We finally had an opportunity to go to the Youth for Christ
Compound. Greg had met Freddy, the local Burundi leader, in Edmonton in January
and we were anxious to see their operation here in Burundi. The folks at Youth
for Christ invited us for lunch. It was quite a walk from our school to the
compound but on our way we saw a plumeria tree; the flowers used to make leis
in Hawaii. They smell beautiful. When we arrived at the Youth for Christ
compound, they welcomed us and served us lunch. It was delicious and we ate
some of the best cassava we’ve had so far. After we finished our meal, everyone
made a formal introduction of themselves. Many of the workers there are expats,
from the United States. They have a project to start an English School in Gitega,
a small city located in the middle of Burundi. It will be a Christian boarding
school and they hope to draw students from all over Burundi. They mentioned
that many times parents in Burundi will send their children to neighboring
countries to be educated and often they do not return to Burundi. Their hope is
that if they have a quality school in Burundi, they can educate and also
encourage the students to stay and make a difference in Burundi. The school is
to start in September. It was nice to talk to some of the teachers and they
were interested in what we do at the Burundi English School. The folks at Youth
for Christ arranged a ride for us when we were done our visit. We then went to
an orphanage. The orphanage we visited was owned by a lady who said that she
felt it was her calling to take in the children that had nowhere else to go.
She has about 20 children living with her and she does not receive any
assistance, other than the periodic donations from their church. The lady,
Sarah, who runs the orphanage, told us a story about one family of 4 that she
took in. The children’s father had died and then they lost their mother. During
the funeral Sarah asked what would happen to the children and was told that
they would be on their own. Sarah took in the children as she could not let
them be on their own. She is really struggling as she had her own business but
had to close it as the taxes were too high. They don’t have enough beds or food
for the children yet they still have a very strong faith and are happy. They
sang a gospel song for us and then they asked us to sing. I am sorry to say we
did not put on a great concert but we did try. While we were visiting with
Sarah, the children in the orphanage called our kids over to visit with them.
They cannot speak any English and our kids speak little French yet they were
laughing and communicating somehow. It was pretty amazing to watch. We will
visit again and see what we can do to help.
Last week at school we had some visitors. The kids were all
gathered by the window, while I was trying to teach I might add, and they saw
some monkeys. They looked at me pleading to go and see them so how could I say
no. There were about 6 monkeys and some were carrying little babies. It was
pretty cool, but little did I know when we returned to class, the kids would be
crazy and it was very hard to get them back to work. I had to resort to screaming and banging on a
desk. I got that technique from my mother J,
who taught ESL for years but would not come on the trip with us.
Poor Hanna is often left alone with her class as the
Burundian teacher she works with often leaves to do admin work. When the
Burundi teacher leaves there is mass chaos. I went to help her and it took all
my might to settle the class down. We told Hanna to come and get one of our
assistants when that happens again.
She has since adopted the Burundian Teachers disipline techniqes of making the children kneel in front of the class and tweeking their ears. I didn't know she had it in her!
Greg’s Part
After monopolizing the blog Carol has finally given me the
opportunity to say somethingJ.
My class is going okay. I have had
between 30 and 35 students ranging from grade 4 to grade 12. This has been a
challenge (as we were told the highest level of student we would have was grade
5) but we are able to get though classes with most of the students learning
English. The first few weeks we have been working on grammar. Verb tenses
mostly. I did not really come prepared to teach present perfect tense etc. but
I have some resources that have made it manageable. The students are fun to
work with. They are all very polite but love to talk excessively. It has been a
challenge to keep them focused and on task but they are getting the hang of it.
On Sunday evening Hanna, Erin and I went with our friend
David to a youth service at a house not far from where we are staying. This was
a very lively service with many songs and a very good sermon delivered by one
of the young adults. These services last 2.5 to 3 hours and this is in addition
to the 2.5 to 3 hours church service they attended Sunday morning! Burundi has
been going through a big revival and many people are on fire for God. It is
great to see hundreds to young people committed to following Christ like the
youth we have seen in Burundi.
Back to Carol
On Saturday we decided to take the kids to a nice pool at
Club du Lac, a nice hotel here in Bujumbura. It was good to just have some
family time and relax. They were quite a few expats there and we spoke with a
Canadian from Toronto who was in Burundi to train soldiers. He seems to really
enjoy his work and had been doing it for quite some time. We went to a Burundi
wedding that evening and it was interesting. The wedding was all in Kirundi so
we did not understand much but there was some cultural dancing that was fun to
watch.
On Sunday we went to the BICC church, (Bujumbura
International Community Church), with Martin, Charles’s cousin. The service was
in French and English. They even had Sunday school for the kids, although I had
to drag Megan and Jordan to it. They had a fellow Canadian teaching the Sunday
school and the twins were happy to know the class was going to be in English. The Sermon was about reconciliation and the
need for healing in Burundi. How it was important to ask forgiveness and also
to forgive. There have been so many atrocities that have happened here in
Burundi and they need to forgive as Christ had forgiven them. I can’t imagine what a difficult journey that
is ahead of them. The little that I have heard is pretty heart breaking.
Martin took us to his place for lunch after church. Martin
showed us some DVD’s of the work he is doing across the border in the Congo. He
has a ministry to help the youth of the Congo and has also started a school
there. The tuition is 2 dollars a month and some of the families can’t even
afford that. Things are very difficult in the Congo but Martin really has a
heart for people of the Congo and is really trying to make a difference. He
works full time with a telecommunication company, started a Christian radio
station and runs this ministry as well. We had a great visit with Martin and
his family.
I had to stay home from School today as I have a bad sinus
cold. I gave Erin the instructions so I hope she made out ok. Many of the kids
in our class are her age or older yet it is interesting to see how they listen
to her. I think Erin may have found her calling. According to Erin it went very
well, and there is really no need for me to return. I think I will go anyway as
it is my prerogative.
Tomorrow we plan to meet up with a couple we met in Edmonton
at the travel clinic. We were the only ones at the clinic so we started to chat
and sure enough they were a couple from Burundi who now live and teach in
Canada. They are in Burundi to visit their parent this summer.
Erin’s part
Erin and Carol’s class compared to Hanna’s class
Sitting and watching a peaceful and beautiful sunset.
Hanna’s class compared to Erin and Carol’s class
Sitting and watching a day of Burundi traffic!!!
Hanna has the Beginner class which is code for screaming,
sweaty little kids who can’t sit for more than 5 minutes! So luckily for mom and me we sort of get it
easy. Last week my mom was sick with a
cold and I got to teach the class alone!
It went really well and if I do say so myself I handled the class
perfectly. Don’t tell my mom but maybe even better than her. On July 28th (Friday) Hanna stayed
home and I had to teach the beginner class with the help of Kenny. Think of the
worst day of your life, and then multiply it by 10! It was horrible! In the
morning we did reviews with them and that went surprisingly okay. However as
soon as they leave the classroom for recess it’s like this witch puts a spell
on them that forces them to misbehave all afternoon! Kenny taught for the
afternoon because I made him. The afternoon held in store kids who were
screaming and crying. I had to keep telling myself an hour and a half for the
afternoon, an hour and a half for the afternoon but sometimes that didn’t help.
I swear after that Friday I’ll have nightmares every time I enter that class! Okay enough about school. Kenny, David and a
friend of theirs named Lionel came over for a nice, little visit the other
night. When they came I was knitting and Kenny and Lionel wanted to learn, so I
taught Lionel first and he did it on his first try, Kenny on the other hand got
it on his 5th try, (he is not a fast learner). Yesterday we went to
this little café in town called Tropicana. We visited with Benit, Florien and
their cute little son Ian, a Burundian family we met at the travel clinic in Edmonton. They
happened to be visiting family in Bujumbura the same time we were here, so we
got the number of Benit’s mom. We managed to get a hold of them with our not so
great cell phone. Today (Wednesday
August 1st ) we have nothing on really,(other than school) just
hanging around the house. Over all we are having a wonderful trip and great
adventures. I know already that I’m going to miss this place when we leave.
From Erin
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