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