Under African Skies!: Long Weekends and Boat Rides

This long weekend I got a chance to leave Bujumbura and go ‘up country’. (Anywhere that is not Bujumbura is considered upcountry). I had a meeting my first week here with someone from the Spanish Red Cross about a grant that may or may not be announced by a large donor sometime in the next couple of months. The meeting went well, but the best outcome was that I made a new friend. Monique is originally from Peru and has worked in Burundi for two years. She has been an invaluable guide and companion since we met and I will be very sad to see her go when her contract is up at the end of August.

Monique and I, along with another Red Cross worker Maren, hired a Red Cross driver to take us up to the province of Kirundo on the Rwandan border. We were met there by Maren’s Rwandan boyfriend and together we had a really relaxing and enjoyable time. We got to celebrate Canada Day and Burundi Independence Day by the lake. The trip up to Kirundo takes about 3 and a half hours and it gave us a great opportunity to absorb some of the beautiful scenery. This country is stunningly beautiful. Bujumbura is in a flat valley and the road out of the city is a breath-taking, heart stopping winding trail up the mountains. The vibrant red of the earth contrasted against the green of the countryside as the road rises and falls with the winding hills. The banana trees, the sorghum crops and coffee trees dotting the landscape and rice patties in the valleys give the impression of a lush and fertile land. It is the dry season now and so there is a wilted, muted quality to the green, as if there is a layer of dust over everything.

In the city it can be easy to overlook the full extent of the poverty in this country. Along the road in the rural areas it is at times painfully obvious. The tiny, shabby houses; the thin cows and goats with their ribs showing, the children playing by the road dressed in dirty clothes with their stomachs sticking out like something out of one of those commercials on TV that I hate so much. There is poverty here and there is hardship. But there is more than that and it would be unfair to the industry and spirit of the people here if I stopped at describing the heartbreaking poverty. Driving through the countryside you can see everyday life going on as you pass by. People working in their fields, weeding and hoeing and watering their crops. Bricks are being made, some out of the mud and some out of cement, to feed the need created by the construction going on all over the country. Slate and rock have been dug up and carried to the road to be picked up by trucks. Carpentry, weaving and other crafts are available for sale along the road. There is a new private coffee company, cell phone towers, road construction and a factory for sunflower oil. The countryside is not a quiet, relaxing place. These people work hard.

We spent the weekend with some nuns on the shores of a lack just outside of the town of Kirundo, which is the main city in the province of Kirundo. We had breakfast by the lake, dinner away from the lake to avoid the worst of the mosquitos and we went to bed to the sound of the crickets, birds and frogs. Saturday we went to another lake, lac d'oiseau, and paid two boats to take us around the lake and over to an island. It was relaxing and beautiful and I'll let the pictures do the talking since this post is already long enough! Enjoy.