Burundi: A land searching for hope.

(Pictured above is me with some of the village children we were visiting in Muyinga) As you see in the picture there is also an albino child - In Burundi some of the witch doctors have been known to take albino children and kill them to offer them up to their Gods; we were told they believe they recieve powers from this. This was stated in the Burundian News about 6 months ago. Fortuntley they do have some protection services for the albino people here in Burundi.

Unfortunately we haven't been able to update our blog recently due to electricity problems. The lack of electricity has begun to increase in the city now over a few months where some days it is gone half of the day and some days more. We have been planning a few things lately with partnerships we have acquired with some of the local churches. Next weekend we will be doing a class for the village children on how to keep good hygiene, how to clean yourself and how to brush your teeth. We received a large donation of toothbrushes among many other items from Spring of Life Church that we will be able to distribute in these classes. We don't want to just give a handout, but we want to show the people and the children that we care - that they care for themselves and their bodies. Teaching the children simple things like this will help to prevent a little more from sicknesses and infections that are so common. In the US things like hygiene and how to brush your teeth are ordinary things a child would learn from family or even school. Here in Burundi. these things are not always but some times neglected and assumed that the children just know how to care for themselves. In the class we are targeting ages 2 -17 to teach them how to care for their physical bodies. After the class we will give each child a toothbrush. We believe the most touching part of this class we are doing is that it was the children of Spring of Life Church that brought the donations in. They said surely I can do something to help the children in Burundi and they put all their efforts into going to dentists offices, talking to their parents and doing whatever they could to make it happen for those who needed it the most. Once the children heard the need, some were moved to do something about it. The children are the future of tomorrow and what we sow into them today will mold them and prepare them for what is ahead. We will be updating on how the class went in the near future. We would like to say a warm "thank you" to the children of Spring of Life Church. Thank you for responding to the cries of a child in Burundi, Africa! Until next time...

Kirundi Vocabulary: joy - umunezero