First impressions from Bujumbura
After a very very very long travel of over 24 hours, I finally arrived in Bujumbura, Burundi. Buja (how the Burundian capital is often called) is a beautiful town between Lake Tanganyika and hilly mountains (pour les francophiles, les milles collines). The town stretches from the lake up the hills with impressive views from the hill sides over the lake and the mountains of the DRC on the other side of Lake Tanganyika.
The weather is quite bearable. It does not get very hot during the day (around 30 degrees) and, at night, it cools down (around 15 degrees). Due to the lake and mountains, the climate is very nice. But we are only at the beginning of the dry season and, I have been told, it will get much hotter in the months of July and August. The surrounding hills of Buja are truly amazing. Everything is green and many of the hillsides are filled with plantations of mainly coffee, tea, manioc and fruits. Burundians often say that God has spoiled them when it comes to climat and geography ('Dieu nous a gâté!'). I am very much enjoying the local coffee, the tropical fruits and the local beer, called Primus. Many Burundians in the capital also love to drink Amstel, the Dutch beer that is locally brewed in Burundi.
For now, I am staying in a small and simple hotel right by the Université du Burundi. The town feels pretty safe. Even though, it becomes deserted after 9pm due to security concerns related to bandits. I have been told that I can easily walk around during the day in the center of the town. But I have to be careful with robberies. There are many street kids (les enfants de la rue).
Burundi is one of the poorest countries in the world. The differences between rich and poor are appalling. While we are driving around by car and drinking beer at nice lake clubs, we see a lot of kids getting water at a local 'water center' and carrying big containers of water up the hill back to their neighborhoods, which have no access to water.
All Burundians are very friendly and welcoming. It is really impressive. They primarily communicate in Kirundi, a Bantu language. So I decided to take a little class to get to know some expressions in the local language. Burundians are very impressed when foreigners try to speak a few words in Kirundu. People also speak Kiswahili (especially in the big cites around the lake), which is becoming more and more important due to regional integration. Plus, there are many Congolese living in Burundi.
