Very kind people in New Castle, Indiana went shopping and spent a considerable sum on new clothing for children aged 0-12,. It was my joy to deliver half the hoist to Bujumbura, Burundi this week. 

“It’s rare for the children to have new clothes,” said Romy, community coordinator from the campus where I was teaching for the week. 

“The clothes come with much love,” I said, “from New Castle, Indiana.”

In the next few days children in Noepe, Togo, will get the other half of the purchases – again, with love from people in New Castle, Indiana.

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Burundi is not on everyone’s cup of tea but it’s mine.

I love it. 

This morning I had breakfast, two bananas and a bread roll, with the banks of Lake Tanganyika in view. I was on the outskirts of Bujumbura, the Burundi capital..

In my almost immediate foreground there is a community play area, and now, Friday mid-afternoon, scores of children are at play in the beautiful sunshine. They’ve walked home from school to the make-shift neighborhoods. The older children,  those who are about 7 and up, are in their school uniforms. I’m quite accustomed to school uniforms, wore a collar and tie myself for all my 12 years of South African schooling. It’s not their dress code which has my attention, it’s the freedom, the joy, the sheer delight in chase and catch, holding hands, turning in circles until they all fall down which they do more from giggles than anything else. 

Burundi is the poorest nation on Earth but watching these children, I’d suggest the nation may be poor, but this little cross-section is one more proof that wealth and happiness are not cousins, often not even from the same family. 

Deeper in the market areas I’ve seen a series of seven or eight motorcycles parked side-by-side, their riders milling nearby. These men are available for rides near and far, up and down the lake’s coast between Bujumbura and nearby towns. They are poised to take somebody to the hospital, drop a teacher at school, or someone to work. I’m told this is a word-of-mouth informal Uber-of-sorts-station for motorcycles. Prices are negotiated on the spot, cash changes hands, and before you can say “Bujumbura” you’re on the back of the motorcycle skirting potholes and chickens and children and trucks and cars and buses and bicycles, some hauling king-size wooden bed frames, and you’re headed there. Locals wedge a child or two between themselves and the driver and off they go. There’s laughter, there’s fun, there’s friendliness and familiarity as prices are bartered and currency is exchanged, and elderly passengers may need help getting onto the motorcycle and extra room may be found last-minute for an extra child who may arrive and beg a ride.

Conversations with the adult students I have the pleasure of teaching for my week in each location leave me impressed at their knowledge of world events. They are up-to-date on the election of the Pope, what’s going on in wartorn areas of the world, the closest being in DRC just across the lake, and South Sudan. 

Students seem far more aware of world events than I certainly was in my early 20s.

In 24 hours I’m leaving Burundi and heading for a night in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and then I will head for Lome, Togo. This will be my third teaching week in Togo and it is  also one of my favorite countries. I love the air of European sophistication, an essence of French culture that’s beautifully refreshing. 

Burundi, Togo, almost opposite sides of this vibrant continent seem to possess some things in common. There’s deference to elders, a warm welcome to strangers, interest in the foreigner and to those who cannot speak the local language. 

“There’s room at our table for you” may not be a known axiom in these parts but it is declared loudly and clearly in the poorest countries on earth – and I have been to a few of them.

Want to help me secure 70 lbs of new clothes for children in Madagascar?

OpenHand International INC

PO BOX 88 New Castle,

IN 47362

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