Power cuts, games and meeting young people

Sorry about the late blog post, I’ll blame it on the power cut last night..

Thursday 12th July

Now we have got to the point in the trip where most of the team have managed to acquire a nickname, or several, by which they are known. Some are fairly descriptive (such as Bald Pete), whereas some require a little more storytelling (such as fork fingers, Johnny five pants and Billy goat gruff). Some are occupational (the social bulldozer), whilst others derive from a certain standard of living acquired whilst on the trip (the first lady). Other nicknames include: Kisumbu, The grandfather, Maaaaat, Flaggy, The linguist, Obi wan, Quentin and the Dribbler.

I think it’s also fairly safe to say that by now most people have felt the effects of tiredness due to the early mornings and sun. Nevertheless we all rose early this morning to enjoy our fruit salads and croque monsieurs (half and half appears to be the developing way forwards). After breakfast Jon gave an insightful thought for the day based on an extract from the book ‘the man God wants me to be’ which spoke about how, although we may feel at times lost or overwhelmed, God is always involved and ready to protect us and be with us.

For the rest of the morning, we were all together on the ‘football field’ with the boys and girls from the homes, and we were told that next years lot would be joining us for activities. Standing on the field, I think we weren’t really sure what to expect working with kids who have literally only just come from the streets. When they did arrive, however, all the boys from the home ran as fast as they could to cheer and welcome them. I think it is very easy to forget that the boys we have been working with, who have clean clothes and are very polite and joyful, were on the streets less than a year ago. When next years group arrived, it was suddenly very easy to see how much they could relate to each other and how there is a real community amongst them. The rest of the morning was then comprised of games such as Burundi Bulldog, the Hokey Cokey, and a seemingly lawless game of ultimate frisbee. It was great to see how inclusive all the kids were, and they wanted to play football against some others from the village when we left.

After our Italian soup back at Jambo Hotel, some of the younger members of the group (Dan, Melody, Josh, Lorna, Matt, Fi and Annette) (ok they weren’t all young) headed off to visit Bosco’s youth group. Upon arrival we worshipped together for a while before sharing a bit about ourselves and what it is like in England, whilst Fi and Lorna taught some songs to the worship band. At first the group were fairly quite but were soon interested on what exactly is and isn’t a sin in England compared to Burundi (I’m sure you can imagine where the conversation ended up).

 We also talked a little about materialism and individualism and the different cultures between Britain and Burundi. Before arriving at the youth group most of the team were feeling very tired but the three hours felt like it went much quicker and it was overall a great place to go to. We are looking foward to visiting again for Friday evening worship.

The evening was spent once more at Bosco’s restaurant which was great, but definitely runs on Africa time! I will make sure my Dad never complains about restaurant waiting times again. Back home and just before heading off to bed (or writing this if you are me) Lorna was welcomed by an overflowing shower room, and Peter C consequently (being the floor below) a leaking roof (Conveniently dripping straight into his toilet though).

Overall it has been a very interesting day but we are looking foward to a few hours off tomorrow afternoon..

Josh