Toujours en vie

Time for an update, methinks.

I’m now back in Burundi after a stellar month spent at home in Southern Ontario. A year-and-a-half is a long time; lots of things change, while lots of things stay the same. It was hard to leave it all behind again: family, friends, open spaces, delightful food, cooler climes (despite having complained of being too cold most every day), fast Internet and in general things that work as they should. En revanche, it’s also good to be back with close friends here in Africa. It’s good not to be too cold all the time. It’s good to be back doing something that makes a big difference to the wellbeing of so many impoverished and vulnerable people. It’s also not too bad to be on the beach every weekend. No, despite some of the sacrifices that must be made to be here, life certainly isn’t unbearable.

I missed a serious little bout of fighting here in Bujumbura while away, during which my friends watched rockets and tracer bullets lighting up the sky over the city. Things have since calmed, and just today an unequivocal peace deal was signed between the government and the last remaining rebel group. This is being lauded by many as the last step to sustainable peace in the war-ravaged country.

Upon my return I asked one of my Burundian colleagues if he had ever been scared. He responded somewhat fatalistically, “No, if a bomb would have fallen on my house, that’s it. There’s nothing I could have done.” However, four large rockets exploded not far from the home of some of my other friends, and they said that they had indeed been very scared. We’ll continue to hope and pray and keep our fingers crossed that it is indeed the beginning of something new.

However, and I interrupt, I did just this very moment hear two explosions, one after the other, loud enough to indicate they were likely not farther than a few kilometres away. Which opposition MP's house is being grenaded tonight, I wonder? And life goes on in Bujumbura. For most of us anyway. 

Canada

Best party: welcome back with an Africa-shaped cake right off the plane before I even had the chance to shower (the pleasure was all mine!)

Best quote: as asked at a neighbouring winery, “Do you decant in Burundi?”

Best meal: four-way tie between The Keg with Robyn, Pow Wow with Goose, a decadent little French affaire for Mother’s Day at home, and The Keg with my best friends (you all treat me far too well.)

Biggest change encountered: almost all of my friends now own houses.

Prettiest sight: other than my mother, Niagara in bloom: