I’ve spent today delivering the first day of 360 life training to a group of 16 Burundian church leaders and prison chaplains, and 1 prison chaplain from DRC.
It’s been a very good day of sharing together and learning together. Normally when I do this training I have to fit it into 2 days max, sometimes 1 day. So to have three days for doing this delivery is great as it gives so much more time for conversations and contextualising the teaching.
One of the topics that came up today was around mental health, and the challenges that are being felt in Burundi relating to this. It was during the conversations around this that I learnt / was reminded of the first of the three lessons alluded to in the title of this blog.
One of the older church leaders entered into the conversation with the statement that all mental health issues are demonic by nature. No discussion, end of subject. I was slightly floored for a moment as I’d forgotten just how absolute sone of the churches are on this. Thankfully he wasn’t wanting to enter into a theological debate about it, so I let the conversation move on, praying that I’d have chance to address it gently and subtly during the rest of the training.
Some of that must have happened because at the end of the day the same church leader thanked me for my wise teaching and insights and said he had learned a lot relating to his work as a leader. I’ll take that as a positive endorsement for the day!
The second lesson I learnt was that when the power is dodgy and the projector doesn’t work, low tech presentations are ok. Realising that I couldn’t use PowerPoint was a bit of a ‘take a deep breath’ moment, but it was all fine. For the Burundian’s, life without reliable power is a daily experience, so they weren’t at all phased by the change in delivery method. It was just ‘first world’ me that needed reminding that there’s more to life than carefully crafted slides, and that laughing together over my bad drawing is good for the soul and the group bonding.
The final lesson of today was a lesson in just how inefficient a simple process can become when government officials are involved!
When I crossed the border from Rwanda on Saturday, the Burundian immigration people only had the wherewithal to give me a 3 day visa. So today I had to start the process of extending it, as we weren’t sure if the third day was today or tomorrow. Thankfully Theophile, my Burundian host, guided me though the process as it was beyond my ability to fathom the logic of the process at all! First we went to a photocopier place to get copies of passport and stamp from Saturdays entry. Then we went to get passport photos because I hadn’t realised I needed to bring any. Then we went to the immigration office to get a form to fill out. Then we went to a completely different building on a completely different road to pay the visa payment. And then we went back to the immigration office to hand in the form, the receipt of payment, the photocopies, the photo and my passport. And now tomorrow I return to (hopefully) get my passport back complete with extended visa. What a palaver!!!
The amount of people we saw sitting in queues at each place was extraordinary. So much wasted time of people who could otherwise be at work and in some way boosting the efficiency of the country. Instead they sit and wait and all I can say is thank goodness for Theophile who had an amazing knack of just walking past the queues to find the person we needed to see but without seemingly jumping any queue!
It’s been a lovely day in Burundi, and I look forward to seeing what comes my way tomorrow.
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