no power/picnic at the beach

This week was a little slow.  We had another holiday on Wednesday, so no work, which is good because work has also been slow. It’s hard to work when there is no power. 

(In the background is the city of Bujumbura)

Power outages are a frequent occurrence in Bujumbura, and when I say frequent I mean daily. I think they try to rotate the power to all the different neighborhoods, so we never know when we will have power or when we won’t. 

(Right now I am updating this blog from a café and the generator just switched on.)

We have a generator at work to keep the station going, but it has been breaking down a lot. They are trying to get an additional one because our current generator is overworked.

I’m doing my best to be patient and make the most out of each day even if I’m not able to do any real work. 

On Saturday we had a picnic at the beach with our Burundian friends.  We sat around and enjoyed some avocados, oranges and a beautiful sunset. 

Those are the mountains of the DRC! 

BBQ

This last week there was a holiday on Tuesday, so we took the opportunity to host a barbeque at our home. The holiday was in honor of an independence leader of Burundi.

There were cokes and fantas and a goat was grilled up in the back yard. The goat was hanging in over the back porch and the cook hacked off pieces, stuck them on skewers and grilled them up for us to enjoy. I ate so many brochettes that my jaw was sore the next day, definitely too much meat. 

The barbeque was fun because friends and members of my extended host family were present. 

After the barbeque at our house we moved the party to the beach were we spent some time just relaxing. There was also a game of football, but nothing to serious. 

At the studio things were a little slow this week. I was going to do some training with my co-workers but then things came up. They had to attend some meetings so that left me with a blank hole in my schedule that I needed to fill. I took the opportunity to surf the web and gather recourses on recording techniques and other such things. 

 I’m really learning to go with the flow because plans are always changing. For example: the training and also this blog.  My plan was to post this blog on Monday (sorry it is late), but the internet was down the last two days. I’m starting to realize it is best to find out what each day has to offer instead of trying to tell it what I want to happen. 

Dote

On Saturday we had the opportunity to attend our friend’s dote, or dowry ceremony. Traditionally this is the time when the families negotiate the price of the bride. Now they do it because it is tradition, but it is all a show.

The bride’s family sits facing the groom’s family with the leaders of the families sitting at the center.

The bride’s father gets up and asks why we have all come to his house, he pretends that they have no idea why we came. Then the leader of the grooms family says that Jean-Claude, the groom to be, has seen Francine and is now sick because of her. The father says, “what do you think we are a hospital?” And it goes on back and forth like this, until they agree that they want their families to be united. It’s funny because they are doing all this negotiation, but I already have the printed wedding invitation, so we know what the outcome is going to be. During the negotiation people are laughing because of what the leaders are saying, so it is all in good humor and just to preserve their culture.

After they agree that the marriage will take place the father says that he doesn’t know where Francine is but that he will send someone to look for her.

Then the women and the bride to be parade in.

Jean-Claude and Francine greet the two families and then exchange gifts. Jean-Claude received a bible and Francine received her engagement ring.

It was a very interesting ceremony and I am excited to attend the wedding in November.

The baskets are full of various items and were carried into the ceremony as a gift to the bride’s family. The bride’s family then empties the baskets, in private, and fills them with their own gifts and then they are returned to the groom’s family at the end. they are full of items like potatoes, carrots and sugar.

Studio and omlete

I am writing this blog under the safety of my mosquito net. As soon as the sun goes down those little demons are after me. And for some reason they always bite me on my feet/ankles and on my elbows, it is very annoying. But it is a little humorous that I wear mosquito repellent while indoors.

I mentioned in my last posting that we are working on recording a song for an r&b type band. We recorded the instrumentalist, the back up vocalists, the lead female and tomorrow the solo guitarist. Then I will mix everything and hopefully we will have something good. Mixing is probably my favorite part of the recording process because I get the chance to be a little creative. Actually, for this project Im also programming all of the drums and percussion, and they want me to add some sort of violin part to the mix as well, so we will see if that turns out.

I made an interesting observation on Sunday while eating out for lunch. I went to this little café called Cappuccino in town. I was the

only one in this café, probably because it was Sunday and most Burundian services last longer than the one that I attend. It felt strange being in this café because I felt as if I could be in the US. The seating was comfortable, the presentation of the food was nice, my omelet and coffee were great, there was a flat screen tv playing music videos, and a Michael Jackson album was playing in the

background. Then I looked out the window and saw the Burundian flag blowing in the wind and the street below almost un- drivable with potholes. My observation was this:

Not very many Burundians could eat in this restaurant. It wasn’t expensive, I got a large omelet for 3 US dollars, and that was the deluxe version. It was a strange realization that I have the opportunity to eat in a restaurant that many people could never afford to eat in. I am a volunteer, I don’t get paid, and I can afford to eat here. Many people in Burundi, and all over world, live on less than 2 dollars a day. I don’t know if I could ever understand what it would be like to be in their situation.