read the news.

Mike told me that 180 people were killed in Burundi, Africa on friday or saturday. He said it took place in a refugee camp.

My mind flashed through the faces of people i had met and talked to during my visit in burundi. Brilliant people. From different tribes (but i couldnt tell you who was from which tribe without having been told). I wondered, is the family i stayed with okay? I read the news.

I have a picture of the refugee camp, before any of this happened. I took it while we drove through and marveled at the women and children working and playing in their front yards (but i wouldn't even call them THEIR front yards, since land seemed to be shared openly). Sure enough it's the same place. where i'll just quote one sentence from the washington post to show you how bad it was:

"Attackers armed with machetes and automatic weapons raided a U.N. refugee camp in western Burundi, shooting and hacking to death at least 189 men, women and children."

The guy we stayed with, Claude, he is a Tutsi. This meant not much to me at the time. He said a few times while we were driving that it wasn't safe for him to get out of the car. That we were fine because we were white, but this area had people from the Hutu tribe that didn't like the Tutsis, therefore didnt like him. We even drove through one area with a south african army man in the car with his gun, just to make sure we stayed safe. and we were fine. I thought it was a little strange that we had to go through all the trouble to "be safe". but more so, i thought it was cool to drive around with this guy in uniform with one of those cool hats on. god, i'm such an american.

This raid could've happened that day as i drove through in the back seat, innocently taking my pictures to remind myself of the differences between home and africa. I dont know if its the fact that i'm alive, and 189 innocent people aren't alive. Or how naive i was to the real dangers in the country, or how ordinary it was for burundians to expect a certain level of tragedy every day of their lives... all of it just kind of hits me in a weird place.

one thing that hits me even harder is the fact that nobody really knows about any of this. Nobody here, i mean. Even has the interest or reason to hear about, or be effected by such tragedies. And i guess that's fine. Keep to yourself and your world and your family and your friends. Cause that's all i ever knew before this trip. But we all share something. even if it's just being human. we all share something with the people in burundi. I wish i could pray and feel like it was making some sort of difference. At least being there made a difference. in some weird way, i left my mark, and was marked in return by africa.

I dont expect the whole tribal fighting to just be cured. Like the soldiers have some epiphany and realize- we're not even fighting for anything, we're killing innocent people because they have a different shaped nose than we do. Sure it'd be nice if the argument were that simple to convince them to drop their weapons and peace out. But i'm sure theres more history i havent been informed about. Yeah. Just stay informed, be interested in the world. It's a lot closer than you think. You live in it.

jodi


(ps- i just finished reading poisonwood bible- if you're trying to read it for school, KEEP GOING! its amazing)