Birthday's and Diwali- Hooray!

One month in the Buj, and it has been jam packed.

Chotu turned 3 years old and we celebrated with a party and homemade chocolate cake (thanks to our amazing social sponsor and legit baker- we’re talking chocolate cake with homemade vegan mouse 😋).

Our new friends at the embassy joined in the celebration and I have to say it was a success.

We are planning on changing schools- a minor bump in the road.

The preschool we chose was a bit more unorganized than we would like so Chotu will be home for 2 weeks while we wait for his new school to start. We interviewed a nanny to help out during this transition and let’s just say- I NEED to learn French. After the most awkward conversation of my life, with a lot of pointing and hand gestures, I whipped out google translate and I think we came to an agreement. Not the ideal way to converse with a babysitter but let’s hope she shows up tomorrow- I think there’s a 50/50 chance.

V is finding his grove in the Buj as well.

He is lucky in that he can telework and for now it seems to be working ok. There have undoubtedly been some challenges. The biggest one being the internet connection. When we reached out to the internet company they offered us a trial of their high speed connection.

Well three days into our free trial we realized- the high speed internet is actually worse- go figure.

TBH- we have had some challenging days. The initial awe of a new place- wow the fruit and avocados are delicious, it’s so green and lake views! Turned into- hmmmm the pace of life here is very slow and oh yeah- WE WILL BE HERE FOR 2 YEARS! Managing expectations is something we are actively working on.

Everyone talks about how crazy the driving here is but after spending a significant amount of time in New Delhi, it honestly didn’t feel that crazy to us. A couple at the embassy were kind enough to lend us their car for the two weeks they are on R&R. It’s been nice to have the flexibility to explore on our own. V had to channel his inner Delhiite and within 5 minutes he was whipping around these streets like a local- it was impressive and slightly terrifying.

There is a small Indian community in Bujumbura that we have tapped into, and it basically worked like this:

Someone randomly walked up to V: Hey! Are you Indian?

V: Yes, as a matter of fact I am.

Random Indian dude: Here is my number, come to my daughter’s birthday party this weekend.

And Bam- just like that we were in the Burundian/Indian social circle!

It’s been nice to have a second social network apart from the U.S. Embassy and V feels like he is starting to build a community and friend network as well. It was great celebrating Diwali with our new Indian crew.

Next up, I'll give a day in the life of a FS NP (or at least a day in my life). It’s truly a unique and wild job- stay tuned.