Alice Chiang:
This trip to Rwanda and Burundi was the most difficult and challenging trip of my life. Although I felt physically and emotionally exhausted, shaken and stretched, I also feel the trip was so meaningful in that I learned so much about a world that I had little knowledge of and my horizons were expanded.
I felt the clock turn back a couple of centuries as our traveling group drove on bumpy dirt roads in Burundi to the three indigenous Batwa villages: Gahombo, Nvada, and Mwendo. My back was not accustomed to long, jolting bus rides over bumpy dirt roads and soon my back gave out and I suffered back pains for the rest of the trip. More distressing was my first hand experience of the living conditions that communities of Batwa people lived in.
There was no electricity, no water. Families of 3-8 lived together in tiny, thatched roof huts. It was difficult to witness their living in these dire conditions. And yet, at each of the three Batwa villages we visited, we were always warmly welcomed with song and dance by the entire community. They showed us how happy they were to see us! I learned that the Batwa people are known for their vibrant expression of emotions through their song and dance.
An elderly couple in Gahombo stood humbly and gratefully in front of their new brick home and told us how their lives have improved. The wife shared that her husband suffered from malaria last year and was able to get treated at the clinics, since they now have ID cards and access to health services. The community members in Gahombo decided to give the first brick homes to the elderly and the widowed women in the village.
All these improvements are definite signs of hope for the future of the indigenous Batwa people.
We came on this trip to listen to the stories of these marginalized people, learn how African Road is partnering with them, and how we can be involved. I believe that is what we are asked to do, to be ambassadors of goodwill, to create communities of compassion where people care about one another, to recount what we have seen to others so that they can join us in creating a more loving world. I’m grateful I had the opportunity to learn from the Batwa people of Burundi and to extend our hearts to them.
Ted Meeker:
When we got off the bus at the village of Gahomba, we were greeted by a joyous, singing crowd of the indigenous Batwa villagers!
At Gahombo, the villagers showed off the beautiful green valley planted with tiered crops, where corn provides shade for beans and other low-lying plants, as in the “3 sisters” planting used by Native Americans. Here was an immediate illustration of the sustainable agriculture training enabled by African Road and ASSEJEBA projects.
Moving up the hill, we toured traditional thatched huts, and the brick houses that are slowly replacing them, also enabled by partnership between African Road, Changemaker Evariste, and the ASSEJEBA team. This tour turned out to be a bit of a struggle for me because this was my day to suffer with the travelers’ sickness (I don’t think any of us escaped it)!
But as I struggled to keep up, community members from the village scrambled and produced a tiny stool so I could sit in the shade. It must have been a comical sight – an improbably tall visitor, squatting on a tiny stool, surrounded by Batwa villagers. But their hospitality allowed me to continue my day and be present with them!
We experienced so much in the villages – joyous singing and dancing, expert pot making, and building grass houses in record time! After hearing stories and seeing villages first hand, it is clear how the African Road projects are making remarkable progress in improving the lives of the Batwa.
In the village of Mwendo, less than rudimentary huts of sticks, shredded tarps, and banana leaves provide scant shelter in the best of times for families large and small. These round huts, barely eight feet wide would be divided by hanging sheets to provide a semblance of privacy for the adults and the four, five, or even seven children sleeping at night, and to clear room for food preparations by day.
down with everything in it. A home is lost. All the more amazing how these families persevere, pride in their eyes, supported by a community bond, and buoyed by hope for a better future.
Indeed, slowly, one by one, through the vision and agency of village leaders, and the financial support of African Road, these humble huts are being replaced by simple adobe brick homes with waterproof roofs. But, who shall have a brick home when there are not enough for everyone all at once? We learned that the community decided collectively to provide widowed-women and their families with the first brick structures. We met one of the women and her daughter, who had taken in four orphans. Robin and I were moved by their story, and it set the stage for us to slowly comprehend the hearts, minds, and actions of the indigenous Batwa people in Burundi. Their generosity, extravagant hospitality, and communal pride.
