Mzungu! Give Me!

Today we tried to go DR Congo, but it didn’t quite work. We couldn’t get a bus, and if we went the long way we would have to pay for a visa twice (typical). While we were waiting to find out if we could get a bus , this Burundian guy was hitting on Jill (typical) but I’d say she made the best of the situation. Long story short, she traded our e-mail addresses to him for his Quiksilver hat !

Also, we saw a woman wearing a shirt that said “ I SURVIVED THE ICE STORM!”
There are so many funny t-shirts here!

The day after visiting the deaf and dumb school, we went to visit two communities that had been affected by the war. Rubirizi was occupied by the rebels in 2004-2005 and consequently all the residents had to flee to various countries. People are being repatriated now, but the going is tough. They have no money to buy seeds to grow food. The soil has been destroyed by the grenades and bombs. There are many widows whose husbands were killed in the war, and who have no steady source of income. There isn’t adequate water supply. Many of the houses have no roofs. The health in the area is very poor, and the clinic doesn’t have electricity or water. And, as I was surprised to find out, there is no organization (NGO or other) working to alleviate the poverty of these people.

We talked with the head of the community, and with an association of widows and heard their stories. Jill explained that our purpose for visiting was to experience Africa, meet the people, and go home and tell their stories, in an effort to help bridge the gap between the rich and the poor. Although this may have seemed like a good enough reason to visit, it paled in comparison to the overwhelming need we encountered there. I felt shamed and truly sorry we had nothing more to offer. Then we prayed with them, and for them, and left.

The second community we visited, Muramvya , had also been occupied in 2005, but the residents were not allowed to leave, and so it was essentially turned into a ghetto. At some point someone intervened because it was a violation of human rights, and now they are in about the same situation as Rubirizi. We met a man there who was living with his 95 year old mother and his 10 children. He worked on a farm nearby and made hardly any money. We took him inside his house, and gave him some money to get him through the week, and after Will handed the money to him, he took it and raised his thin hands up to heaven and said “Thank-you…” over and over again, tears spilling down his cheeks. The gratitude he showed was overwhelming, and beautiful. The passage when Jesus says “ Blessed are the poor for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven” (Mt 5:3) took on new and mystical meaning. We prayed for his family before we left, and that moment for me was a moment of divine communion, a glimpse into the Kingdom of Heaven.

Yesterday we went to see the Twa Pigmy people who live not too far from Bujumbura. They were among the poorest people we’ve visited yet. There were a few government houses, but most of the families lived in mud huts. They wore dirty, ripped clothes, and most had no shoes. I doubt they had adequate water supply, or access to medical care. We brought a box of soap and some salt to distribute among the people. Each home we visited we gave six bars of soap and a bag of salt, but there was so much more that they needed. People were constantly asking us for something, using broken English, or by holding their hands out.

One of the hardest things for me to deal with here is that I am looked at as a dollar sign. People see us and will come up and say “ Mzungu, give me!” It is dehumanizing, in a sense, to be regarded as nothing more than a dollar sign. But it is nothing compared to the dehumanizing poverty they live in day after day. Nothing compared to the dehumanizing way the West turns a blind eye to their need, and nothing compared to the dehumanizing complacency that plagues the West.

I’m sorry if this blog was a little bit choppy to read, but our week has been full of ups and downs, and I wanted to include both the “ups” and the “downs” in this. Tomorrow we are going to spend two nights in the DR Congo, and then we will head to Rwanda from there, so please be in prayer about that. Take care, smile at those you love, be careful, be reckless, cry, laugh, be kind to old people and remember you are a beautiful person.

Love and peace,

Bethany

This is what we did today and it made us feel like [insert appropriate emotion here].

“What we are doing may seem insignificant, but it is most important that we do it.” -Gandhi
Today I started re-reading the book that started it all for me: The Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne. Today, I saw a boy beaten in the market after he sold me some bread. Today we visited a school for deaf and dumb children. Today we gave a new set of clothes to a deaf and dumb boy, along with some soap and a toothbrush. Today we visited a widow who lost her son in the war and had both legs amputated last year.

This morning, I went to the market down the street with our pastor friend Jean-Baptiste to buy some clothes to take to a little boy named Joseph at the deaf and dumb school. Deep in the winding alleys of the market, a street boy (some mental retardation due to substance abuse was evident) was selling bread. As I was talking to the boy in Swahili about prices for the bags of fresh-made bread, a crowd gathered. There aren’t many white people in Burundi. Like none. As I finished buying the bread from the boy, I began to feel a bit claustrophobic in the huge crowd. I began to push my way outwards to catch up with Jean-Baptiste when I heard shouting and yelling behind me. I turned to see that same boy in the midst of a group of older boys who were beating and slapping him.

I have no idea what he did to them and why they were hitting him. However, as they beat him, they were laughing with one another so I didn’t really need an explanation. I don’t think I handled it very well. I pushed back to the middle and got really angry at them. After a few seconds, they decided it was in their best interests to leave him alone probably because shop walls aren’t that comfortable. Man, I was angry.

Street boys are called trash in Africa. They aren’t usually considered people. And so they get picked on and abused constantly. I don’t think I handle it very well.

After we finished in the market, we picked up the girls and headed up towards the foothills to the school for deaf and dumb children. When we arrived at the school, we got out of the taxi and were greeted with a different sort of reception. Normally, whenever we go somewhere, we are greeted with cries of mzungu mzungu (white person). But today, we were greeted with silence. The kids surrounded us and wildly made hand motions. Some of them are able to squeak and some are even able to laugh. The silence was deafening.

While at the school, we played lots of games of hopscotch, the always-a-success “balance game”, basketball, and acrobatics. I drew America in the dirt and drew Africa across my dirt rendition of an ocean and played like I was an airplane flying from Texas to Burundi. We gave hugs and smiles and learned a bit of sign language.

We were all standing around playing hopscotch and the balance game when some kid brings out a basketball. And off we went to their old court. So then we did alley-oops, pick-and-roll class, and played some two-on-two. And I didn’t say anything the whole time. But we laughed a ton. And we played hard. And they were the most honest basketball players I’ve ever played with.

As I sit here trying to think about how I would describe the experiences today, the only word that comes to my mind is beautiful. And that’s infinitely inadequate. Beautiful faces. Beautiful people. These are the kids that no one really cares about. We turn away from them because we think that they can’t offer us anything because they can’t hear us or speak to us. Therefore, they are worthless to society. What a lie! Or maybe we just look at them and think how sad it is and then go back to our lives.

In reality, if we would only take the time to notice, maybe we would see that children like these have more to offer society than words can express. Maybe we would learn a little bit about life and love from children such as these. Jesus talked a lot about the little children and I think maybe I saw a little bit of the why today. What joy! What peace! What hope! What love!

Jesus said, “Whatever you did for the least of these, you did for me.” Maybe if we would take more time to look into the eyes of the “least of these,” we would see God. I think that I would learn more about the things that God wants us to know about himself and our place in the world with those kids than I would ever learn in some university somewhere. And it would be a lot cheaper.

I hope we can go back soon.

After the school for the deaf and dumb, we went to visit a friend of Juma and Jean-Baptiste (our pastor friends; we are staying with Jean). Mary Louise. Juma described her as a woman of God. She used to be a teacher and worship leader around East Africa until she lost her legs. They were amputated last year due to complications from diabetes. She is a widow and her son was killed in the civil war in 1995. She lives very frugally in the material sense but I think she is one of the richest people in the world. You walk into her presence and feel encouraged by the shine that emanates from her person. She has hardly anything, but she gave each of us a soda. We sat and talked to her and answered questions and as we were leaving, she offered a beautiful word of advice to us. We prayed for her and left her with a small gift of love.

Days like today and yesterday require me to reexamine my thoughts on God and the world and my place in it. Mostly I just wanted to relate the beauty in people I saw today. When we go to these places of destitution and extreme poverty, it seems that I feel more connected to God. I’m sorry I can’t really explain it, but sometimes I feel like I’m looking into Jesus’ eyes as I stare into the eyes of people who have nothing but hope and joy. And I know that because it’s not right for people to live like this, I must come back someday.

Today, I’d encourage you to let God tap you into the big picture. Get involved. Do something radical. Speak out against an injustice you see. Head down to the local homeless shelter. Take lunch to a homeless man and spend the afternoon talking. Be Jesus to someone and look for him in their eyes. Ok, I’m out for tonight.

Peace be with you.

willyoulove

May we continue to feed each other hope as we dance God’s revolution together. -Shane Claiborne