a day of stark contrast

so I got a call at 11pm last night that today's plan had changed and we were to be up, packed and ready to go by 7am. dutifully I was.... We got picked up promptly at 9:15am and headed for the meeting with the President. The meeting happened with little to report - very much pomp and ceremony. We left his office and I took off my tie and rolled up my sleeves - now we got to go out to the rural areas and get on with my favorite part of being in Africa. There was just one little issue, there was no diesel in town to fill the vehicles we needed for our drive. We had to wait until some materialized - evidently it would work in our favour that we had just spent time with the President. While we waited we decided lunch was in order and found that Jean - who works for Food for the Hungry in Burundi, his wife runs a great Chinese restaurant - go figure, and in fact his wife is chinese - go figure. It seems our Burundian friend Jean had studied in Russia and China, and there met his wife. So, once at the restaurant my fellow traveler John Weston was able to use his Mandarin to order lunch - this just after he was conversing with our driver in french - unbelievable.

Lunch was great, and once over we left to discover that our drivers were successful and the diesel delay only set us back a couple of hours. So finally, bags loaded, people loaded, we were off on our two hour drive to our destination of a small village on the border of Rwanda and Burundi. About 45 minutes into the drive our rear tire exploded, fortunately without incident. A bunch of muzungu ( foreigner in Swahili) changing a tire on the side of a road draws a crowd. that accomplished, we were off again. and after about 2 hours we arrived and Rubura - a rural community - where we were to have a look at the Health clinic and attached hospital that serves over 250,000 people in the area. The big issue is malaria - 170 new cases a week - no nets in the community or in the hospital itself. Once through the hospital, and after being inundated by all the kids - we headed off for our final visit - a small refugee community of 23 families who had returned from Tanzania. They had fled Burundi in 1972 for Rwanda during the beginning of the civil strife in Burundi. Then in 1994 at the outset of the genocide in Rwanda they fled to Tanzania. Finally in 2005 the Tanzanian Army chased them out of Tanzania and back to Burundi. They have nothing. The Gov't has given them housing on a remote hillside. Very little land to to grow food. Water is a good distance down in the valley. They are very hungry. They have planted a little soybean, but the dry season is coming and its doubtful they will harvest much of a crop. We stood and listened to their stories as the sun went down. I met a grandmother Veronique who is raising her four grandchildren as their parents had died of Aids.

Finally, it was time to go. We left them in the dark with their problems and hunger. There are plans to help them through food aid, and through othe programs, but all those are still in the works. Arriving at these places is my favourite part of these trips, leaving them is the worst part. I can feel like a voyeur on their misery. I can feel helpless. I certainly feel foolish. All that said, I know why I am here, and glad of it. How else would the story of these people, of Veronique, ever be heard if someone didn't come and listen. How else could the staff here raise the needed funds unless people come and 'get it'.

We are now staying overnight with a wonderful British couple who work with Food for the Hungry. they are working on agricultural projects - specifically coffee - helpful for building economic opportunity for the people here.

Sorry for the long post, but the contrast between our morning visit with the President and the late afternoon visit with refugees seemed worth noting. Tomorrow we head to Musemma, a community I visited last time. I look forward to seeing familiar sites and maybe even a few faces.

thanks for reading.