The Bridge Went Down-Holy Traffic!!

Traffic in Bujumbura is never easy to navigate. This is a city of 3 million people without a single traffic light and only a few stop signs, which people totally ignore. There are no police directing traffic and intersections have just one rule "Bonne Chance!" which means good luck!

We live across the river from the center of town in a little quieter place. To get there you cross a bridge and there is less traffic when you get to our quarter.

But recently this is what we found on the way home.

A heavy storm had caused the bridge to collapse and the road to crack. So, we were left with only one way to get into the city. For a month or more the road was closed. We didn't know if it would ever be opened again. The traffic going into and out of the city was horrible. We spent hours every day just waiting in line to get anyplace. Cars would be lined up as far as you could see.

A few times they opened a lane of the road for an hour or two, but it was pretty scary. I wasn't sure that waiting in the longer lines on a safe road wasn't a better idea.

Brent even became determined to find a new way home. He went down a dirt road looking for a way across the river. Some young men motioned that he could cross the river if he followed them. So off we went down a steep embankment and onto the river bed. They told him that we could cross upstream, but when we went that way, we didn't see any opening on the other side of the river to get out of the river bed.

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After much begging on my part, we turned around and headed back. With the help of our four-wheel-drive truck we finally were able to get ourselves out of the river bed. Luckily, on the way home we found an ice cream bike and for $5 Brent bought his way out of the doghouse.

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Then one day they started working on the bridge and the road. All the work was done by hand, but slowly things progressed. Many workers cleared out the fallen rock. Then they moving one giant rock at a time up the hill. They smashed them to the ground, breaking them and building a new road and retaining wall with the pieces.

In two weeks they finished the job and gave us our road back to town. The terrible traffic snarls are now back to just "normal craziness" and all is well in Bujumbura.

Christmas 2010 in Burundi

Our second mission Christmas was definitely not a traditional Christmas. It was filled with things that were far from our usual Christmas activities, but most interesting. This is my favorite Christmas tree. It was made of bamboo supports with branches of a non-evergreen tree layered over them and then decorated. They had to change the branches every few days as they wilted quickly in this warm climate. But it was the prettiest tree we saw this year. There were more trees here than in Lubumbashi. We saw a half a dozen in the stores around town and some young men selling them on the streets.

Two days before Christmas the ladies had a fun morning making spiced nuts the African way with the help of Sister Malabi. They taste a lot like our usual spiced nuts, but the process is very different. I threw in a little cinnamon to make them taste more like the traditional ones at home. I also made a batch of English toffee and fudge for our Christmas celebration. Some things just have to be done. I brought the nuts and marshmallow cream from the US just so we could have them for each Christmas. Yum!

We spent Christmas Eve with the Frogleys. Their tradition is to have Israeli food on Christmas Eve. So, we had a great adventure in new food. I made a soup, something like minestrone, flat bread and coconut cookies, like macaroons. I threw in a little apple pie just to keep Brent happy.

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The Frogleys made tabbouleh salad (tomatoes, onions, parsley, avocado and quinoa, a kind of grain) and harrosette salad (apples, raisins, pomegranates, dried apricots, coconut, nuts and yogurt) It was interesting to try these different foods.

Then we watched a presentation on the Holy Land by Elder Frogley.

Christmas day we had all the missionaries over for dinner and a little party. It was fun to share part of the day with them. We gave little gifts to the elders and played the white elephant game. They're such serious guys that it took awhile for them to get in the swing of the game, but eventually they did and they had fun with it. We also gave them each a DVD of all the pictures we had of each missionary. Since almost none of them has a camera, we thought they would like to have pictures. The missionaries were also able to make a 10 minute call home. For most of them this was their first contact with family during their missions. I think it was a very special time for them. The Frogleys gave them each a DVD of church hymns. Then the elders surprised each couple with a beautiful drawing made by Elder Kizimbou (on the far left) and signed by all the missionaries. It shows the Title of Liberty being raised in Burundi. It will be a treasure by which we will always remember our mission.

We spent the evening talking to our children on Skype and it was wonderful. On Christmas Eve we were able to read the nativity from the scriptures in French as Ryan and Linsey's family acted it out. On Christmas Day we saw some of the grandchildren open gifts and play with their toys and it was an enormous blessing to talk to each family.

We did miss our wonderful Christmas traditions, but we had a good Christmas and felt grateful to be full-time servants of Him whose birth we celebrated.

Only Two Baptisms

We only schedule baptisms every other week. This week we had five people who had committed to baptism, but things didn't fall into place so, just two young men were baptized.

Elders N'Gondo and Tshituka with Alain and Jean Paul

When only two of the five were baptized, I found myself a little discouraged and thinking "Only two baptisms." Then I thought again and realized how crazy it was that I was discouraged by two baptisms in two weeks. What would I have thought at home had we had two convert baptisms in a two week time period? I would have been ecstatic to see so many people joining the church.

We laugh sometimes when we say, "Let's go that way. That's a pretty good road!" or "What a really nice wall that they have around that house! I love their barbed wire. It's so shiny and even!"

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It seems that standards are too often allowed to be a matter of perspective.

I don't know too much about the young men who were baptized, but I do know this story about Jean Paul. He 's a guard at the US embassy job site where Brother Willes works. He works there full-time while attending the university and came to Brother Willes to request church information. When he got a Book of Mormon he read it, contacted Brother Willes and said, " I read this book and I know that it's true. So what do I do now?" How could I ever think of such a person as "just" one baptism? He's a great young man and I think that he'll become a fine leader of a family and in the church someday. I'm sure that Alain's story is just as amazing.

I need to have the perspective of the Savoir when he taught and blessed the children one by one. It's a great blessing to see a believing person come into the fold of God.

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One baptism is certainly enough.

This Pretty Much TOPS Them All

We see people every day carrying things on their heads. It's actually smart to do it that way.

Nothing new! No big deal!

But recently we saw this...............

Yes! This man is carrying a full-sized refrigerator on his head

and the most amazing things is that nobody was even looking at him!

Now, that TOPS them all!