A weekend in Burundi...

So much has happened just over the weekend.

The scariest…

Friday night I was driving to a steam room with Seth and Myal. I was sitting in the back seat of the car. I wouldn’t exactly say that Bujumbura is the safest place to go at night time. So we were slowing making our way through downtown. We were rounded a corner pretty slowly. Suddenly I heard a loud thud hit the back of the car, my head snapped to the rear. It sounded like a huge rock or a gunshot or something. I made a comment to Seth and barely had I spoken when there was another bang and the rear window shattered. I ducked over in the seat, instinctly; I don’t even know what it was. Seth just sped up. We still don’t know what it was or who did it. I think it was the guys in the cars next to us. I had been watching them and they were eyeing the car. Who knows? But that was my first experience with violence…

Gladly I can say that I haven’t heard any gunshots in the night yet. Seth and Trina say it’s been a couple of weeks since they’ve heard gunfire in the night. It is quite normal to hear gunfire, however I still have yet to experience that.

The strangest and most surprising…

I tried frog legs. Yes, frog legs. I didn’t eat the whole thing, I really just tried a couple of bites of my friend Brandon’s it had been his idea. So I tried it. I have no idea how is it that I could eat Frog legs, yet seafood makes me sick. Maybe its because Frog legs tastes like chicken, and since there’s not much chicken around here…what’s a girl to do?

A pleasant and beautiful surprise…

Lake Tanganyika. It is beautiful. Today I went down to the beach with Brandon to experience my first time swimming in the Lake. There were some waves so there weren’t any Hippos or alligators, (Thank God). It was so much fun just chillin in the water as the waves crashed over, and when we weren’t swimming, you just sit under these, grass/bamboo little pavilion things, laying in the sand, with the lake and the Congo on the other side.

The details…

I drove yesterday. Trina gave me a driving lesson. Driving in Burundi is completely different than the US. It’s like a frightening game of dodge. You’re dodging cars, coming at you in your lane, cars trying to cut you off, Motos all over the street, bicyclers, pedestrians, and huge pot holes, narrow roads and no rules. No rules at all. It’s fend for yourself and hope you don’t hit anything. No street lights, no stop signs really. But I did survive my first drive around; this included a lot of honking, flashing and swerving. And the car was a stick. I think I deserve a metal.

Things I am missing…

My teens, one of them emailed me this week, it made me want to run home to be there for him. My Burundian Refugee family in DC. However I did call them yesterday and talked to them with my couple of words in Kirundi. Iced Mochas. (I hear I can get one in Rwanda;) Only one country away…) Other single people. There are a lot of married missionaries, but not many single people. Diet Coke. Being able to go out and buy a book when I need to read something new. Having someone that understands me and knows me to talk too at the end of the day…

C’est Fini. There will be more amazing things to add soon of happenings of my life in Burundi…