Visitors and life in Buj

The week of April 9-16th, we had a monitoring visit from our donors in Australia like I mentioned in my previous post. Before they came, I had worked with our staff to plan their itinerary and make sure their visit would go well. The visit ended up going very well. The two ladies seemed to have enjoyed it and were happy with the progress of the program they are helping fund. Personally, I also had a great time. Sure, the long bumpy car rides, the non-stop questions and the standing around waiting for our visitors to ask their questions can get tiring, but the overall experience was personally inspiring. One of the reasons the trip was so inspiring was because I got to hear back from our target populations about the difference our program was making in their lives. It is part of our responsibility to monitor our program and assess impact but often we are so busy with making sure we follow the work plan, meet report deadlines and organize projects that we don't have the luxury of devoting a whole week to just meeting our community and assessing impact. I thought the visitors asked very good questions, and I learned from them about the ways to try and get the truth from respondents who might not be inclined to share it right away. For example, our visitor repeatedly asked tough questions regarding domestic violence, HIV/AIDs and gender equality, which are sensitive issues. Other times, questions were not even necessary to notice the difference our program was making. For example, we attended two literacy sessions where young and old, male and female were learning to read and write and you could tangibly sense their excitement and sense of gained dignity. When we left the first literacy session, the class broke out into a lovely song in Kirundi. The only word I understood from the song was “Amahoro,” which means “peace” I think they were wishing us well and saying may God give you peace. It was hard not to be moved.

The second reason the trip was inspiring was because of the personalities of our visitors. I have never quite met anyone like them. They took pleasure in every little detail, took interest in every person they met and had a contagious positive energy. Before I went on this trip with our visitors, I read a quote by Einstein, which says, “there are two ways to live your life - one is as though nothing is a miracle, the other is as though everything is a miracle.” Our visitors were the embodiment of Einstein’s second way of living. Many years younger than them, I felt as though I was much more jaded and just plain realistic. It ‘s funny how after eight months of working for an NGO and seeing poverty all the time, you can begin to just become used it. For example, our last stop on our itinerary was a visit to a group of Albinos living near the local government headquarters. Albinos in northeastern Burundi have been persecuted and killed due to the myth that their bodies contain minerals that can be used in potions to turn someone rich. Hence, some of them have fled to live in a house provided for them by the local government near a police station. The Albinos feel safe there and have so far not returned to their colline of origin. The house is in terrible condition and having left their farms and houses in their hometowns, they live in dire poverty. 13 Albinos, men women and children, all crammed into one house with no furniture. To make matters worse, the Albinos had their goats living with them in their house, because they did not have a proper house for them outside. This made it so that the house had a very pungent smell. All these things combined with the sad stories of the Albinos, is extremely saddening. Yet, as we walked in, my co-worker and I were business as usual. After all, we have come to this place several times, have interviewed these Albinos, written stories and reports about them, organized awareness campaigns where they spoke and having been supporting them. Our visitors, however, were horrified and one was fighting tears. Their response was the normal, human response. This is when it dawned of me at how I have gotten used to poverty and that, unlike the visitors, I did not see a house in poor condition, but a safe shelter.

After the trip, I came back to Buj and have been here since then. I am contemplating going up country this coming week but have not made up my mind yet. Life in Buj is the same as always. The only difference perhaps is that with the upcoming elections, there is more political activity. Official campaigning has not begun but yesterday the ruling party had a congress and I saw various cars during the day with the party flag and young people chanting.