Bujumbura

Lon's colleague Jaco moved from Rwanda last year to neighbouring Burundi as part of the Embassy Office there. He requested that Lon come down for a few days to do some financial verifications etc and since I hadn't yet been to Burundi I came too.

We were driven down by an Embassy chauffeur on Saturday morning, stopping in Butare for a coffee, before heading to the border. The chauffeur took care of all the formalities (what a luxury!) and we stayed sitting in the air-conditioned car!

The route through Burundi to Bujumbura saw us passing unterrassed hills, and towns which were subtly different from Rwanda, we also decreased altitude from 1500m to 775m which meant a huge change in temperature - so despite it being as hot as it ever is in Kigali now, we really noticed the difference.

We spent the remains of Saturday hanging out at Jaco and Leontines, and watched the sunset at a local bar (theoretically over Lake Tanganyika but it is so overcast at the moment that the lake remained invisible)

Sunday we brunched, took a tour of Bujumbura, and then went to hang out at Bora Bora - a very chilled place on the beach (note the pool - its not safe to swim in the lake because of the hippos and crocodiles) - we really had the feeling that we were a long way from Kigali.
Roundabout (why are European ones always so boring??)


Traffic police who have recently been trained by the Dutch

street life


There is a park in the centre of town, with swings, trees and plants, and is very popular for healthy Burundians working out in the shade.






On Monday Lon went to work, and I went on a tour of Bujumbura with Leontine. Firstly we changed money at a forex and Leo almost got into the wrong chauffeur driven silver Suzuki (as it was parked in front) and to the supermarkets and the coffee shop before the guys came home for lunch.

In Bujumbura there are some habits which differ from ours in Rwanda. Most people have a cook, and so eat the main meal at lunch time, and since the cook has to justify his existence lunch is a delicious three course affair involving sauces and finely chopped vegetables (our cook ((me)) just chops things haphazardly!)

We went to visit the Grand Marche in the afternoon, a big market in the centre of town. Again for me it was about making comparisons to Kigali's main market - in this case the roof is much higher, which means is has an airier feel. Celeste the driver came with us to help us navigate, I was hoping to find some of the local material, but didn't succeed - but we did of course search the whole market, only to go back to the first stall to buy something!

On Tuesday we went with Ellen as well (another NL partner who has relocated to Burundi) to the Rusizi national park which is just on the edge of the town. We were accompanied by an armed policeman instead of a ranger since there wasn't enough space for both in the car. We saw lots of birds and many hippo families.


hippo print



Then we went for coffee in the local coffee shop Aroma, which is a hang out for wireless internet users, and coffee drinkers.



Before lunch we went to the Congolese market and enjoyed haggling for treasures - much emboldened by each others presence and better at haggling for it too, and then spent the remains of the afternoon cooling off in the pool at Ellen’s since Jaco and Leontines was empty for repairs.

In the evening, waiting for Lon and Jaco to return from the Embassy Office (not Embassy as they are under the wing of Kigali) I heard fireworks..or so I thought, and was about to say so when I realised it was unlikely. There was an extended exchange of (automatic) fire on a hill in the distance (10km away)...the guards explanation of thieves seemed unlikely, but it was a stark reminder that life in Burundi is different - there is a curfew with roadblocks round the city at night, and its not safe to go off to the countryside for a drive as we do here. Another example is the tea plantation where Jaco used to take the dog for a walk on a Sunday is now no-go as there are armed rebels camping there.

Wednesday we went speed shopping at a local Christian cooperative which has a large selection of items, chickens and chicken feeders, milk and yoghurt, school bags and wooden furniture, and beautiful glazed pottery. We had to hurry as we had appointments at the Buj spa - a place with Thai massage ladies and a sauna. It was clean, and professional, and I had a full body massage given by a miniature Thai lady using hands and elbows which was both wonderful and painful.

We just had time after lunch to go to the marvellous greek run butchers which wouldn't be out of place in any European town, and finish the money buying chorizo and ham before catching the 45 minute plane back home.