That First Buju-morning...

From above, it is just a hilly countryside like any other in East Africa. Rwanda, the immediate neighbor giving the perfect match to such a land scape. Thanks to the pilots for gliding at an altitude below the clouds. It's the last part of miles and miles border over border .into a mountainous country and by its lakeside  capital... Bujumbura, Burundi. It is seemingly a  chilly evening but a step from the pressurized cabin tells you what a hot city this is. Somebo...o..dy, through the eavesdrop that I do, explain its because of lake Tanganyika. The hows and whys are a story best told another day. Maybe at the same same sandy beaches in Bujumbura...
  Aah! very welcoming. a guard cares enough to say ''bonjour" to a  man like me. uknown to him, I havent been to His motherland  except through the various textbooks are the general idle talk- which doesnt include the fact that on Sundays bujumbura is a deserted town. nothing much going on. Anyway, i suppress a bonjour back... no fear though its clear to me  language will be a major impediment to my activities. these are just worries. I walk forth into this Land with a clean slate however, what is to be born let it be.


From portraits of the nation's heroes to monuments under construction. Very clean high way to very well architectured hotels... one  word. Scenic. The town nonetheless stinks of a fire. a fire perhaps one or two weeks old. A fire that devoured what is perhaps the most interesting of all thing in Urundi. The 2nd largest market in the country. Arson or a fault, they cannot pinpoint but someone is blamed anyway, the group Alshabaab or so the words in the mouths of many here say. the Taxi driver is of that opinion too.

I figure from luxury of the hotel room, i realise this is a country with a people I know know nothing about. their existence before colonisation. Their struggle during and after liberating themselves from their colonial masters. Challenges that have put them down belly down and calling for anyone who cares to extent their hand in help. Neither are their moments of glory a familiar thing. This is a country I know nothing about. His Excellency the  president's name is the only thing I can attach to my knowledge of Burundi.

I shrink deeper into the thick foam mat and the urge to know more bangs harder and harder. To, I minister the EAC integration gospel to a people I need to accord a special understanding of. Google comes in in handy.The  drift into a meditation mode is so polished that I lose the sense of time... today I walk a scarred nation. A once a upon a time tormented people, still are may be. The story of Burundi was  going on well until Hutu and Tutsi and politics come into play... what followed are still fresh wounds to some extent. The  reason maybe Bujumbura is quite a quiet city. the once upon a time merry children no longer play their football on the streets, the soldiers speed pointing guns. no place for young boys.

The Burundi story is one that pre-occupies my mind. Am running late. I take a fast shower. cold. am surprised when I just stand there. looking through the big windows into the hills (bujumbura Rural what the natives pronounce Bujumbura Rureli). All they do is let out cries of fleeing  mothers and children. My mind Pictures Fathers rounding up fathers. To my team mates and friend, am just a heavy Sleeper. Am a good one that I want deny but the above remains unknown to them. maybe they suffered the same only earlier than I. Am ready for Bujumbura. i learn of the joy the citizen have in their every day lifes. Important is that alarge number of school going children are girls. beautiful girls and I meant it. In a decade to come it will be a wonderful society courtesy of this girls- then would be women,God willing. more kids will be knocked off their feet at the slightest detection of bunking school...

Burundi Journalists.

They really are looking to be like any other relatively prosperous African Country, a reality put on record by thier intervention in Mali. As young Professionals run up and down to make ends meet, as thier young EAC minister signs our Visitors book and also her young assistant minister is thrilled by the cost effectiveness of Social Media as Kyee Mbatha makes her see... there radiates hope fore Burundi. Thanks to their President His Excellency Nkurunziza. the minister is quick to note that techsnology will be one of their key learning from MEAC Kenya social media  challenge.

Burundi turned out as total fun  despite language barrier and maybe  culture. Pssst!!! At noon time you will never see a girl running up and down. They are supposed to be resting and waitng for their hour... five o'clock. if she must come out.... then she wont talk to you my guy. I experiment in the cover of my team mate rather I am roasted beef. the laughing-stock. Our team blogger acquires a French accent too... lol!

Le voyage vers l'Est intégration africaine est en cours .....