We're Baaaaack!

The G-skis are officially back in business!  Our trip back to the US was blessedly incident-free, with no delays, cancellations or lost bags.  Thank heavens!  We spent a little over a week in Maryland with Ron's family.  We had a blast visiting with them and hanging out with our nephews and baby niece. We also got to visit our old hangouts in DC and Annapolis, meet up with some friends from college, and reconnect with our favorite high school teacher.  Overall it was a great week, and we were so glad to have the opportunity to be there - thanks to Ethiopian Airlines, whose US flights are all directed through Dulles airport!

Jet lag wasn't too bad - by a Herculean effort we didn't nap at all so we were on the fast track to getting adjusted.  We were a bit afraid we would be sick from all the rich and dairy-laden foods, but we have been fine so far! Yay!

We got back to Phoenix on Thursday and spent two days with mi familia before arriving at Claude and Kelley's last night.  It's good to be back!  Although after being in humid Burundi and Maryland, my skin is practically cracking from the dryness in the air.  We'll get used to it in a couple days though I'm sure.

Once I actually locate my camera cord, I'll update some more pictures from our last days in Burundi and from our time in Maryland!  And if you are in Phoenix, make sure to email or call us and we'll get together!  We've missed everyone.

P.S.  For all those who were wondering, the answer is yes - our first meal in Phoenix was indeed In-N-Out.  It was glorious.

Leaving on a jet plane...

Ron here - I'm pinch hitting for Sarah at the moment. Today we're packing and wrapping up our summer here as we get ready to fly out tomorrow. It's a little earlier than we expected, but we're grateful for our time here, as it's been pretty transformative, and we're looking forward to getting home to more familiar territory. We'll be visiting with family and friends in Maryland for a little bit before coming all the way home to Phoenix.  

Thanks for being with us on this journey!  We'll be posting more pictures and maybe even some videos once we're back on U.S. soil, so stay tuned!

Holy Mwaro!

Today we took a day trip to a land of rolling green hills, where the banana beer is always flowing, the skies are always blue and all the children are all good-looking.  This magical land is called Mwaro, and it may be found in rural (did I  say rural?  I meant R-U-R-A-L) Burundi - and it just so happens that this is where our friend Claude was born and spent his years as a little tyke.  The highlight of our little jaunt to the countryside was definitely the time we spent with his family.  But first, we had some business to take care of! 

Here we are hanging out at Claude's property in Mwaro.  He has a cute little house built on it.  The land itself is breathtakingly beautiful.  It's cool up there in the mountains, and the air feels crisp and clean, like an apple orchard in autumn.

Then, we dropped in on the governor of Mwaro to say hello.  Incidentally, she was on her way out the door for lunch, so we joined her and got to hear about some of the neat things going on in the province.

Here is the governor - she is a good-natured, friendly kind of lady and we were glad she wanted to hang out with us.

Did I mention that it was cold in Mwaro? Here we are at lunch huddling over our hot tea to keep warm.  A nice change from tropical Bujumbura!

Next we went a few miles down the dusty road to visit Claude's family:

Saying hello to an aunt (I think?)  

One of Claude's littlest cousins - adorable!

She's a beauty, folks.

We got to spend time with various aunts and cousins, including the lovely Aunt Leoni, who is second from left.  She's been living with us this summer and hanging out with Claude and Kelley's kiddos.  She is a good Kirundi teacher and has a master's degree in keepin' it real.

Claude's uncle in the yard with a few of his cows.

....and the afternoon starts to go downhill with some homemade traditional Burundian beer.  This is the real deal, folks.  This stuff was thick and dark and was still fermenting and bubbling in the bowl.  The long straw is some sort of hollow plant branch. Men have to take a sip to be polite.  And Ron took a very, very little sip.  But still...

Driving to Mwaro involves lots of time traversing hilly, winding roads with hairpin turns at breakneak speeds.  Throw in some fermented beer in the belly and what you end up with on the ride home is a pea-green Ron.  He barely made it home in time to upchuck in the bushes.  Poor guy.

Africa Lesson: Do not mix home-brewed alcoholic beverages with Burundian driving.

Status:  Learned.

Back on Track!

I have been a bad blogger this week.  A very bad blogger.  Really, I'm embarrassed.  My face is all flushed and tingly.  I could give you all these reasons about how Ron and I came down with a nasty flu, and that we were busy having dreams of chicken soup, both of which are true, but instead I will assume preemptively that you have forgiven me.  With all that off my chest (whew!) , let's just get down to the pics!  Yesterday, finally feeling better, we ventured to the beach for some fresh air and sunshine, Burundian style. 

With my favorite guy.

Heading in! Anybody have any croc repellent?

The skirt and t-shirt is definitely not American beach wear.

Uh, Justin?  You might want to tighten the drawstring on those little trunks.

Aww.

How can you not melt at that smile?

This past week we also got to hang out a little bit with Jean Paul Samputu, who is a friend we originally met in Rwanda in May.  He's a musician who is really, really popular around these parts and who has even won some African Grammys and performed for Oprah and all that jazz.  He's been living in Canada but he was in Bujumbura and stayed at our house for a few days while stopping through.  Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of us with this cool guy, because I was feeling sick and gross and so I didn't take any.  But, you can check him out on YouTube because he is cool like that.  

Snakes and Crocs and Turkeys (Oh My!)

A few days ago we took a trip to the Musée Vivant - which, despite its lofty title, is more or less a collection of animals in a yard.  But it was neat, although there were too many snakes for my taste.  I hate snakes.  And now I have been dreaming about spitting cobras and strangle-happy pythons.  But anyway.  Thought you all might enjoy some pics!

Um. Eww.  Our friend Brandon the Tree Planter and our housemate Grace are nice people, but...this makes me suspicious of them. This one is HUGE.

You think you're so tough?

Check out the jaws on this thing.

Hey good lookin'...you look tasty.  I will see you at Thanksgiving.

In a bit of a random move, the owners of Musée Vivant thought that the one thing that could enhance their snake house was...a mockup of a traditional Burundian village!  And I agree with that choice.

Here I am contemplating the meaning of life.  Apparently squatting next to a traditional African hut is a great place to contemplate the meaning of life.  You should try it sometime.  I myself had a sudden flash of insight regarding modified Newtonian dynamics and the nonlinear field strength of gravity.

Now what the heck is this?  Ahh...a beehive holder...honey....I get it!  I'd like some honey right about now.  And some Honey Nut Cheerios. With some cinnamon on top.  Oops, tangent.

Like the shameless carnivores that we are, we topped off our day of wildlife viewing with some deliciously tender frog legs.  With lots of garlic and butter. And we all know that everything tastes pretty good when bathed in garlic and butter.  Now don't be grossed out by our amphibious cravings - trust me, these babies will make your heart sing.  When we were leaving the restaurant we heard them croaking in the grass behind the parking lot.  Doesn't get any fresher than that!  Trés bien!

(By the way, all those who are acquainted with Ron the Former Picky Eater's eating habits, rejoice - our boy chowed down on the frog legs without batting an eyelash.  He also ate a raw tomato the other day with only salt and pepper on it.  And he has been known to sneak chunks of pineapple.  I know, I know - pick yourself up off your chair, Mom G)

My wife, the future Jane Austen

For those of you who don't know, my wife is quite the talented writer, and she recently put her skills to work when she wrote an article about the Amahoro Institutes in Uganda and Burundi earlier this summer. I think it's a really good article (and I swear I'm not biased), and other people do too. Brian McLaren recently picked it up on his blog. His post was then picked up by Emergent Village. Looks like it's getting around! I think Sarah does a great job of capturing the conversation that's happening all around us here in Africa. It's very inspiring! I hope you all enjoy it as much as I did.

She also wrote an article a few weeks ago about the Ugandan Institute itself. Its great as well. Check it out!

Wedding Bells!

Okay, before we get down to business today, I must state that for breakfast this morning I had a delicious, flavor-filled bowl of oatmeal.  I brought along a few (too few, sadly) packets of instant oatmeal and it's amazing the happiness those little babies can bring.  So now with my stomach full of cinnamony goodness, I feel up to the challenge of relating to you the events of the Batwa Wedding Spectacular 2008 that we attended a few days ago.

So first, a bit of background is in order, yes?  Many of you have seen my earlier post on the Batwa, including the amazing slideshow that my friend Christie made.  That was the part of the their story that was the tragedy.  This is the part that is joyful!  No matter what the circumstances of the Batwa are (and believe me, they are bad), the Batwa know how to party!

So, last Saturday, we were invited to attend a wedding in which 153 couples were to be wed at the same time. One hundred fifty three.  If you are thinking to yourself "holy moly" then you are along our same lines of thought.   I should point out that the blessed event took place in a room about the size of a typical elementary school classroom, and that it happens to be August in Africa, and that there was no air conditioning or fans.  But I digress.

As we arrived, our car was greeted by a singing and dancing troupe that were highly spirited and very agile.  We were a few minutes late (buke, buke, remember?) so we only saw the last few couples actually sign their papers, after which they posed with a framed portrait of His Honor the Excellent President Regency of Burundi, Pierre Nkurunziza (Or something like that.)  Not quite sure about the portrait thing, but hey, we pose at our weddings with pieces of cake right?  So, to each his own.

Some brides waiting their turn - dressed in their wedding finest.  Aren't the bright fabrics so fun?

After the i's were all dotted and the t's all crossed,  the dancing part of the afternoon commenced.  Many of the women, if not most, perform these quick-footed dances with babies and toddlers tied on their backs, and I am rather impressed with this feat.  Especially considering that jumping is a big choreographic element of the dances.  Yes, I said jumping.  Did I mention they had 25-pound two year olds on their backs?

Okay, up until this point we were happily watching from some chairs at the side of the room, which was next to a window, which was crucial.  But could we stay like this? No.  No no no no. We had to move on stage for the ceremonial portion of the event. Because we were guests of honor, you see. We thought it would be so awkward to sit on stage as if we were important, so we tried to squirm our way out.  We begged.  We pleaded.  We wailed and gnashed our teeth.  But they were firm.  We must sit onstage and allow everyone to marvel at our white skin or else we would not be fulfilling our duty.

Do we look like we are scoping out escape routes?  It's because we are.

Afterwards we had another duty to fulfill: posing for pictures with everyone.  Kind of like the oversized, sort-of-creepy Mickey Mouse at Disneyland.

I'm including this one just because I can.  Isn't this little princess precious?

Now, Batwa ideas of marriage are a little more flexible and fluid than those of westerners. Right after the ceremonies had taken place, Claude saw a young woman looking frantically around the crowd.  When he asked her what she was looking for, she replied breathlessly that she had lost her new husband.  "Well", Claude said pragmatically in an effort to help, "what's his name?"

She looked at him balefully.  "He hasn't told me yet."

All in all, it was a great event and we were glad to be part of it (except the awkward sitting on stage part).  Everyone was duly married and we got to be part of a little piece of Batwa life.  

Happy Birthday Claude!

So yesterday was our friend Claude's birthday.  We all felt we needed to celebrate somehow, so we had planned a little nice evening on the rooftop patio with all our housemates and one or two extra friends.  But Claude is an extrovert.  By extrovert, I mean EXTROVERT.  And that is how we unexpectedly ended up with thirty friends enjoying a rooftop dance party, old-school hip hop music, and lots o' drinks.

First, our cook Joseph prepared us a FEAST. With coleslaw. And it was muy delicioso. 

Then, after dinner and maybe a drink or two (...), a Ron vs. Claude dance-off to Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean", which most judged to be a draw but which I think Ron won handily (hey, who that has seen him dance can deny he's got moves?).

Umm...PRICELESS.  Ready for framing.

While the other ladies were envying my husband's Michael Jackson moves, I hung out with Kelley and Mireille...

And now Ron's back and flushed with victory so he graces Alice and I with his presence. If you think Ron looks a bit more svelte than you remember...he does.  In fact, right before the party, he was running up the stairs, and his shorts (which are a bit snug at home) actually fell off his skinny bum. Luckily no one was around so his dignity was saved.  But I think he will be wearing belts from now on.


Kelley with our good friend Brandon the Tree Planter, who provided the speakers for the evening. We like Brandon. A lot. Everyone likes Canadians.

Oh, what a night.  In the end much fun was had by all and I think we scored a point for white people's rhythm skills.

In the next post I will tell you about the Batwa wedding that we just attended, in which 153 couples tied the knot at the same time.  Some of them even knew each other's names. Intriguing, yes?

Photographs

In the Kibira Mountains...the last strip of forest in Burundi:

Hanging out with Miss Emma, letting our toenail polish dry:

The boys kicking around the "football" in the front yard:

Spaghetti feast the other night with care package goodies from both our sweet mamas (and Grace's mom Lois!), our rad sister Virginia, and our favorite Southerner Christie:

Umm...yeah.  No real explanation.  How did we end up in the same position?

My cool handmade crafts from a women's peace cooperative I visited yesterday.  The women have all lost husbands to tribal violence, and they get together with other women (including those from the enemy tribes) and make crafts while talking about peace and forgiveness.

Don't you love these placemats?  Hand-woven with love.  And these funky cloth napkins?  We always use cloth napkins at home instead of paper anyway since they're more eco-friendly (oops that makes us sound so granola...will you still hang out with us even though we're dorks?)

And that is all I have to say about that.

101 (More or Less) Uses for Ranch Dressing

 This week some friends from New Jersey are visiting the house, and one friend, who had been reading our blog, leaned over to me after a few days here and said "You really weren't kidding about every meal being the same".  I have mentioned before the slight lack of variety in the local diet. So, remember that old gem "necessity is the mother of invention"?  We have taken what we have and have made some delectable (read: edible) fusions that I am sure will make you want to run to the grocery store and make them for dinner tonight.

As background, I should let you know that in a care package a little while ago, a blessed event occured: an angel (you know who you are!) sent along a bottle of ranch dressing. Oh, glorious day.  This was treated in our household as a cause for much jubilation and celebration. Since we have recieved this little bottle of white gold (memo to our readers from Baltimore: not that white gold.) we have created a culinary game of exploration, to see how we can creatively use this delicious blend of spices, buttermilk, and a bunch other other ingredients that I can't pronounce and that are probably toxic preservatives. For good measure, we will also allow other surprising condiments that have arrived by care package in our little competition. But I digress.

101 (Okay, Maybe Less) Unconventional Uses of Ranch Dressing (And Other Blessed Condiments From the Continent of North America)

peas and ranch = definitely edible
ugali (ground cassava flour paste) and ranch = doable, but not for the faint of heart

ugali and ketchup = no, no, no.
pineapple and garlic = only in dire circumstances

pineapple and ranch = not recommended
boiled potatoes and ranch = the "why haven't I tried this before?" winner
bananas and ranch = ...try at your own risk
plain ketchup squeezed in to the mouth = classic.
plain ranch dressing squeezed into the mouth = somewhat less so.
fried plantains and ranch = eh. could be worse.
parmesan cheese = good on anything and everything (even pineapple).
lima beans and ranch = this should come with a warning label

rice and ranch = begs the question "why?"

peas and ketchup = only if Pepto is handy

pineapple and ketchup = face-puckering

Grand Prize of Culinary Creativity goes to our lovely friend Grace, for her incredible burst of innovation: rice with pineapple, soy sauce, and dried garlic and onion - we might be on to something.

Housemates!

We, of course, are not flying solo this summer.  We live in a big house full of people!  To get an idea of those we're sharing our summer with, check this out.

My Nahimana

Jamming out!



Our rooftop hangout:


On a recent hike in the Kibira forest (Hike? Us? Long story...we'll tell you about it another time)


Being a gentleman on aforementioned hike



So, I am going to take a moment here to tell you about my sweet sweet husband Ron. In Africa, he has been rechristened Nahimana, which means "I am here because it is God's way" (appropriate, yes?). At home, Ron is an engineer. In Africa, Nahimana is a rock star.

Principally, Nahimana is a rock star because he has some pretty decent Kirundi skills - rare for a white visitor to Burundi. He is even able to pray entirely in Kirundi when asked, which is pretty often, seeing as he's quite a novelty.

We take walks sometimes in the middle of the day, just around the neighborhood, and the neighbors and those on the street call out his name as we pass, and wave at him like a celebrity. Sometimes, little children, girls especially (Nahimana is quite popular with the ladies, even the baby ones) will come up and try good naturedly to speak to us in English after our Kirundi is exhausted. ("Hello, how are you?" they carefully enunciate, giggling wildly). Then they shyly take his hand. Seems I have some competition.

Nahimana also is a hero on the local soccer pitch, where he makes waves and gathers a crowd every time he plays. He plays in a part of town where there probably isn't another white person in a 3-mile radius, and we are treated with the appropriate curiosity. One day he took a dive for the team and ended up taking all the skin of his left kneecap. It created a scab that covered his whole knee and it oozed rainbows of pus for three weeks. Disgusting. This, however, earned him a lot of respect from his teammates and they are now quite interested in the scar. Men are strange and unfathomable creatures.

Warning to those at home: Nahimana is quite taken with the concept of African time. Good luck getting him to show up on time for anything ever again. If we are running "late" (admittedly a relative concept here), he'll dismiss me with a wave of his hand and "Buke, buke", our shorthand version of the African proverb "Slowly slowly the banana ripens".

Nahimana is also quite popular due to his dancing skills. Africans love to have their white guests come up to dance, so that they may all have a group laugh over what seems to be the entire white world's inexplicable lack of rhythm. (A Ugandan friend said to me recently in worship, "Just stand next to me and clap when I clap. Your people have trouble with this part.") But Ron actually gets up there and dances with the best of him. He has had honorary tribe membership bestowed on him more than once after he has successfully danced to the beat of a song.

In all, Ron is thriving in Africa and I think it will be difficult for him to transition back to life as a non-celebrity.