This past week I attended the Quaker Peace Network (QPN) Central Africa gathering, which took place in a conference center here in Bujumbura. This brought together Friends working in Burundi, Rwanda and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to discuss challenges and opportunities in their work and possible areas of collaboration. Among these was election observation in the 2010 Burundian elections. QPN has successfully observed elections in the DRC, Rwanda, Kenya, and Burundi, and is beginning to build a reputation for quality. Successful elections could play a crucial role in helping Burundi consolidate peace, so this work is extremely topical. Overall the gathering was warm, congenial, and each participant brought a unique perspective.
Fascinating discussion took place about the church’s role in politics—why should we even be involved in these initiatives, asked one participant. People ultimately agreed that the church had a role in supporting the wellbeing of the whole person, which meant working for spiritual as well as physical health. We are called to be peacemakers, and we must remember that peace comprises many things. Yet getting to that sense took a long and thoughtful engagement among participants. What also struck me was how similar the tone was to the way American or more liberal Friends would describe their work: These Quakers might invoke the Bible to make a point, but I could easily imagine Quakers back home in my meeting making the same point.
Given the large presence of people working in DRC, the conflict there was a frequent topic of conversation. Ultimately, a statement will be released about the violence there, and Friends’ perspectives on the way to confront it. Yet it wasn’t easy to come to agreement on the emphasis: should the statement emphasize North Kivu? Should it be mostly about Friends work, or mostly about the crisis and their perspectives? Who should it go out to? The outcome was quite interesting, as was the process. When the statement is approved, I’ll share it on this blog.
Hearing these stories of those working for peace in the DRC made me feel unsettled—why was I in Burundi when the needs are so much greater just across the lake? Compared with DRC, Burundi is stable and prospering. But while holding that thought, I recalled the truism that jumping from emergency to emergency mentality is precisely what allows countries like Burundi to fall back into conflict. The “CNN moment” ends, the international community packs its bags, and the country is left with a half-finished job. Burundi is at a crucial and difficult stage right now, and needs resources and support, even as the needs are great in other countries in the region.
As with many gatherings I’ve attended here, there was song, dance, and play. Andrew, the other American, and I were pressured into doing a “traditional dance”, which was comprised of a do-si-do, promenade and much partner swinging, which the Burundians seem to especially enjoy.
I was glad to get other perspectives on peacebuilding work going on in the region. Our colleagues were facing quite different challenges, but in sharing and being in solidarity with one another, we said goodbye feeling fortified and ready to jump back in.
Monday, January 26, 2009
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Kamenge
I’ve had several opportunities in the past two weeks to travel to and explore a new neighborhood of Bujumbura: Kamenge. I’ve been to a meeting of our little youth group, visited the HIV/AIDS clinic of the Friends Women’s Association (FWA), and been to a wedding.
Kamenge is poor and mostly Hutu, about a 15-minute (sweaty) bus ride from city center. It’s a completely different world from Rohero, where I spend most of my time; there are few cars on the dirt streets. Instead, it’s pedestrians of all ages, bikes, motorcycles, and a stream of the telltale white, logo-stickered SUVs of NGOs. The bus stops at the market, which was destroyed during the Crisis. The hollowed-out and roofless building is now surrounded by wooden stalls, where people sell food, bikes, shoes, cloth, etc. etc. Much fighting took place in Kamenge, and people recall destroyed houses and tanks on deserted streets. Partly as a result of the fighting, the neighborhood is struggling to get back on its feet, and its residents face difficult living conditions. Kamenge is also the neighborhood where a large body of Friends live.
Just a hundred yards down from the market is the Friends Church, soil-red with seafoam trim, and bordered on one side by wooden scaffolding for the Church’s planned expansion to accommodate 2,000 people. Three of my four coworkers go to church there.
A little ways into the Friends’ compound is our garden, where a group of Tutsi and Hutu youth gathers every Friday afternoon. In addition to getting scholarships, these youths, mixed Hutu and Tutsi, have taken part in reconciliation workshops and other team- and leadership-building activities. They’ve experienced trauma as much as any other demographic, and are in need of healing. In the garden, we’re growing cabbage, onions, eggplants, and greens. I won’t be here to taste any of it, but I did admire the progress the group has made, turning the trashy and scrappy lot into neat beds of rich soil. I tried my hand at hoeing, but the teens just made fun of me and did my sections over. They garble their French as badly as any American 15-year old does their English.
Undertaking this reconciliation work with such a young group is an interesting idea and an area of exploration for the Healing and Rebuilding Our Communities (HROC) Program, which has so far mostly worked with adults. People talk some about how critical it is to avoid passing on the old divisions to their children, and seem to see their children as ready and able to transcend. So HROC getting this group together holds a lot of promise for future activities.
I also had the opportunity to visit the Friends Women’s Association’s clinic, which seeks to improve health conditions in Kamenge by providing HIV/AIDS testing and counseling. They strive to see the patient holistically, addressing nutrition and opportunistic infections for HIV positive patients. I also got to see how the HIV tests are done, and was impressed at how quick and easy the technology seems. The clinic is working to get anti-retrovirals and, once two more rooms are completed, will be a fully-fledged clinic licensed by the Burundian government. It was a real privilege to see such an inspiring project, and given the high prevalence of HIV/AIDS in Burundi seems an important initiative.
Finally, I got to attend the wedding of Maurice and Esther, members of the Friends Church in Kamenge. I was surprised overall at how similar it was to an American wedding, only far simpler and lower-key. The bride and groom were married legally in a government building before coming to the church, where they were greeted with choral singing, and two trains of dancing 10-year-olds who processed them down the aisle. There was a small sermon, which contained a fair amount of language about the wife submitting to her husband, which, naturally, set me on edge a little bit. After the signing of a marriage certificate, the whole party piled into cars to travel to different locations in Bujumbura, including the “Tree of Love” (a favorite spot, where it’s not unusual to see two or three wedding parties lined up for their turn to take pictures) and the beach. One couldn’t help but feel jubilant in the midst of this gathering.
I’ve been glad to be seeing this different side of the city, and will be working to find opportunities to come back.
Kamenge is poor and mostly Hutu, about a 15-minute (sweaty) bus ride from city center. It’s a completely different world from Rohero, where I spend most of my time; there are few cars on the dirt streets. Instead, it’s pedestrians of all ages, bikes, motorcycles, and a stream of the telltale white, logo-stickered SUVs of NGOs. The bus stops at the market, which was destroyed during the Crisis. The hollowed-out and roofless building is now surrounded by wooden stalls, where people sell food, bikes, shoes, cloth, etc. etc. Much fighting took place in Kamenge, and people recall destroyed houses and tanks on deserted streets. Partly as a result of the fighting, the neighborhood is struggling to get back on its feet, and its residents face difficult living conditions. Kamenge is also the neighborhood where a large body of Friends live.
Just a hundred yards down from the market is the Friends Church, soil-red with seafoam trim, and bordered on one side by wooden scaffolding for the Church’s planned expansion to accommodate 2,000 people. Three of my four coworkers go to church there.
A little ways into the Friends’ compound is our garden, where a group of Tutsi and Hutu youth gathers every Friday afternoon. In addition to getting scholarships, these youths, mixed Hutu and Tutsi, have taken part in reconciliation workshops and other team- and leadership-building activities. They’ve experienced trauma as much as any other demographic, and are in need of healing. In the garden, we’re growing cabbage, onions, eggplants, and greens. I won’t be here to taste any of it, but I did admire the progress the group has made, turning the trashy and scrappy lot into neat beds of rich soil. I tried my hand at hoeing, but the teens just made fun of me and did my sections over. They garble their French as badly as any American 15-year old does their English.
Undertaking this reconciliation work with such a young group is an interesting idea and an area of exploration for the Healing and Rebuilding Our Communities (HROC) Program, which has so far mostly worked with adults. People talk some about how critical it is to avoid passing on the old divisions to their children, and seem to see their children as ready and able to transcend. So HROC getting this group together holds a lot of promise for future activities.
I also had the opportunity to visit the Friends Women’s Association’s clinic, which seeks to improve health conditions in Kamenge by providing HIV/AIDS testing and counseling. They strive to see the patient holistically, addressing nutrition and opportunistic infections for HIV positive patients. I also got to see how the HIV tests are done, and was impressed at how quick and easy the technology seems. The clinic is working to get anti-retrovirals and, once two more rooms are completed, will be a fully-fledged clinic licensed by the Burundian government. It was a real privilege to see such an inspiring project, and given the high prevalence of HIV/AIDS in Burundi seems an important initiative.
Finally, I got to attend the wedding of Maurice and Esther, members of the Friends Church in Kamenge. I was surprised overall at how similar it was to an American wedding, only far simpler and lower-key. The bride and groom were married legally in a government building before coming to the church, where they were greeted with choral singing, and two trains of dancing 10-year-olds who processed them down the aisle. There was a small sermon, which contained a fair amount of language about the wife submitting to her husband, which, naturally, set me on edge a little bit. After the signing of a marriage certificate, the whole party piled into cars to travel to different locations in Bujumbura, including the “Tree of Love” (a favorite spot, where it’s not unusual to see two or three wedding parties lined up for their turn to take pictures) and the beach. One couldn’t help but feel jubilant in the midst of this gathering.
I’ve been glad to be seeing this different side of the city, and will be working to find opportunities to come back.
Monday, January 5, 2009
Bujumbura-Kigali-Kampala-Nairobi-Kampala-Kigali-Bujumbura
I'm writing from Kampala, where I'm spending the day on the way back to Bujumbura. It's pretty low-key here; I think people are still out of the city for holiday. Still, I'm enjoying the architecture and being somewhere a little more manageable than traffic-choked and sprawling Nairobi.
The bus ride was long and character building, but it was fascinating to watch the changes in development from Burundi to Rwanda, whose capital has an actual traffic light, to Uganda, where there are greenhouses and commercial agriculture, through to Nairobi, which is bright lights and big city. Crossing the Rift Valley in Kenya was a definite highlight: the landscape changes almost instantly as the bus plunges down from the dusty brown and flat to the lush and hilly.
I had a wonderful Christmas and New Year's, visiting with Anna, my former coworker at the Quaker UN Office, who's now working for the American Friends Service Committee in Nairobi. We were joined by an all-star cast which included an AFSC Burundi employee, an Earlham grad from Kenya who just finished a stint with the Quaker UN Office in Geneva, a friend-of-a-friend who's working at a home for street kids north of Nairobi, and an International Labor Organization who made his way to Nairobi from Pretoria. A brainy and peaceful collection.
We took full advantage of her pool, and spent most of Christmas day lounging, though we did manage some carol singing. I spent the rest of the two weeks nursing my sunburn, cooking good food (appreciating the fact that one can get good cheese), and meandering around the city. We spent New Year's eve with Yvette's family and then the beautiful people at Carnivore, a notorious Nairobi club. All was well there until Bon Jovi and System of a Down made unwelcome intrusions into the playlist.
We spent January 1st in Hell's Gate natural park, looking at zebras, giraffes, warthogs, impalas, and baboons. Often all at the same time. After that we hiked down to a hot spring where you can literally boil an egg.
I also got to go to unprogrammed meeting at Friends Center in Nairobi, which was a nice change of pace after the celebratory and programmed meetings I've been attending in Bujumbura. Afterwards, there was a nice coffee with some expatriate meeting attenders.
Nairobi was a wonderful mix of exploration and relaxation, and I definitely appreciated all the amenities. But as I plod my way back to Bujumbura, I also feel excited about digging deeper into the work and getting grounded there again.
The bus ride was long and character building, but it was fascinating to watch the changes in development from Burundi to Rwanda, whose capital has an actual traffic light, to Uganda, where there are greenhouses and commercial agriculture, through to Nairobi, which is bright lights and big city. Crossing the Rift Valley in Kenya was a definite highlight: the landscape changes almost instantly as the bus plunges down from the dusty brown and flat to the lush and hilly.
I had a wonderful Christmas and New Year's, visiting with Anna, my former coworker at the Quaker UN Office, who's now working for the American Friends Service Committee in Nairobi. We were joined by an all-star cast which included an AFSC Burundi employee, an Earlham grad from Kenya who just finished a stint with the Quaker UN Office in Geneva, a friend-of-a-friend who's working at a home for street kids north of Nairobi, and an International Labor Organization who made his way to Nairobi from Pretoria. A brainy and peaceful collection.
We took full advantage of her pool, and spent most of Christmas day lounging, though we did manage some carol singing. I spent the rest of the two weeks nursing my sunburn, cooking good food (appreciating the fact that one can get good cheese), and meandering around the city. We spent New Year's eve with Yvette's family and then the beautiful people at Carnivore, a notorious Nairobi club. All was well there until Bon Jovi and System of a Down made unwelcome intrusions into the playlist.
We spent January 1st in Hell's Gate natural park, looking at zebras, giraffes, warthogs, impalas, and baboons. Often all at the same time. After that we hiked down to a hot spring where you can literally boil an egg.
I also got to go to unprogrammed meeting at Friends Center in Nairobi, which was a nice change of pace after the celebratory and programmed meetings I've been attending in Bujumbura. Afterwards, there was a nice coffee with some expatriate meeting attenders.
Nairobi was a wonderful mix of exploration and relaxation, and I definitely appreciated all the amenities. But as I plod my way back to Bujumbura, I also feel excited about digging deeper into the work and getting grounded there again.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)