24 December 2009

NoËl!

Noël? Vraiment?
J'ai du rater quelque chose... Ce n'est pas possible...
Être dans un pays extrêmement catholique et de plus extrêmement pratiquant devrait renforcer mon esprit de Noël, mais c'est tout le contraire...
Finalement, il y a beaucoup des choses auxquels nous nous habituons extrêmement rapidement, j'ai grandis en passant Noël sur la plage, mais 15 ans de Noël dans le froid on effacé cette carte mémoire, et Noël chaud n'est plus reconnu par mon système d'exploitation... pas de père de Noël, pub coca cola ou autre pour me le rappeler non plus...
Est-ce vraiment Noël?

01 December 2009

Finally some photos!


I have added photos to the first posts I wrote, so scroll down!

This blog awaits your comments!
me? of course not! the blog!

Electricity versus water

I started a post about things I lost in exchange and things I won... But then I thought to myself: should I really write about this? I am not particularly superstitious but we dont want good things to be lost... The first month we had very random electricity (every other day) but for the past 2 weeks and a half it's been constant... So finger crossed! Oh yes! the whole point about this post was that I was used to not having water in Mongolia (sometimes hot water, sometimes cold water) and in Burundi I had to get used to not having electricity...


I did write about it after all didn't I?

Muzungu!

I hear that everywhere I go...

If I'm in the city it's maybe a bit more discreet as for the countryside it becomes actually a big event! Muzungu means "white person" or some say "the person that comes from far." Whatever the case, is shouted by the children in a beautiful chorus. In the countryside when we pass by car the children wave at us, run after the car, run to where we are and the less shy start touching, shaking hands. I have found myself more than one time surrounded by little ones, and I have to say I could've take them all home! Burundian children? Biological clock?

The country where I learned to show my teeth...

I just realised how that sentence could be interpreted the wrong way...

It is complete opposite of what you might be thinking of... The other day I was in the car and kids started shouting and waving at me, I turned around and gave them a wave and a shy smile, and milliseconds later realised I needed to show my teeth, so I did the biggest smile ever! When people smile here their face brighten, the contrast of colours put us whitties in the very bottom of the scale!

Hence, I'm working on my smile!

26 November 2009

The life of an expat in Burundi

How is life for an expat? Easy I want to say! But is it really?

Usually awaken by the mosque (thats the 4 o'clock alarm) or the mass (the 6 o'clock one). After a shower some food we are headed to work, sit in front of a computer for most of the day then go home, and lazy around for a bit. When not too tired, I go running in the park next to the house, or go for dinner with friends, or the top of the top is going for a massage and then for food. Weekends are usually spend by the beach (the lake one no sea), where I usually go swimming in the hotel pool. And is also time for errands, like going to the market, sorting personal stuff. On Sunday there are beach volley games I haven't join yet actively but shall do soon... and then we start again, so yes it's an easy life.

However I am most of the time on the road, so the difficulty starts when I have to head to the hills very early in the morning after a 3 hours drive on the tracks and being shaken like an cocktail on the making I arrive, do the work, sleep where I am (it is forbidden to drive after dark in the countryside (too dangerous)) then go back to the city or stay a little longer. I love this field visits, absolutely love them, the people I get to meet, being with the grassroots, the landscape I get to see and the things I get to live. But the trips kill me, the car is like Valium for me, arrive somewhere and having to work always demand an extra effort, then doing it the other way around arrive to the office and keep working... it's beautiful but killing! Since I've been here I've been doing it at least once q week for 2-3 days in the hills!

Where and how families live?

As the country of the thousands hills, people live in the hills, obvious right! Most of the time it is impossible to reach the houses by car and even motorbikes. When you look at the landscape you see little houses made of mud (?) bricks, that fade in the landscape. Usually families have around 6 children if not more, there is no age to stop having children. They work the land and have animals which most of the time sleep in the house so they don't get stolen during the night.

I've fallen in love with the traditional houses (one day I will have a garden big enough to put a ger and a mug house!) They usually have 4 rooms, 1 for the children, 1 for the parents, one as the living space, where the kitchen is - 3 rocks and a fire and 1 for the animals.
There is a lot of walking involved. To fetch water it can sometimes take 1 hour, hence you can see loads of people on the road (tracks) and most of them are carrying something. The strength of the neck is quite impressive, from very young age children learn to carry things on top of their head. I have started a series of bicycles, people carry incredible amounts of weight on them, not easy when you think of the thousands hills!



The country of the thousand hills....

I have told you already, I think, that Burundi is known to be the country of the thousand hills (along with Rwanda). Having travel quite a bit by now, I can confirm this. The landscape is stunning, hills all over the place with a few valley. Most impressive still is the fact that almost every centimeter of the ground is worked. I could also add that it is the country of the beautiful skies! I know I lived in Mongolia for 2 years and I did see some stunning blue skies and beautiful clouds. But Burundi is tough competition! The clouds, the mountains, the blue sky after the tropical rain... Breathtaking!



Tea plantation

is coming up!

I was in the countryside and as you can imagine (or maybe not) there is not much to do when there's a 9pm curfew and nowhere to go... so I finally had sometime to write little posts that I will try to upgrade by putting some photos with it sometime, but I first need to reduce the size so it doesnt take 1 hour to upload just one photo!

Having certain difficulties in telling you all I see, I have decided to tell you little facts about life in this beautiful country that I am already falling for!

So for now enjoy! And check for photos soon!

12 November 2009

2 weeks and a bit more...

Je vais faire ce post en français, ça n'arrive pas souvent mais je pense qu'il est temps d'égaliser un peu la balance...

Alors la 2ème semaine et plus, le plus étant mon voyage au Ruanda – Kigali pour un peu moins d'une semaine pour un séminaire.

C'est assez impressionnant comment mes perceptions du pays changent de jours en jour. A l'heure actuelle je suis en pleine adaptation, il y a des jours sans et des jours avec, des jours plus durs que d'autres... Je constate que le boulot va être bien chargé, incroyablement intéressant mais peu de temps libre à l'horizon.... Mais j'adore le challenge et je suis prête à le prendre!
Pour le moment je n'ai pas eu bcp de tps de voir du pays, mais déjà l'adaptation à la ville n'est pas une mince affaire. En, fait c'est une façon de vivre tellement différente. On fait presque tout en voiture, ce qui peut être très sympa pour les flemmard, mais moins drôle pour les hyperkinétiques ou simplement découvrir la ville. J'ai parfois l'impression de passer d'une bulle a l'autre en gros. J'ai même commencé à courir dans le parc à côté de la maison, oui! Moi! Tellement j'ai l'impression de me ramollir!
Je dis depuis le début que je fais faire des cours de danse et percussion, mais il faudrait que je m'y mette à la recherche de ce dit cours...!
En gros et bref je découvre tout doucement, j'ai aussi commencé des cours de Swahili – langue aisément parlé ici, même si pas langue nationale et qui pourra aussi me servir dans d'autre pays! En gros j'aime, je sens encore une fois que je vais vivre une expérience inoubliable!

Et maintenant Kigali! Partie 5 jours pour un séminaire, dedans 2 jours de voyage en bus (toute une expérience en soi!)
On met 12 personnes dans le bus de taille moyenne et on s'accroche, des personnes avec le mal de voiture s'abstenir. Le Ruanda et le Burundi ne sont pas des pays à 10 mille collines pour rien! Ça monte et ça descend et surtout ça tourne!! Les chauffeurs ont parfois des problème quand au poids du pied et l'accélérateur est souvent à fond.... On s'est retrouvés coincées pendant une heure car une voiture a essayée de dépasser un camion ds la sinuosité de la route sans réussir, on a du attendre la police de roulage, que personne n'avait appelé jusqu'à notre arrive (ça faisait déjà surement 30min qu'ils étaient la!)... Moi, j'avoue que j'ai bien dormi en attendant!
Les personnes avec qui je suis parti ont vraiment été adorables, c'était limite ils me prenaient la main pour traverser la frontière. Je ne pense pas avoir mentionné avant mais ce sont des pays extrêmement religieux, et une fois arrivé a Kigali j'ai entendue dans plusieurs langues remercier leur seigneur.
Kigali est vraiment magnifique, en plein sur une colline, presque montagne, ça grimpe bien (ça m'a fait penser à Porto Phine). Malheureusement j'ai oublié mon appareil photo. Les rues sont incroyable propres, la ville en fait, est incroyablement propre et superbement entretenue. C'est assez moderne et on trouve de tout, donc je me suis régalé point de vue emplettes, rien de fou-fou, simplement l'achat d'objets courant en Europe, et un peu moins en Afrique... Pour la petite anecdote. En marchant avec 2 burundais, un a dit: c'est fou c'est que ça ressemble à l'Europe, moi j'approuve, c'est vrai quelque part et là l'autre gars très poliment me dit « sans vouloir vous offenser Sophie, mais pour quoi est-ce que dès qu'il y a quelque chose de bien qui marche en Afrique on dit que ça ressemble à l'Europe? L'Afrique est l'Afrique et nous n'avons pas besoin de ressembler a l'Europe... »

Malheureusement donc pas de photos car oublié l'appareil... C'est vrai aussi que j'ai surtout bossé, mais j'ai adoré les pttes ballades après le séminaire... Si le tps, j'aimerais y retourner! A voir!

09 November 2009

Photos!

The kind neighbour left the WiFi open today so I've been uploading photos from this summer, trying to catch up... However it takes forever and it's now 1.34am and need to sleep before I head to the countryside tomorrow morning...
So scroll down and you will see some photos added to old posts... Enjoy and check again soon as I'll try to do the rest once I'm back from the hills!

23 October 2009

One week in!

So much to say and no picture to illustrate it yet! (Now i do!)

At moments I have the feeling I have been here for longer and at others I have the "I'm new I dont understand the culture" slap!

While writing this the neighbors are playing the drums. There are drum's clubs around the city, actually each neighborhood has it own. The house life is animated, if is not the drums, it can be mass or mosque (the 4.30 am call). On the field of cultural differences, we have the crocodiles as pets (the back neighbor has 2!), the orgy of fruits and veggies i've been eating (so good after 2 years of none!), the people on the streets, walking, cycling, pushing the bicycle, motorbike, women (everybody actually) carrying things on their head, also sitting on the back of the bicycle with the things on their heads, sometimes i do wonder how the manage to see! There is so many people, really it's amazing!

Funny enough a colleague was telling me it was quite hard to walk on the streets, not because is dangerous but because of the entertainment it causes to the whole population. You become the "Muzungo" (the white person or the one that comes from far) but i replied i didn't feel it was that bad, that yes people tend to stare a bit but i didn't feel hassle. Big mistake! I decided to go on my own, walking of course, down town, man! it was interesting! I had everything, the guy following me, the children, the car stopping to ask me if they could become my friend, etc... I'm ashamed to say i did take a taxi back! A little at the time! And i'm waiting from my driving license to come in!!!

Culturally speaking there's little to do in Bujumbura, one cinema, one cultural centre (the french one) and many many bars restaurants and people's houses... Coming from Mongolia it wont be a big change there! Also there is many many hikes and explorations to do around the country, and being so little it will be quite easy to cover quite a bit. In the horizon, i have a scuba diving in the lake coming up, and a lot of travel for work, so it's all good!

All for all and after only a week here I have to say I have a very good feeling about this place! We'll see! more to come! and I will try to illustrate with some nice pics. the issue you see is that i've been told people dont like to be photographed, so i have to be careful as it can become a big issue... once i'm more into understanding people's mind i'll do a little reportage!

Well i'll leave here for now, so you dont get to bored of reading!

part of the garden, this is the guards sheed

The back terrace, playing backgammon became sort of part of the routine of the house<

Last but not least our lovely neighbour's pet!

Burundi

Here is where the changes occurs!
The new adventure has started and the tales will now be based in:
Burundi
I will be living here for 6 months and will try post as often as possible, as well as to upload photos.

Trip to Vietnam

One of the big features of this summer was the trip to Vietnam. Holidays but also the celebration of the transition to the edge of reason: the big 3-0!

The trip was incredibly short, trying to do the whole country in 15 days was way too ambitious, specially if you break your back and moving, sitting and laying is painful!

We started off in Hanoi, which I called the “sauna” city. Never been so hot in my whole life!



Uncle Ho's mausoleum

Temple a pilier unique

Library






Night train to Sappa

Then Sappa, with the breath taking rice fields. A 2 day trekking in the mountains with other very nice tourists.

Rice fields everywhere... stunning!




sure you don't want to buy anything?

trier le riz, ou emporte par le vent...

rice wine anyone?

the fog arrived in seconds...


the whole group



on the way back... it took about 10 min to take this photo, not easy if you speak Mongolian to a Vietnamese lady!

Halong Bay. Stunning! Incredible when jumping from the “rd floor of the boat to the sea, which def increases the adrenaline levels...
Our boat



It is as stunning as it looks!


Canoeing in the Bay...


Jumping from the boat, a lot of hesitation to start with, after pure fun!


you buy from me?


By night was even nicer!

Hue, the emperor's city, with temples, tombs, the imperial city and major place Vietnam's recent history.

Hanoi-Hue by sleeping bus... last time ever! it literally broke my back and couldn't walk sit, walk stand or sleep properly till the end of the trip!



Entering the cite imperiale!


who's watching who?




the famous flag known to the world...





if you are a tourist you have to do it properly!

Tuc Duc's and Minh Mang tombs







Hoi An. The tourist city, the tailor city. Where the French structure is almost intact, where the river is part of the life and the market is an exhilarating place.



the city flooded only a day or two after we felt!


the market

the home of N'Guyen's family

on the road




Japanese bridge


the beach... under the rain but the beach still!


Saigon
. Capital and big city, however a very quick look at the major places before taking the plane back to Paris.


sucre de canne

the townhouse


the "cathedral"

by night

the age of reason... before and after 30


15 days later...

Key features of the trip:
the heat, traffic and transportation, the noise, the street food. And the last thing, a passenger passing away in the airplane while on our way back to Paris. And is the question everybody ask, they put him in the toilet until we landed (10 hours later!)