Greetings from Burundi!  As many of you know, Claude and I are overseeing a community development project in Burundi with 27 Batwa families.  Their community is called Matara and they have lived there for just over a year now.  These industrious families have built homes, latrines, planted a myriad of various crops among other things.  We shared with you while in Mombasa that a growing edge of our own discipleship is helping thee families think about how to care for the plot of creation God has entrusted to them, so that it will provide a sustainable home for them and their children and that such care will glorify God who remains committed to His creation.  So I offer an exciting progress report!

The Batwa families in Matara have friends supporting and encouraging them from Texas.  These friends made their second annual visit to Burundi this June to be with the Batwa families.  While together, we celebrated with song and dance (Batwa are the most enthusiastic and athletic dancers!), participated in a wedding of 10 Batwa couples and and shared meals together.  We also had a work day, which was a highlight for me.  We worked side by side planting an entire plot of cabbage under the watchful eye of our agricultural engineer, Claude Mbarushimana.  It was great for our western friends to gain a first hand understanding of how hard it is to work the land, under the hot sun.  But it was so kind of our Batwa friends to let us learn from them and contribute to their hard work.

Another group joined the Batwa in the creation of their tree nursery - a new venture to replenish the trees we cut on our land.  We have, in the past year, has to clear land to plant crops and build homes.  But we agree with Colin Jackson, that we need to return to the earth, and so we are now actively cultivating indigenous trees in our own tree nursery!  Most of these trees will be planted in Matara to protect the local ecosystem and guard the rich soil of the land.  But some of these budding saplings will be gifted to friends in Burundi who plant trees across the country.  They are just starting to think about using local varieties of trees, and we want to encourage them by providing some good trees that are at home in the Burundian soil.  We want to return to the earth as a gesture of both gratitude and care.

Claude challenged our team to do the tree nursery without the use of plastic bags, which are often used for the tree saplings in the very early stages.  Our agricultural engineer decided to repurpose the banana tree leaves on the ground, using them to construct containers for the saplings.  Brilliant!

We also invited some ladies from Texas and Matara to build a prototype fireless cooker.  This was an idea Colin Jackson shared with me over breakfast one morning in Mombasa.  The idea is to create insulated baskets out of inexpensive and locally available materials, then putting pots into these baskets allowing the residual heat of the pot (fresh off the fire) to continue the cooking off the heat.  This means that you use less charcoal or firewood in the daily process of cooking, thus saving energy, spending less time on collecting firewood and spending less money on the purchase of charcoal.  We got to work on four cookers using local baskets, fabrics, raw cotton and needles and strong thread.  The women were fascinated by the construction of these baskets, and curious about the usefulness of these new items. When we explained the concept to the larger group, as they surrounded us later in the day, one man asked if this basket will keep his food warm so when he returns home he does not have to wait for food to be reheated over the fire.  The affirmative answer solicited great cheers from the men in the group!  

All the Batwa women use large pots without a lid to cook.  So in order to test the prototype cookers we needed to get them pots with lids!  (This will be good in any event, as cooking with a lid also is a better way to put the heat to use and not waste even more fuel.)  Now that the four ladies have fireless cookers and pots with lids - they are beginning to test them and discover their usefulness for themselves.  If the news is good - they will be making more fireless cookers in the near future - since they have four group leaders who can now teach the others!

Then we invited Joel Vwira, Amahoro's waste management hero, to come to Matara and evaluate our waste management situation.  He marveled at all the Batwa families had already accomplished.  He raved about the banana containers and eschewing of bringing plastic bags into this nearly pristine community. He then reported, to our delight, that there is hardly any waste generated in Matara!  He observed that most things are repurposed or reused, and noticed that each family was composting and using that rich matter to fertilize their own gardens!  So at least we know that this community in Burundi is on the right track.

These are simple things - a tree nursery, banana containers, fireless cookers, composting... but steps toward caring for the land of Matara with intentional strategies for sustainability and ecological sensitivity. We hope that these small steps will delight our Creator and prolong the health of the land and people of Matara.  

Now we have shared our story of learning and trying new things to care for the earth in Burundi... it's your turn to tell us your stories!  What have you tried to do since you have returned from Mombasa?  What new practices have you put into place or habits have you discontinued in an effort to better care for God's creation, entrusted to us?  We are eager to hear your stories!

P.S. I wanted to post some pictures, but bandwidth was not cooperating... sorry!  Maybe I can post later.