Tool Distribution

Today is distribution of tools courtesy of FAO, the agriculture branch of the UN. Floresta Haiti is the distributor on their behalf. As I type this I can hear the crowd outside the office waiting patiently, some since about 7 am to get a pick, a machete, and a hoe. I am guessing there are about 500 people. The distribution is being organized through the locally elected leadership, and these leaders met this morning early to coordinate with staff.

Hey! the organization I work for in the NY Times!

http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2010/07/12/12greenwire-devastated-haiti-braces-for-an-active-hurrican-11849.html?pagewanted=

Burundi update:

The situation here is calm and explosions have reduced, the president has been elected and communal officials are now being elected to their offices in the whole country. Legislatives are going to be held at the end of the week. The opposition is weakened and some of them are now coming back to participate in Legislatives. However, the situation is still volatile.

Have you ever wanted to spend a Saturday outdoors, but when you got up in the morning the signs were pointing to rain? You keep checking the forecast, and looking outside to see if you can figure out what's going to happen, but you just can't be sure. You really want to go but then you don't want to get soaked either.

One of Burundi's political leaders and a former guerilla has just disappeared and the rumour is that he has slipped quietly over the border into the Congo. This is a possible sign of rain. But Burundians have a big picnic planned and who wants to cancel?

It is just very discouraging when the people want to move forward, so much wanting peace and a better life while politicians only seem to want to play these deadly games with their citizens as the prize.

From Burundi:

This must remain an issue of prayer! It is quiet during the day but all nights there are grenades explosions in various parts of the country.

Yes one candidate for Presidential elections in on, but diplomatic efforts are multiplied for oppositions to join the parliamentary elections. If these fail to get a compromise, Burundi will be plunged in an very bad institutional crisis come August 2010. But we hope that they will manage to find a soluttion. Civil society and religious leaders have called for dialogue as well as the international community.

Differences so far are party based and not ethnic.

Keep us in your prayers and thoughts

Another Burundi update:

Political situation is getting sensitive every day as Presideential elections with one candidate come closer. Grenades explosions are frenquent in many parts of the country atleast 6 of them are exploded every night.

Update from Burundi:

Our work is doing on slowly, but security situation is getting worse. On Saturday evening 4 grenades were blown in Bujumbura city and On Sunday evening more 2 were blown leaving behind injuries. A journalist of a local radio was killed yesteday after coming from work by bandits stealing from a fuel station.

Movements and public places are being now avoided. We do not know how the situation will evolve as days of presidential elections draw closer!

Burundi election update:

As a matter of prayer, we would like to join us in prayer for electoral process in Burundi. As soon as the local elections held on 24th May were announced, the opposition rejected for fraud allegations and called for new pulls and the resignation of the electoral independent commision before they can go for presidential elections scheduled on 28 June. Yesterday 5 presidential candidates from the opposition officially withdrew from the race. Only 1 opposition candidate remains on the race and has also joined others in calling for the annulation of the local elections before Presidentials.

There is a climate of fear on which road this process is going to take. Pray for God's intervention at this early stage.

Burundi election update:

Situation here is calm although the theme of election rigging continue to grow high with many ballot boxes with votes not counted allegedly being discovered in many pulling stations. The electoral commission is trying to convince the public that they were still kept there for logistic problems! This may be very dangerous in future....

Another update from Burundi:

Bob,

I was able to go with [my wife] the day of voting. People were anthousiasts and voted in calm. Last night, the electral commission announced officially provisional results and the ruling party is coming ahead in all provinces expect in Bujumbura.

In general results are accepted although some irregularities were observed according to the commission and observers. But 8 opposition parties have contested the results that there were rigged. We do not know how it will evolve.

Keep us in prayer as Burundi prepares for the Presidential ahead.

Another excerpt from an email from Burundi:

Greetings from Bujumbura. Thank you for the photo and prayers for our country.

I am pleased to inform you that the first elections for districts passed in peace and these elections predict which party will win the presidential elections . The ruling party is excellently on top .

An excerpt from an email I received this morning from Burundi:

Local elections had started this morning after 2 days of postponment. In Muzye, Rutana porvince, a grenade exploded and wounded a police officer in the voting station in the early hours of Sunday (1:00 am). Those behind it have not yet been identified.

In general situation is calm but people are just fearful and tension among opponents is high. We keep praying and hope for the best.

I have this thing where sometimes after a long-haul flight and I get out in the open air, its like my eyeballs have dried out our something. There's a burning sensation and if feels like my eyelids are sticking to the cornea. It is actually pretty painful, and my tearducts start working over time to compensate for whatever the irritation is. I haven't really figured out what is happening, but I know I don't like it. Today while standing on the curb, I could hardly keep my eyes open or see anything and tears were streaming down my face. I think the woman standing next to me thought I was getting all emotional about being in Canada.

Pretty much every time I go to Kilimanjaro, I stay in the same guesthouse just 10 minutes walk down the road from our office. And pretty much everytime on the first morning after my arrival, I put my briefcase over my shoulder with my laptop, etc, and start up the hill. Literally up, I think it is about a 30% slope so it is a bit of a work out. Usually I pass several school kids, who are traversing the road from side to side, slowly working their way up hill toward the school (they seem in no hurry). Pretty much everytime they greet me with "Good Morning", or "Jambo" (fake tourist Swahili said for my benefit). Pretty much everytime when I get to the top of the hill, I look for mount Kilimanjaro, which is visible about 30-40% of the time. Pretty much everytime I do see it, I feel compelled to set my briefcase down and take a picture (or two). The whole process is starting to feel like deja vu. This time, I did do something different which is check out the tree planting done by the local school with the-organization-I-work-for's support. This planting is probably about 3-4 years old now and doing quite nicely. Students and staff are taking good care of it, and in a few more years they will have a variety of fruits as well as a nice albeit small grove of trees. Check both my usual mountain photo and the primary school fruit tree grove photo below.

I very much regret having to leave Burundi. At least I would like to stay around until the first round of elections this Friday, but I'm already in Nairobi on my way to the next appointment. I guess no one knows for sure what is going to happen, and there is plenty of speculation about all kinds of possible outcomes, good and bad. I wish I had time to just tour around the country, asking people what they think and what they hope for. And I shouldn't criticize journalists too much for not being here; I myself am taking off.

Today I think you and I may have been witness to something remarkable. Since the communal elections are this Friday, today is the last official day of campaigning. Wednesday and Thursday I guess are supposed to be days of peaceful reflection, and election day itself is a national holiday. So today, every party was out on the street, walking, driving cars, renting buses, waving flags, singing, chanting and otherwise trying to show enthusiasm for the party of their choice. We got caught on a main street in a massive traffic jam of party colours and songs. What I saw was different groups from different parties saluting each other with their various party gestures but without malice or hostility. Really it felt to me more like a celebration of the freedom to participate than a belligerent contest. I was travelling in a car with a colleague who is actually from the Congo, and he was just laughing and enjoying the whole spectacle. He said to me,"Bob in all my life as a Congolese, I have only ever participated in one democratic election."

So I'm very hopeful. I know there are rumours out there that things could go badly, but right now, I think many are anxiously optimistic. What I wonder is, where is the press right now? This could potentially be a triumph of democracy, a country moving beyond its violent past, and yet, I see no cameras, no microphones. I did in Haiti. Journalist teams literally on every corner recording as much misery as can be fit into a 30 second clip. So where are they when they might actually have a shot at documenting humanity rising above our baser nature?

I've spent more time on this trip talking about breakfast than I have the elections. Truth is t here hasn't been a whole lot to say so far. Things have been very quiet, peaceful even. I have felt more relaxed and safe on this trip than any of my previous trips to Burundi. One expat who has lived here for several years said that it was almost too quiet.There have been a few politically motivated murders in the past week or so. A Burundian I know who is working quite closely with the election process says that people see an opportunity now to gain power, and they are willing to do anything to get it. However, this is interpreted in the light of rival versus rival, and so far at least, doesn't seem to indicate a pattern of wider social or ethnic violence. Numerous Burundians have expressed this to me in terms of asking God to continue to keep the country safe.

The very first round of elections for leaders at the commune level is this Friday.

Below is a somewhat poor shot of an election campaign parade. Which was mostly a vehicle with flags and loudspeakers. I have seen several larger demonstrations which may have had several hundred people, but these have also seemed relatively peaceful.

Today was Sunday and therefore church plus some touring around Bujumbura seeing the various sites. But before all that there was breakfast. Sorry that my recent blogging seems to centre around food a lot, but below is a photo of this morning's breakfast. Not too terribly exciting except that it represents a small triumph in my struggle with the French language. Yesterday I tried to order a fried egg, and instead got an omelet and fried potatoes. After some language coaching from another guest here at the hotel, I made a second attempt this morning and I proudly display the results below. By the way, what looks like milk is actually yogurt, made here in many kitchens fresh the night before. Very tasty and no additives or gelling agents of any kind.

The next photo is on the Ruzizi river which is just outside Bujumbura and flows into Lake Tanganika. There are several families of hippos scattered up and down this area. I have never seen a hippo get up out of the water like this and was quite excited.

The final photo is of a monument marking the spot where Dr. Livingstone and Stanley famously met. Again in the background you can see Lake Tanganika and the mountains of Congo beyond. After meeting, Stanley went to the Congo from here, and Livingstone presumably went to Tanzania.

Here is the shot of the view looking across Lake Tanganika to the Congo. A bit cloudy, but I think you can see the mountains which are not far off. I'm guessing 20km or so. An hour or so after this picture was taken, the lights of the town of Uvira, became visible. Went back to the same restaurant basically for the fish. And the view.

Tonight I had a meeting with 3 representatives of an education organization working in the Congo. We met appropriately, at a restaurant on the beach of Lake Tanganika where we could look across the lake to the mountains of South Kivu in the Congo itself. I am sorry I don't have a photo of this evening view of the mountains shrouded in haze. It is really quite a beautiful sight. As we talked about the needs in the Congo, the deforestation, the slash and burn, the conflicts in communities, I caught one of the Congolese staring wistfully across the lake. I am also sorry that I don't really have the right words to convey what a poignant moment it was. So I will just tell you that it was quite a poignant moment. Then we ate barbecued fish from the lake, Sangala, or Nile Perch. This I say again is the best fish I have ever had. There is also Nile Perch in Lake Victoria, but somehow it is not the same. Not sure what the explanation is, but I'm just happy that it exists. I should have taken a photo of this meal as well. And the mountains. I may still get a chance before this trip is over.