Bujumbura : Unbelievable first day....

I'm here!  After a 26 hour combination of flights, I have arrived with all my luggage intact.   Amazing.  No missed connections.

I am staying at a little hotel until Sunday when the house  becomes available.  Emmanuel, the deputy principal, picked me up Friday evening  and settled me in the hotel with all my belongings.

Fancy room

 

He suggested that he was attending a dowry payment with 2 other teachers today, Saturday, and asked if I would join them.  Of course, I was all for it, not really knowing what  that meant.

Emmanuel picked me up at 8:30 for a tour of the school and a short view of the city.   I was able to change my money which is now in the Hundred thousands of something....  I haven't wrapped my head around this currency yet.  We picked up Claudine, Gabriel and .... Headed to the countryside. The 60 km trip opened my eyes to Burundi.

 

There are people everywhere.  Driving through the remotest road where the craters in the road are mini grand canyons, where there are no dwellings in sight, there are people along the road every where, walking, bicycling, carrying heavy loads on there heads.  There are children on the roadsides everywhere.  Most women are in traditional dress. Most men are not.  Young children are load bearing, bringing vegetables or other goods to sell at the nearest market or roadside stand.  The country is so heavily populated.  The first part of our journey was paved, the second half was dirt.

 

Red dirt. Red dust. Red pot holes.  Prince Edward Island does not hold a candle to Burundi red soil.  Dry, dry, dry yet still the hills and fields remain green.  It has not rained in three months.  Emmanuel says there is fear of famine in parts of the country.  This is the dry season but it began a month early.

We stopped for a beer and kebab on the way...

Grilled goat and banana... soooo delicious!

The dowry ceremony is very significant here, and it was a huge honour to be invited.  Eric, another teacher from the school, will be married August 11, and this ceremony was a big deal.  It was at the bride's family home, and there were well over 100 people there.

Weall waited outside the fence until the bride's family invited us in to a large tarped and curtained open air seating area.

 

 

 

Amstel or Fanta were served and the the fathers basically bargained with each other for the bride. When the deal was done, the bride arrived and the ceremony continued with proof of an empty middle finger and then the engagement ring could be put on! Food was served to everyone, the families had special honey wine sipped through traditional straws, and there were more speeches.

The teaches told me that some young men in Burundi can not get married because they cannot arrange a dowry. They were surprised that we do not have a dowry in Canada.

It was 8 pm before we got back to Bujumbura and already dark.  People are all on the streets and socializing is the norm. It was a wonderufl day with wonderful hosts.

Sunset through dust covered windows.

Gabriel and  Claudine



Claudine and ...