Saturday, June 27, 2009
Interesting Proposition
If anyone feels like donating 10,000 USD to our trip, let me know ASAP via txt (+257 79 69 5673) and email me as well (cgsayler@gmail.com). Please only do this if God is definitely calling you to do so. Thanks!
Life in Burundi
Mwiriwe! Good afternoon! So much has happened during our first few days in Burundi that it is impossible to communicate all the events and feelings we have experienced, but I hope to be able to give you a glimpse of our trip thus far.
I would like to start off with a praise! My bags were missing for the first five days of the trip, but we were able to pick them up last night! God is faithful to answer our prayers.
Keiran and I have now taught English classes for four nights. Each evening we have had a two hour intermediate class followed by a two hour advanced class. It is amazing to see the hearts of the students as they dedicate themselves to learning our language. When you ask many of them why there are attending the class, they reply that they want to learn English in order to get a better job and have a better way of life. It is so encouraging to know that we could make a real impact in their lives. Pastor Felicien started teaching the English classes several months ago, which has been incredibly valuable as we can work on more advanced topics rather than starting from scratch. It is especially helpful for them to learn pronunciation of difficult English words from us.
On our first night teaching the advanced class, the lights went off in the church part way through the lesson. Unable to continue our lesson in the dark, we decided to pray for a bit and sing some worship songs. The moment we had finished one of our songs, the lights came back on and we were able to finish! God times things so perfectly!
Some women of the church took Kieran, Susan, and I to the marketplace yesterday. It is a massive building with a high ceiling, packed full of wooden booths selling everything from clothes to toiletries to electronics and everything in-between. There is hardly any room to move between the booths so people are constantly pushing past each other. Our trip to the market was incredibly valuable both for learning about the Burundi culture and way of life, as well as being a bonding experience between us and the women. We were able to pick up knitting supplies so we can teach them a useful skill that could eventually turn into a way to make some money.
The guys have been gathering information about Internet cafes and other such opportunities. They have met several businessmen that could prove to be valuable contacts in future endeavors. Overall, we are well on our way to establishing good relationships and are very encouraged about the progress we have seen in the English classes.
The members of this team that God has brought here are simply incredible. We are growing very close as go through our days here and as we talk and pray together each evening. Already, lifelong friendships have been established and strengthened.
I pray that things are going well wherever you are and we are certainly grateful for all your thoughts, prayers, and support!
Liz
I would like to start off with a praise! My bags were missing for the first five days of the trip, but we were able to pick them up last night! God is faithful to answer our prayers.
Keiran and I have now taught English classes for four nights. Each evening we have had a two hour intermediate class followed by a two hour advanced class. It is amazing to see the hearts of the students as they dedicate themselves to learning our language. When you ask many of them why there are attending the class, they reply that they want to learn English in order to get a better job and have a better way of life. It is so encouraging to know that we could make a real impact in their lives. Pastor Felicien started teaching the English classes several months ago, which has been incredibly valuable as we can work on more advanced topics rather than starting from scratch. It is especially helpful for them to learn pronunciation of difficult English words from us.
On our first night teaching the advanced class, the lights went off in the church part way through the lesson. Unable to continue our lesson in the dark, we decided to pray for a bit and sing some worship songs. The moment we had finished one of our songs, the lights came back on and we were able to finish! God times things so perfectly!
Some women of the church took Kieran, Susan, and I to the marketplace yesterday. It is a massive building with a high ceiling, packed full of wooden booths selling everything from clothes to toiletries to electronics and everything in-between. There is hardly any room to move between the booths so people are constantly pushing past each other. Our trip to the market was incredibly valuable both for learning about the Burundi culture and way of life, as well as being a bonding experience between us and the women. We were able to pick up knitting supplies so we can teach them a useful skill that could eventually turn into a way to make some money.
The guys have been gathering information about Internet cafes and other such opportunities. They have met several businessmen that could prove to be valuable contacts in future endeavors. Overall, we are well on our way to establishing good relationships and are very encouraged about the progress we have seen in the English classes.
The members of this team that God has brought here are simply incredible. We are growing very close as go through our days here and as we talk and pray together each evening. Already, lifelong friendships have been established and strengthened.
I pray that things are going well wherever you are and we are certainly grateful for all your thoughts, prayers, and support!
Liz
Friday, June 26, 2009
Things are moving
I'm sorry that I'm the only one who has posted so far. Last year we were right next to an internet cafe; this year we have to go into town to get online. Kieran says my writing is very straightforward and factual - not a lot of embellishment and emotion, so I'll force him or someone else to write a few posts soon.
This is a very interesting trip. Team dynamics are good, and overall, everything is going well. There are growing pains with our relationship with our contacts, as would be expected in any relationship. In our cross-cultural communication, things get lost in translation or misunderstood. This is absolutely a learning experience for all of us, with the possible exception of Kieran, our great cultural expert. He is an endless source of stories and insight.
And God is directing us and changing our plans and deepinging our faith, relationships, and love.
We are finding business in Burundi to be much more complex in the city center than we anticipated. We have made some very good contacts with two internet cafe owners here - one is Indian and immediately hit it off with Kieran (who is Indian/Irish). Through discussions with them and others, we are figuring out what exactly we should be doing. God is guiding and opening doors we had not considered. I'll post more when we have concrete plans in that regard.
In other news... Liz's luggage has finally arrived in Bujumbura! ...at least they told us so. After Jeremie and I leave the cyber, we'll swing by Kenya and pick her bags up. That took a bit longer than expected. She hasn't complained at all. It is rather amazing that Liz was the first person I talked to about packing, and she was the only person whom I suggested bring an extra change of clothes with her (she ended bringing like 2-3 days worth). And she is the only one of us with travel insurance. And she is the only one with luggage issues. Either provision or reverse Murphy's Law (if she hadn't taken precausions, maybe she wouldn't have had issues), take your pick. Provision makes most sense.
We are all doing well. Thank you for your prayers. Blessings!
This is a very interesting trip. Team dynamics are good, and overall, everything is going well. There are growing pains with our relationship with our contacts, as would be expected in any relationship. In our cross-cultural communication, things get lost in translation or misunderstood. This is absolutely a learning experience for all of us, with the possible exception of Kieran, our great cultural expert. He is an endless source of stories and insight.
And God is directing us and changing our plans and deepinging our faith, relationships, and love.
We are finding business in Burundi to be much more complex in the city center than we anticipated. We have made some very good contacts with two internet cafe owners here - one is Indian and immediately hit it off with Kieran (who is Indian/Irish). Through discussions with them and others, we are figuring out what exactly we should be doing. God is guiding and opening doors we had not considered. I'll post more when we have concrete plans in that regard.
In other news... Liz's luggage has finally arrived in Bujumbura! ...at least they told us so. After Jeremie and I leave the cyber, we'll swing by Kenya and pick her bags up. That took a bit longer than expected. She hasn't complained at all. It is rather amazing that Liz was the first person I talked to about packing, and she was the only person whom I suggested bring an extra change of clothes with her (she ended bringing like 2-3 days worth). And she is the only one of us with travel insurance. And she is the only one with luggage issues. Either provision or reverse Murphy's Law (if she hadn't taken precausions, maybe she wouldn't have had issues), take your pick. Provision makes most sense.
We are all doing well. Thank you for your prayers. Blessings!
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
getting settled
Thank you for all your prayers and support. Everyone has arrived, though Liz's bags are still in transit - we will pick them up tomorrow.
Everything is going well - we have no complaints.
We're continuing to do research about the viability and profitability of the internet cafe. we do have a lot of computers, so thank you all for your generosity.
Liz and Kieran start English teaching tonight.
I'm sure we'll update more as we go along - we are not near a cyber cafe, so that makes it a bit more difficult. We did find a nice cafe downtown that is airconditioned and all, but Jer and I are the only ones using it at the moment. And the computers/keyboards are in French - joy.
Blessings
Everything is going well - we have no complaints.
We're continuing to do research about the viability and profitability of the internet cafe. we do have a lot of computers, so thank you all for your generosity.
Liz and Kieran start English teaching tonight.
I'm sure we'll update more as we go along - we are not near a cyber cafe, so that makes it a bit more difficult. We did find a nice cafe downtown that is airconditioned and all, but Jer and I are the only ones using it at the moment. And the computers/keyboards are in French - joy.
Blessings
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Arrived
I made it into Bujumbura yesterday after roughly 48 hours of flights and layovers.
Just a reviewer from last year on the code in case we have some typos on our french keyboards:
q=a
z=w
,=m
w=z
;=,
:=.
So if I type ze, it means we; also ",eqn" = mean.
I'm at an expensive cafe, so I should get off. I'll update more later.
Just a reviewer from last year on the code in case we have some typos on our french keyboards:
q=a
z=w
,=m
w=z
;=,
:=.
So if I type ze, it means we; also ",eqn" = mean.
I'm at an expensive cafe, so I should get off. I'll update more later.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
From London...
Hey all,
I'm the first one to get going on this trip, setting out yesterday at 7am from the Springs driving up to Denver International Airport. I'm in London now, Thursday at 3:30pm here, and I just posted a long post in my personal blog about my trip so far (edit - sorry for those of you who clicked this link earlier - I accidentally had my blog set to private; it's public now). It isn't very relevant to Burundi - just ramblings. I'll be getting into Burundi at 1pm tomorrow, which is about 5 hours later than I anticipated - my flight from Nairobi to Bujumbura was changed (unbeknown to me prior to getting my boarding passes).
Anyway, I'll try to post sometime soon after I get into Burundi.
I'm the first one to get going on this trip, setting out yesterday at 7am from the Springs driving up to Denver International Airport. I'm in London now, Thursday at 3:30pm here, and I just posted a long post in my personal blog about my trip so far (edit - sorry for those of you who clicked this link earlier - I accidentally had my blog set to private; it's public now). It isn't very relevant to Burundi - just ramblings. I'll be getting into Burundi at 1pm tomorrow, which is about 5 hours later than I anticipated - my flight from Nairobi to Bujumbura was changed (unbeknown to me prior to getting my boarding passes).
Anyway, I'll try to post sometime soon after I get into Burundi.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
iCafe name
Hey friends!
We need a name for the internet cafe that we are setting up in Burundi, and we want your input!
Comment on this post and leave your suggestions. We'll consider the responses along with our own thoughts. The winner gets a business in East Africa named with their suggestion - a noteworthy accomplishment to be remembered for years to come! I'd even put it on a resume/CV if I was you - that's quite the accomplishment!
Entries in French and English are welcome.
We'll be sure to post pictures of the sign when it's completed.
Friday, June 12, 2009
Skype meeting, June 12
Last meeting before Sayler leaves! (He leaves June 17, everyone else leaves the 20th.)
Update
To do
Update
- Internet Cafe:
- We have over 10 computers!!! Praise God! That will allow us to set up the internet cafe much more easily. God multiplying computers like he did fish and bread...
- Everything is falling into place, just need funding
- VBS
- We should be ready by the time we go
- Need construction paper, colored pencils, etc
- English teaching
- Building on what Felicien has started
- Liz has lots of ideas
- Damaged Wall
- Jer: Talk to Felicien about building a wall with tires
- See if there's a tire dump, people of church rebuild wall - they have given money until it hurts, but few people showed up to help move timbers last year
- Find easiest way to fix problem, and cheapest
To do
- Get new bills
- Copy immunization and passport (copy on self, copy w/ Jer/Sayler), allergies
- Register w/ Embassy
- Jer: still deciding on car - probably not
- Matt: get power strips and such (2-3 strips w/ adapter)
- Jer: find out about cat5 from Felicien
- Pray for no problems entering country - Smuggling computers into Burundi
- Kieran: thesis and money; visa upon entry; Stefan's mom's cancer
- Susan: still stressed at work
- Susan/Liz: need malaria meds
- Church: especially since we're helping rebuild the wall
- Praise: everything is coming together
Damage
We received two emails from Felicien in the last week that I wanted to pass along.
And then we received this a couple days ago:
|
Please keep the church in your prayers.
Saturday, June 6, 2009
Skype meeting, June 6
Plan on Skyping at 6pm MST, 5pm PST next week.
To Do
To Do
- Everyone needs to make copies of everything
- Everyone needs to sign release forms
- Get travel insurance - possibly not worth it
- Need to push loans - even small amounts would be great
- Peter's prof is involved with mf in Rwanda
- Contract
- Sayler, jer have Doxy, Cypro
- Financing for internet cafe, general financing
- GOA - church was partly damaged by heavy rainfall this week
- Leaving in 11 and 14 days - peace, getting stuff done
- Susan - stressed at work, with the trip
- Jer - not looking forward to being away from Katelyn for 3.5 weeks; hoping insurance stuff doesn't move while gone
- Kieran - oral exam on the 16th
- Changing people's mindsets and the way ppl do things in Africa is difficult - takes years
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