KHA Learning Experience - Amazi

The majority of the human body consists of this substance and the majority of the earth’s surface is also covered with this substance. It is the only substance to naturally occur in all three states (liquid, solid, gas) on earth. Over 42 billion tons of this substance was gathered together in China and the shift in mass on earth’s surface caused the earth’s rotation to slow by almost 0.06 microseconds a day, and the poles to shift by nearly two centimeters. What is this versatile, ubiquitous, and powerful substance? I am sure most of you have already guessed it. It’s water. 

Where does your water come from? What do you use water for and is it important to conserve water? These questions and more were explored at our most recent KHA learning experience day where we focused on water as resource.

(A field trip to our well)

Americans, on average, will use almost 400 liters of water a day. Europeans generally use less than half of that amount. However, most people around the world consume only 10-20 liters a day. This is a shocking statistic; however, many people around Kibuye will collect water at the stream or a community tap and carry it back to their house. On our walk from the well in the valley up to the water storage tanks above the hospital, we imagined carrying 25 to 40 pounds of water that distance. The walk alone, with nothing to carry, was enough to wear out some of us and it was much easier to consider ways of conserving water.

On our nature walk, the kids collected water samples from a community tap supplied by the same well that supplies our faucets at home, from a stream in fields where some laundry was being done, from a puddle, and finally from a rain water collection tank at the school.

(DIY Water Filters)

Once we were back inside, the water samples arranged around the building for the students to examine by look and smell. Microscopes were used to get an up-close view of the water. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately), we did not see much floating around in the water when inspected through the microscope. Each water sample had its own unique scent, although, the rainwater had the most distinct smell. We never reached a consensus on exactly what the rainwater smelled like, but the scent of rubber cement received more than one vote.

(Examining water samples)

After some water games and story time, we finished our water day in the waterlogged mud of a rice field. Each of the kids had the opportunity to kick their shoes off, squish the mud (and other stuff) between their toes, and learn how to cultivate rice. Amazingly, rice is grown in one small patch until it begins to mature. At this point it is individually removed and replanted, one at a time. 

Nativity Play (video)

by Julie Banks

We took down our Christmas tree today. For me it’s always kind of a sad day. It’s the end of a season I love. But as I look back over the Christmas holidays here at Kibuye, it was really a special time, and we had so much fun not only with our families, but also in the local community.

This is the third year in a row that the children rehearsed and performed the story of Jesus’s birth. In the Western world it is very common for children to dress up and do a Nativity Play. But that is not the case here in Burundi. This is a new experience for our Burundian neighbors. For many who saw our kids' Christmas production, it might be their first time watching the Bible come alive in this way. They smile, they laugh, they whisper to each other each time a new character comes on, which really adds a fun dynamic to the performance.

This year we even added a set, or backdrop, to the production. The kids, working with our teammate Lauren Chudnovsky, who is an artist, painted 4 different scenes, and Jonah Watts built a moveable stand for it. Each scene looked amazing!

In addition to the Nativity, the kids also put together a chime performance. Michelle Wendler arranged a version of “Carol of the Bells” which she taught to the children during their music classes at Kibuye Hope Academy. The children performed the chimes and the Nativity in two locations at the hospital, as well as at the local school and the local church.

One of the places we performed was at the outpatient malnutrition clinic. These are children who had previously been admitted to the hospital for severe malnutrition. After they are released from the hospital, they are allowed to come back twice a week to be weighted, and receive a sack of Busoma (a nutrient-rich porridge) and a hard-boiled egg.

As the performance ended, I asked one of the chaplains to translate for me as I shared the good news of the Gospel with the children and their mothers. Christmas is not just a story - it happened! And it happened for a reason. God sent his son as a gift to us so we could be forgiven, and all we have to do is receive the gift.

As the pastor translated what I was saying, I noticed a majority of the group stood up. The pastor leaned over and whispered to me that he had asked who would like to respond to this good news, and who needs prayer. There were so many standing! Kibuye Hope Hospital is filled with people in need, not only for physical healing, but also for spiritual healing.

And that right there made it all worth it. All the rehearsals and costumes and sets. It wasn’t just a performance. We shared Jesus’s story. A story of grace, love, and forgiveness.

Please continue to pray not only for our team here at Kibuye, but also for the three chaplains who have a huge job at the hospital. The needs are massive. Physically and spiritually. We pray that everything we do is wrapped in truth and grace. Even a performance like this, that is new to their culture and can be a bit of a spectacle, we pray that the light of the Gospel would shine through all we do here.

Cast:

Madeline and Zeke as Mary and Joseph

Alma, Ella, and Seija as the Angels

Anna was the Kirundi narrator, Piper was the French narrator

Micah Watts and Abi Fader as the Shepherds

Liam Banks, Biniyam, and Kaden as the Three Wise Men

Toby John, Liam Fader, and Tracy (Dr. Alliance's daughter) as the Sheep

Two Graces for the First Day Back

(from Eric)

Our family returned back to Burundi last week, and Rachel and I restarted work in the hospital on Monday.  I had been seeing my hospitalized patients for a couple days, but yesterday was my first day in clinic.

The day starts out with Alyssa sharing at hospital devotions.  She leads the hospital staff through a small gratitude exercise, passing out sheets of a yellow legal pad for us to write down those innumerable gifts that God has given us that we are so apt to forget.  We close with a prayer and a few announcements, and the day starts.

The medical student who is working with me (and serving as Kirundi translator) walks with me to my clinic office, where an old man is waiting outside the door with his clinic sheet.  She exchanges a few words with him, and tells me "I think he has Parkinson's Disease, or something like that."  I start with surprise and then recovering, ask them to come inside.  Sure enough, this old man has come all the way from Tanzania because of a tremor which seems consistent with Parkinson's.  I have not yet found any real treatment options for Parkinson's in Burundi, and I doubt his rural outpost of Tanzania has better options.

I grab a bottle of Sinemet out of my office drawer, and I say to my student in French, "I don't make a habit of bringing medicines from the United States, mostly because we want to support Burundian supply chains.  But, you see, my grandmother passed away a couple months ago.  She was a wonderful and lovely woman.  My grandfather asked me to go through the medications she left behind, to see if any would be useful for Burundi.  The only one that seemed useful to bring back was this medicine for Parkinson's.  This bottle won't last forever, but I hope it will help him feel better for a while."  Turning to the man, I continue,  "I don't see that many patients with Parkinson's, and I wondered whether I would find any before the medicine expired, but lo and behold, you are my first patient back, and it's precisely what you need."

My student gives me a look that says, "Do you want me to tell the patient all that?"  Yes, I do.  I watch my patient's face light up with joy and profound gratitude on hearing the story of his medication bottle, and I think about the beauty and the probability of this moment.

A couple patients later, I see a 50-year old woman with heart failure.  She is a village lady that I diagnosed a couple years ago.  "She's only taking this one medicine now?" I ask.  "How is she doing?"  My student and the woman chat for a few sentences.  "She says that she feels very well.  Before, she couldn't even walk, and everyone told her that she would never get better.  Now she thanks God because she is even able to work in her fields, though she does get tired sometimes."

I smile at my student.  These cases can seem so rare sometimes.  I pick up my folded sheet of yellow legal paper from the morning hospital devotions.  "Did you hear what Dr. Alyssa said this morning?"  My student nods.  I say, "I'm going to write this lady down on my paper."

***

The thing is, since returning to Burundi, my most frequent prayer has been that I would be able to see God's hand at work in my life and in the world around me, day by day.  Kicking off my first clinic day with these two stories seems to be Grace to me in the form of an answered prayer.

Many other days are just discouraging.  Today was much more that way.  My patients are mostly sick and none of them seem like they're getting better.  Is God at work?  Do I just need eyes to see it?  Walking home through the gate, there is a vivacious chatter of a flock of weaver birds who have taken refuge in one of our tall eucalyptus trees.

It's a thing of beauty and of joy.  But is it really just a tree and some animals?  Or are these small wonders windows that peek into God's work in the world and his glory?  On one hand, I'm not interested in rose-colored glasses, but I need not exchange them for blinders either.

I think the answer to such questions always requires some kind of faith, in the end.  Either faith that it's just a coincidence or faith that it's something more.  Either faith that it's just a bird, or faith that it's a glimpse of the light of the world.  I'm not talking about faith as some arbitrary choice.  We reason and we discern, but there does seem to be some irreducible element of choice that remains.  How will we see the world?

I really do hope to see the world with gratitude for all that God does.  And at least for today, it seems like a reasonable approach.

***

(for those interested in slogging through this question with the great Blaise Pascal, here is a quote that is most rewarding is you can persevere through the tangle of double negatives:

“The prophecies, the very miracles and proofs of our religion, are not of such a nature that they can be said to be absolutely convincing. But they are also of such a kind that it cannot be said that it is unreasonable to believe them. Thus there is both evidence and obscurity to enlighten some and confuse others. But the evidence is such that it surpasses, or at least equals, the evidence to the contrary, so that it is not reason which can determine men not to follow it, and thus it can only be lust or malice of heart. And by this means there is sufficient evidence to condemn, and insufficient to convince; so that it appears in those who follow it that it is grace, and not reason, which makes them follow it; and in those who shun it, that it is lust, not reason, which makes them shun it.”)