So the last week or so has been quite eventful, travelling a lot, seeing a lot of old friends and making new ones!
Anyway, back to current events;
We are aiming to go to each of the Shammah Health Center Staff Member’s family homes to meet their families before we leave Burundi, as we have discovered this is the biggest honour you can show to most African cultures. So far we have been to Matabishi’s home - his family are beautiful and so full of life and we are currently with Grace’s family, which we will talk about later in the blog. However, prior to this we went to visit Evereste’s family. Evereste is an Anglican Pastor in Gitega who has been released by the Bishop to volunteer at Shammah Health Center 4 days per week. He used to be a Nurse in the Burundian Army. He is a wonderful man, who is compassionate with all of our patients. We went to have afternoon snacks at his family home on day last week and it was great! He has five children in total and a wonderful wife who is also a pastor. Four of their children had prepared some songs and dances us to welcome us. The child we would like to tell you about though is Ken - he is an 18 month old boy who is the picture of health. However, his story may have been very different……When he was approx. 3 days old he was abandoned by his mother, left half naked in some overgrown grass next to the church building where Evereste and his wife work. The night guard was walking the church grounds and came across this little bundle - he believed the child was dead so called for help. Evereste’s wife was the first person to come to his aid, she picked this baby boy up and discovered this infant was very much alive. Therefore Evereste and their son took the baby boy to the police station. Whilst they were gone a neighbour who was still breastfeeding her other child offered to take the baby boy on if he needed a home, so it was agreed this would be best as Evereste’s wife had no way to nurse the child herself. Little did she know that her son was saying to the police officer at the station, “Our family found him, so he has to become a part of our family now”. When Evereste spoke to his wife, other children and the neighbour, it was decided that the little boy, now called Ken would be the latest addition to the family! A family friend blessed the family with a cow, which was amazing, because from 3 days old Ken drank the milk produced by this cow and despite all the bad press regarding cows milk for babies in the West, he is a very well, happy boy!
Last week, Andy was preparing to go to town in the morning to get some fuel for the Ambulance. He was playing with one of the children (4 year old Benny) on the climbing frame, and some of the YFC management team were waiting to get a lift to town on the school bus from where we live in Masenga. Andy had just finished playing with Benny on the climbing frame, and heard some shouts from next to me in the car park - just above where the climbing frame and children's play area is. He looked behind him, and saw all 5+tons of school bus rolling down the hill, smashing through some of the climbing frame and coming to rest just behind it on top of what was the climbing frame in a cloud of dust! It’s an absolute miracle that none of the children were injured as during the day, they are often playing on the frame. Andy looked at the inside of the bus (engine still running) and turned it off, to find that the brakes had failed. It’s an absolute blessing that it happened before they began travelling as the area we live and work in is very hilly, and would no doubt have resulted in casualties.
At the end of the week, we visited Kibuye hospital with some of the Shammah Staff (Matabishi, Evereste and Mamert), where Anesie receives her surgery and ongoing treatment for her burns. Many of you will remember the photos of her initially, when she had significant damage to the skin/flesh on her skull and face and had lost her sight. It was a different picture completely when we visited her. We entered a small room containing 3 beds, one was Anesie’s and she was sat there with her daughter Esperance with bandages round her head. We all said her name one by one as we walked in, and she began to giggle - it was amazing as she began to recognise each voice, and reel off our names one-by-one. It has been months since we last saw one another and both the physical, and mental healing that has taken place is clearly evident!
For all of you who have supported financially, prayed, and or have just followed the progress of Anesie, THANK YOU. We are so grateful for your support and we know that she is also. Anesie has a big heart, which is full of love, and joy for life and her determination to persevere and to be positive is just so inspiring. Since the last photo we showed you - she has had further surgery on her eyelids, and as previously explained both eyes have been saved and some sight restored in the right one. She actually said this time that she could see us, and make some of us out which is fantastic, and such an improvement on before. Another exciting milestone in her recovery is that the tissue on her skull has granulated enough now for them to have taken a skin graft from her thigh and transplanted it - please, please pray that it takes, this would be so good for Anesie! All in all, she has had 4 skin graft’s to repair her head and to make her new eyelids, which are all healing well and as per usual Anesie takes it all in her stride! Anesie will remain in hospital for some time still, and the next step in her surgery is to continue working on her head as well as repair the damage to her nose. The operations on the nose will be largely cosmetic, however no doubt will make a huge difference again to her quality of life and confidence in her appearance.
Seeing Anesie just before Shammah Health Center closed for two weeks, (so that all of the staff could attend a Christian Conference/Retreat put on by Burundi Youth for Christ, as well as a holiday from work), was great, as we hope it acted as a reminder to the Shammah Staff how God is using them, to literally transform people’s lives. The break has come at a good time, as Shammah opened approx. 5 months ago now and it has been a busy few months, which inevitably has meant illness and tiredness had started to creep in. It will be good for everyone, including us to have a rest and get refreshed to go back to work with added zeal. Andy and I are travelling with our dear Ugandan friend Grace (who we work with) to Uganda to meet her family in Mbale (Upcountry).
Grace has been such a blessing to both of us, particularly Hannah, as they have become very close over these past few months. Whilst in Uganda, we also have the opportunity to see Hellen’s (MD of Lina) family some of whom live in Kampala - our African family!
Grace has been such a blessing to both of us, particularly Hannah, as they have become very close over these past few months. Whilst in Uganda, we also have the opportunity to see Hellen’s (MD of Lina) family some of whom live in Kampala - our African family!
The weekend before travelling to Uganda was an interesting one! We decided to take the early coach to Bujumbura from Gitega thinking that it would be quicker, and safer as it is less busy on the road, but this was not the case at all. We reached Bujumbura only to find that no taxi’s were travelling, due to the government enforced ‘community service’. I say that, however it is not really enforced or doesn’t seem to be, it is just 2 hours on Saturdays where Burundi, and in particular Bujumbura comes to a complete standstill. If you pay a ‘small fee/bribe’ you can usually get through, but we refused to be a part of this extortion and instead just waited. I appreciate some of what I am saying is controversial, but it’s true!
We eventually managed to find a taxi to take us to the BYFC Guest House, but about 5-10 mins into our journey, after avoiding one road block we came across another one with a huge line of traffic and no way back. Our driver stopped and spoke to the police officers, who refused to let us pass. We waited for some time, and eventually were able to get through, mostly due to his ‘white lies’ so we were past the first one. We travelled near to Kinindo, where the guest house is, to find nearby there was another road block/checkpoint and we were stopped again. This time, the Police seemed much more ruthless and serious and one of them demanded our passports when we asked to pass and to see our visa’s. This has NEVER happened to us before, and we don’t usually carry our passports. We reluctantly handed them over to him, and waited for what felt like ages whilst he looked through them page by page before handing the passports back to Hannah and I. Grace’s passport appeared to have a problem, so we had to wait whilst her passport was sorted as there was an issue with her visa. We were eventually allowed to move, after nearly 1 1/2 hours of waiting on a journey which would usually take us around 10 mins from the bus station to the guest house. One of our many frustrations of this week…..
At 6am on Monday morning we set off for Uganda, slightly naive about the journey ahead :) - We decided to travel by coach across two country borders! In total it took 17 hours and was interesting! We listened to African hip-hop music and old skool church music playing for approx. 15 hours, which made sleeping quite difficult. The bus driver was very funny, he seemed to have some anger management issues, as at border stops and traffic jams he would drive off without people and in the end left two passengers behind just as we had entered Uganda. However, despite the bumpy ride we made it to Uganda, Kampala safely. We had never been so relieved to be greeted by familiar faces! Patrick and David Mugisha (two of Hellen’s sons) were there to embrace us and they took us to Patrick’s home to stay with him. What a wonderful experience. We stayed three nights in total with Patrick and his family. His wife Becky is beautiful and so kind and they have the most gorgeous little boy called Jude, (See the picture and you’ll know what we mean).
Whilst we were there David, Benson and Shila plus her two children came to visit for a family meal to welcome Andy into the family as this was their first meeting. It was very serial and special, as Hannah last saw Shila 10 years ago and had only ever seen pictures of David and Benson. We also went out in Kampala with Grace, which was great - wow, Uganda is more developed that Burundi!
Whilst in Kampala, we had the joy of meeting another corrupt Police officer. This time, we crossed the road in the city onto a small strip of grass - following many others across the same route and into the modern looking shopping centre at the other side. We heard a voice beckoning us, and looked over to see a Police officer waving at us. We went to speak with him, and he explained that there was a ‘problem’ and that we had broken the law. We asked why, and he said that we weren’t allowed to walk across the grass and would have to go to court or face an on-the-spot fine.
Hannah began crying at the prospect of having to face a day in court, and Andy was just angry that he had picked on us just because we are white - imagine doing that in England!
By on-the-spot fine, he meant a bribe and asked for $300 which we didn’t even have not that we would have paid him anyway. Andy was quite happy to have his say in court, however it didn’t come to this. The officer said to Andy “LETS SORT IT OUT BETWEEN US”, but Andy played dumb saying that he was a Police officer in the UK and this was NOT how we did things. His attitude quickly changed, and he became much more friendly, and after a handshake told us to go at the risk of digging himself a deeper hole.
From Kampala we travelled by a matatu taxi to Jinja, which is famous for the ‘Source of Nile’.
We stayed one night here to break the journey to Mbale up a little. It was amazing because we saw where the River Nile runs into Lake Victoria. Grace was staying with a friend in Jinja, but asked this friend to recommend some good accommodation for us. When we arrived at the Hotel, we all looked a little apprehensive, as we walked down an alleyway to reach reception. The taxi driver we had at this point waited with us, whilst we viewed the room…..lets just say it was not appropriate for us. When we returned the taxi driver smiled and started saying to Grace, “I can not believe you brought two white people to a Hotel where locals go to sleep with prostitutes!”. Poor Grace had, had no idea - we all ended up laughing a lot and God ended up blessing us with a great Hotel next to Lake Victoria, where we enjoyed some talapia fish from the Lake.
Friday we were back into a matatu taxi heading for Mbale. We are now here and loving being with Grace’s family. They are such humble people, which at times can make you ashamed by how much we have in the West. They are sharing everything with us! In addition to this, bearing in mind we have lived in Africa for nearly 5 months, they insisted on having a toilet and shower built in there home, ready for our arrival, because Mzungus (white people) can not be expected to use latrines and buckets.
He loved carry it back to Grace’s family home by its feet. He felt like a true African! We also had the joy of attending the small rural village church where Grace’s Mum is a pastor. They are still trying to complete the church building, but that does not stop them singing and shouting at the top of their voices for Jesus. The church people were so inviting to us. We particularly enjoyed the children’s choir! The thing that really humbled us here, is that the children bow down on one knee when they greet you. It is mind blowing because you are lucky to get a hi, if you visit a church in England.
When we return to Burundi in one week now, we only have 5 weeks left before moving to Nairobi - how crazy is that!? Thank you for all of your support and for pushing us forward in prayer.
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Love Andy & Hannah xxx
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