Oh, FedEx, I am fed up

I had a moment of utter and complete frustration on Saturday.

Some fantastic people back home in the states decided to send me a package.
It ARRIVED!!
I received a phone call saying that it was here. I was so excited.

The man I spoke to on the phone had a rather garbled voice. He told me that there would be a fee on this end. 16,000 franks is what I heard.
What on earth?!? It has all been paid for already!
I repeated back to him, "so, 16000 to get it?"
He affirmed it.
Well, I didn't understand why there was this charge, so I let him speak to Mr. Ken.
…turns out he wanted 60,000 franks. Which is about 50 bucks!
Then he said that if we wanted a proper receipt, we'd have to pay 120,000 franks!

…it was bribe money.

Well, he finally said that if we could get down to the FedEx shop pronto, he'd only charge 60,000 and he'd give us a receipt.
We went down to the station. I SAW THE PACKAGE.
 I even touched it.

…but the man we were dealing with wasn't there.
and the other clerk wouldn't let us take it. He said we had to deal with the other man who was AWOL.

We sat in the office for about 20 minutes, talking to the other clerk, and nothing happened.

So we left. 

There is almost nothing so frustrating as knowing that you have the right to have something but you're not allowed to have it for a dumb reason.

So, please pray.

Pray for the man who is asking so much. pray for the contents of the box (who's to say that the stuff will stay in there?), and pray for my patience and trust in God's sovereignty.

Ants go marching one by one...

There aren't as many insecticides here... and sometimes this leads to pile-ups:

 

 

This is a pile of ants. 

 To distract from that rather unsightly picture *shudder, here is an ADORABLE one :-)

A fell asleep at the internet cafe

 The ants here are quite orderly (as well as numerous!) I was out for a walk, and I saw a STREAM of army ants marching. I stopped to take a few pictures, and some people thought I had lost something. I told them I was looking at the ants, and they looked at me like I was a little crazy.

Ants are not such a big deal to people here, I guess.

 

Live Every Day

Wow, as of the 7th, I will have been a whole 2 months in Burundi, Africa.
Eight weeks.
52 days.
I am amazed at the number of lessons I have learned in this short time.

Another thing that has been a major life lesson here is to really live every day and to not always be looking ahead and worrying over the future.

Some lessons I've been learning have been reiterated. So many times, until it finally starts to get into my brain.

Another volunteer has come out this week, and while I still know very little about the culture, the language, etc. I realized how much I have grown accustomed to! I can laughingly call myself a "semi-old timer"
It's amazing what one adapts to.
When I first came, it's funny how many misconceptions I had about Africa.

I am definitely feeling more comfortable with everything here. I am enjoying every day, and this week at the school was fantastic!

I am so excited for the weeks to come. There are many projects that get to be done.

Here's N and I working with reading groups

The other night, we went out to eat for Carly's birthday. We went to a local Indian place. We had a definite Laurel and Hardy experience.
The waiter was so funny.
Here's how it went:
Waiter: Are you ready to order?
Us: Yes. We'd like a chicken, and if we could get some extra sauce for our rice. The coconut one, the spinach one, and the tomato one
W: Three orders of chicken?
Us: no. ONE order of chicken and three sauces.
W: Three sauces? That is not possible. What do you mean?
Us: the sauces come on the side, correct?
W: yes.
Us: So, can we just get three bowls of different sauces?
W: Yes, with mutton.
Us: we don't want mutton. We want chicken, please.
W: Not possible.
Us: why not? Three bowls of the THREE DIFFERENT sauces.
W: Okay, so you want vegetables? Cheese? Mutton?
Us: No. Just the sauce.
W: I tell you, it is not possible.
Us: well, okay.
W: OH! Gravies? The gravies? You want three?
We thought at this point that he understood…but he came out a few minutes later with three bowls of the SAME sauce.
We tried to make him understand that we wanted three different sauces, but he still claimed it was impossible, so we just decided to send back the two other bowls and eat only one type of sauce.

Labor Day...

Last week was fantastic! I so enjoyed my time helping out at the Egyptian House.
This week has started off fantastically as well! Joy is back at Discovery School, and I am now going to be working with small reading groups of 8 kids (working on phonics, comprehension, etc) teaching some computer classes, and, if there's any extra time, just helping in the classrooms.

I am very excited to start school tomorrow!

Today is the Burundian Labor Day. Everyone is off, and they have a parade for the president. I was told that everyone walks around downtown carrying signs that state what their professions are.
The mental picture I got of this made me laugh. I'm sure it's very different from what I envision, but I rather like my mental picture of what's going down downtown. Everyone standing around, holding picket signs with words like "teacher", "baker", "candlestick maker"...

As far as witnessing goes here, I know that the language barrier is definitely something that hinders (though hopefully it will become less as I'm learning!), but I have had some great spiritual conversations with people around me. I like to remember Augustine's quote: "Preach the gospel at all times, and when necessary, use words." Actions do speak louder than words.

Makenzie/Mugenzi

When I'm not helping with kids or working on a project, I go running as often as the opportunity comes.
I find that it helps me to collect my thoughts, it gives me alone time, it gets my ticker pumping, and the endorphins that come later are soo nice.

Also, with the way that I've been eating here, any sort of exercise is welcome.

(I had many people think that I would come to Africa and starve. I'm sure they imagined I would come back an emaciated person. I can assure you, quite the opposite is happening. My hosts are making sure that I am never in want of food.)

Running also brings out some interesting experiences.
In the neighborhood I run in, every house has a wall and a guard (I've blogged about it on my other blog, here)
The guards are friendly, and sometimes yell things as I pass by. Usually it's just something like, courage, courage!  But once, one was so bold as to ask my name. ...I'm not such a fan of giving my name out to strangers, but I remembered that my name was a convenient one.
"Oh! It's Makenzie!" I said as I ran.
"No, no, your name!"
"Makenzie!"
He shook his head and laughed. I kept running.

My name sounds almost exactly like the Kirundi word for friend (mugenzi).

It's fun to mess with people's minds that way. I keep some anonymity and I'm not being rude by not saying a name.

Another time, I was running at the park (they have a nice 1 km track) and an old guy was running at my pace. As we ran, he told me that he was a marathoner, running in France and America. Now that was pretty cool. He had to be at least 60 (and don't judge my running as that slow...this guy was GOING.)

I enjoy running here, though I do get stared at openly for a few reasons, I'm sure. 1) because I am white 2) because I am a girl (girls don't run much here. They don't get out much either, it seems) and most likely 3) because I am so red faced and out of breath.

Running always makes me think of the passages about running the race of life with endurance. It's a pertinent allegory.

Walk Like An Egyptian

This past week has been lovely at the Egyptian Center.

It has been fun to make the meals for the doctors, help out around the Egyptian complex, and learn Arabic. I accepted an offer to be taught by Mrs. M.So fun!

I am finding myself bitten by the language bug. When you can actually use the language, it makes it enjoyable.

The Arabic is ever-so-slowly coming.
It is like I am again in preschool, trying to learn these letters and their sounds. As you may know, Arabic is written right-to-left.
This befuddled my brain as I was practicing my letters and then had to write something in English.
I started writing my English words backwards.
Oh, my brain!

I have, as you might know, been trying to learn Kirundi, too. It is only spoken in this small area, and it is like Mandarin in that the inflection matters as much as the phonics. It is slowly coming, but the verb tenses give one a headache. I am thinking of switching altogether to Swahili.

On top of this, I am studying French. Most people speak French here, and I think it's such a nice sounding language....if only I can get that accent. I can do a French accent, but not the LEGIT one, where you gurgle in the back of your throat as you talk.

The 8-year-old here at the Egyptian Center, M, speaks fluent French, English AND Arabic. I am trying not to turn green with envy.
She laughs at my inability to gurgle.

Here we are in the car (no A/C so therefore, we roll the windows down, therefore, looots of wind-blowing action.)


My brain is mixed up with so many languages!
I am not yet proficient in any of them, but I am trying to become so.

 My English is suffering as well. More than one local has said that my English is "too strong", which I suppose means too hard to understand.
One stranger told me, "Oh you must be American, your English is so bad."

Talk about humbling!

I find that it is harder to speak in English to people who are just learning it. I have to think about what I say, to make sure it is easier to comprehend. When I speak to someone as I would to someone who has English as their mother tongue, I am met with blank stares and, "I don't understand"s

I didn't realize that in day to day speaking with fluent speakers, I use words that are confusing to those who know little English. I feel like I am almost having to learn English over again, too!

Maybe soon I will just be unable to speak altogether.

It's possible.

Good Works Prepared

This past week, as you may have read, I spent at Discovery School. I was all over the place, two days of helping with the 2nd grade class, and two days of assisting with the preschoolers. I came home every day quite exhausted, but very glad.

I didn't quite have a niche cut out for myself at the Discovery School.

In fact, one day, the headmaster wasn't sure where to put me.
He told me that when Joy, the academic director, returned, it would be easier for me to find a way to help.

She'll be back in about a week. In the meantime, he said, I could choose a classroom and sort of observe/help. But he felt that the teachers had it all under control.

Well, I earnestly asked God what He would have me to do this next week before Joy returns: go back to Discovery School, help out at another school, what?

It turns out, it's a good thing that Discovery School doesn't really need me this next week.

Here's what happened:

On Friday, we had Dr. Noble, Dr. Morgan, and the Morgan family over for lunch. They are all from Cairo, Egypt. They also are all very sweet. I'm sure if you ever meet them, you'll love them too.

After lunch, they started talking about a team of doctors and specialists that would be coming from Egypt here to work free of charge in the hospitals for a week. They would be arriving on Saturday.

As soon as it was mentioned, I got a strong urge to offer my help.

It took me a minute to get up the nerve to ask if I could help out.

Looking back on it, it all seems silly that it would be hard to offer to help, but it was! 

I was attacked by a fit of shyness.

But something kept prodding me to Ask, ask! Ask if you can help! Here's an opportunity!
So I finally did ask, "Would you need any help this next week? Could I help with anything?"

It was met with a, "Really? Oh yes!"

I was elated to hear such a response.

Guess what?
Mrs. Morgan told me that it was an answer to prayer! The last time the team came, it was just her in the kitchen, preparing all of the meals for the team of doctors.
She said it was an overwhelming experience, and she would be happy to have my help!
What a God-thing!

I had been praying for a task for the next week, and it fell right into my lap.

It reminds me of the verse:

For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God has prepared in advance for us to do.  ~Ephesians 2:10

God does have good works planned for us to do!
It's amazing timing: the doctors coming to visit, Mrs. Morgan needing help, and my open week of wanting to help somewhere.

This little event gave me a big lesson and much encouragement. Trust God, because He'll take care of everything.