a picnic

Being in Burundi 4+ years now, Seth and I have seen our little capital city of Bujumbura slowly (“buke-buke”- slowly, slowly) grow. A few more mzungus are spotted in town. Traffic has become even crazier. And more restaurants are popping up— we now have Italian, Indian, Ethiopian, two little cafes, and an assortment of the more traditional Belgian / Burundian food! We even have THREE coffee shops—Aroma, Geny’s, and Cappuccino! Buja is becoming a happening place.

Despite this growth, we often find ourselves on Friday afternoons thinking, “what the heck are we going to do this weekend?” While the options have increased, they remain few. Our friends in the US and Europe are likely jealous of this problem; we remember the crazy weekend planning and there never, ever being enough time to breathe. But here, we’re still in slow-paced Africa, and sometimes we have to get a bit creative to entertain ourselves.


Thus, this weekend, our friend Jonathan and I planned a Sunday afternoon picnic for our group of friends. We deemed it “Food, Fear, and Fun.” We took the idea of a simple picnic and upped the ante by locating it in the Ruzizi National Park. The Ruzizi is a small park just north of Bujumbura along the Ruzizi river (thus named) and boasts viewing of hippos and crocodiles. We weren’t sure if our friends would be game to brave crocs and hippos, mosquitoes and sun to enjoy an afternoon of food delights along the river with us (and, we have to admit, Seth was among the skeptics). But, we were bored and felt creative, so why not try?


Alas, the combination of “Food, Fear, and Fun” turned out to be great fun. Thirteen of us convoyed out and entered the park together. We talked the park guides into a discounted group rate and even got permission to enter without an armed escort! We plopped our blankets, food, and eager selves along a grassy spot along the river, and it was near perfect! Sure, there were ants (always a picnic menace), the ground was a bit bumpy, and there may have been hippo poop we had to step around. But we enjoyed the flow of the river… the huge flock of birds on the grassy island in front of us… and the pod (what a group of hippos is called) of hippos lazily enjoying the afternoon, a safe distance away.

I think we indulged in at least three types of potato salad (Seth was in potato salad heaven. He loves the stuff!), pasta salad, watermelon, and even Nitro Teddy cookies that Jeff brought. Hilarious, they’re really named that! For the most part, the sun hid behind the clouds so as not to bother us too much and we really enjoyed our time. An afternoon of beautiful Burundian nature and wildlife. Old and new friends. Good food. Exploring and adventure.

I think I can still enjoy the simple African life.

For Kimberly

In Oregon, October last year, some friends and family requested that I blog again. Our dear friend Kimberly being one of them. At that point, it had been nearly a year since I had blogged... and now, 8 months since that request. Yet, the earnestness of her request lingers in my mind. Thus, here I write!

Obviously, BLOGGING is a bit out of my system, and I thought it had dropped in popularity with everyone face-booking and twittering. What do I know about social media and networking from here in Buja? Ha! (Granted, I do get turtle-speed internet on a data plan on an i-phone here).

But sure enough, I checked up on some of the old blogs I used to frequent regularly... Bekah... Tabs... and some of my friends and family with kiddos. They're still at it!

Perhaps I should give it a try again. For Kimberly. :)

But then begins the monumental task of beginning a project I let drop nearly two years prior! Do I summarize our lives since that time? Memorialize it in photographs? Oh my gosh, not possible! Do I jump right in?

Let's suffice it to say that Seth and I are still in Bujumbura and still really loving our lives here. The eternal sunshine. The old and new friendships. The film projects that are now coming Seth's way. Challenging projects and a great new boss for me in World Relief. The tennis tournament I won last weekend. Our weekend to a relaxing beach house in Kigoma for the fourth of July weekend with a bunch of friends.

And it's still challenging. Sometimes we feel stuck and discouraged in relationships, work stuff, and life. We now often joke with friends saying, "You know you've lived in Burundi too long when... " and complete the phrase by describing a random habit or idiosyncracy we have picked up while living here. And there's a few...

So what was that? Maybe a mix of a summary and a jump right in. Writing about where we are now... and thinking about where we are going.