The whole language school here recently enjoyed a field trip to two nearby cities - Aix-les-Bains and Chanaz. We enjoyed the opportunity to practice our French through the tours and presentations at the aquarium and the walnut/hazelnut oil mill, and we especially liked having a little break from the classrooms. :) One of the benefits of being a student again that I had forgotten - when was the last time I went on a field trip?! Brings back fun childhood memories - especially sharing the experience with all the kids here - many of whom had never been on a field trip before.
The day started out pretty cold with snow on the mountains (picture taken from our parking lot)
While the aquarium presentation and tour provided lots of French practice and new vocabulary, the kids' favorite part was definitely feeding and touching the fish in the interactive exhibit. I participated, too. :)
I was especially interested in this fish (above and below pics) because the sign says it fights malaria (paludisme) and was imported to France from the U.S. for that purpose. Evidently this fish eats mosquitos - we need these as pets in Burundi! How exactly does one import fish?
Ambroise - school principal, originally from Togo - explaining the mosquito-eating fish to a missionary nurse heading to Togo
Heather and I enjoying a lunch time stroll in Aix-les-Bains. The palm tree seemed a little out of place with the weather. :)
A small town called Chanaz. Evidently this canal strategically connects Lac du Bourget (the lake in the previous picture) with the Rhone River (flowing from the Alps). We learned that both Julius Caesar and Napoleon III traversed this 4km canal with their troops.
Yay, fall leaves!
Sarah (my teammate), Dominika (a classmate from Slovakia), and I in front of the water mill
Inside the mill
This mill was built in 1868 and turns walnuts and hazelnuts (Nutella!) into oil, jelly, mustard, tarts, flour, etc. You can see the stone crushing the walnuts above. We especially enjoyed the samples here!
The entire school (minus a few of the babies who remained in the nursery). I'm thankful for this unique opportunity to get to know these new friends who will mostly be working in Francophone Africa.
Picture taken in Burundi May 2011 - 2 medical students and I with a malnourished child and his caregivers
My mom sent me the below article this week. Evidently Burundi has the highest hunger levels in sub-Saharan Africa. I looked at the official report and the 2012 Global Hunger Index Report is based on the percent of undernourished in the population (62% in Burundi), prevalence of underweight children under 5 (35% in Burundi), and the under age five mortality rate (14%! in Burundi). The compilation of these numbers actually results in a higher Global Hunger Index number for Burundi than any other country reported (the next 2 countries are Eritrea and Haiti). Of note, no data was available for Somalia or the Democratic Republic of Congo, and South Sudan's data is mixed with Sudan's data - I suspect all three of these countries may be even worse off than Burundi.
It's interesting to me to read these statistics - five years ago, they would have meant very little to me. But now I'm preparing to spend a career in Burundi caring for malnourished children. I also have friends in each of the above countries caring for the "least of these" with their significant and overwhelming physical and spiritual needs. I remember the little boy in the above picture. He was lying on the ground outside the hospital in Burundi and I recognized the classic signs of severe malnutrition. I asked his mother if I could evaluate him in the hospital and she agreed. We admitted him and began the World Health Organization protocol for severe acute malnutrition (probably written at the headquarters in Geneva where I visited a few weeks ago:)). As I taught the medical students about malnutrition through this case and others, we began weighing and measuring all the children on the pediatric ward. The students correctly began considering malnutrition as a major factor in almost all of the pediatric patients' illnesses. And only being in Burundi for a week, I didn't know what to do with the data - because according to the WHO, almost all the children met criteria for severe malnutrition. All were stunted from long term undernutrition. And, while we had a nutrient rich food supplement called "busoma" to offer the families, we didn't have much else.
It's overwhelming to read of the severity of the poverty in Burundi and to think about what we can do to care for these children with so much stacked against them. There's so much physical and spiritual hunger in that country. And the time of preparation for our team is so long with learning both French and Kirundi before we can have any meaningful conversations or impact in that place. And yet again I'm reminded that it is not us who will "save" Burundi. The Burundians are created in the image of God just as we are and their Heavenly Father who cares about the sparrows also cares immensely for them and desires to satisfy their hunger in the way that only He can.
Children picking beans in a field just outside the Burundian capital Bujumbura
PHOTO | IRIN
Burundi has the highest levels of hunger in sub-Saharan
Africa and in East Africa, according to the 2012 Global Hunger Index
(GHI) report.
The country is ranked last at position 79 with a
global index score of 37.1 followed by Eritrea and Haiti in the second
and third position with a score of 34.4 and 30.8 respectively.
The report says that the challenge of hunger is
the lack of sustainable food security under land, water, and energy
stresses; hunger on a global scale remains serious with 20 countries
having levels of hunger that are “alarming” or “extremely alarming”.
In East Africa, Burundi has the highest hunger
scores followed by Rwanda with a score of 19.7 at the 57th position on
the global index.
Kenya and Tanzania tie in the third position both
with a score of 19.3 and are ranked at the 54th position globally;
Uganda is at position 42 with a score of 16.1.
Tanzania’s hunger scores have dropped sharply, down from 25.9 in 2001 to 19.3 in 2012.
This, according to the report, is due to renewed
emphasis on the potential of agriculture, and intensified efforts to
commercialise their agricultural sectors.
Undernourished
“Such initiatives can also observed in Sierra
Leone where Welthungerhilfe and Concern Worldwide [an FAO initiative to
fight global hunger], cooperate with farmers in the areas of
agriculture, rural development, and food security,” said Welthungerhilfe
President Bärbel Dieckmann.
He said in Tanzania, Concern is supporting
smallholders to secure land titles and improve access to water as the
government advances a wider programme to transform the agricultural
sector.
In terms of the GHI components, Burundi, Eritrea,
and Haiti currently have the highest proportion of undernourished people
— more than 50 per cent of the population. Burundi and Comoros,
however, remain the two countries where the GHI rose by about six and
four points, respectively.
“Increased hunger since 1990 in Burundi, Comoros,
and Côte d’Ivoire can be attributed to prolonged conflict and political
instability,” said the report. “Between 1990 and 2001, Burundi’s GHI
score increased steadily, but it has declined slightly since. With the
transition to peace and political stability that started in 2003, the
country began a slow recovery from decades of economic decline.”
However, the proportion of undernourished people has been rising, although the rate of increase has now slowed.
One thing highlighted at our missionary training course was "Remembering our joys and giving thanks." We were encouraged to end each day by recounting 5 aspects of joy and thanksgiving from the day. I have found this to be especially beneficial on days when I don't feel particularly thankful - when the cashier speaks English to me after "Bonjour" because it's clear I don't speak French well, when I mildly sprained my ankle the other day and now can't participate in running/hiking/ultimate frisbee for a little while, & when I worked on pronunciation with a language helper and had almost every phrase corrected for incorrect grammar or pronunciation. :) I wanted to share with ya'll a few of the recent thanksgivings (a little early for the Americans, but I think it was recently Canadian thanksgiving :)):
1) My French visa was approved! I began the visa application process from Peru in February, and there were many steps involved. All did not go smoothly, but the final step on Friday resulted in official approval. And the required chest x ray and exam proved I don't have tuberculosis, so that's good. :) Interesting process, for sure - thankful the final visit was after a month of class as I heard lots of vocabulary we've learned recently. Next step: Burundi visa! But we won't begin working on that quite yet.
2) Team. I continue to love being back together with the team. Language school is busier than expected, though, so we actually don't see each other as often as anticipated. So we look forward to our Sunday night sermons/worship together after the kids are in bed and our separate girls/guys prayer time every other Wednesday. And of course we enjoy the spontaneous meals together, watching the kids play outside together, running into each other in the library :), etc. My wall is decorated with McCropder kids' artwork - I love it!
Impossible to get 16 people all looking at the camera at the same time. We'll try again another day. :) Fun team time regardless (except for the popped balloon just as this pic was taken)
3) Schedule and consequent out-of-classroom learning experiences. The French public schools don't have class on Wednesdays and thus neither do we (as the parents need to care for their kids that day). This provides an excellent opportunity mid-week to spend more concentrated time in the community. Heather & I visit at the nearby nursing home for a couple hours each Wednesday. This is really an ideal language practice environment as the people who live there are patient in waiting for us to formulate sentences and the activities coordinators often plan memory games or singing or other events for the residents on Wednesdays that are also great language learning things for us. In one-on-one conversations, it's still hard for me to talk about very many things, though, so 2 weeks ago I resorted to labeling the body parts like a toddler - eyes, nose, mouth, etc. I did learn some new words that way and the residents and staff seemed to enjoy the game of teaching the words to the American. :)
4) Food.
Lunch at the local Creperie with my French dictionary
Learning to buy fresh bread, local cheese (and to disregard any odor involved :)), and fresh produce. I head to the market at lunch on Thursdays and look forward to practicing my French with the vendors.
5) Seasons. It's starting to look and feel like fall here. I love seasons and definitely missed them in Kenya, so I will really enjoy one more fall, winter, & spring before heading to Burundi.
Teammates Heather, John, and I participated in a church retreat last weekend. I'm so thankful for a welcoming and thriving local church - small, of course (only 1% of the French people are evangelicals), but happy to have us join them even with our minimal French. The first Sunday, I understood maybe 20 words in the whole service. Now the church vocabulary is familiar to me (to understand, not yet to speak) and if I can understand the Bible passage, I can usually figure out the gist of the sermon. (I bought a French Bible this week, so hopefully that will help me follow along better.) I noticed this for the first time at the church retreat, so that was really encouraging - to not just be picking out words here and there, but to actually get the point of a message. The retreat provided 24 hours of almost continuous French, but also provided the opportunity to get to know some of the local people more. Conversations are still pretty challenging beyond basic introductions - especially if the French are speaking with one another when they speak so much faster! They're kind to slow down and patiently welcome our attempts to speak (and butcher their language, unfortunately - for now!). Twice this week I've encountered people I met at the retreat on the street or at a church Bible study I'm attending, and it's been nice to feel a connection and to have people remember me - especially as the French are generally thought to be harder to get to know initially than Americans. The church is quickly becoming a place where I feel I can put down some small roots in the community and make some new friends.
Church retreat at Champfleuri, France - even pretty in the rain
Over the weekend, I figured out the French train system for the first time and traveled to Geneva, Switzerland. A friend from the Gorgas tropical medicine course in Peru lives in Switzerland, so she met me there. I enjoyed reconnecting with her (in French and English :)) as well as exploring a new city.
Lake Geneva in the rain
The weather improved as the day progressed. Switzerland is known for their clocks - this flower clock accurately tells time!
The Jet d'Eau shoots water 400 feet up into the air - you can see it between Rosalie and I in this picture
St. Pierre Cathedral
View of Geneva and lake and Jet d'Eau from the North tower of the cathedral. Supposedly you can even see Mount Blanc when it's not cloudy.
Reformation wall - built in 1909 on the 400th anniversary of the birth of John Calvin and depicting 450 years of the history of Protestantism
Farel (Swiss reformer), Jean Calvin, de Beze (?), and John Knox (and me ;))
The United Nations building - unfortunate closed to the public on the weekends, but we saw an interesting demonstration in front of the UN building of 3500 Sri Lankan Tamils protesting torture of their people in Sri Lanka and seeking independence (I looked it up later - it's amazing how much is going on in the world that I'm unaware of! )
Probably not on everyone's top 5 Geneva list, but Rosalie and I (2 tropical medicine trained docs interested in the developing world) were pretty interested to visit the World Health Organization's headquarters. I used WHO guidelines in caring for patients in Kenya almost every day and will in Burundi as well, so it's nice to be able to picture where they are drafted now. I do hope the authors get to leave their offices periodically and actually visit the places where their guidelines are implemented, though!
Tribute to the lives saved through vaccinations around the world - something I value so much more now after seeing kids die from vaccine preventable diseases
Sunset from pier on Lake Geneva looking at the city
Classes are now in full swing and we've even had our first test. French is certainly not an easy language to learn! Especially the pronunciation! But I'm so thankful for being placed in the appropriate class for my level of French, for a teacher whose teaching style resonates with me, for fun classmates (including two of my teammates - John & Eric - read the team blog about our class here), and for being the dork that I am that I actually like school. (Course I've been in school a pretty high percentage of my life, so that's a good thing!) The highlight of the past week in class is that we've learned both a past and a future tense, so now we can have real conversations - it's hard to talk for long only in present tense! Unfortunately, though, it's not learned immediately, as was evident today when I tried to have a basic conversation at the bank and sounded like a 2 year old: "I to put money and to go home work money to buy to the internet now?" Hmmm, hopefully processing speed and consequent speaking ability will improve with time! I'm thankful for sign language and gracious people for now. :)
But language learning doesn't occur exclusively in a classroom, and I've enjoyed participating in some community activities over the last couple weekends:
A hike with some classmates to a nearby peak:
La Belle Etoile as seen from our school
The hike begins
I worked on memorizing Psalm 121 in French on the way up ("I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come?...) - with some very helpful and necessary pronunciation corrections from the fluent French speaker in our group (whose wife is a student at the school). An apropos psalm!
The peak of La Belle Etoile
View of Mount Blanc from the top
Another weekend event - visiting a nearby castle built literally on a rock in the 1500s
Two weekends ago, Cropseys and I visited the town of Annecy (about an hour and a half away) and enjoyed a boat ride on the beautiful lake there
After several days of rain, I was thankful for a beautiful day on Sunday and set off on a hike with two friends. I had visited the village of Mercury with another student last week and thought I could find it again easily, but anyone who has hiked with me before knows my tendency to get lost. So we missed a turn somewhere along the way and then spent the next hour practicing French in asking various people how to get there. We were lost on a scenic country lane complete with raspberries and apple trees growing on the side of the road, vineyards, quaint Alpine homes, cows, and varied views of green, rocky, & snow-capped mountains in the distance. Though in a rural area, a Sunday afternoon stroll seems to be a common pastime for the French, so we came upon several friendly, helpful, fellow travelers. Each time we exchanged greetings, and then I attempted the above question ("Where does one find Mercury?"). This would be followed by confused looks, so I would try again. And again. The problem was the "r's" in "Mercury". We should have chosen an easier to pronounce village as our destination! Those uvular (gutteral) r's in French seem quite impossible right now, but I learned in the language acquisition course to add "yet" to any such statement. I can't YET correctly pronounce the French r's! But eventually, they would figure out what I was saying, and then followed a string of directions and, I presume from the few words I understood, a recommendation as to the beautiful view of Mt. Blanc from the church in the village. Thankfully sign language usually accompanied the directions and we would head off again in the direction they were pointing. Great opportunities to practice speaking and listening to French, to enjoy conversation with friends, and to see more of the beautiful surroundings in our home for the next 10 months. And, bonus, we finally arrived in Mercury - and found the shortcut (and correct route) back home - only took 3 hours round-trip instead of two.
View en route
We found Mercury!
Jessica, Rachel, & I with the city of Albertville in the valley behind us
Didn't actually see Mt. Blanc during this hike, but the above picture is from last week and I think it includes the base of Mt. Blanc
There's actually a swing set to the left of the castle and it looks like people currently live there. Imagine growing up in a castle!
Albertville in the valley
And back in Albertville, we realized that the rain clouds we'd been experiencing must have contained more than just rain in the mountains. Snow on August 31st!
Our placement exam is tomorrow and then orientation and the start of classes is on Thursday. I'm excited to get beyond Rosetta Stone French 1 - hopefully pronunciation will be the first thing covered!
