Basket Weavers

TCRS works to facilitate several income generating projects, one of which is basketweaving. (These projects are being scaled down in the camps to encourage repatriation. We're working to move their weaving and marketing networks to Burundi.) Women make the baskets while we act as a middle man, working to publicize their products, recieve orders, and ship the wares once they are complete. Pictured above is a group of women working on an order.

A woman starting a basket.

One of the children who was around the weaving workshop.

An older woman who stole my heart! Even during the chaos created by my impromptu photo shoot, she continued to work steadily.

Sights that are becoming familiar...

Almost anywhere I go, children cluster behind. They are excited to see the muzungu or "whitie" ;-) If I have my camera, they are even more excited because they all want their picture taken.

There have been several large fires over the last several weeks. I think that farmers are burning off the dead vegatation so that fresh shoots will grow for their livestock. The blazes scare me a bit, because I don't quite understand how people can controll them! In the foreground is a brick making operation.

A herd of cattle roaming on the side of the road.

A closer shot of a Tanzanian cow. Annie and Dad, this shot is especially for you two ;-)

A going away party...

Jesse Kamstra was the former Project Coordinator for TCRS Kibondo Refugee Project. He has left this office to become the Country Director for TCRS Burundi. Below are pictures from his going away party about two weeks ago.
A shot of friends giving their gifts to Jesse and his family. As a group came forward to present a gift, they made a line and danced the package to him; it was sort of like a conga line.

Burundian drummers playing at the party. They were great, dancing and drumming...though my friend said that he had seen better...haha!

Urafiki School at Nduta

These chilren are haning around the school. Classes begin on Monday, September 3rd.

There are 5 primary schools at Ntuda (3 at Kanembwa). Urafiki school (part of which is pictured here), will host 1800 students. 35 teachers will educate them -- that's a student-teacher ratio of a little more than 51:1!! There are about 6 buildings in this complex (the 7th is falling down, so I don't think they'll use that classroom).

food distribution at Nduta

These are card checking stations. Refugees must present their ration cards to have them punched before each distribution.

This is a shot of the food distribution chutes. Refugees are divided into food groups of 50-100 people. Each group elects a leader and the leader recieves the food on behalf of the group at a designated chute at a designated time. There are about 15 chutes in all.

This is a group of people waiting for their leader to retrieve their rations. Once the leader brings the rations, the people will divide the food amongst themselves.

A shot of some of the people assembled for distribution. The crowd was huge and looked like this the whole time I was there. Distribution lasts from 9:00am till sunset. More than 36,000 people recieved food.

A group preparing to divide their food. Each group recieves corn meal flour, corn-soy blend, salts, and vegtable oil. Though the rations are supposed to last for 2 weeks, my coworkers said that they do not. More food is needed. We've asked the WFP for more food, but sadly they can't give us any more.

After the food is divided, the refugees must take the load back to their homes. Some live more than a mile from the distribution center.

...more Nduta camp pics...

All of these pictures are taken from a central location in the camp. The camp is divided into various blocks, that are sort of like sections of a city. Most of the camp, with the exception of the two markets, looked like these blocks.

More houses...

More houses...notice how small the plots are.

More pictures from Nduta

These are the tents that hold the WFP food supply at Nduta camp. WFP delivers the food to TCRS who stores and distributes the items.

Men moving bags of corn meal to the distribution center in preparation for distribution on Wednesday.

Construction of the new transit center at Nduta camp. They hope to complete this in a few weeks. The buildings will house refugees returning to Burundi the night before their departure. Currently repatriants from Nduta must travel to the Kanembwa (about a 45km trip) transit center before returning. All of their luggage and foodstuffs must be transported as well. Logistically, this system has proven to be time consuming and problematic which is why TCRS is constructing a new facility at Nduta.

Construction on another building at the Nduta transit center.