Last Friday, our guard Fabrice came to work quite late, agitated and needing to talk.  He explained that he had been at school when, at about 4:00pm, a man from the bank who was on campus was attacked by some thieves.  They shot him 3 times, once in the face, once in the neck and once in the torso. The thieves stole 4,000,000 Burundian francs from the man, which totals about $2600.   Fabrice saw it happen and watched the man die before his eyes.  Police gave chase, and the robbers shot and killed the policeman who was following them.  Poor Fabrice was a bit traumatized by the events of the day.  Quite unsettling, to say the least.  There does seem to be an uptick in violent crimes.  We also receive notice from the Embassy or from the Church when there is going to be a large demonstration.  For example, Wednesday there was a protest concerning the level of taxes the government places on gasoline.  Now gas is not available, for the most part.  We were warned in advance and filled our truck and our bidons full of gas late last week.  The protest is an attempt by the people to get the government to reduce the level of taxes it collects on gasoline.  We shall see if it works.

     One of the members in Branch 2 has come up with a project that he hopes will help alleviate hunger and malnutrition in Burundi.  He invited us to his home for a demonstration.  What he does is use soy beans to produce soy milk, soy cheese, and a side dish consisting of the remnants of the beans after they have been cooked, mashed and strained.  To this bean remnant, you add sautéed onions and spices.  From one kilo of soy beans, you can produce 7 liters of soy milk, some soy cheese, and a large amount of the side dish prepared with the onions.  Because it is made from soy, it is a great source of protein and other nutrients.

This is the soy cheese.  It was actually pretty good!

This is the remnants of the beans with onions and spices having been added.  I really liked this dish.

The yellow container holds some of the soy milk.  It was better than our carton milk with the chunks, for sure!  You add a small amount of sugar to the soy milk to make it yummy.

The man on the left is Juvan, the man who wants to promote soy products.  President Jean Rene is on the right.

This is Juvenal, one of the counselors in Branch 2.

Hopefully, Juvan will be successful in his efforts to get more people making and consuming soy products.  It's really a great idea!  From so little (1 kilo), comes so much.  He has done demonstrations in Branches 2 and 3, and we need to schedule him to do one in Branch 1.