We left Bujumbura at 11:00am for the second leg of our mission journey. Four hours later, after several stops, we arrived in Cibitoke, a community in the northern part of Burundi. It’s a more rural community and the poverty is more noticeable.
The hotel where we are staying is much less, how shall I say it...comfortable, clean, livable? My room has a desk, metal hangers, and a full size bed with a sheet, a rock hard pillow, a mosquito net and a family of cockroaches living in the corner. The bathroom is down the hall and is equipped with a roll of non-perforated toilet paper that is more like soft sandpaper. The water gets turned off at 8:00pm and doesn’t get turned on again until after 6:00am and the water pressure fluctuates from steady to dripping. And oh yeah, it’s only cold water.
Dinner is scheduled for 7:00pm, but doesn’t get served until after 9:00pm, and is comprised of rice, peas, fried potatoes, and a piece of bread. It’s not bad, especially when lunch is a rarity in Burundi.
Humidity is high, there are no air conditioners and the bedroom windows don’t open, so it becomes a little of a challenge getting to sleep this first night. I guess the all-night wedding party outside my room didn’t help. The party was over at 6:00am, just in time for me to hurry to take my cold shower.
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