Blogging In The Dark

I've been putting off writing an update because Andrew was writing one...but he got bored waiting for me to upload it so he has become a rogue blogger (www.crocodilerocklifeinburundi.blogspot.com )

There was a power cut in the middle of me doing this...I hope it works!

We're safe, we're settled, we're blessed, we're challenged and we're tired...but Bujumbura feels like home already and we're getting to do what we've been sent here to do.

Work

This is by far the hardest, most varied and most difficult job I have ever had. My 1st month on the job has been about keeping the 'ship' steady and afloat...which has been no mean feat. Issues come into my office far faster than can be possibly dealt with...many of which have complicated, traumatic or delicate backgrounds. Praying, prioritising and a sense of humour have kept a complete meltdown at bay.

In my first week of term I had a dismissal, some resignations and two suspensions!

We see the spiritual warfare firsthand. Every day my leadership team and I get hit where and when we're vulnerable. But things are beginning to settle. There's perhaps another month of pain and then we can start thinking about the future.

Please pray for strength

Recruitment...

...is one of my biggest issues. It is impossible to enforce contracts. If a teacher decides to leave, they leave. This means that we have to recruit under pressure; which takes time and risks the wrong decisions being made.

For the Secondary School it is almost impossible to recruit in Burundi. Education here is still in the 'relief' stage, not 'development'. There aren't Burundian teachers qualified enough to teach to at GCSE and A-level standard. So we recruit from Kenya and Uganda.

The issue with recruiting from Kenya and Uganda is that the Burundian Franc is depreciating...so we are struggling to offer competitive salaries. I'm busy putting together a strategy that will reduce our foreign exchange risk and open up new sources of recruitment.

In the Primary School we are losing an English couple at Christmas. Currently they are our Head of Nursery and a Year 5 teacher. A BIG loss! Again I'm trying to find ways of recruiting for these roles.

On a more positive note, we have advertised 4 internships with Hope University, Bujumbura. We are desperate for an additional Admin Assistant and three Classroom Assistants. They are desperate for work experience. But the bar is high; they must have excellent English, a strong Christian faith and be able to work to the highest standards. I'm really excited as a I hope that this will provide an ongoing, mutually beneficial relationship with a local university.

Please pray for God's blessing on our recruitment and relationship with New Hope

Building work...

...is a nightmare. I have many different types of urgent. Things aren't finished. New work is rubbish. New work has already broken. Everything will be sorted 'tomorrow'. We always seem to be one building job away from disaster...and every job is a can of worms.

The sceptic tank at the new school is over-flowing. The builder and project manager were called. The conclusion is that the water table is too high and that no one has a solution...apart from not using the loos...which all have broken seats.

Again...prayer, prioritisation and a sense of humour are key. Most things won't get done. Most things won't get done in the way we want. But we hand each day to God and do the best we can.

Please pray that I will have patience and grace

Finances...

...for the school are ok...just. We self-finance...just. But if we want to improve, grow and create well educated Burundian children we're going to have to work hard at controlling our costs and increasing our income. Boring, but essential stuff.

Please pray for our wise stewardship

Salaries and housing...

...is another priority issue. Historically salaries have been offered without reference to a transparent salary structure. Consequently there are some significant imbalances. The same is true for the way in which housing was offered. Indeed your nationality has had a bearing on your pay and benefits! Not a way to keep your staff happy.

So this week I've drafted a new structure....and next week I see what I can afford to with it.

Please pray that there won't be conflict over this issue

Bursaries...

...are proving tricky. Other than the two orphanages we support, there is no policy for offering assistance to those who need it. If we offered a free space to all the 'needy' we'd have most of the country banging on the door. I've had meetings with refugees, struggling missionaries and penniless pastors. We want to be compassionate, but each time we help we have to make sure we don't create the wrong kind of precedent.

I hope that in the future the school will be able to offer more assistance, but we'll need a clear framework in which to do this.

Please pray that I will have wisdom during these difficult discussions

Getting out of the office...

...is something I want to do more of. It would be so easy for me to never leave this one site. I now have alarms on my iPad so I know when the various break-times are. I try and rotate through staff devotions and already have a couple of assemblies under my belt...and from next week will be reading to the Nursery children each week.

My attempt at working at each site equally is a complete disaster work in progress.

Please pray that my relationships with staff and pupils will be blessed

Examinations Officer...

...is another job title I have now! Receiving the huge Edexcel manual the other week was a bit daunting...but I think I've got it sussed now....as long as I remember to enter the students for their exams.

Please pray for peace over this daunting aspect of my role

Perks...

...do exist though. Every morning I get a (questionable) cup of coffee brought to my desk...though there's too much bowing, scraping and removing of shoes for my liking. Someone will take my dry cleaning in (only £1.38 for suit trousers) or queue for petrol for me. I can borrow money from the office (I'm still not used to always carrying lots of cash). I also get the best parking space and the biggest chair (which sinks after 2 minutes of use)!

Give thanks that it isn't always hard

Planning...

...will help avoid many of our issues. If I bring nothing else to this role, encouraging the school to take the 'longer view' will significantly improve how we operate.

The future...

...is key. Everything I've mentioned so far is just about getting everything settled. But I really want to look to the future. I really want to help the school improve. I really want to allow the school's missional heart to flourish. I want us to be able to help more children...but that's next month's job.

Please pray that the school's future will represent God's desires

Life

Contrasts...

...are a strange and sometimes disturbing fact of life here. Today is pay day for some of our workers...always a slightly awkward time. Not because of what we're paying them....but the contrast with what they spend for us. It's weird on payday to give them a big stack of notes for food shopping and a small pile for their salary. We pay fairly...but it's not a lot.

Technology is such a godsend. We get to stay in touch with friends and family...England doesn't seem that far away. AND......we still get to watch Downton Abbey!! In early 20th century England, the way many things were done wasn't very efficient. But this inefficiency meant more people needed to be employed. The same is true here. And it's curious that on the one hand I want my staff and workers to be more efficient, but on the other I know that if they were I'd need fewer and therefore provide a livelihood for fewer.

(By the way our house, sadly, bears little resemblance to Downton Abbey)

Please pray that we will continue to try and live humbly

Sport...

...still manages to be a feature of Wisdom family life. I'm getting to run and swim fairly regularly. Allie goes to the gym with the girls from church. Andrew still swims. Harry, despite being the youngest in his original year and now being put up a year, is running rings around his peers. Caspar and Felicity are doing PE a couple of times a week.

Sport is very cheap here and this, plus the heat and healthy diet, means we're all shedding excess pounds really quickly.

Fitting everything is a bit of a challenge. I did join my neighbour for a 0530 run-swim-run. The exercise was fine....the time was stupid. He now runs on his own.

Please give thanks for fun and friends

Shopping...

...is another curious feature. The more we explore, the more we find e.g. cheap mars bars. But by shopping around sensibly, we find that we are able to eat very well at a great price. And surprisingly we can get hold of things much cheaper than our workers can.

There's a shop the other side of town which is supposed to be an up-market shop...and it is. But it's really cheap. For a couple of ££ you can bags of lovely bread and quiches...plus five ice creams for £1. You also buy some weird brands of washing powder...'Puff', 'Slurp' and a few others that I can't publish here.

I think the difficulties of living here are still plenty....but God's showing us all these little ways of making life seem less daunting.

Recent fuel shortages hurt though. Ensuring there's enough generator fuel is stressful and right now the car has an empty tank in our garage.

Please give thanks for His provision

Workers...

...are supposed to make life easier. Often that's not the case...indeed staff prayer meetings often include prayer for our workers. Often it's tempting to just do it yourself. But life here's difficult enough as it is and we often have to remind ourselves that employing, caring for and training these guys is an additional aspect of mission out here.

Things are improving and sometimes it's really tempting to employ an army of workers. Working for us as a Saturday guard is the only work that one of our guys has. If I took him on full time it would cost less than £50 a month...which isn't much to give someone a livelihood. But I don't need any more full time workers and I'm not sure how it would be perceived.

Please pray wisdom, peace and grace with our workers

Cars...

...go from the sublime to the ridiculous. Ours is still in customs, so we've using 'rental cars'.

The first one broke.

The second one got sold.

The third didn't work.

The fourth was tiny.

The fifth looks ok...but I haven't really had a chance to drive it yet.

Ours should appear on Wednesday.

Please give thanks that we have a vehicle and fuel!

High Society...

...is another odd thing. We are being very careful with our money. We're spending less than planned. We're not living extravagantly. We try and stay in touch with the culture we're living in. Yet what we do and how we live sets us apart from the the cast majority of Burundians.

Sometimes we have the odd treat to keep our spirits up. Allie and I were out on a 'date' the other day (grocery shopping) and we thought we'd pop into the the new patisserie 'Le Cafe Gourmand'. Once you're through the tinted doors, you're transported back to Europe. It's modern, clean, cool and sells the most unbelievable cakes and pastries. It was amazing! And still comparatively cheap...hand-made, Belgian cakes and coffee for two for less than a fiver!

Please pray that Allie and I will continue to get some time together

Money...

...generally has been a blessing. What we have is proving to be enough....despite having some significant, unforeseen costs (especially from our house in the UK...which is a real headache). Support continues to come in and we're only about £10k from this year's fundraising target.

Please give thanks for God's provision

So...

...all in all, this is the adventure it promised to be. God is blessing us and keeping us safe...and I'm pretty sure we have no regrets.

God Bless,

Jez

Carrots and Burnt Flies

Allie writing on Sunday 2^nd September:

This might be a bit long so I thought I’d start with 10 interesting (hopefully) facts about our lives here, then you can just read that if you can’t face the whole thing ;0)

1. We keep our toaster wrapped in carrier bags so that cockroaches don’t take up residence inside it (obviously we remove them (the bags) before we use it)

2. Jez is honing his tennis skills and is frequently found brandishing his orange electric tennis racket with a gleeful grin and much fascination from small spectators every time it crackles and hisses. Not so good over lunch when all you can smell is burnt fly.

3. Carrots are harder here and so take longer to cook. Less water when they’re growing???

4. The kids have all been amazing at taking their anti-malarials and are very proud that they can  swallow their tablets (2 or 3 each) without water!!

5. One of our guards is called Zebron. He’s great – very keen to improve his English and teach us Kirundi. Cas and Fliss call him Zebra.

6. We sang ‘We wanna see Jesus Lifted High’ at church this morning. In French.

7. I unexpectedly taught Sunday School at church this morning – great kids, I loved it. I had to do some of that in French too.

8. Our foster dog is responding beautifully to the training we’re doing with her. We got a lot of interested looks when we walked her on Friday morning!

9. Cooking separate veggie stuff for me is too much effort so I pick out the meat and Jez picks out the veg and we do swapsies.

10. It’s good to dress modestly here i.e. no clothes above the knee, not too much skin on show eg. cleavage or shoulders. So it’s a bit of a social dilemma when you bump into the pastor’s wife at the pool wearing just a swimming cossie...

Finally, our actual journey!

After all my anxieties about travelling with the children but without Jeremy, we survived!! On Tuesday 28^th August we travelled by convoy to Heathrow, our 15 cases split between 4 cars (thank you Mum and Dad and lovely friends). Check in and immigration (a necessity due to our one way tickets) went incredibly smoothly, even though every single case was over the 23kg weight limit by at least 1kg (except Andy’s guitar case – a mere 7.2kg!). The Kenyan Airways staff were really kind and helpful.

Once through security (where we said an emotional goodbye to my parents) we headed to the soft play area, which turned out to be supervised – yay! So Andy, Harry and I sat around reading/playing on various electronic handheld devices (!) whilst Cas and Fliss searched for stars hidden in the play area. After tea at Pret and a visit to the Official Olympic Store (the kids now all own a cuddly mascot) we headed to the boarding gate where we got priority boarding as we had an ‘infant’ – have you seen the size of my infant?!!

Thank God for all the people who helped us in different ways

Pray for our friends and family in the UK

Film Night for the Wisdom Family!

Thankfully I’d packed plenty of activities to occupy the children on the plane, although sitting in one place for hours was a bit of a challenge. I couldn’t help thinking how roomy the seats were for them though, with lots of leg room and everything! Cas and Fliss were very excited when we took off, and once the TVs starting working they were quite happy watching The Lorax (a new Dr. Seuss creation).

Frustratingly Cassie’s TV didn’t work, though the attendant did offer to find me two more seats together somewhere – perhaps I should have sent Cas and Fliss with him?! I worked out that I could play the film in synchro on my TV and Fliss’s (who was in the middle), and they could both watch Fliss’s screen whilst Cas listened to her sound and Fliss listened to mine. I was very pleased with myself for coming up with this idea and I don’t think she noticed that it was slightly out of sync!!

After their film we did teeth and then I told them it was bedtime now, tucked their blankets around them and they were asleep in 2 minutes – wow!

Finally I had my TV back and got to watch Salmon Fishing in the Yemen :0) Harry is very proud that he watched 3 films (and didn’t sleep at all – talk about grumpy), Andrew slept.

Arrived at Nairobi early morning. We were all very tired and thankfully only had a couple of hours to wait until our next flight. It was great to hear that we were going straight to Bujumbura as sometimes they go to Kigali (capital of Rwanda) first.

Arrived in Bujumbura on Wednesday at 9.15am local time :0)

GREAT to see Jez at the entrance to arrivals and a colleague from school who’d come to translate and smooth our way through arrivals. We were through in five minutes, although collecting our bags took longer. One was missing, which worryingly contained all the children’s DVDs – more important even than all our medicines in the school holidays!! We were delighted when it was delivered on Thursday afternoon :0) Thursday was spent unpacking – we’re nearly there now. All those times I wondered if we really needed all the things we were bringing; now I’m really glad we brought it all.

Thank God that we were able to bring many home comforts and familiar things

Pray for those who manage with so little every day

Jez treats the family to lunch out as Allie cannot face cooking stewing beef and there’s no power anyway!

On Friday we went to a local swimming pool and had lunch there. We have not had a cook since we arrived since the poor guy was admitted to hospital on Wednesday morning with malaria and typhoid – a ‘Burundi reality’ as I recently heard someone describe similar situations. He is on the mend now which is a relief – thank you to all who’ve been praying. Do please continue to pray for him to regain strength, especially as he has a wife and newborn baby at home. We are not sure when he will be able to return to work, but thankfully our guards have been preparing fruit and veg for us which has been a real help – I am missing the convenience of tinned tomatoes and tinned fruit!

Thank God for our lovely guards who’ve been so willing to help out

Pray for our cook to make a full recovery, and for his family

The challenges of cooking in Burundi – and we have it easy compared to most...

It was really hard to arrive and straightaway have to start cooking for us. I had emailed ahead with a shopping list and menu for the first few days, but am having to be very organised as we have to send people to shop for us at the local market, and then can only cook when we have power. The electricity is on a schedule, and is pretty reliable. We seem to have power either during the day or during the evening on weekdays and this weekend have been treated to almost a whole weekend of continual power – yay!

The lowest point was trying to make yoghurt as buying it is quite expensive for six of us. Apparently milk is bought in the evenings, after 8.30, so we sent our guard for some, but due to his lack of English and our ropey French, he bought us unpasteurised milk. After an attempt at pasteurising it, with no power and the gas bottle running out for the gas stove, it was getting late and Jeremy wisely told me to give up! He phoned a local friend who sells pasteurised milk and he kindly bought us some and then showed our guard where he lived so that he can buy it from there in the future.

Someone had said to us the day before “You’ll make lots of mistakes – don’t worry about it, as long as no-one dies!” , and she was absolutely right! I managed to make yoghurt in the end.

Thank God for wise and experienced friends

Pray that we’ll adapt quickly, for patience when things are hard or frustrating, and for energy when it seems overwhelming – thankfully this is not often :0)

Beans and rice...and Nutella

I have been shocked by how expensive food is here – it’s no wonder Burundians mainly just eat beans and rice. We’ll be eating lots of those too. I expected imported foods to be expensive, but everything is, especially as there are no ‘bogofs’ or ‘value’ lines. Many of our basics are far more expensive here than they would be in Tesco – e.g. Loo roll, bread and pasta. Even the fruit and veg cost the same as they would in the UK, and the quality is far poorer e.g. broken and split carrots. It makes me realise how much we take for granted in the UK...

So far I have made granola and yoghurt, passion fruit juice ice lollies, pan-fried cheese and tomato toasties, several kinds of soup, beef casserole (eventually I plucked up the courage to tackle the stewing beef!), tuna pasta bake (someone had left a tin of tuna here for us, not something I’d usually buy as it’s imported and costs about £2.20 per small tin), M&M cookies (we brought the M&Ms and cocoa powder with us), and we had pancakes with Nutella for breakfast this morning. Eggs are pretty cheap , Nutella isn’t - a small jar costs about £4, this is about 2 days salary for most people here. Nutella will be a very rare treat for us.

It’s also quite hard to store food as you get bugs in it. I have gone for overkill, storing all our dry things (e.g. Sultanas, sugar, flour) in Tupperware and/or ziplock bags. Often the food you buy at market already has weevil (I think) eggs in it so I think the other thing is to use rice and flour etc. quickly. Nice. If in doubt I store food in the fridge which is cockroach and bug-proof (though so far no cockroaches)!

Thank God for the variety of food we are able to access, and that we are able to store it safely

Pray for all those whose diet is so limited and who suffer from health issues due to poor nutrition and hygiene

 Pray that we will be good stewards of the gifts God gives us – it’s very hard living amidst such poverty – there are good reasons why it’s not right for us to live just on beans and rice twice a day, but it still feels very ‘wrong’...

Pants

The water is okay at the moment and has only gone off once for a couple of hours, just as I was about to wash all the underwear! Washing all our underwear is certainly an excellent incentive to encourage the kids to wipe their bottoms properly...

Thank God for clean (though we still filter it) and plentiful water

Pray for those with no water supply to their home, and for whom doing the washing is a huge burden

Out and about... on foot and on the roads

We’ve been visited by lots of friends which has been really, really lovely :0)

We’ve also been out to see people as well as for a few outings to see local places of interest (!) – the new gym that has Zumba classes, a great boulangerie, a local sewing project to buy a new  purse for my Franbu (Burundian Francs).

I have even been driving around a bit which hasn’t been as bad as I thought as I’ve only been out when the roads have been quiet. Tomorrow I get to drive to school for the staff meeting, during rush hour – eek!

Unfamiliar right hand drive automatic 4x4 + driving on the right + unmade roads and potholes you could fit a person in + loads and loads of construction work + other drivers + no speed limits or highway code = drive confidently but with caution – “always assume it’s your right of way” – okkkk....

Thank God for kind friends here :0) and that he’s given me the confidence to drive

Ask for protection for us and all those who use the roads, there are very many traffic accidents here, especially as there are so many bikes and motorbikes, and very few helmets worn.

Will the school holidays ever end?!

The kids have been bored and squabbling. They’re hot and tired and grumpy, and ready to go back to school. They all broke up in early July and by the time term starts on the 10^th they’ll have had about 10 weeks of holidays – which is several weeks too long. We’re all looking forward to more of a routine. It was so good to go to church this morning, and we have school meetings next week where I’ll get to meet the rest of the staff. Andrew’s leading worship at the staff meeting tomorrow morning and has already been in touch with the guy who organises the music group at church – why hang about?!

The school timetable is almost done and I’m going to be working on Mondays and Thursdays teaching RS to years 7-13, which I’m really looking forward to :0)

The children have already made some friends and had their first play date yesterday, where they all played really nicely with the playmobil, girly bits (pram, dolls etc.) and then on the Wii. 

Harry saw some friends this morning that he met back in February, they’re in his year at school. I think because the ex-pat community here seems quite transitory, people make friends quickly – at least that’s our experience so far :0)

Thank God that the children have already made some friends and that Andrew has plenty of opportunities to be musical

Ask God to give me patience with the children and for good meetings at school this week

And finally...

Have to finish quickly as we’re off to the orphanage in a minute to watch a talent show!

We’ve been busy skyping friends – it’s been great. We’ll soon be in touch with other people we said we’d Skype.

Church today was great – we sang several songs we knew, and some we didn’t, in English, French, Kirundi and Swahili! Jez and Andy can tell you about the rest as I was in Sunday School where we looked at this verse from Micah and how we can live it:

Micah 6:8

New American Standard Bible

“...And what does the Lord require of you
But to do justice, to love kindness,
And to walk humbly with your God?”

Weather – hot (I thought it was about 28 but I think the thermometer might be stuck as it says 28 all the time...), sometimes humid, sometimes breezy. Very rainy at the moment, mostly in the night, the noise on our tin roof is deafening, and the rainy season isn’t due for several weeks.

Thank God for the amazing talents of the great kids at the orphanage; for Skype; and for our new church. Also that we are all coping with the changes so far. There are many challenges but we’re ok.

Pray that we will soon feel that BICC (Bujumbura International Community Church) is ‘home’ and that we will find an English-speaking house group to join. Also for a bit more family harmony, that would be good!

Lots of love xxxx