Life in the Midst of War
Many people have asked us how they can help us with regard to lessening the hardships of the refugees we’re are working with here in our area of the DRC. Besides food, we’re identifying those with the need of blankets, jackets, and shoes. We have to fly in the blankets from “nearby” cities, but we can buy the jackets and shoes here, which is good for the local commerce. A couple of weeks ago, beans were distributed to 529 refugee families, which represents over 3,000 people.
Below is a mix of photos of us doing life in the midst of war.
Someone donated some money to buy the orphans some jackets, which cost about five dollars each.
Happiness is a warm coat.
And, a coat for Joyeuse, the eldest, who this year began her second year at the university.
Patrick brought 75 Sawyer water filter systems to Minembwe, but sadly, due to the war and other circumstances, they were not able to distribute the filters and the buckets. It was possible for Patrick to set up a system at the orphanage though. Normally you would stack this system on bricks or a chair, but Patrick built this wooden stand.
Clean water is something to smile about.
Venting our cupboards. Amongst his friends, Patrick’s nickname is “The Energizer Bunny.”
More of Patrick’s handywork around our home.
An expat who was leaving Burundi gave Miles a really nice mountain bike, so we brought it to Minembwe. It wasn’t too long before the orphans started helping one another learn to ride.
The spring near to our house ran dry back in September, so for water we load up the motorcycle and drive to a spring that’s a little more than a mile away.
A chocolate milk spring? Nope, just a dirty pool of water. The water coming out of the pipe though is clean spring water, so you have to be careful when you filling your jugs. We still filter all of the water we use for drinking and cooking.
In the absence of Lisa and Emilee, Namajana has become an expert tortilla maker.
While exiled in Bujumbura, Emilee got her hands on some food that was being given away by an expat (short for "expatriate" or a person who lives and works outside their native country) before they left Burundi. Emilee sent me back up here with this bottle of Famous Dave’s BBQ Sauce. We tend to ignore the “refrigerate after opening” warnings posted on some labels as we have no refrigeration, but after a few days of consuming this delicacy, we (Michael, Miles, & Patrick) noticed that the “best used by” date was 12 22 16. As none of us had at that point experienced any ill effects, so we continued to use every trick in the book to extract and consume every drop of this rich and sassy sauce.
Miles has photos of the girls to show Mama Chance and Namajana, and then he shows them another photo, but it is an ultrasound of the soon to arrive Ruthie. What for the moment they figure it out.
The threat of rebel attacks was quite high for a month, so during that time, so every evening before I would crawl into bed, I packed these two backpacks so I could quickly run away during an attack. The next morning, you pull out what you need for the day, then repeat the process that evening before bed.
Eventually, Miles, Patrick, and I gave Lisa and Patrick’s wife Thelma the thumbs up to come up here. Was safe? No, still a lot of rat-a-tat-tat and kabooms all around, but it was a little quieter than normal. Of course, the conflict heated up the moment they arrived, but they stayed on as planned.
Amongst the many things that Thelma did was to distribute love. The recipient this time was one of the twins that the orphanage took in last July. Thanks to those who are paying for their formula.
A few months ago, Miles and I were told by the UN that we had to leave here due to the fighting. During our short absence, our good friend, a Pakistani Major in the UN, would send Miles photos of himself and our lone ripe pineapple. He said he was protecting it in our absence as we are one of the few people to grow pineapple in our area and they have a tendency to disappear.
Now that we’re back up here, the major came for a visit, and one of his soldiers shows proof that the major had the firepower necessary to properly protect the pineapple. That might be true. but…
… we had the necessary cutlery to consume it.
Since the beginning of the conflict back in March, we’ve been blessed with a string of really great commanders at the local UN peacekeeper base. Each time a new commander comes, the previous commander brings them by our place to see the gardens. In the photo above many of these commanders had flown back up here to strategize with regard to the ongoing conflict, but before they left, they brought a couple of Pakistani helicopter pilots to see the gardens. No matter how good of friends we have become, they all think that we are CIA.
Here's a small section of the gardens that these guys came to see. Look at the background… it is crazy beautiful here.
Somehow - Michael