How To Build a Church: Stone by Stone

Our next day started by meeting with the Archbishop and his staff to debrief on our trip so far and to hear more about their goals and priorities.

As the Rev. Matthew Heyd said in one of our pre-trip meetings before we left New York, the old way of doing mission work was to go and tell people what they should believe and what they should be doing. But the more effective way, the way Trinity intends to do its mission work, is to go and make partnerships and to listen to the stories that partners have to tell. They have a rich history and know best about what they need, and if you listen carefully, you will find out how you can help.

Of the many things that came up during the meeting, one was an opportunity for some new buildings. This fit together quite nicely for what was in store for us. After the meeting, we were to drive an hour to another small town called Rutana where we would be helping to build a new church.

On the way, we stopped at the Source du Nil, purported to be the Source of the Nile.

It was not what we expected, but we enjoyed our time there immensely.

And then it was on to Rutana where we were greeted by the leader of Rutana’s Anglican Church, Archdeacon Pontien Ribakare.

The next morning, we met Archdeacon Pontien at the work site. His parish is in the initial stages of building a new church. All of the workers on the site, referred to as Christians, were volunteers. We would be working alongside them.

What we saw and experienced was incredible. Some background for comparison: Trinity’s offices overlook the World Trade Center site, where construction is ongoing on several new skyscrapers. Every day, trucks are parked on the streets outside Trinity’s offices waiting to deliver steel and other materials to the site. Lines of dump trucks cart material away. Tall cranes loom over the site, hoisting material to higher and higher heights. And occasionally you hear the boom of explosives used for excavation work. In general, there is a constant din that indicates the ongoing work.

But at the site in Rutana, everything is done by hand with simple tools. There are no cranes, no bulldozers, no dump trucks. Rock that needs to be excavated for the foundation is broken by hand with a sledgehammer, extremely tiring and difficult work.

And in fact, one of our first tasks on the site was to move some of the broken rock out of the site. There were no wheelbarrows. We simply followed what everyone else was doing. We bent down, picked up as much rock as we could, and deposited it on a rock pile at the side of the site.






We also helped move concrete from a pit where they mixed the dry concrete with water and stones:




along the bucket brigade line:





to the posts being formed by wood enclosures:







Some young men form the steel rebar to help reinforce the concrete posts



One image that stayed with us was two women with babies on their backs working alongside everyone else:



We had some visitors:



The Trinity group and the Christians:

A Busy Day...

Wednesday was a busy day. We started with a morning service at the Bible College. Sister Promise was the guest preacher.

We then visited a primary school where the class sang several songs to us. One was about the country of Burundi, its beauty and resources.

    

Here's a snippet of the song:

The Trinity Group then taught the class the song “He’s Got the Whole World In His Hands.” Before leaving, Lynnda donated a small digital piano to the group for use in the classroom.

When children from other classrooms were dismissed, they grew curious and came to see who was visiting:

The children loved having their photos taken:

An impromptu group shot:

Justine brought along a bubble blower, which the children loved:

After leaving the school, we made our way to meet with members of the Mothers’ Union, an “international Christian charity that seeks to support families worldwide.” When we arrived, the group sang to us and threw flower petals in the air.

The mothers we met with shared their stories of domestic abuse or abandonment and how they found empowerment and support through the Mothers’ Union. 

They also illustrated, through the use of baskets, their financial system for collecting dues, insurance, and late fees, and described their ability to provide loans to those in need or starting a business.

After their presentation, the women sang and danced joyously. It was an incredible experience to see women that had endured such hardship but who were so overwhelmingly happy together. The Mothers' Union organization has an impressive website at: www.themothersunion.org.

Here's a sample of the song they sang:

Regina Jacobs also distributed knit baby caps made by the Trinity Knitters to some of the mothers with babies.

Our group then split up. Team members Lynnda Lockhart and Maggy Charles went to teach crocheting to some of the women in the Mothers’ Union. Lynnda wrote this entry:

Little did I know that only one year after learning how to crochet I would not only be teaching this skill to a group of women but to a group of women in Africa! What a day it was. The original plan was to sit down with a few women and a translator and go over the basics. In actuality I think we ended up with about 15 women. It was amazing. I began by giving a brief demonstration of the basic stitches and then we distributed the hooks and yarn. Within moments it became quite evident that these women were extremely talented and coordinated. What had taken me hours to learn they had mastered in mere minutes! I was thrilled.

The women are a part of the Mothers’ Union, an organization of women who have come together to gain the skills to improve their lives and to become empowered as individuals and to find ways of earning an income separate and apart from an abusive home. It is my hope that by learning this skill and seeing how it could be used to generate income by making items to sell, baby hats, scarves, blankets, etc., they can improve their lives and the lives of their families. There are obstacles of course. Will they have access to yarn for their projects? Is the price of yarn prohibitive? Is there a market for the items they make? But, if what I saw these women accomplish in a matter of minutes is any indication, I’m confident that they will figure it out.

The rest of us traveled to a small village just a short drive away where a member of the Mothers’ Union told us about her business. She makes fried dough, or beignets, from scratch and sells them at the local markets. We had eaten some earlier at our meeting with the Mothers’ Union and they were delicious.

The woman had determined that others were making large loaves of bread and that some people either didn’t need such large quantities of bread or couldn’t afford it. She decided to take advantage of a niche that she identified: make small pieces of bread that she could sell for less money. Families with many children could buy a bag of 10 beignets to give to their children. Her business, she reported, has been very successful.

When we returned, the entire Trinity group visited with young women and children that were sewing and weaving items for sale.




These are some of the items they made:


We also visited a group of people afflicted or affected by HIV who were waiting for identification cards that would enable them to receive proper medication.

Neckties that Bind Two Worlds

My first travel to Burundi was in March 2011 as a member of the Mission and Service Far Global exploratory group whose primary objective was to identify areas of mutual interest that could be cultivated between the diocese of Matana and the parish of Trinity Church. Our busy agenda ensured that we learned about a variety of programs, met with the congregation and community, as well as understood the day-to-day culture.

One of the programs included joining the students of the Bible College for morning worship. Their attire did not grab our attention immediately; but, their joyous singing did. However, a few days later while waiting at the airport in Bujumbura to begin our long journey home, one of my fellow travelers commented that the majority of the students did not have neckties to wear with their suit jackets (even though their shirts were buttoned up to the collar). In our collective hindsight, we realized that their dignity peaks when they dress as best as they can with whatever they have, though they were certainly not fashion conscious. We also recalled that the students (36 men and 3 women) with neckties seemed to walk taller, with a hint of more confidence. Donating neckties would be a powerful equalizer between the haves and the have not’s.

Nine months later, as the second group of volunteers prepared for the next phase of the Mission and Service partnership, I took on the duty from my first group to collect neckties. Asking for help is not one of my strengths; but the students’ story motivated me to ask—and inspired others to give. I told their stories to my colleagues at work and to my family at home; word-of-mouth also quickly spread around Trinity parish. Within four days, 230 handsome neckties and twelve pretty scarves were donated! The outpouring of generosity and compassion far surpassed my expectations. The stories that some of my colleagues shared warmed my heart even more deeply:
• These ties belonged to my father who passed away when I was 10 years old. I still remember watching him get dressed and wearing these ties.
• I bought most of my husband’s ties. After many years in the corporate world, he transitioned to a new phase in his career: home-based sales. Since he dresses more casually and does not need to wear ties as often as before, we thought someone else would enjoy wearing them to work.
• Here are the first ties I bought with my first paycheck when I got my first job. I asked myself: “Do I want to give away these memories?” Right then, I knew the answer had to be “yes; it’s OK for someone else to wear them now.” I hope they will be the first ties for many others starting their first job.
• I love blue; all my ties are blue. I hope the students will like blue, too.
• My mom recently bought new ties for high-school, special-need students who are participating in a work/study program where she works. When I told her about the students in Burundi, she bought new ties for them too.

After dinner our first night in Bujumbura, our team of eight weary travelers lugged the weighty duffel bag stuffed with ties into our hotel’s large conference room. With renewed energy and lots of fun, we plunged into the task of sorting the ties by color, tracking inventory and making little gift bows from crotchet yarn as we tied the neckties into smaller, more manageable bundles. 

Following our welcoming lunch gathering the next afternoon, we presented the neckties. All 39 Burundian students at the Bible College were overjoyed, especially when I told them that people in America had thought and cared about them. Their humility and appreciativeness of the simple gesture of giving them a necktie—one that would last many years beyond fashion cycles—left me awed and speechless. A faint, yet familiar stirring shifted within my inner core, like massive tectonic plates beneath the earth’s surface that move slightly and noticeably after an earthquake. (Isn’t that shift supposed to be every mission-and-service volunteer’s experience? Returning home changed, at least on the inside.)

The students, some of them older than I had remembered, all thanked me not only with a firm nod of their heads and saying “marakotse chane” (which means “thank you very much” in their native Kirundi language), but also they gave me a Burundian-style hug followed by a handshake. When I turned around to make sure everyone had gotten a necktie, I saw that the students were smiling brightly, chattering excitedly amongst themselves and comparing their gifts with delight!

The next morning, we once again joined the students, this time for morning worship. I sat behind them for a second time, just as I had done nearly one year earlier. When they stood and turned to face us, they began singing in splendid harmony. This time I noticed that each student had donned his new necktie; I spotted the ice blue and cream polka dot tie; the citrus orange tie; the stripped navy blue and red tie; the black paisley tie; the soft yellow tie; the solid silver tie; the muted geometric pink tie; and all the others that we presented to them. Indeed, each student seemed to stand a bit taller, with a hint of more confidence.

The neckties bind our two worlds.

- Regina Jacobs

The Road to Matana

Our next destination was Matana, a village in the mountains about two hours outside of Bujumbura. The road winds its way up through lush, green countryside that overlooks the capital. Walking alongside the roads were men and women heading to markets with goods carried in baskets on their heads or piled high on bicycles.

When we arrived in Matana it was lunchtime, and we went straight to the Matana Bible College and Theological Institute where a large group of students greeted us with beautiful and passionate song. Singing, we would soon find out, was one of the joyous ways that many of the people we met, would greet us.

After an incredible lunch:

The principal of the school and others welcomed us:

Regina Jacobs then presented a gift to the Bible College students that we had brought with us – donated neckties. Each student received a new necktie.

Then it was time for a group photo of students and staff of the Bible College and Theological Institute with the Trinity Mission and Service Trip team:

After the photo, we walked over to the Cathedral to hear the Choir sing. And with a little encouragement, we joined in.

A Visit to the Provincial Office
Before leaving Bujumbura, the group made a stop at the Provincial Office of the Anglican Church of Burundi to meet the staff and see the new building that is taking place. The office is expanding its headquarters to several buildings behind its current building.

Mission trip team member Cynthia Moten presented a gift for the Office’s library,
a book about America’s Civil Rights, to Provincial Secretary Rev. Pedaculi Birakengana.

Then we toured the construction site.

Women work at the site alongside the men.

All of the work at the site is done by hand.

A model of what the finished site will look like

Rosemary Cottingham, who works in Communications in the Office, was kind enough to take a group photo in the office’s gardens.

John Paul buys some bananas outside the Provincial Office.

Next, we had for the village of Matana.

Getting to Know One Another

Day 2 was actually a continuation of the end of our travel day. 

On Monday, after some hours of rest, we  awoke to breakfast with our partners at the hotel, and then stopped at the Rainbow Centre in Bujumbura, a project of the Archbishop’s wife, Mathilde Nkwirkiye. The Centre’s mission is “to provide care, treatment and safe keeping of orphaned, abandoned, and HIV positive babies.” The Centre was started in 2001, and Mathilde is actively involved. In addition to finding foster families for the children, she helps reunite orphans with  extended family members.

Mathilde Nkwirkiye, the Archbishop's wife, takes the mission group 

on a tour of the Rainbow Centre

Mathilde and Justine look out at the Centre's play yard

Lunch took us to a restaurant that looked out at beautiful Lake Tanganyika, which Burundi shares with the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, and Zambia. From the shore of the lake, in the distance, we could see the city of Bujumbura with rolling hills behind it. Meal times are some of the most valuable on a mission trip: they’re when you learn a little about your host, something about their history, and more about the place where you are. Our hosts were extremely gracious and made us feel at home immediately. A few of us tried fish from the lake!

Sister Promise and Cynthia at lunch

Sorting ties at night

Burundi? And Travel and More Travel

Before leaving on our trip for Burundi, many of us told friends and families where we were headed. “Burundi?” they would say, “Where’s that?” It wasn’t just a lack of paying attention in geography class. Located in Eastern Africa (and referred to by Burundians as the “heart of Africa”), Burundi is a small country that’s often overlooked. According to Wikipedia, it’s about 10,745 square miles, making it just slightly larger than the total area of Haiti. It is densely populated, though, with the last census showing more than eight million people.

The country is bordered by Rwanda and suffered through a similar, but less well-known, genocidal war. It is now stable and attempting to build peace and reconciliation.

Here it is in relation to the African continent:

And this map shows Burundi in relation to its neighbor countries:

Burundi is also far, far away from New York. There are no direct flights to Bujumbura, the capital of Burundi, even from Europe. The New York group left on Saturday, January 14, and flew from JFK to Amsterdam. 

Regina, Maggy, and Lynnda waiting in Amsterdam

The big bird that takes us to Nairobi

The next leg was to Nairobi and finally to Bujumbura.

A slightly blurry photo of the somewhat bleary-eyed group waiting in Nairobi

In all, the trip takes more than 30 hours and when you finally make it to the airport in Bujumbura, it’s after 1am on Monday, so even if your eyes are fully open, there isn’t much you can see.

One of the mantras on a Trinity mission trip is “be flexible.” Large trips can be planned to the “nth” degree, but there’s almost always a hiccup that one has to be prepared “to be flexible” about. When we started loading our luggage into the three SUVs that the Archbishop and his team arrived to pick us up in, someone noticed that a tire on one of the cars was nearly flat. Despite being tired, it turned out we weren’t getting to our hotel as soon as we thought we were. But thanks to the Archbishops team, the group found the necessary tools, and we all dug through our bags to find our flashlights (for times when electricity might fail), to help speed the tire-changing process.

The Mission & Service Trip to Burundi

After an initial fact-finding trip, Trinity Wall Street sent its first mission and service trip to Burundi. Trinity has a relationship with Archbishop Bernard Ntahatori of the Anglican Province of Burundi.

The group of intrepid travelers included staff and parishioners: Sister Promise Atelon, Maggy Charles, Lynnda Lockhart, Cynthia Moten, Regina Jacobs, Justine Willey, Max Maddock, and Benjamin Musoke-Lubega. During the trip, the group will learn about the country and the work of its partner – the Anglican Church, both in Bujumbura and in rural areas.

Some of the ways the group plans to engage during the trip are: teaching crocheting to members of the Mothers’ Union (a support network for women and families), leading a primary school class in song, praying with peopled afflicted with and affected by HIV/AIDS, helping a rural church construct its new building, and discovering ways in which the Trinity community in New York can engage with its Burundian partners.

Initially, we had hoped to blog while the trip was happening, but because a number of reasons, primarily difficult internet access, we'll be blogging the trip day-by-day now that we are back. Check back for photos and blog entries covering the trip.

Updates from Burundi The team from Trinity Wall Street has shared several photos from their journey through Burundi.

Burundi Bound