Miranda Harple

my mom comes today and i’m really excited. i’ve been working really hard at the MSF clinic watching women give birth for the last two days. it was my first time in surgery and i wasn’t sure how it would go but i was really facinated by everything around me. i kind of surprised myself. it’s fun to work in this environment. mostly because people don’t pay any attention to me and i can photog whatever i want.

i’m trying to finish up all my work so i can just take some time to relax and go to the beach. though i’ve been reading the history about Gustave, a worldwide legendary crocodile from Burundi, and i’ve almost convinced myself it’s not worth it to go swimming in the lake again, no matter how nice the water is. I haven’t seen that many expats take the plunge off the beautiful sandy beaches here. now i think i understand why…

Yesterday I started my first day of work with MSF Belgium and their two missions here in Burundi. The Kabezi Clinic just opened a day or two ago. The clinic is an emergency birthing center that takes on women from all over the country. They are brought by ambulance. Their first patient needed a cesarian and here’s a photo of the first baby ever born in the clinic. She’s tiny!

the clinic is situated south of bujumbura and one side overlooks the lake and the other overlooks the mountains. it’s absolutely stunning. on monday i’m planning on riding along in an ambulance and hopefully get some good shots of doctors at work.

this is jojo, the son of my boss. he’s a handful and also way too adorable.

on saturday night i attended my first burundi wedding which was quite an experience. it commenced with a band of drummers and dancers as the bride and groom walked to their altar-type place where they were seated on a couch. they didn’t sit close to eachother either, there was an entire cushion between them actually. most of the time the bride looked annoyed/bored. it made me understand a wedding photo i had seen before in the house of the hotel manager we visited where the wife looked really pissed and the husband was next to her just looking at the camera. that photo was framed and proudly hanging on their wall. it was one of my favorite pictures ever, just so funny to me, but i guess that’s all weddings around here…

the best part was the drummers and their dancing which was energetic and amazing.

the bridesmaids came to serve drinks like coke and fanta and beer to the attendees. i was sipping on my room temperature amstel (thanking cody and his boat life for teaching me to appreciate warm beer) thinking how great this was. bridesmaids serving beer during the ceremony, not something you are likely to see in the states….

the father of the bride is the big boss at APRODH and he gave a customary (30-40 minute) speech. everyone applauded him twice thinking it was the end and he just kept going… he seemed like a very proud dad.

there was about a 45 minute break and then i think they were going to do some kind of other ceremony but Jean Baptiste, my boss (and second in command at APRODH) opted to take me home because we’d been there a while. i met up with my friend amelie who told me i’ll get to shoot for 1 day at the MSF clinic (so exciting they already have plans with what to do for the photos). hopefully i’ll meet with the bosses next week to discuss the conditions.

everyone here calls traveling outside of bujo the “interior.” anyways, i’m also looking forward to the cooler, mountainous weather…

reviewed and revisited, i present my first collaboration of work inside the largest central prison in bujumbura. working with APRODH, I was there to observe a survey done on all juveniles in the prison. the young children in these photographs are commonly products of prison rape and spend most of their childhood in prison. There are somewhere around 20 of these kids living in Mpimba right now. It’s very heartbreaking.

I’ve relocated back to the guesthouse owned by Burundi/Belgian Jean Luc and started my first day of work today. I immediately became a warm welcomed foreigner to those who haven’t met me during training.  One girl, Alicia, immediately became my best friend and offered to help me sort out my questions. I exchanged some euros and payed way too much for a bike to get me to and from work. you don’t really have a choice with price here as a white person amongst very poor people. only later did i realized whilest flying down the hill outside my house that the front wheel is a little loose. figures! oh well, with the potholes here (actually more like giant craters), i’m destined to beat this thing up anyway.

It’s all very overwhelming still. I found myself distraught tonight reading my book as the thunderclouds rolled in and the clouds began to cry with me. I watched a lizard climb across my green wall and thought of how I haven’t heard from Ben in days yet still dream of him every night. I think I’m in need of a hug or something. I guess I’ll keep on with my ambitious plans of learning to bike in a city with no real rules of the road, and pushing people to give me access to photograph abused prisoners… you know…

I wish I could put my dreams to use and start learning french while I sleep (and some kirundi beyond the strangely long word for key -urufurungunzo). If anyone has any suggestions on how to make that happen, send it my way.

We’ve officially wrapped up the IBJ training and the rest of the crew left for Kigali yesterday. I was a bit shocked, to say the least, to hear a conversation about what to do regarding the reporter who had attended much of the conference. apparently in northern africa it’s customary to pay journalists to show appreciation. do WHAT? i thought. pay reporters for attending and reporting on your conference? that is so wrong to me, i couldn’t believe it.

I went walking around the market yesterday with the last remaining IBJ-affiliate whose plane to Nairobi didn’t leave until today. Kids yelled muzungu! at us, the universal (swahili?) phrase for “white person,” and a few dared to reach out and touch my skin only to realize i am a person like themselves. I don’t think many white people walk around the streets of Bujo that often but i have yet to feel threatened or scared walking around. I’m seriously considering buying a bike with the money IBJ gave me upon leaving. I think that would keep me happy having my own source of transportation.

After everyone left I realized, I’m really flying solo. And my lack of french is contributing to my daily troubles of getting around. However, as I found myself at dinner with Amelie, a former IBJ intern working here for Medicines Sans Frontiers, I realized I’m not totally alone, and I’ve got some great connections already. She and her colleagues are going to ask for permission of me to come down and take some pictures of a women’s clinic they have set up as they are training local doctors about birth and how to perform cesarians. Though I’m not getting my hopes up, I really would love to go do that for a few days. I’m on my own agenda at this point, so I want to accomplish as much as I can. I’ve got a lot of logistics floating through my head currently, it’s a bit overwhelming taking this all on solo, but I think i’m ready for anything coming my way.

Coffee places always seemed scarce in China. Here, you can’t get away from it. And Burundian coffee is amazing. These frequent coffee breaks may be the thing keeping me from going completely insane while I tackle a way to get video footage to play on my computer.

Aside from this video business, I am currently watching a magnificent thunderstorm roll in over the Burundi mountains. I’ve been continually fascinated with the clouds today.

My favorite thing about this place is hands down the mountains. This photo I made today is an attempt to show what I mean (though I’ve never been too good a landscape photographer, you may get the idea). Looking over towards the lake, the Congolese mountains rise out from the other side. It’s the most awesome thing ever because it’s always a little overcast and it’s hard to pick out the mountains from the sky and clouds. Every day it hits me as I look out to the horizon and find these beautiful, beautiful mountains. If you click on this picture (for a larger view), you can see what I mean. The fact that I’m overlooking the Congo is also just really exciting. It’s such a forbidden and awful place, but so incredibly beautiful to admire from where I stand.

This picture was taken at the beach Saturday where I found myself doing gymnastics with little boys whose english phrases consisted of “darling, i love you.” It was a priceless moment and a perfect day.

Well… since Saturday, I’ve been fighting with my malaria medicine which was making me feel like I was severely jet-lagged/ drugged off sleeping pills all day. Not a way to be productive, but I think I’m adjusting to it and feeling better. There have been some other hurdles I’ve been trying to overcome. Having to find and pay for my own housing in less than a week was another thing I wasn’t exactly prepared for. Let’s just say I wish I had a ton of money and these details didn’t stress me out but they do.

Lawyer/Police/Judge training is underway here in Burundi and I find myself just as busy as I was on the set of “One Fast Move or I’m Gone.” This time I’m trying to focus on my job and stay out of group politics so I don’t go crazy. It’s hard when everyone is passionate about making a difference and has various opinions on the best way to go about that. 

More pictures to come once I figure out how to post a gallery (hint, dad).

If you haven’t heart the phrase TIA, you need to see “Blood Diamond” immediately. Though I originally thought that was a well crafted, purely cinematic phrase, I actually heard it used today. Apparently one of our French trainers is having a hard time getting a Rwanda visa because Rwanda isn’t too fond of the french right now…. TIA.

It was hard to think TIA last night eating not half bad pizza drinking amstel for dinner. Although this is one of the poorest countries, I’m still amazed at how much things cost around here. Still feeling out a way to live as cheaply as possible seeing as I just realized I’ll be paying my own housing after the 24th. Anyways, here’s some pics from my first day of work.