Miranda Harple

I just found out I’ll be leaving for Muyinga province Sunday for the first hearings of the Muyinga Massacre, which happened in 2006. I’m not totally sure on the background, but I believe they are summoning some government officials who executed around 50 people suspected of being FNL (the rebel group still present today in Burundi). I’ll be going with the head of APRODH and also with a Human Rights Watch woman around my age situated here in Bujo. She sounded American and when I asked her where she was from, she gave that familiar face I usually give people when they ask me. I told her I understood and was in the same boat. It’s nice to meet someone like myself for a change….

I’m excited for the travel, we’ll be headed northeast, towards Rwanda.

Though arguably this journey has been years in the making, I finally descended into Africa for the first time in my life today. As I have before, I continued to dream while sleeping on the plane about what life would be like here, but I didn’t really know what to expect. Flying in, I realized, we would travel over all of Sudan, parts of Libya, Ethiopia, and Rwanda. Somewhere in northern Burundi or Southern Rwanda I realized what it was had attracted me to this place all along.

Looking out that airplane window there it was – rolling green hills and small mountains dotted with an occasional home. Mostly uninhibited, raw land. It’s the most basic beauty that exists. Now this is something few Americans ever see, and I realize it what I had always desired from this continent but never really understood about myself. As Marlon, an IBJ leader and Zimbabwean, said driving to our new home, “this is what I miss, wind coming at you from open spaces.” It’s truly a freeing experience.

After getting situated here at our new home (a guest house complete with my own bed and bathroom, wireless internet, satellite tv and cold water), I don’t know what’s next but I’m ready to get down to business. I’ve finally received a hefty outline of what’s expected of my side of this project and I feel I play a big role in a pretty serious non-profit.  I’ve also been requested to post twice weekly on the IBJ blog.

I guess you can check me out here. I can really smell a good future ahead of me.