Retrospection « Claire’s Weblog

Verfasst von: erclairebaer | Februar 4, 2009

Retrospection

Dear family and friends,

A happy new year 2009 and meilleurs voeux!
Hope you all spent some nice holidays!
Thanks again for all your mails, cards and calls, it’s always nice to hear from you!

It’s been two months now since my last entry, and this time there’s really no excuse…!

At first, thanks a lot to everyone who contributed to our appeal for donations! I am really overwhelmed by the amount of money which was donated!
I’ll let you know as soon as possible what we’ll spend it on exactly.
For sure is that we’ll contribute to the medical treatment for Rose, the girl who apparently suffers from a certain blood aneamia. Her state of health got even worse, she bleeds out of the mouth and nose, has bruises all over her body, and had several blood transfusions within the last weeks.

Last Friday for example we had a tough time finding fresh blood of the group b+ in order to directly transfuse it, as it keeps her “healthy” for a longer time than older blood. We recently found out that it is possible to treat her in Nairobi and are now preparing everything for her departure.

Apart from the worries I have about Rose the last two months were really great concerning the relationship to the kids. It naturally takes some time until one gets used to the comportment of the other – and it takes even longer when different cultural backgrounds are involved…!

So much happened, I couldn’t think of a point where to start off –
So I decided to summarize the events of the last two months in a few words, and post a lot of pictures which speak for themselves…

The baptism

Japhet (right) and Alexis (behind old Lady)

The Pool in which the boys were christened

Two of our boys, Japhet and Alexis, were baptised in November in the protestant church of the pentecotists. About 100 people were baptised that day by being “drowned” in a huge pool. Even an about ninety-year-old Lady was baptised and one could tell that she was frightened to death! But also the younger people seemed to be scared, because in general a lot of people here can’t swim, so they didn’t know how to hold their breath, and gasped for air coming out of the water.
I took part in the baptism for children’s sake, although I don’t confirm with the beliefs and rites of this church, and it definitely paid out to have been there: Our boys were the proudest of the children to be baptised. On top of that THEIR guests, the only Muzungus among 500 people, got all of the attention and were sat in the front row, so each and everyone could have a glimpse on them.
The special treatment we get about everywhere makes me still feel uncomfortable…

A day at the beach

This time we took our boys of the street kids centre to the beach – unfortunately it was a rainy and cloudy day, but it didn’t matter: We all had fun! The coolest thing about it was that they were having music on the beach so it all ended up in a party, everyone dancing happily.
Later on our drummers asked me whether I’d like to join them in coming to one of their shows at a wedding. It was interesting to take part in this event, although I didn’t understand what was going on, but even cooler was that the boys were glad to have me with them, to chat and joke around and that they were able to invite me for a drink with the money they earned that day. I really appreciate the Burundian tradition of sharing everything. If people are invited for dinner for example, and in the end more people then expected turn up (what very often is the case), people are glad to welcome other guests and to share what’s there! People here tend to share what they have, no matter how little this possession is – in my eyes it is something our western culture can learn of African society.

The boys floundering about in the water

Francois and I

Johanna and me dancing with the boys to Congolese music

Our drummers at the wedding ceremony

Marathon de la Paix

Bujumbura's City Centre crowed with thousands of people

Chantal, Arnold and lazy Claire "walked" 1 km in the City Centre

Among thousands of runners, about eighty of our children took part on the 6th of December in the “Marathon de la Paix” in Bujumbura.
They ran either 1, 5, 21 or 45 km, and many of them were amongst the first to get into the finish line. Besides a t-shirt, footballs, tons of orange marmalade and apricot jam the fastest received shoes, tricots, school material, etc. But what made them the happiest were this extraordinary day itself and of course the medals for their participation!
There should be more events like that one in Bujumbura/Burundi. A bigger cultural variety especially for children would be desirable.

Christmas cookies

In Germany it is tradition to make some cookies before Christmas. So my co-volunteers and I took some of our smaller children to our head’s restaurant in order to make some for Christmas’ Eve with them. They had so much fun, squashing the pastry around, making a huge mess, and nibbling the ingredients and of course the cookies – which were very delicious and on Christmas Eve much sought-after.

Anna and Cornelius supervising the mess

Doriane and Arnaud concentrating on their task

A Christmas Carol

Christmas was fantastic – we all had a blast! We had a Christmas party in each home, everything was nicely decorated and the children got a very good meal:
Rice, sombé (manioc leaves, prepared like spinach), igitoke (fried bananas) and on top of that a piece of meat which they only get on special occasions.
All the children put up an amazing program with singing, dancing, sketches, drumming, quizshows, and so on. They did such a great job! So they really deserved their Christmas presents which we volunteers wrapped individually for every single child. The highlight of every party was – of course – the dancing to African music in the end. I will never forget their smiles that day – it was awesome!
In this way I want to say special thanks to Josephine Ndao who made the Christmas parties financially possible! She was visiting Burundi for several weeks, volunteered in the homes and raised money among her friends and family in the States and Canada in order to finance the Christmas parties, and especially the food which was in consideration of the contemporary prices not cheap.