Burundi - 10 years later

Exactly a week ago, our family landed at JFK after spending two weeks in our beautiful Burundi. As anyone who’s read my blog knows, ours is a hardcore Burundian American family. Our US-born children express tremendous pride for being part of both countries. This has been the case so much so that our oldest once came from school telling us he wishes his classmates understood Kirundi.

The decision to go to Burundi this year was sparked sometime last year when we realized that this July marks 10 years since we met. My husband suggested that we should celebrate this major milestone in the place where we met. I thought he was joking at first. I mean, how could we plan a family trip to Burundi in under a year?

Banana trees everywhere

In addition to celebrating us, we also wanted to use this opportunity to introduce our babies to their Burundi-based relatives. So, we prayed, fasted, and worked hard to make it happen.

There were so many great moments that we felt the two weeks were entirely too short. However, the time we had served its purpose. We celebrated. Our children had the experience of their lives. And we returned inspired. For the next few posts, I will share the highlights of our trip. Topics will include planning and executing a party as visitors, meeting relatives in the different provinces, the dos and donts of traveling to Burundi as a family, etc. By sharing this, I hope other Burundian Americans gain incentives to go back and see our homeland for themselves.