This month I attended my first senior staff meeting with LWF. We have senior staff meetings in the field once roughly every month. For some reason, I have always been in buj when the meetings occurred. This time, I said I wanted to go and I did. It was interesting and a lot of the meeting focused on logistics issues, which I never deal with it. The people who run projects have to choose suppliers, and in an NGO setting there are many issues that might emerge (partiality, controlling corruption). We also discussed the progress of activities and other issues concerning the entire program. I figured the meeting would be in Swahili/English because my boss doesn’t speak French, but it was actually mostly in French with some English and Swahili. It is amazing how most of our senior staff can easily glide among those languages (this is an addition to their native tongue of Kirundi.)
Word Cup fever has hit Burundi. Of course Africans have always been big soccer fans but this year with the World Cup being in South Africa and the continent having several teams, the excitement is bigger. Many restaurants and cafes have put huge projector screens. I have gone to a few different places to watch the games and I especially liked the screen at bora bora (restaurant/bar by the beach) where they put a screen right behind the pool. With the buj night sky and the reflection of the screen in the water, the view was great. Unfortunately, lately there have been some grenade action and all kinds of rumors so now people are opting to stay home and watch games in small groups with friends.
Let me rewind and explain the grenades and rumors. At first it seemed as though, the first round of elections went well, even though it depended on whom you asked. First there were a few delays. Initially, the elections were supposed to occur on Friday but were postponed twice last minute and finally took place on Monday. So the government ended up declaring thursday (registration), friday and monday national holidays. The party in power won the first round (communal elections) with over 60 percent of the vote. International observers are declaring that the elections were fair while among the populations there are grumblings and rumors of the elections being rigged. Election day was very quiet in Bujumbura but the next day everything was back to business as the results were announced on the radio. However, after a while, the opposition parties started dropping out citing voter fraud. So now, for the next round (presidential vote) there is only the incumbent remaining. International observers pleaded with the opposition to remain in contention with no avail. Then, UN secretary general Ban Ki- moon visited Burundi briefly. People were looking for him to make some type of statement about the first round of elections but he just mainly encouraged leaders to settle differences and to continue to move toward the consolidation of peace. Since then, there have been some grenades thrown in several places in Bujumbura. And since last weekend, there have been rumors of arrests of opposition parties (not true I just found out today.) No one really knows what’s going on and every one blames someone else (government blames opposition, opposition blames government.) In any case, for people leaving in Buj, you would get a text or call for someone advising you against something. American and European Embassies are recommending to their respective citizens to stay away from public places after dark. I read this blog about the incidents and thought this quote accurately describes the atmosphere in buj: “And when the grenades were thrown in Buj, nobody blinked. The dance clubs rocked on until the early morning. About a hundred people gathered around an outdoor TV and watched the World Cup. Most of us had another beer. Not that it's not serious – but this is Bujumbura, where gunfire lulled people to sleep for the better part of 15 years. So let's not get hysterical now, eh?”
You can find the entire article here: http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Africa/Africa-Monitor/2010/0614/A-comparative-guide-to-grenade-attacks-in-Rwanda-and-Burundi
Here are some other articles about what is going on in Burundi:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gnoEAihAa9HNspu97H1jmPjk5Nsw
http://www.english.rfi.fr/africa/20100614-nkurunziza-only-candidate-presidential-poll
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iQktUi9ohBO2a_OMrk9iMM2mMgSQ
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