* C'est la Vie: Let's Explore-Day 1

This week we had two opportunities to do a little exploring. One "explore" was for fun and entertainment. The other was more important and related to our work here in the mission.

Explore #1-On Saturday we decided to have an exploration P-day afternoon. We invited the Frogleys and we had a great little adventure.

We started in a small coumpound that we've often passed in the city and have been curious to see. It's call the Fleur Marche. Inside a little gate there are five or six small, primative shops stuffed full of great African arts and crafts and antiquities. We did some "poking around" and enjoyed it completely.

My personal favorites were the old masks and carvings that were in several shops. The owner put on a favorite mask. It was covered with shells, which in olden days were used as money. It would have been a very fancy and expensive mask.

There was also some interesting jewelry. We found some paper beads. They're made from long, thin strips of papers wrapped around and around to make beads, which are then varnished and strung. Most of the pieces of jewelry were very multi-colored and bright, but I found a plain black and white one that I couldn't resist.

Also in the market square were musical instruments-finger pianos, shakers made from gourds and wood, bowl-like stringed instruments and and one made of bamboo, gourds and strings that was as tall as a man and looked just like one Derek Allen got from Brazil.

And then there were the Burundian drums. Burundi is known for it's drums, so there were many styles and sizes of drums. Some were the size to hold in one hand and some were three feet tall and there were all sizes in between. Often we hear drums being played in the evenings from our apartment. We hope to see a drum performance before we leave Burundi.

Now, shouldn't every percussionist have a tom-tom? We wanted one of each kind. But the carved ones are so fabulous that we just had to have one. How we'll get all this stuff home and where we'll put it when we do we're not quite sure about. But, we will do it somehow. Who needs to bring home old mission clothes anyway! Right!

After our little shopping venture we headed up toward the mountains to see what it looked like in the 'suburbs' of Bujumbura. We have permission to go 30 k's from the center of town. The modern city quickly turned into a more typical African village atmosphere as we drove toward the mountains.

The Congo area near Lubumbashi was a flat, dry, dusty desert. Here we find a stark contrast. It's green, lush countryside, with banana trees, grasses and bushes and there is varied contour to the land.

We ended up going up the mountains until we had quite a magnificent view. I love these mountains. We call them the "East Bench" and think of Utah when we look at them.