Medicine & Language

One of my hopes for these two months of settling into Kibuye and continuing language and culture study was to experience community health firsthand. So many of the basic health problems I see everyday such as malnutrition and diarrhea could be prevented and even treated much more effectively with appropriate community education and involvement. I always appreciated the work the community health team did in Kenya in serving the region and even in following up on some of our patients, but I didn’t have a lot of opportunity to engage with them while working full time. So this is the perfect opportunity to develop relationships and observe the community health work before starting hospital work full time in January. World Relief has developed an impressive community health program in the Kibuye area over the last few years. They’ve targeted 4 neighboring districts which include 40,000 children under age 5. Amazingly, 90% of households in these 4 districts have been visited by a World Relief worker thus far! A member of every 10 households is elected (by her peers) to serve in a care group. The care groups (10-15 women in each one, 3000 volunteers in total) are then visited and educated by World Relief staff (Burundian) covering topics such as malnutrition, clean water & sanitation, and even microfinance. The women then go back to their village and educate their neighbors on the same topics. As you can imagine, the sustainability and efficacy of this system is much greater than the traditional top-down education model. 

I visited a care group yesterday just a few kilometers from here and loved the whole experience. The women welcomed us warmly with a rhythmic song for guests and then opened the meeting in prayer. I introduced myself in Kirundi and then mostly observed and understood words here and there - excellent Kirundi comprehension practice! The women performed a short skit of a mother feeding her baby a potato and a group member talking to the mother about what good nutrition would be for the baby.  The group members discussed what they had observed and learned from the skit and then the World Relief worker discussed healthy food choices for children, pureeing food for toddlers, how to prevent diarrhea with clean water, etc. It was all quite interactive and the ladies (and 2 men) were very engaged in the process. The group members had on average 5 children, so even if they simply apply what they’re learning themselves, significant difference can be made in this community with a lot of severe malnutrition. After the discussion, they thanked us for coming and we gave a short closing speech and then they sang a goodbye song for us as we left. I enjoyed talking with the World Relief staff en route about the work (in a mix of French, Kirundi, English) and I look forward to hopefully visiting a nearby health clinic with them for a malnutrition screening next week. Burundi has one of the highest rates of malnutrition in the world, so I’m thankful to see the problem is being addressed at the community level in our region. 

Another recent activity involving the pediatrician part of my brain and my foreign language center was giving my first French lecture. I spoke with the midwife students currently studying at the hospital here about how to examine a newborn, what abnormalities to look for, etc. They definitely enjoyed the interactive part of the instruction as we examined together a 1 hour old baby! As I wasn’t too confident that my French would be understood, I essentially presented the information 4 times - reading my lecture (yes, unfortunately mostly reading it - hopefully I can be more extemporaneous soon), showing a video, examining the newborn myself, and then assisting one of the students to examine the same baby. Thankfully, they seemed to understand and learn, and so did I as, while preparing for the presentation, I translated unknown vocabulary quite different from what we used in daily life in France! Cleft palate, umbilical cord, and grasp reflex somehow didn’t come up in French class. :) I’m enjoying engaging my medical brain again and putting language to practical use in this new setting. 

Exploring

We're enjoying exploring our new environment here at Kibuye. Enjoy the below pictures of things we've discovered along the way:

 Many goats! This one needed some help as his leg was caught in some brambles. 

Sarah & I are exploring what foods are possible to make here. We were excited to discover that we had all the ingredients for a delicious quiche! And I successfully made my first pie crust, first homemade pizza/spaghetti sauce, and granola this week. Like my mom always says, "If you can read, you can cook!" It certainly takes a lot more time to figure these things out in this setting, though. 

 I envision frequent hikes to Kibuye rock - less than 30 minutes away and an incredible view. The roofs behind me in the above picture are the hospital buildings. 

 Of course we have the opportunity to make new friends and practice Kirundi along the way

 I need practice to learn to carry things on my head! My favorite is seeing the ladies walk along with hoes on their heads coming back from the fields and usually a baby strapped to their back. Impressive balance! Multi-tasking is ubiquitous - just different tasks in this setting than in the US. 

 I'm enjoying frequent visits from my small neighbors even in the rain. :)

 The small green dot on the bottom right is a tiny frog - fascinating! In fact, the frogs create quite a chorus in the evenings sounding like hundreds of bubbles popping or like a video game - bloop, bloop, bloop. It's a unique melody that mixes with the crickets chirping to bring a peaceful wilderness rest. 

 These four adorable friends joined me on a hike to Kibuye rock on Sunday. What a joy to hear their little stories and songs along the way and to share the exploration with them! 

 Another view from the top

 King of the Rock! 

Marching back home with our entourage to the tune of "I'm in the Lord's army!" Read more about our beginnings here on the McCropder blog here & here. Will continue exploring and posting about our new discoveries. This is certainly a grand adventure! 

The Last Big Move (for a while)

Transition chaos strikes again! And yet it’s freeing and peaceful to realize that it will likely be years before we load most of our belongings into suitcases and stuff them in a vehicle or prepare them for 50lb airline limits again. And it’s unlikely that 17 of us will move all at the same time again either. We are finally installed at Kibuye (pronounced kee-boo-yay)! One of the kids asked yesterday, “Are we really going to live here for 20 years?” Well, we have no idea what God has ahead for us, but we are approaching this move with that perspective - putting in the effort in language learning and relationship building on the front end to invest longterm in the community. 

Paradoxes always abound with goodbyes, but we were reminded through our farewell party at Banga that Africans do goodbyes really well. We had the opportunity to thank those who welcomed us so warmly, our first Burundian friends, and our excellent Kirundi teacher and language partner. And they also appreciated us and expressed their gratitude for us being involved in their community for three months. Gifts were exchanged and sodas and cake were enjoyed by all. While there were certainly challenges about our time in Banga, I see now more and more how extremely valuable those three months in the guesthouse were. We had the opportunity to get accustomed to the physical challenges of limited and unpredictable water, electricity, and internet - but without the added difficulty of trying to prepare meals under the same conditions. We learned about what foods were available locally and what stores sold more American foods in Bujumbura. We began observations of Burundian culture through our interactions with our neighbors every day in Banga. And we got a good start on Kirundi language learning with more time to study as the guesthouse prepared our meals for us. Transition, culture shock, and other stressors were significant for me and yet Banga provided a beautiful & peaceful setting to work through those things without the housekeeping chores that often prove quite difficult in Africa. 

Opportunities to speak Kirundi abound here in Kibuye - much more than in Banga. In other words, we can’t communicate with most people in any other language! Vendors at the market, church members, people who help around the hospital compound, construction workers building our homes, neighbor kids playing soccer - it seems that almost none of them speak French or English beyond “Good morning [all day long :)], how are you? I am fine.” I can’t imagine how we would have survived had we moved here 3 months ago unable to even say hello in Kirundi! It seems impossible even now, though hand motions help and halting toddler-like speech works buhoro-buhoro (slowly). The exception to this is the medical students and other doctors at the hospital who do speak French and some English, but we won’t have a lot of interaction with them for these first few weeks here while we get settled and continue studying Kirundi. I’m hoping for a steep Kirundi learning curve! 

Utilities are still limited here, though thus far they’ve been more available than at Banga. Unfortunately, though, the internet situation is much worse and thus we must drive 30 minutes to Gitega (2nd largest city in Burundi) to put up blog posts and load webpages. We do have email at Kibuye, though, so that’s a blessing as there was not even email available here when we first visited. And, since I’m in Gitega with decent internet, I wanted to share some pictures with you of our farewell to Banga and “amahoro” to Kibuye! 

 Last sunset in Banga

 Our language teacher/helpers

 McCropder kids and childcare helpers

 Morning Kirundi class

 The nuns saying farewell

 The kids sang a Kirundi song for the guesthouse staff and our teachers

 Even with the goodbyes and moving, we managed to find a couple costumes & candy on October 31 - 2 Indian princesses (per Elise's request) :)

 One last walk over the rickety bridge

 A helping hand 

 Packing up the car

 One last hike down to the river

 And we're off!

 Arrival in Kibuye!

 always need a crazy pic :)

This last picture is of Kibuye rock. The word “Kibuye” actually means “big rock” and this picture is of Heather, Jason, & I on said rock 2 1/2 years ago. I stood on that same rock yesterday and remembered my excitement of looking down on Kibuye from those rocks on a hill and thinking of all God was preparing for us in Burundi. What a joy it is to be back here finally! And as we wait for the day when life here will seem “normal”, I’m encouraged by the reminder that my foundation is on the Rock of Jesus - the Rock that is a firm foundation no matter where I live or what storms I face. 

“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.” Matthew 7:24-25

“Uwumva ayo majambo yanje wese, akayakora, asa n’umuntu w’ubgenge yubatse inzu yiwe ku rutare. Isegneya iragwa, inkukura iratwaza, igihuhuta kirahuhuta, bisurira kuri nya nzu, ntiyagwa, kuko yar’ imase ku rutare.” Matayo 7:24-25