Mwaramutse

New Delhi has arrived in Bujumbura! My in-laws have landed and we are super excited to have them here for a month.

Being so far away from family and friends can be hard at times, but luckily our family is adventurous and willing to come to us.

Of course no visit would be complete without massive amounts of Indian snacks, pickles and teas.

In separate news our HHE and consumables have still not arrived yet, and let me just say that lessons have been learned!

Next time around I plan on packing a few more clothing items and house decor in our UAB. (Glad we sent most of our kitchen items through UAB).

My one regret is getting rid of all of our area rugs, because they are not easy to come by in Burundi. Luckily we have access to what is called “the pouch”.

What is the pouch?

We are essentially given a mailing address in Virginia. All our mail and packages are sent to the Virginia address and then forwarded by DOS to our mail room at the embassy (in an actual pouch- the name does not lie!). I then receive a “You got mail” email at work and excitedly head down to the mailroom trying to remember what I ordered approximately 3-4 weeks ago in a wine fulled amazon shopping frenzy. Barbecue pretzles? Not my best decision but you live and learn.

Some posts have what is called DPO- which is a legit post office at post. While we aren’t lucky enough to have a DPO in Buja, I’m super grateful for access through the pouch- we can essentially get amazon, target, and Costco all sent directly to us (at no extra cost because it’s technically going to a U.S. address first). There are limits on dimensions and the amount of liquid that can come through, but it’s always fun to compare notes and see who managed to get what through pouch.

Long story short, after some trial and error with amazon- it turns out 5x8 rugs CAN be shipped through the pouch!! My 8x10 rug purchases were sadly denied and sent back by the receiving point in Virginia. .

New pillows and rug are jazzing up this drabby drexel living room (thank you world market).
Those of you new here, Drexel is the brand of our furniture. Since our homes come furnished we all have pretty much the same stuff, so it takes some creativity to add your own flair to things.

My french remains- well a struggle. I can’t quite get that throaty pronunciation down but I’m trying.

The embassy has a full time language teacher, and we can take language lessons free of charge. This is great for foreign service specialists, like myself, since we don’t receive language training before coming to post (generalists and some specialist get months of language training before arriving).

and in an attempt to completely confuse myself, I started an intro to Kirundi class. Although french is widely spoken, Kirundi is the mother tongue for most people. Here is what I have learned so far…

Mwaramutse (good morning/good day)

Amohoro (peace to you)

Ni Sawa? (How’s it going) respond —> Ego

Bite? (Whats up!)

Witwa nde (what’s your name?) respond —> Nitwa (insert name)

and my favorite: Tuzosubira (See you later) unless of course you plan to ACTUALLY see someone later that day then it’s TURAsubira- you really need to put some thought into these Kirundi farewells.

Ni ah’ejo (See you tomorrow)

Ijoro ryiza (good night) —> ryiza pronounced Gee-za

umunsi mwiza (have a good day)

Murakoze (thank you)

and the take home message- when in doubt just respond “ego” draw out the e like eeeeego.

Yup that’s all i got folks.

One of our favorite cafe’s- we be lunchin’

Amahoro!

#kirundi #thepouch #pouch