Many people have asked us how they can help with regard to lessening the hardships of the refugees we are working with here in Minembwe. Besides food, we are identifying those with need of blankets, jackets, and shoes. We have to fly in the blankets from “nearby” cities, however we can buy the jackets and shoes here (which is also good for the local commerce). A couple of weeks ago, we distributed beans to 529 refugee families, which represents over 3,000 people. 

Below is a mix of photos of us doing life in the midst of war…

While Miles and I were in Bujumbura, our good friend, a Pakistani Major in the UN, would send Miles photos of himself and our lone ripe pineapple. He said he was protecting it in our absence as we are one of the few people to grow pineapple in our area and they have a tendency to disappear.

As you can see, the major’s troops had the necessary pineapple protecting firepower…

… and we had the necessary cutlery to consume it.

The threat of a Mai Mai attack was quite high for a month, so during that time, every evening before I would crawl into bed, I packed these two backpacks so I could quickly run away during an attack.

While exiled in Bujumbura, Emilee got her hands on some food that was in an expat giveaway pile. Emilee sent me back up to Minembwe with this bottle of Famous Dave’s BBQ Sauce. We tend to ignore the “refrigerate after opening” warnings posted on some labels as we have no refrigeration, but…

… after a few days of consuming this delicacy, we (Michael, Miles, & Patrick) noticed that the “best used by” date was 1222.16. As none of us had at that point experienced any ill effects, we continued to use every trick in the book to extract and consume every drop of this rich and sassy sauce.

The spring near our house ran dry back in September, so for water we load up the motorcycle and drive to a spring that’s a little more than a mile away.

The water coming out of the pipe is clean spring water, but we still filter all of the water we use for drinking and cooking.

In the absence of Lisa and Emilee, Namajana has become an expert tortilla maker.

Since the beginning of the conflict back in March, we’ve been blessed with a string of really great commanders at the local UN peacekeeper base. Each time a new commander comes, the previous commander brings them by our place to see the gardens. In the photo above many of these commanders had flown into Minembwe to strategize with regard to the ongoing conflict, but before they left, they brought a couple of Pakistani UN helicopter pilots to see the gardens.

Here’s a small section of what these guys came to see. Look at the background… it is crazy beautiful here.

An expat who was leaving Burundi gave Miles a really nice mountain bike, so we brought it to Minembwe. It wasn’t too long before the orphans started helping one another learn to ride.

Someone donated some money to buy the orphans some jackets (which cost about five dollars each). 

Can you say “Happy?”

And a coat for Joyeuse, the eldest, who this year began her second year at the university.

Patrick and Thelma brought 75 Sawyer water filter systems to Minembwe, but sadly, due to the war and other circumstances, they were not able to distribute the filters and buckets. It was possible for Patrick to set up a system at the orphanage though. Normally locals would stack this system on bricks, but Patrick built this wooden stand.

Patrick instructing Ntebutsi, the orphanage manager, how the Sawyer water filter system works, and Ntebutsi then instructed the kids how to use the system.

Clean water is something to smile about in Minembwe.

One thing Thelma did get to distribute was love. The recipient this time was one of the twins that the orphanage took in last July. Thank you to those who are paying for their formula!

Somehow,

Michael