Today, instruction in preparing a typical meal, Burundian style.  Our missionary candiate, Remy, will be our chef du jour.  Here he is,  having lit his charbon (charcoal) fire.

Next step is to carefully wash your beans.

Add beans to your pot.

                                                    Cook your beans for 11/2 hours.

 In the meantime, add chopped onion to your rice (after you have washed your rice.)

                                                     In another pot, heat palm oil.

                                         Chop up tomatoes and onions,

                                                    and add it to your palm oil.

                                  When your beans are done, add some tasty ling-linga.

                             Then pour your palm oil mixture over your bean mixture.

                    Scoop some rice onto your plate, and pour the bean mixture over the rice.

                                   Et voila!  This is what they eat every day for dinner.
                                            Thanks to Remy for the demonstration.

     I have been tying to do training in the Primary, trying being the operative word.  Branch 2 and 3 came at the appointed hour and we had a good meeting, with Carol Van Wagoner showing them some music.  It was great---everyone loved learning some of the Primary songs.  But Branch 1 has been difficult.  Three times I scheduled a meeting with them and three times they didn't show up.  The 4th time I sat and waited an hour and was just cleaning up to go, when 2 members of the Primary presidency arrived.  The president did not come again.  I was quite irritated until I found out she has only been a member for 5 months.  Can you imagine being Primary president after being in the Church for only 5 months?  On top of that she is a single mom.  I bet she is so overwhelmed and clueless.  I need to talk to her.  Sunday we are going to Uvira to do Primary training there.  Van Wagoner refuses to go to the Congo, so I will be flying solo.

     On Sunday, the member who fled Burundi for Belgium and eventually Canada spoke in sacrament.  He told about his son being called to serve a mission to the Mandarin speaking mission in Montreal!  Here he is, a black French/English speaking young man,  and he is sent to teach Chinese people in Montreal!  His son went and was struggling with the whole experience,  feeling a little down.  He wrote his dad, saying his patriarchal blessing told him he would "serve his people" and so what was he doing teaching Chinese people in Canada?  By the end of his mission he came to understand that he WAS teaching "his people", that all children of God are his people, that all are our brothers and sisters.  He came to love the people he worked with, and in fact, this month, he is going to China to spend a year participating in an educational exchange program, attending a university there.

     Back to Primary.  Imagine a Primary where there are no teachers, only the presidency, no dividing into classes, no music director, in fact, no music.  They don't sing Primary songs here because there is no piano, no way to even know what the tune is.  Visual aides are almost non-existent.  There is no nursery for the youngest ones, so they sort of cause chaos wherever they go.  I have to contrast this with a YW summer camp Brooke just went to.  A camp-out with a theme (Girl on Fire), and activities such as archery, canoeing, firing guns, etc.  And there was food.  What an ocean of difference between  the organization of the Church at home compared to the level it is functioning at here!  We really are seeing modern day pioneers over here, watching how the gospel is changing lives, watching the beginning of the Church in our day and time.  It can be exciting, it can be frustrating.  I bought CD players for the branch Primaries along with CDs with Primary songs.  We are teaching the leaders some Primary songs and waiting for branch presidents to call music leaders.  One step at a time.

 This is me at the garden that Branch 1 tends and harvests.  When we were there, the ladies pictured were quite upset because someone had come and stolen all of their beans.

 Gary with our friend Aloys. ( Gary is the short one.)  Aloys is 6' 8".  He is tall and moves with a fluid grace.  There is something elegant about the man.

Some fishermen on Lake Tanganyika early in the morning.

     I thought I would share with you some more photos of our home-away-from-home here in Africa.

Except for this first one.  I couldn't resist.  This is a bunch of chickens on their way to market on a bicycle.

This next picture is one of our resident geckos chillin' in our front room.

Now, for your viewing pleasure,  for all of you art connoisseurs,

 here is our one and only painting that hangs in our house.  I have to reach up with an extended arm to touch the bottom of this painting.  They tend to hang paintings very high on the wall!  A thing of beauty is a joy forever.

These are shots of our yard----a flowering bush, a potted plant in front of our house.

And, last but not least, birds in our driveway.  These guys sing like robins on steroids!

     I would like to share some points of reality that I am learning.  As a somewhat complacent member of the church I never took time to think about the General Missionary Fund or its purpose.   I always placed my emphasis on Tithing and Fast Offerings, mainly because those were the questions being asked.  Making a donation here in Bujumbura, Burundi is a major sacrifice no matter how much the donation is or what category is chosen on the donation receipt.   

The average worker here will earn in a day about 5000 Burundian Francs.  Converted to dollars, that is $3.26.  Multiply that by 6 or sometimes 7 days it will be $19.56 a week or $78.24 a month.  That is if they are lucky enough to get a job.  Most of the students when they graduate our equivalent to high school or college will not get job.  

We are currently working with 22 young Elders and Sisters in Bujumbura and 14 in Uvira/Kulundu to prepare them for missions.  We received from Uvira/Kulundu alone this Wednesday 9 missionary applications.  Included on the application is the amount they or their families will be contributing on a monthly basis to support the missionary.  Also included is the amount of contribution the Elder or Sister will be making as a one time amount in preparation for the Mission.  We have yet to see any monthly amount listed from any family and usually the candidate will make a one time donation of 20000 to 30000 BIF or about $13.00.  So in this area the missionary candidates are completely supported by the Mission.  We will provide them what they will need to get to the MTC and all the clothing that is needed.

The full time missionaries,  most of them are in the same position though I know a few come from families capable of handling the monthly expense.  We support at the moment 10 full time missionaries.  They receive average 220,000 BIF ($144.00) each a month. That covers food, personal items, phones.  Which by the way is more money than they earned when they were working at home.  So where does the money come from to support these and many other missionaries in Africa and the world?  As I am learning, most comes from the General Missionary Fund.  If that fund was not there the 36 missionaries here preparing for missions would have no way of serving and most of the full time missionaries would not be here.  The 15 baptisms that were performed in the last two weeks would not have happened. The work would be left up to the members here which would probably be very few.  If it were not for the faithful members through out the world that truly understand the doctrine, truly love the Lord and support him in his quest to bring all his children back to the fold,  none of these members would have the chance to serve.  You need to thank all of them and remind them how appreciative the members out here are.  How appreciative we as support missionaries for the Branches are.  And how their contribution has and will continue to effect the growth of the church here and everywhere else the support is needed.  They, the members there, literally have a direct effect on the growth of the church here in Burundi.  I do not have words to express completely how wonderful the members there are and how deeply we love them for their choice to help in the Lords work. To truly bring salvation to every kindred, tongue and people.  Sorry to be gooshy, this really isn't me.  But I had to do this so I could get over it and move on.  Love to all.  Gary

  

     Hey, Kelton, Luke, Ryan, and Cameron!  And anyone else who would like to see BATS!  There is a large colony of bats here in Bujumbura, about 5,000 I am told.  All day long they hang upside down from the branches of some large trees that border one of the main roads in town.  It was amazing to look up and see the trees packed with bats.  It was like brown furry clumps of an exotic fruit.  These are fruit bats,  a larger species of bat than our little insect eating bats at home.  I believe they are called flying foxes.

One evening we decided to go to the trees to see the bats take off for their nightly flight.  We got there about sunset.  Gradually they started getting more and more agitated.  The noise was loud from all these bats and got louder as the time came for them to take off.  Finally it was time to go feed all night on fruit, and small groups would take off together.  It's really quite a sight and sound to stand and watch this happen.  Pretty amazing!

I had taken a few photos at a sewing class Sister Van teaches and had them made into prints.  Yesterday at a baptism, I spotted a mom and her cute little boy.  I had taken a picture of the little boy so I handed the photo of him to the mom.   Her face lit up from the inside out,  and she was so very grateful.  I suddenly realized that most of these moms have never had a picture of their cute babies.  I thought about how much I love having photos of my kids and my grand babies and could not imagine never having had a photo of any of them.  Suddenly I realized the reason for the depth of the mom's joy and promised myself I would take more photos and give them to these moms.

     On July 16th, we had a fun activity with the full-time missionaries.  They organized a soccer match with the branch missionaries and about 12 non-members.  The day of the match there was excitement and anticipation in the air.  We provided them with very handsome new soccer uniforms, water and oranges during the game, and then everyone gathered at the church following the game for Burundian's favorite treat, a Fanta soft drink in a bottle.  We ended up with about 60 young people at the branch.  It was nice to see so many young people at the Church.
                                                                 Our Team

 
                                                               Cute Zone Leader

                                                            Our Team on the Field

                                                                           Action!

Wednesday was a good day!

     Gary and I received a document, 6 type-written pages, written by and in behalf of the members of the Church who live in Bukavu, Congo.  There is no branch there, but these members have organized themselves into a group of faithful Saints who hold sacrament meeting every week, followed by a missionary training class.  They have 13 newly baptized members who had to travel 4 hours to Uvira to be baptized, and 9 young adults who are preparing to serve a mission.  They wrote this 6 page letter pleading for help from the Church---for a meeting house, for full-time missionaries, for a missionary couple, for teaching manuals and song books.  They would also love to have visits from the Mission President or his representative.  They so sincerely and fervently desire these simple things from the Church, things we take for granted, that, feeling the depth of their pleas, it almost makes you want to cry.  They are carrying on the work of the Church and living the gospel without any support or supplies from the official body of the Church.  Someday soon I hope they will receive all that they requested.  We passed their letter on to the Mission President.

     Just thought I'd throw in some random shots of Bujumbura before I begin:

                                                             We had Jonathan (young, Canadian UNICEF worker) and Delphine (Diana Ross look-alike) over to watch a movie last week.  We popped corn and watched Dances With Wolves, a movie neither of them had ever seen.  Only problem is, for some reason, this copy of the movie is without sub-titles, so whenever the Indians are speaking, you have no idea what they are saying.  Kind of reminds me of living in Burundi!

     We were invited back to eat dinner with the family who is here at their hotel until the end of the month.  When we went there for the first time, she, Beatrice, told me that you are only a guest the first time you come to a Burundian's home.  After that you are family.  And she means it.  When we arrived for dinner, we found out family complications/problems had come up,  preventing her from being home to prepare dinner.  So she called her sister who lives here in Bujumbura and asked her to prepare dinner for all of us!  We went to her sister's house rather reluctantly, feeling as if we were imposing and thinking we should probably should just go home and try to come for dinner another night.  Beatrice wouldn't hear of it.  She gave us chocolate from Belgium called Galler (Jared's favorite from his mission) and the movie Frozen in Blue Ray with a French version available.  Her sister prepared a very nice meal---chicken, rice, linga linga, peas with plantains, avocado/tomato/onion salad.  Dessert was yummy sweet pineapple and Japanese plums, which were something we had never tasted before.  The brother-in-law is a retired surgeon, and he and his daughter spoke very good English.  Conversation was comfortable.  After dinner we had lemon grass tea.  She picked the lemon grass from her garden.  It was excellent, especially with a spoonful of sugar.  The background music was upbeat, Congolese music, she said.  The host family, whom we had never met before, tried to give us a king-sized mosquito netting because in dinner conversation we were talking about our current netting having some holes.  They immediately got up, went to their closet , put one of their own mosquito nets in a bag and insisted we take it home with us.  We didn't, but how generous and what great hosts they are!

More random shots: