When I returned from my first trip to Burundi in May/June 2009, the seeds for going again were planted by my memories of the warmth of welcome by John Bosco Hakizimana, by David Zarembka and Gladys Kamonya who happened to be in the US from Kenya, by Ralph Hofmeister's encouragement of continued support for Bosco's Hope for Burundi project, and by the way people in BFM expressed great interest and enthusiasm, particularly in the Magarama Peace Primary School.
My trip was immensely worthwhile even before I left the States because in asking people for peace education materials, contributions showered down on me from many directions. There is a whole world of possibility out there that wasn't available 20 years ago. The January Meeting for Business authorized a traveling minute on my behalf, which was very, very helpful. The social concerns box for January was devoted to the school and we collected $1,044. It was wonderful to experience the support of the Meeting in a whole new way!
One way to describe my trip is as a course in miracles. Another is that I made most of the connections I had hoped to and even more of the interconnections than I imagined possible. I will describe this in more detail on Sunday, March 28, at 9:30 a.m., in the Science Room, and in two notebooks with pictures and my journal available in the Library and to borrow.
Let me briefly describe my trip in terms of the people who have signed my letter of introduction:
Adrien Niyongabo is the coordinator of the African Great Lakes Initiative's Healing & Rebuilding Our Communities (HROC) project in Burundi. He participated in the Hope for Burundi training the first weekend I was in Burundi, adding depth to the emphasis on healing from 15 years of civil war (1993 to 2008). And he invited people at that workshop to participate in a HROC workshop the next week.
Florence Ntakarutimana, his colleague, led the three-day workshop, in Kamenge, a suburb of Bujumbura which was the focus of much of the fighting for many years. HROC workshops are based on the Alternatives to Violence Program (AVP) curriculum. There were about 25 people in the workshop including four of us from HfB workshop. It was deeply meaningful to watch people realize the importance of sharing their tragic stories, that they were not alone in their suffering, that there is That of God even in those who had killed their relatives, and that they could learn listening skills which would help both them and their communities begin to heal.
The workshop took place in the Kamenge Friends Clinic, where Marie Claire Kamugisha works as a nurse and where Dr. Alexia Nibona is doctor. Alexis Nibona will be coming to BFM in early May to talk about Restoring Health, Hope, and Peace: Reflections from a Grassroots Doctor in Burundi.
David Niyonzima was an early mentor of John Bosco Hakizimana and former clerk of the Yearly Meeting and is executive director of the USAID-funded Trauma Healing & Reconciliation Service (THARS). He is pastor of the Kamenge Friends Church, which had 1,000 worshipers in it on the Sunday I was there. I was able to bring our greetings to the congregation and contributed BF10,000 (about $10) to purchase a bench for seven children to sit on. There are 10,000 Quakers in Burundi, based on the work of Evangelical Friends missionaries from Kansas, beginning in 1934. Burundi is about the size of the state of Maryland, with one-and-a-half times the population (8 m.) The service was entirely pro-grammed for three hours, in extremely plain surroundings.
Modeste Karerwa is the principal of the Magarama Peace Primary School near Gitega, which we have been supporting for about 10 years. I was there for two days, including a one-day nonviolent communications (NVC) workshop for the teachers. As you can see from Modeste's letter, she was very pleased because it had been a long time since there had been any teacher training workshops and the work of creating inner peace was just what she felt was most needed.
I was also able to give her the peace education materials collected from so many different sources. Let me again express my gratitude to all those who suggested and/or contributed items to take. I gave her 34 books for the children, for the teachers, and for administrators. The expression on her face was marvelous to behold as we looked over the materials together. 'We are rich!' she said from the heart.
The next day we visited classes to talk about NVC and to ask students to share what they were learning about peace. I was particularly interested in the Child Rights Clubs in each class where children learn of their rights to food, clothing, shelter, education, and respect, and have a way to report to peers and responsive adults when that doesn't happen. Also her saying to the fourth graders (who are quite small) that she had begun the Peace Primary school because politicians had used people like them to kill people. I was able to bring back 37 letters and drawings from fifth graders. Catherine Weiss collected artwork from 12 students here. We are trying to figure out the next steps in the exchange.
We also visited the secondary school which is 10 kilometers away, accompanied by Fidel Bizimana (who is Yearly Meeting clerk), Pastor Abhanase Bagorikunda (who is the development officer for the Yearly Meeting), and Pastor Justin Nzeyimana (Modeste's husband). The headmaster of the secondary school is Ferdinand Misigaro. After they heard us talk about NVC with the four classes of secondary students, they became very enthusiastic about more workshops for teachers in the 13 Quaker secondary schools and 11 primary schools and for the 75 pastors in Quaker churches.
As one person told me the tragic story of his family, I was so bold as to ask how God had let this happen. He responded by saying that there is a saying that God Sleeps in Rwanda (and Burundi) but that the nights got very short! Then, more seriously, that what helped him was his faith (he had been a Catholic priest), NVC, and that so many of his family had survived (which was not true for so many others). And, finally, God gives us free will. At that moment, driving through the beautiful countryside, I suddenly understood that if we are open-hearted and recognize the presence of God within us, we wouldn't be able to kill; but we are also able to harden our hearts, fail to see the God within, and then, yes, we can do these terrible things.