Patrick in Burundi

I've been trying to post this for two days but sometimes the internet here isn't very cooperative... (hence no photo attachments either...)

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I’ve lived in Burundi for nearly two years and I finally feel like I am beginning to understand the situation in the interior of the country.  Spending a significant chunk of time with one family, hearing how they do things, why it’s easier to wash their clothes in the stream than to carry that much water to the house, for example, is not at all like reading that only X % of rural Burundians have water at home.  Not at all.  Now it’s personal.  

But I’m not going to go into the details of Patrick’s life right now.  His story for One Globe Kids is far from ready, mostly because I don’t yet know enough to write it.  I haven’t photographed his bedtime routine or seen him gather firewood or sweet potatoes.  I haven’t seen his soccer skills or watched how fast he can pick tea for the factory from his father’s fields.   I don’t know his favorite subject at school or what he wants to be when he’s older. 

I do know he’s soft-spoken and quick to help and that his mother is strong and patient and loving.  She makes all their meals over a small fire, often with a baby strapped to her back.  And she makes sure that Patrick and his siblings brush their teeth. 

Before we even discussed the story or photos or anything else, we both sat down to nurse our babies.  I can now say with certainty that in Africa, breastfeeding in public is a good thing.  Good for the baby but also good for new relationships!  About five minutes after we’d met, Patrick’s mom told me that she expected to be afraid of me (being foreign and white and all) but that she now knows that it wasn’t necessary at all.  (All the kudos go to my little suction cup, Jos, who was just a bundle of sweetness the whole time…)

Everyone liked seeing photos of Valdo, Gabou, Luna, Lucian, Floor, Lars, Aji, Larasati, Maya, Asher, Laith, Bara’a and Jenissa, the other kids in the One Globe Kids series (thus far).  I’m pretty sure this was the first iPad Patrick’s ever seen, but he picked up the finger scroll in no time! 

I had planned to visit on Saturday and come back next weekend to actually take photos, but as often happens, things didn’t work out as planned.  Patrick’s family is Catholic and they told me they’d be attending a special “Fete du Saint Sacrement” (Feast of Corpus Christi) celebration on Sunday.  Thousands attending, children dancing and throwing flowers, a parade to the church.  How could I miss that?!

I couldn’t.  So, Jos and I (and Francoise, Tresor and Roger) ended up spending the weekend in the Burundian hills while Jan stayed in Bujumbura with the boys and got ready for the movers. (Who came on Monday and left this afternoon, but that’s a whole different story…)

It was awesome and exhausting.  And I only seriously embarrassed myself once - hurrah!  I purposefully wore a skirt made of African cloth that I had made in Kinshasa pre-kids....so, yeah, it was a little tight.  And well, yes, the Kinshasa (city of 9 million) styles are not the same as in rural Burundi...  In fact, the skirt was so long and tight that I had to take little baby steps to keep up with everyone else on our 45-minute walk to church.   (Seriously, though, it did look good in my bedroom mirror - just wasn't ideal for field work...ahem...)  And all that's not even the embarrassing part.  

I used a big safety pin to help close the back slit to a respectable height...  but, of course, when you're running  Geisha-style in a hot pink, orange and green patterned skirt, in front of a crowd of African's, including your 8-year old subject, so you can turn around and get the money action shot...well, of course, your safety pin doesn't see the fun in holding everything together.  Would you?   

"Umm, madame, votre jupe..."

Yes, I swore out loud on my way to church.  But thankfully, I found the pin, Mama Patrick fastened it again and my prayers worked.  I may have looked beet-red and sweaty, toddling along in my trying-to-fit-in-but-out-of-style outfit in front of 2500 Burundian church-goers, but the pin stayed closed and no one got a money shot on me.  (At least I don't think so - there were some people taking shots with their phones but that was of my front.)

Jos and I are headed back this Friday for two more days.