Mangoes, Motos, and Birthdays

It's only been 20 days since I've last written, but it seems like it's been 6 months. The days are just slow here. If I think about how long I am here for total, my insides start freaking out because I can't handle it. I literally have to take life here day by day. When I tell people I live in Africa, they tell me, "Wow! That must be so cool!" Yeah, sure. I wake up in a basket of mangoes everyday while giraffes gently fan me with banana leaves. Living in the third poorest country in the world is "cool?" Well sure, if you don't count crazy traffic, electricity and water outages, 90 degree temperatures without AC, roosters that don't know day from night, finding lizard droppings in the corners of your room, the constant shouting of "Muzungu! Muzungu!" anytime you leave the house (Yes, I actually had one man block my path by laying on the ground and doing push-ups to impress me once), the scarce internet, Somali terrorist threats, the daily language barriers, the rocks in my rice, and the constant dust in my lungs, Burundi is alright. I do enjoy the incredible sunsets, meeting ex-pats from all over the world, Burundians' amazing hospitality and willingness to help you when you need it, mango season, learning African worship songs, Coca-Cola in a bottle, being surrounded gorgeous Burundian mountains on one side of me and Congolese mountains on the over, and the view of Lake Tanganyka (sans crocs and hippos).

Eeeee!!!

Ahhh . . . .

My list of things I like may not be as long as the hard things yet, but they definitely weigh heavier. The best thing is still my kids--Oh how glorious to actually like my job. So enough griping already. I have way more stuff than most Burundians--three meals a day, a roof over my head (that doesn't leak when it rains), a bed to sleep in, more than two outfits. . . . Overall, I'm in pretty good shape.

Speaking of having things...another luxury item is in the works, help of Jake and Jan. I take taximotos everywhere which is fun, but it's also quite fatalistic as the roads here are a videogame with only one life. So as motos are fun in the States, where there's lanes, stop lights, um, and laws, the only law in Burundi is don't get killed. It makes my heart race sometimes, and not like the way it does when viewing a film with Matthew McConaheyyyy. It's quite treacherous. I get nervous. I know I don't have to remind God to keep me alive or anything, but it's a good thing He doesn't hold it against me when I do. Because I do. a lot.

So the luxury item. . .[insert Michael Scott drumroll here please]...a car! It's fastantically and fabulously ghetto. (I told you me being black is debatable.) No rims (they don't have those here), but I am decked out in silver stickers, including one that goes across the windshield that says "No God, no life." Nice. The seat erupts dust whenever I sit down or move, the handbrake is broken (hopefully soon to be fixed), and the driver's seat no longer has a back (hopefully that will be fixed too). So it's basically a piece of metal set on top of wheels--all I need for dese screets! I'm learning to drive it. I know how to drive an automatic, but Chobani (a friend of the family) is teaching me to drive a stick shift. This feat is interesting because not only do I have to learn stick, I'm learning to drive in Burundi. Did I mention my teacher, Chobani,

only speaks Kirundi and Kishahili? Please donate all prayers daily, thanks.

My new wheels . . .ohhh yeah.

In other news, it was Jan's birthday this past week. Whoohoo! I get way more excited about birthdays here because like I said, this is a country where death is a part of daily life. If you make it another year, that's to be celebrated! The Burundians often start their morning prayers with "Imana yacu, turagushimiye kuko watuzigamiye kugez'uyu musi" which means "Our God, we thank you for protecting us until today." Each day of life is another miracle from the Lord. Nice to remember, eh?

So back to the birthday: As I said earlier, one of my daily adventures here is figuring out how to get from place to place. I knew exactly the gift I wanted to get Jan, but I had no idea where the place was when I visited last, nor how I was going to get there. I could take my chances, and tell the taxi moto in my broken Kirundi, "There's a shop. . . somewhere. . . with green gates. . . near another building that's blue. . . wanna take me?" Firstly, I'm sure the English would definitely fly (note sarcasm). Secondly, they'd probably charge me a "muzungu price" (the "I'm rich so I can afford anything" stigma that comes with having white skin here), and third of all, even if I did get on the bike, I wouldn't even know where to direct. So I just said, "Lord, I need to go to that shop by Friday so please just get me there." Well what happens Friday, but Jan goes into town to do some errands. I hop in the car just to see the whereabouts. Jan gets dropped off, and where do we end up but next to the shop I wanted to go to! It's the little things here, people, the little things. So I go in, negociate, and come out with a gift I'd seen Jan eyeing and talking about a few weeks earlier. . .placemats. You're welcome. I didn't want to keep you in such suspense any longer. Did I mention it's the little things that go a long way? The woman wanted some placemats so placemats it is. And on top of that (yes, I'm tooting my own horn), I did the whole negociating process in Kirundi:

Me: "Ndashaka ca." (I would like these.)

Vendor: "20,0000 FBU."

Me: "Oyaaa! Urubiramzimvye!" (Nooo, too expensive)

Back and forth, back and forth, back and forth again.

Vendor: "Ok, Uri Murundian. 14,000 FBU." (Ok, fine. You are Murundian (a mix of Muzungu and Burundian). 14,000 = good price).

Me: "Ego." (Yes.) (By the way, "ego" is pronounced just like the commercial that says "Leggo my Ego." It's true. For the first two weeks I'd learned that word, all of could think was that when people asked me if I was well, I was just telling them "Waffle.")

The Voice In My Head: "It's about time learning this crazy language pays off! No more white people prices!!!!"

Obstacles overcome! Thank you Lord (totally by His providence we even drove by that hole-in-the-wall anyway), and mission accomplished!

So that's life lately--beautiful ups-and-downs and crazy spin-arounds.

God Is Big.

A new month brings new season...again. Change is consistent here in terms of growing and learning how to live here...it's almost like you never quite get there unless you grew up here. There's always something you can get better at...the language, bargaining for taxi moto rides, figuring out cultural differences and how to respect those boundaries....

Anyway, a lot happened this week. We had our first full week where it felt like a routine had actually settled which was really nice. Some kind of normalcy. A bit o' comfort. I really enjoyed my students this week. Alvin, my student teacher for the month, has come so far since the beginning as well. I like that he thinks for himself and tries to come up with new ideas for future lessons.

We started doing phonics lessons this week. The kids were seriously SO good at it. They were able to figure out most letters and the sounds they make which is HUGE. It's crazy how quick childrens' minds mold and shape. Double-edged sword. But in my case, I LOVE IT. I also got to teach them about the solar system--planets, the sun, the moon. They were CRAZY about it! And a funny thing was at first, I didn't even have any real photographs of the planets--I just drew some out on a large piece of paper. Then turns out, someone had left Zeke a video of computer graphic/real satellite images of planets that I was able to show my students. What my students said: YOOOOO!!!! (Yo = anything that should end with an exclamation mark: e.g. "Yooo, that smell is rank!", "Yooo, that motobike is cool!", "Yooo, that girl just slipped on the mud and smashed her face in a puddle!") They had never even seen or heard of outer space before. Totally new concept. And how cool is it that they not only get to see (kinda) how big our universe is, but also how big our Creator is who made it all! God spoke to me through it all as well. I heard a podcast this week that was brought from the States a thought about Job challenging the Lord and the Lord's response to what Job had to say:

"Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me, if you know so much. Who determined its dimensions and stretched out the surveying line? What supports its foundations, and who laid its cornerstone as the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?" Job 38:4-7 NLT

I know I'm white (debatable) but, YO! Job just got served. The pastor said God's part like this:

"These stars I've created...you have a picture of them from a satellite. Me, I've been holding these things together since the beginning of time, and you think I'm gonna let YOU go?"

I'm thinking a response to that takes care of itself. No more to be said.

A fun story to end with:

Something else funny also happened this week. I have a few students, mainly boys, who I like to call "umuguruguru" (say that five times fast) which translates as cheeky monkey, mischieveous, that kind of thing. One day, when our classes were switching this week, the children were giving me high fives before they left. One kid decided to be an umuguruguru and jet his hand away as I went to slap it. So the next time he put his hand up, I grabbed it, pulled him close and made kissy noises next to his cheek. Intent: fun for me and humiliating to him. (What a good teacher I am.) All the other kids thought I was seriously kissing this child and got all excited that the muzungu lady thinks it's okay to kiss her students. Before I know it, Queen G. Love (yes, that's her real name) has walked right over and planted one on the side of my face. Thanks to Queen, they just kept coming. Kiss Kiss Kiss, and asking for one in return. Welcome to the world of Snow White and her dwarves, right? It was all quite sweet, and I believe they actually meant it. What a change from the political correctness of teaching in the oh-so-litigious States! I now have one student, Gabin, God bless his little ADHD self, who insists on getting kisses coming to and from class. He's the only one who still kept it up the next day. I'm okay with it. God just bless those germy little mouths (not in the Southern way--I mean it!) that like to stick everything in them including things found on the ground and keep all sickness away!

These are some of my umugurugurus. Pretty cute, huh?