T.I.A.

This morning the schedule called for us to be dressed in shirt and tie and ready by 8:45am for a meeting with the President of Burundi to discuss the country's situation. I got a call at 7:30am, plans have changed, we are now visiting one of the first ladies projects, but still wear a tie. I arrive at breakfast to find we are being picked up 1/2 hour earlier, and no tie required. We got picked up at 9 and drove to the residence of the President. There were no instructions or explanations. We sat patiently until the first lady appeared, and after a quick prayer we were in the vehicles and off. The convoy of 11 vehicles was led out by two motorcycles, followed by a pick up full of armed cops, then the 'protocol' car ( not sure what that is), her excellency's car, her body guards car, 4 of our vehicles, then a Landcruiser full of military guys with lots of guns. Unbelievable. We drove at high speed out of the city and beyond. I had heard someone mention the drive would be an hour. Turned out it was 3 hours. We did stop once for a pit stop for her excellency - the rest of us had to wait....

After 3 hours we arrived at our destination. As the drive became longer and longer I started thinking - "well at least there will be kids to dance and sing with at the end of this" - our destination was a very large, very flat, piece of dirt....the first lady has great plans to build a hospital, orphanage, old folks home, school, vocational school, hotel, and sundry soccer fields and playgrounds. There are needs in that region for all those facilities - except maybe the hotel - but what was uncertain was whether or not you could get water, how one dealt with sewage and drainage, oh, and how it was going to get paid for - I guess that's why we were invited.

Finally as the group shifted from one area to another, and the soldiers moved their perimeter positions my friend John and I found a tree.

We ate a great lunch then back another 3 hours to town, and that was our day. I was exhausted yet felt like I accomplished nothing. T.I.A. - This Is Africa. There is a different measurement system here, for everything from time to achievement. Today's achievement was spending time being interested in someone else's idea. Even if it didn't make much sense to me, it obviously does to her, and she must have felt good about having these people from half way around the world come and have a look at it.

A follow on from yesterday's post - I realize I made a leap in logic from the President singing in church to the fact that he must care about his population. My error is not filling in all the blanks - by a desire to keep the posts short. The example of him singing was simply confirmation of a number of other things the President has said, and done - including risking himself by actively pushing for peace with the rebels he spent years in the bush fighting - that provide a composite picture of a man willing to be vulnerable and to risk himself for the sake of his people.

So, better get to bed, as the plan has us up and out at 8am with ties on, for a meeting with the President....sound familiar?