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First of all, Burundi is a beautiful country. At 11,000 square miles, it is about 1/4 the size of the state of Pennsylvania. But the population is about the same. Twelve million in PA, and about nine or ten million in Burundi.
Like Rwanda (its neighbor to the north), Burundi has a long history of tensions between the Hutu majority and the Tutsi minority. These two groups lived in relative peace until the first colonialists arrived and began to treat the Tutsi with favor. Although the violence in Burundi did not match the scale of violence seen in the Rwandan genocide, fighting has continued here until as recently as last week.
In fact, the day before we arrived in Burundi, the rebel group that hides in the beautiful Burundian forests signed a peace treaty with the government! A man staying at our hotel commented on our great timing, and said that he heard shelling quite near our hotel just a few days before we arrived. But things have been very calm since we got here.
We made it back from a two-day trip out into the mountains where we visited a prison, a hospital, and a high-school HIV/AIDS program. The people of Burundi (much like the people of Rwanda) have been very hospitable. Leah and I have been inspired by the work that they are doing to bring peace, health, education, and spiritual renewal to all people here.
Leah and I feel quite lucky to be able to listen to their stories. Our hope is that, through writing and photography, we can share those stories and somehow narrow the perceived gap between people.
Today is our last full day in Africa, and we are looking forward to being home! We will post one final entry tomorrow, then it’s back on a plane for thirty more hours of waiting and sitting and flying and (every once in a while) napping.
May 31st, 2008 at 11:57 am
I am usually the first one to say I never want to visit Africa. But the more I see your pictures and hear your stories
about other people’s stories, Im slowly changing that mind set.