Burundi

I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come?
My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.
Psalm 121:1,2

It’s a tiny country, very poor, and starting to recover after years of war between Tutsi and Hutu ethnic groups.

We flew to Burundi last week, to visit our friends Frank and Carol Ogden in Kibuye. Now living in Everett WA, they are retired from decades of missionary service in East Africa, but still returning to Kibuye for a few months every year. We were glad to accept their invitation to pay them a visit.


After flying into the heat and humidity of Bujumbura, we drove upcountry, climbing steadily into the cool mountain air of central Burundi. The forested mountaintops were striking, with deep valleys dotted with small shambas, coffee and tea fields, and banana trees as far as our eyes could see.









Children, of course, are everywhere, most of them barefoot like their parents.








Frank and Carol’s house is nestled in a quiet, cool forest setting, just a short walk from the hospital, church, and other mission buildings. Their tap water comes from a nearby spring, and they are connected to the national power grid.









The electricity often shuts down, so Frank has installed a separate 12 volt electrical system powered by solar panels and battery storage, with lights in every room.

They grow most of their own vegetables, and pick loquats, lemons, and avocados from trees in their yard. One morning we sipped coffee brewed from beans grown in the back yard and roasted in a pan on the kitchen stove. Wow!

We enjoyed sharing meals together, taking walks, doing jigsaw puzzles, and reading. I spent some of the day with Frank, helping him in surgery, and introducing a group of medical students to clinical medicine. Kathy went shopping with Carol in the nearby town and helped in various ways around the house.



The oldest Free Methodist church building is in a small village about an hour away. We drove there one day to see patients in the local dispensary, finishing with lunch with the dispensary staff and church leaders.









On our way back to Bujumbura at the end of the week, we drove south to a tall ridge separating the watersheds of two great rivers, the Nile and the Congo. Water from a spring just below the top of the ridge forms the southernmost source of the Nile. We stood on the ridge, the valley on our left heading off to Lake Victoria and the Nile River, and the one on the right to Lake Tanganyika and the Congo River. Incredible!


Approaching Bujumbura, it’s amazing to look down on the expanse of Lake Tanganyika and across to the towering mountains of eastern Congo. Livingstone and Stanley camped on these shores 150 years ago, and gazed up at the same mountain ranges. It’s an awesome sight.









We’re glad to be home now, back into the routine of life in Kijabe, and glad for the opportunity to visit friends and get to know the tiny country of Burundi.

- Doug