hymn sing with the President

As mentioned, we were up early this morning to drive the two hours to Bujumbura to attend church with the first lady of Burundi. As we pulled up to the church, the soldiers with the truck mounted machine gun, the black Mercedes, and the guys in black suits with walkie talkies suggested that she may have brought her husband.....we were ushered to the front as special visitors and sat right beside the President, well, right beside the security guy who was beside the President. The service was somewhat typical of my African church experiences, funky band with tinny keyboard ( played constantly through prayers, sermons, etc) sketchy guitar, lots of impassioned singing, and enough sermons to last a month of church....just over 3 hours - all in the local language of Kirundi.

while this type of service is not my normal cup of tea... this was strikingly different in one regard. At one point in the service the President was invited up to give, what I thought, would be the obligatory speech by the 'important guy'. Instead, after a few words he cracked the hymn book, queued the band and led the congregation in a rousing version of....whatever it was a rousing version of. Part of the song was him singing, then the group responding. Unbelievable, here is the President of a Country with 7.6 Million people which is struggling against a rebellion that threatens a tentative peace, showing incredible vulnerability and humility. In other words, he was acting like a human being - just like everybody else in the room. It was such a contrast to what I had come to know from African leaders - there was no bravado, no arrogance, no airs. It gives me hope.

Africa needs leaders who are human first. Leaders who can connect with those who don't have guys in black suits managing their every move. Leaders who can articulate their country's biggest issues - in the case of Burundi - food security, education, health care.

Over the next few days we will wander amongst those who have nothing, not even the confidence that they will be safe overnight. We'll meet people who don't have food to eat, who don't have the chance of going to school to better their circumstance, who don't have health facilities that can support their HIV/Aids, Malaria, or the variety of other medical concerns. But what they do have is a President who cares. That is more than most Africans can say.