Discussion after dinner and a graduation

Last Sunday, I attended a dinner at the home of one of the pastors of the Friends Church. After dinner, a visiting representative of the Canadian Friends Service Committee facilitated a dialogue session. Each person spoke briefly in response to a prompt, then passed to the left. We went around twice, which allowed ideas to develop and people to respond to others’ comments. The prompt was “What needs to be done to consolidate peace in Burundi?” Given that more than half of the participants are working at the grassroots level to just that end, there was some real wisdom exchanged.

The contributions ranged widely. Some responses were material, including building social cohesion, stimulating development and reducing poverty and inequality— “They say there’s peace because there aren’t two sides fighting each other. But for me, I don’t have peace in my heart because of the poverty we are facing,” said one participant. Others were cultural, including fighting corruption, and confronting violence against women. Underlying all of these concerns was the difficult issue of how to prioritize. The needs here are enormous, yet what comes first, second, etc. is not clear. While the UN could undertake such prioritization and sequencing initiatives, it’s failing so far. Friends also spoke of the lack of coordination among different peace initiatives.

Yet despite these problems, there were also some uplifting messages too. One local church leader recounted positive changes he’d seen since the end of the war: Hutus now have a voice and stake in the governance of the country and there’s no longer a curfew in Bujumbura. Others spoke about the pride that they should rightfully take in their work; they might not have degrees or big budgets, but they’re doing good work, and should actively be showcasing it for the government, NGOs and the UN.

Listening to the voices of these peacemakers was quite a privilege, and the combination of their conviction and willingness to work for change moved me.

On Friday I attended the graduation of Odette, who is married to Adrien, Coordinator of the Healing and Rebuilding our Communities Program. Odette just finished her bachelor’s degree at Hope Africa University in Bible study. Seeing her family and friends brimming with pride was a real pleasure, as was seeing one of Burundi’s renowned drum teams. The drummers manage to balance a 3-foot-tall drum on their heads, walk, play it, and even kick the drum head from time to time. They get a little bit carried away too—at one point the aggravated MC had to yell over them on the microphone over them that “I asked the drummers to play us just a little morsel!”

I’m headed to Nairobi for Christmas and New Years, but have been enjoying starting to settle into Bujumbura life and will look forward to my return.

Other items of interest:
- The lemons are green
- It rains two or three times every afternoon
- I’ve had more Fanta in these two weeks than in the entire rest of my life

Finally, a quick plug: my roommate Andrew’s blog is a great read: quakerfront.com. He’s been here since May 2008, so there’s quite a bit of good reflections and analysis.