Things in Burundi are complicated….

Mikel, Fides, Athanase (one of the medical students), and Jacqueline and her baby.

One of my students touching the water at the source of the Nile River.

Earlier this week I went on a voyage with my students.   However, getting it all accomplished was extremely difficult.  The students wanted to go on a trip to a town called Rutana, that is about a 3-4 hour drive from where we are at in Bujumbura.  At first the campus hostess that is in a sense responsible for me, said the students could go, but that I would not be allowed to go.  She said it was too far, and she was concerned about the roads and having people from the trees jump out and attack us!  What!? I couldn’t imagine that the students would want to take me on a trip with these kinds of conditions, so I pushed a little harder on the reasoning.  In the end, the Bishop decided I could go, but that I would need to go in a university car, with a university driver and someone from the university.  It seems that what he was concerned about what the safety of riding in the bus with the students and wanting someone to be able to explain at all the checkpoints what I was doing with them, etc.  So, we were allowed to go.

We left before the students and took a detour back to Kibuye Hospital for a couple of hours.  While we were there, I discovered that 2 of the patients I had cared for the last time I was at the hospital were still being held their because they could not pay their bill, even though there was no longer any medical reason for them to be there.   Jacqueline had been in the hospital for 6 months, and only needed to be there medically for the first 2 months.  She had an infection in her foot, that has since been treated and cured.  The hospital would not let her leave, so she has been held there, while her bill continues to grow.  I found out that not only did she have 3 small children, but one of them was born while she was being held at the hospital.  I had heard from my parents that there was possibly some people at home that would want to help this patient get out of the hospital and go home.   I had planned to wait to hear back from home, but when I discovered this new information, I knew I needed to help.  I did not have any money with me, but I talked to the finance office.  They trusted me that I would get them the money, and so they agreed to let Jacqueline go home that day! Praise the Lord!   I found her bill was under $300, and that is for a 6 month hospital stay.  The system here is very hard to understand, but it is also hard for them to understand the concept of allowing someone to go home and promise to pay their bill later.  However, I did find it interesting that they just trusted me.  To all the people here, if you are white, it is equal to you having money.   It was so amazing to see the look on her face when she was told that she could go home to her family.  She told me through a translator, that her family lived 6 hours away, and there was no way to get the word to her husband before she would arrive at home.  So, she said he would be so happy to see her arrive at home finally!  I am not sure if he has ever even seen their newest child.   As I was getting ready to leave, I found another patient that was also being held at the hospital for being unable to pay her bill, and her bill was only $76, Fides, is a sweet young girl who is extremely small and thin.  When I was at the hospital before, she was suffering from some kind of stomach problem and had not been able to eat in weeks.  Now, she was feeling better, and had been medically released from the hospital, but was unable to pay her bill.  How could I say No!?  So, about $350 later two very excited young women were released from the hospital.  I was not able to stay to see them actually leave, but I was assured that they would be able to leave with no problems.  Both of them were extremely grateful and happy.  It is hard to imagine living in a world where you are held in the hospital…where your bill increases with each day…and if you didn’t have the money to begin with, you certainly will not have more money later, especially when you are stuck at the hospital and unable to do anything to earn money.  For every Jacqueline and Fides, I am sure there are hundreds of people if not thousands that are in the same situation.  I am thinking of starting an organization at home where people can donate to patients like this in third world countries.  I think if people could see the conditions here, and see the problems that it causes when someone is unable to leave the hospital, they could see that even $5 could go a long way here.   $5 here could pay for someone to have an ultrasound to help diagnose what is ailing them, or it could help pay for basic medications, like antibiotics.   And what do we compare $5 to in the United States?  A large latte from Starbucks?  A bag of chips or candy? I know that a lot of people will not want to help because there are many people in the United States that need help with medical bills as well.  Somehow this situation seems different to me.  In the United States, you are not denied basic care, even if you cannot pay.  I know and understand that there are a lot of people that need help in the United States for so many things.  But, I also know that there are things like shelters and food banks and other resources, here there is nothing.   If we can help people here with the basic things to keep them alive, then they will be better able to take care of the bigger things for themselves and their families.  This is how we help the country develop and get to a point where they can take care of themselves without the help from other countries.  It was not their fault that they were born in a place like this, and I was born where I have never once had to worry about any of those things.

Anyway…I digress.  The point of this blog was to tell you about the journey I went on with my students!

So, we arrived at Rutana before the bus full of students, and standing on the corner was one of the students who was waiting for us to arrive.  She waived us down, got into the car with us and took us to her aunt’s house.  Here we were welcomed into a lovely home and fed a snack of French fries, omelet’s and fanta!  I was excited, because since I have been here those are 3 of things that I can consistently eat!  As we were waiting for the other students to arrive, I received a text message from one of them, he stated that they were running late, because their driver had been arrested for a short time, but to “let the worry out”, I guess meaning, do not worry.    It turns out he was not really arrested, but only stopped by the police and there was a problem with some of the paper work for the bus, but they allowed them to continue on.  There are police at many places along the road, and if they motion for you to stop, you must stop and answer their questions.  Most of the time, when they saw that there was a white person in the car at these checkpoints, they just waved us on through.

I was so impressed by the students and how organized they were.  They took myself and the other instructor that was with us to the hotel they had booked for us.  They had me go in and check out the room and approve that it would be okay, before they confirmed that we would stay there.  They had us at a separate hotel from the students.  Most of the hotels here are small, there are only about 10 rooms for each place, so there would not be room for all of us at one place, and I think they wanted me to be at a nicer place.  The aunt’s house that we were at for the snack, also fixed us a huge lunch and a huge dinner and breakfast the next morning.  She fed all of us, 27 students and 4 others, and did not ask for any money for any of it.  She said that she has been blessed with her home and other means, and was happy to pass it along to all of us.    

The first day we went to the source of the Nile River.  I have to admit I was expecting a large river or something really large.  After my students argued with the guards about the price, it was determined I go see the source of the Nile, if I payed, 5,000 Burundi Francs (only a few dollars in U.S. money), the students were free since they were African, (I say African and not Burundian, because not all of my students are from Burundi…I have some from Kenya, Rwanda, Chad, and the Congo).  As we walk down the stone steps, I see what is the source of the Nile…it is a small pipe coming out of the side of mountain, that is draining a small flow of water.  I actually laughed at myself a little bit, that I had been thinking it would be something with a lot of water, and running into a river or other body of water.  But, it was still very exciting to see.  I have since learned that many African countries also have a source of the Nile location to visit, but the one in Burundi is supposed to be the southernmost source.  It was really fun to see how excited the students were about this.  They had only heard of this place, and none of them had ever visited it, and I felt privileged to be a part of the experience. 

The following day we started out on our journey at 7am and did not arrive back in Bujumbura until around 8pm.  I asked the driver, Emery, how much of the country we had seen that day, and he said, “more than half.”  That gives you an idea of how small the country is.  We went to a place where there were 3 waterfalls to hike to.  Most of the students had never seen a waterfall either.  Getting to the waterfall was a bit complicated however!  We drove down a long dirt, bumpy and at times terrifying road up into the hills.  When we arrived into a small village, we were summoned to stop by the village guard.  The students got out of the bus and argued with the man, they showed him official papers from the University proving that we were from Hope Africa University and had permission to be there.  Pretty soon the guard gets in the car with us, and we drive to the house of the village mayor.  The students once again get out and argue with the mayor.  It is pretty clear at this point, that they also want money because they have white people with them.  So the students come back and tell me, I have to pay a little bit of money to see the waterfall.  Not a problem.  In the U.S. at these kinds of sites we would expect to have some kind of fee to pay, but here it is all negotiated and argued about, not a set price per person.  When we finally are allowed to drive into the hills a bit further to get to the waterfall, I notice that several military men have gotten on the bus with the students.  I was not sure at this point if having them with us made me feel safe, or scared!   We finally arrived to the first waterfall, and it was beautiful and large!  The students were so happy to be there, and so excited, it was really fun to experience with them.  Everyone wanted their picture in front of the waterfall with their muzungu (white) teacher.    We then took off on a long hike to the next waterfall.  At the end we had to go down some very steep stone “steps” to get to the waterfall…and unfortunately I was in a skirt and sandals.  This made going both down and then back up difficult.  The students were wonderful, on the steep steps they would hold my hand to make sure I didn’t fall, and one of them even exchanged walking sticks with me because he thought the one I had was not as good.  They are so wonderful and caring. 

Once we were done enjoying the waterfalls we started the drive out, and when we came to the entrance, the “gate” (a rope with fabric tied to it) was up again.    The other teacher in the car jokingly said, “we probably have to pay to get out of here too.”  The student in the car with us said, no, that would not happen…but after much arguing and dirty looks from the guard, that is exactly what happened…we had to pay to leave!

We were now back on our journey and headed to a hot springs.  Another a long, but beautiful drive on bumpy, dirt and terrifying roads, we arrived at a bridge with some water below.  We all got out, and I was thinking this was the hot springs.  As we walked up to the bridge I was thankful that we were not crossing the bridge because it was a few logs and some metal planks.  The bridge was very narrow, and there were large spaces between the logs and metal planks.  So, when the bus pulled right up to the bridge (with no students on it), and was getting the tires lined up to cross, I actually thought it was a joke…I took a picture as he was starting to cross and the tire is not even fully on the bridge, one inch or two in one direction, and the bus would likely fall off into the water.  I couldn’t watch the rest of it, and had to look away.  The whole village was there watching and cheering on the bus driver, along with all of the students.  Then Emery was next, the driver of our car, and I couldn’t watch that either.  But, they both safely made it across the bridge with no problems.  I asked Emery if he was scared, and he said, “Yes!!”  So, I quickly realized that this was not the hot springs and we must continue on our journey to reach it.  Once we arrived, we found the hot springs in the middle of a small village.  We walked to the entry, and to my surprise I did not have to pay!  They had an area for men and an area for women.  We walked down and found the source of water that made a nice natural pool.  Many of the women and children from the village were bathing in the water and just enjoying the warmth.  The water was very warm, and all the students went to put their feet in the water.  It was so fun for me to watch them all experiencing this wonder of nature for the first time.  I tried to explain to them that in the United States at many of the hot springs, we had the water coming into a pool where people would swim, but it was not a natural pool, it was like a swimming pool.  This was difficult for them to understand why we would not just leave it natural.  We drove to second hot springs, but I choose to not climb down to it, as it was down a steep slippery hill, with no stone steps, and I was afraid I would fall!

The day of this journey also happened to be my sisters’ birthday.  She would have turned 35 if she was still alive.  I thought about her most of the day, not only because it was her birthday, but because of all the crazy adventures I was on that day…she would have LOVED every minute of it!  She never would have been scared, and she would have been one of the people cheering on the bus and car as they crossed the scary bridge.  I miss her so much, but I hope that in some way I am making her proud of what I am doing here in Burundi.  I wish she could have been here with me experiencing all of this with me, but I know that she is smiling down watching all that is going on and she is always with me in spirit.