's about a 2 1/2 hour drive from Burjumbura.  Although there are a lot of people in Gitega, it's very limited.  I was warned.  There are a lot of people, but it's a very poor city.  There are a lot of people working in fields and walking along the side of the roads.  There are a lot of single story red brick buildings scattered over hills.  In town, everything is done in cash.  There isn't an ATM in the entire city.  There are two grocery stores, and two internet cafes which work sometimes.  I'm thankful a lady from India works in one store, and she speaks English.  Things I probably can't buy -- deodorant and conditioner.  Jen's Mom is coming in three weeks.  Jen and I are already putting together a list of things for her to bring.  JR says mail might make it to the Burundi office.  He says things don't make it to or from Gitega.  If something does come, it takes a long time.  I'm glad I packed well.  God has been good.  :)

Dentistry 1/6/13

A man name Simeon lives in Burjumbura and sponsors my organization.  He's good friends with the head of the organization, and travels to Gitega about once a month.  He's very smart, dedicated to Burjumbi, and reminds me of my uncle.  Jen and I enjoyed talking with him over dinner last night, with two of his friends, Matt and Lucy, on holiday from England.  Simeon appears to speak Kirundi very well, and can do a better American Texas accent than I can.  One of the things Simeon said was that he's worked with some Dentists here.  Here, they have to pull a lot of teeth.  He talked about people having three rows of teeth in some cases, and working with new dentists from the US who total had only pulled a dozen teeth.  Pulling teeth he says is physically hard, and it's sometimes all that can be done here.  Some people he said grow up sucking on sugar cane, but sometimes it was hard to tell when he was joking, and when he wasn't.  I talked about some of the things I wanted to teach the kids, and told them I thought it was important kids knew what bacteria was, and that they see it and I was planning on growing bacteria for them to see.  Although not the most appropriate for dinner time conversation, we talked about different diseases and issues that have come up, and had fun.  I also enjoyed listening to Simeon and some of the basic thoughts he had on outreach, and how to tell where people were in their faith.  This morning, Simeon and Matt came and prayed for Jen and I, and Lucy came and bid us farewell.  Lucy and Matt will be visiting Kenya before returning home.  Simeon asked if I was keeping a journal.  I said I had a journal, and a blog, but we will see since I won't have much access to the internet.

Clinic 1/6/13

A couple from Canada, named Nadia and Jeremy, will be arriving this month to work in the clinic.  Several people are preparing the couple's house near the gate of the complex.  The clinic is a couple hundred feet from our house on the property.  The clinic will be open to the community later this month, or February.  From hearing stories from Project Cure clinics, I wonder how many people will come when it first opens, and how things will go.  I brought some basic medicines with me for the Clinic, but it only goes so far.  I don't have contact information for Nadia and Jeremy, and I look forward to meeting them.

Holes 1/6/13

Jen and I found out we would be living in the Children's home one day before arriving.  When we arrived, we were shown to our room.  We discovered we also had roommates...each other!  We have a small room with two beds, a table, and thankfully some pegs on the wall useful for hanging stuff.  The Children's home later brought us some shelves.  Jen chose the bed next to the wall and I chose the bed next to the window.  We are working on getting everything situated. Although we had mosquito nets, there were cider block openings above our windows where mosquitoes could fly in.  We asked Reggie if there was any screen mesh to cover the openings.  There wasn't.  I was surprised he was able to take us to town, and get it taken care of.  It wasn't until later Jen and I thought we could have cut up an extra mosquito net she had and duct taped it over the openings.  I have been faithfully taking my Malaria medicine.  I haven't seen many mosquitoes in Gitega, but there were some in Bujumbura.  The medicine helps with acne, but makes me sensitive to sunlight.  I also try to eat a lot with the medicine so it doesn't upset my stomach.

Kirundi 1/6/13

Most of the people here speak a tribal language called Kirundi.  JR knows a little bit, and Jen and I learned a little in Europe.  It is a tonal language, but I'm thankful it doesn't seem nearly as hard as Thai.  They use the same English alphabet minus three letters, the vowels are similar to Spanish, and there are a couple sounds I haven't figured out yet.  School starts on Monday.  There's a meeting this evening with the kids from the Children's home, and tomorrow, kids start arriving at the school.  The oldest kid at the Children's home is in 6th grade, and will go to the secondary school next year.

ET Phone Home? 1/5/13

Town is a couple miles from the Children's home.  When we arrived in Gitega, our driver, Nicolas, headed back to Bujumbura.  (Also called Buja.)  Nicolas is the main driver for the Burundi Office.  The leader of the Children's home, Reggie, took us to town.  Caleb drove.  He is one of the two drivers for the Children's home.  We went to a Smart phone outlet store.  It had three chairs, a counter, and two people behind the counter.  One gentlemen, with an Economics degree, thankfully knew English and helped us out.  Jen and I both got SIM cards to call home.  But, her new phone's charger didn't work, and I forgot my new phone.  My old phone didn't work, which was no surprised.  It uses dual band, and I think most networks have changed to tri band networks.  When I was in Thailand, they dropped the dual band, and I had to get a new phone.  Other staff with my organization had to do the same thing.  My cousin had the same thing happen to him in Russia, so it's not surprising the phone didn't work here.  Jen and I knew we didn't have minutes for the phones, but we weren't able to explain that we needed to stop and buy a phone card to get minutes.  Back at the Children's home, I was able to get my new phone to work, but I still can't call the US, or someone locally.  So...I still can't phone home yet.  Sorry!  Thanks a lot for the new phone!

Catching Rays 1/5/13

Most of the time, there isn't power at the Children's home.  During the day, there are some solar panels that collect sunshine and store up energy.  At night, shortly after all sign of the sun has disappeared, we get about two hours of electricity, from about 6:15pm to 8:15pm. Jen and I plug in our laptops, cell phones, and whatever else we need for the next day, and make sure everything is ready to go by 8:15pm.  When the energy is used up, it's lights out for the night.
Thank you for the flashlight!

Morning Call 1/5/13

This morning, Jen and I were awaken to cawing, and the sound of large birds walking on the tin roof over our head.  I thought the robin outside my window growing up was bad!  At the children's home, there are birds that are somewhere between a raven and a magpie.  They are the size of a raven, but have a white patch on their chest like a magpie.  The ravens generally wonder around the compound looking for things to do or things to eat.  I made a mental note this morning not to let them hear my cell phone's alarm clock so they wouldn't mimic it, and I half wondered if Jen was hoping raven was on the dinner menu as she rolled over and tried to get back to sleep.

Hanna 1/5/13

Jen, JR and I left Bujumbura and traveled to Gitega.  JR when home, and Jen and I were taken to the Children's home where we would be living.  When Jen and I arrived at our new home, Hanna, another teacher at the middle school, greeted us along with a couple of families from her church.  Hanna is from Idaho, and her friends were from the same church.  One couple lived in Bujumbura, and one couple lived back in Idaho and was visiting from the US with their four kids.  The youngest kid was 21 months old, and three of the four kids threw up on the planes coming to Burundi.  What a nightmare it was for their mother!  The family is hoping things will be better on the way home.  Hanna is the typing teacher, however, she will be taking a break these first few weeks of school.  Hanna got Malaria in December, thought she was doing better, but got it again severely last week or the week before.  She's doing alright, but is taking it easy so she doesn't have another episode.  Hanna wasn't sleeping under a mosquito net, wasn't on malaria medicine, and was in the same room Jen and I are now in.  She was a great help answering questions from Jen and I, and she's happy there are now other Americans with her. She gave Jen and I a book or a Word Document that will help us learn Kirundi.

Made it!

I've made it safely to Bujumbura, Burundi.  I enjoyed my first trip to Europe, and things are going well in Burundi.  I've already slept under my first mosquito net, slept through a thunderstorm, survived a cold shower, and found a large spider.  I've also had the opportunity to play Oh Hell, and I think I just had the best Mocha coffee I've ever had.  There is a lot more in Bujumbura than I thought.  I think it reminds me more of Mexico, than it does Thailand.  I had lunch today at the Burundi office, and met a lot of the staff that I've heard about and e-mailed.  Tomorrow morning, I'll be going to Gitega and seeing the school I'll be teaching at.  Traveling with the headmaster of the school and the history teacher has been a blessing.