Our Time in Burundi Draws to a Close

As previously said, I’m in Nairobi. And I’m not here on a visit. I have a new job. I wish I could say WE live here now but alas the family is yet to arrive. After six years in Burundi it is finally time to move on. At face value it should be an easy decision to leave a chronically troubled, economically tanking, hungry and sometimes violent country. Unfortunately it’s more complicated than that. Over the past six years needless to say we’ve grown rather attached to the place. 

our first month in Burundi, easy to see the attraction

We moved to Burundi in 2010, soon after the previous controversial elections. If you were to graph the growth and stability of the country you’d have a gradual improvement from then until 2014. You’d then see it begin to dip late in the year and then begin to plummet in 2015 – a decline that continues to today.

by April 2011, Kiran was well on the way

With this as a backdrop, we set up a home in Burundi. It was almost love at first sight. The people. The tropical-without-the-intense-heat climate. The beauty. Easy to get around. Yes, there are things that Westerners have to do without but after our time in Tanzania, particularly in Kibondo back in the day, we were not in need of luxury. The violence was never too bad until last year. Even then we rarely felt that our family was in any kind of danger.

...and then we were three

 The friendships have been important. Over the past few years we have met some really wonderful and interesting people. Great Burundian friends and colleagues. Expat friends that have moved on. Expat friends and colleagues that we are leaving now. It has been a rich experience.

Kinaya arrived in 2013 - and then we were four

Professionally I’ve been very blessed. I have had a fantastic team that are both talented and wonderful to work with. The organization tripled in size, peaking out at about 430 staff. We did some great work in support of a population that has suffered off and on for decades. It really gave you the feeling that you were having an impact on the country.

Singapore in 2014

My departure has nothing to do with the declining situation in the country. If fact we had initially committed to 4-5 years and it ended up being quite a bit longer. I prolonged my time there to navigate last year’s crisis. Now, with things having stabilized a bit, at least compared to how it was, and a new program management team in place, it’s time to make my exit. 

the Seychelles in 2015

On a personal level it’s not quite as evident that it’s time to depart. We are plugged into a good community and the girls are in a good school. We have a diligent and loving nanny. And so forth. To be honest, there will never be a good time to go when one considers all aspects of one’s life. But we have discussed it, prayed about it, discussed it some more and it’s become clear that it’s time. On to Kenya.

opening farewell gifts during my last weekend

Harare

It’s been a while since I’ve had time to sit down and write – about anything. Closest I’ve come has been jotting down meeting notes.

I was looking back to see what the last blog post was and I was stunned to see that it was to discuss events so long ago and a world away. So much has happened since then.

After returning to Burundi, I was in Burundi for a couple weeks before heading off to Zimbabwe for meetings. I realized this afternoon that the blog entry that I wrote while I was there never was posted. So here it is:

8 September

I’m in Harare, Zimbabwe, as I type this. I’m here for meetings this week. I’m my first time here and, in spite of its troubles, I must say that I think it’s pretty nice. I’d heard good things about the country/people/climate and it didn’t let me down. Obviously the country has struggled over the past few years. It’s suffering economic collapse, a cash crisis, poor production (land reform), stagnated foreign investment and of course political turmoil. You would think that the place would look like hell but it doesn’t. You can tell by looking around Harare that at its high point things were probably quite good. It feels like a proper city that has let itself go, sort of like Marlin Brando in his later years. It’s a shame, actually, and most Zimbabweans will tell you that it didn’t have to be this way. It could have been the shining start of Africa.

my hotel, pretty sweet place actually

Most are aware of the general reasons behind why things are the way they are. If not, I urge you to look it up.  It’s a fascinating and rather sad tale of abusive colonization, economic progress, wacky retribution by the cliché African Big Man leader. The now aged president, after steering the country into an economic abyss, is nearing the end of his days. 

Lately there have been demonstrations. The govt. has a habit of cracking down hard on such things. We were told that the protests were banned for a couple of weeks covering the time that I was in the country. But then the Supreme Court overturned the decision stating that banning demonstrations is illegal. So the path ahead will invariably be rocky as president-for-life reaches the end of the “life” part and there is no clear way forward. The question is what will happen afterwards since the power vacuum will likely be an opportunity for the piranhas to fight over who’s next. 

As I said, it’s sad. Many African leaders just don’t have the integrity to walk away when their time is done. It’s all the more damaging given that those very Big Men have made messes that will require decades to clean up, even if their successors have integrity.

cool view of Kilimanjaro while heading through Nairobi

Catch up Part 4 - Idaho

If it seems like we had a long trip to the US, we did. It’s not the kind of thing that I get on a regular basis. In fact it’s the longest vacation I’ve had since was teaching school in Switzerland many, many years ago.

There are a couple of reasons that this one happened. One is that I had a ton of vacation days that were accrued and needed to be used by the end of the fiscal year. Last year I ended up losing a couple of days because I never used them. Another reason was that I had a fairly difficult period in the months from January to May. Some of this was mentioned in this blog and the rest I’ll refrain from going into here. But I was encouraged to take a healthy break. Lastly, there was a strong chance that I was going to change positions/countries sometime later in the year and it was unlikely that I would be able to schedule a break in between.

So we were gone a long time.

Redfish Lake

The last leg of the trip was to Idaho to see my family. It’s a long way from Burundi in more ways than one. I had a number of objectives other than just visiting relatives. I needed to check on our house (rental), organize my belongings in storage (long story), various medical appointments, go to the bank, and so forth. It’s surprising the percentage of an expat’s vacation time that is spent doing things besides vacationing. It’s your one shot to do hundreds of things that you cannot do where you live, particularly if it is one of the poorest places on earth.

now that's a mountain

After a brief stopover in Boise we were off on a camping trip. That’s always a big priority for me – head to the mountains. Other than the need to run errands, I think I could spend my entire break there. I feel like it’s the only place that I can think clearly.

fishin' with John

Camping consisted of entertaining the girls, getting the reacquainted with getting really, really dirty. We spent our time swimming at the hot springs pool, eating copious amounts of food, sitting by the campfire, mountain biking (no bloody crashes for me this time), inhaling the occasional waft of forest fire smoke and various other things. I didn’t read nearly as much as I would have liked but it’s hard when you have snotty-nosed kids that are vying for your attention and rare time to hang out with family members. My brother flew in from Portland, which was nice, since we weren’t sure if we were going to see him.

the campfire

We were also able to stay at the former family cabin for a couple of nights (as a result of an unlikely encounter in Burundi a few years ago). It’s one of the highlights for given that a dream I have from childhood is to own a cabin in the mountains. As time goes by I figure that the dream is becoming increasingly unlikely but I at least can enjoy the thought.

Finally we also spent a considerable amount time in southern Idaho at my parents’ place. It’s one of the few places I can truly unwind. There is plenty of space. No traffic. Everything is relatively nearby. Surprisingly lots to do. Get to visit old friends. It will be interesting to see what happens once my parents don’t live there anymore. Will I still return there with no family living in the valley? Possibly not but who knows. My life has been rather unpredictable thus far. I’m not sure what the odds are for a kid with my background to do what I do for a living but me thinks they’re not great.