Tuesday, June 3, 2014

     I had my one and only moment where I was worried about personal safety.  We went to Mission Street, which is kind of a rough street downtown Bujumbura.   It's a great place to find electronics of all sorts.  It was the middle of the day with lots of people on the street.  We parked diagonal on the street which put us about 4 feet from the stoop of a building there, and Gary left me sitting in the truck while he went in search of a "splitter" for the mixer in Branch 2.  While I was waiting, a young man appeared and stood on the stoop directly in front of the truck.  He pulled out a gun and was totally fascinated with it, examining its every nook and cranny continuously.  I don't know if it was real or not, but it made me uncomfortable to have him so close.  He put it to the head of another young man who walked in front of him and that young man looked uncomfortable, avoided eye contact and sped up his pace to get by.  There were no smiles or playfulness on anyone's part.  I sat there for probably a half hour wondering what he was going to do.  Finally he left, Gary returned with his "splitter", and we "split."

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