SO THIS IS NIGER

An Interactive Map of Burundi

Have you ever wondered about the exact locations I have been visiting and writing about in Burundi? And do you sometimes love, as I do, to travel the world from an armchair with an atlas on your knees ?

Today I found a fantastic site at Platial (www.platial.com) that allows you to just go anywhere on this globe thanks to Google's mapping of the world.

The site Platial, using Google Earth Maps allows you to construct your own map of places you may want to visit, or live or love. The possibilities are endless: whether you want to point friends and motimers towards your favorite cafe or bookshop, butcher, baker, or rose nursery, just get cracking. It took me a bit of time to find my way around Bujumbura but by starting from my garden gate I found my footprints I may have left behind.

Here is my map of Burundi:

Of course you have to have Java Script enabled, but then you can enlarge my map, move it around, have look at my photos, and so on..

The map is accessible to everyone and I hope over time it will be found by other travelers to Burundi - and perhaps they will take the time - it is time consuming indeed - and add more of their own pointers to my map of Burundi.

Posted by: Lewana at September 23, 2007 16:17 | link | comments (2)
africa, bujumbura, burundi, bujumbura golf club, the man-eating crocodile, ruzisi national park, interactive map of burundi, nteractive map of burundi

Grey-crowned Crane - Balearica regulorum

To photograph this beauty was actually a piece of cake. Many Burundians keep them in their gardens as pets.

The hotel Ubuntu keeps a very tame pair on their lawns and a turtle too.

Posted by: Lewana at September 16, 2007 12:36 | link | comments (2)
africa, wildlife photography, birds of burundi, bujumbura, burundi, greycrownedcrane - balearica reg

By the roadside

The recall of millions of toys made in China certainly doesn’t need to worry these little urchins. There are no toy shops in Bujumbura and even if there were any, only the children of the very wealthy would be able to afford toys.

“What are you doing, sitting in the dirty drain and playing with a rusty razor blade, of all things?” I ask the older one, curiously. “Be careful and make sure that you don’t cut yourself with this blade - or you will die of infection,”  What are you up to, anyway?"

A little puzzled by my dumb questions, eventually the older one digs a couple of rubber strings cut from old bicycle tyres out of his pockets. The middle part is strengthened by a carefully stitched-on leather patch to hold little pebbles . Of course,  now it dawns on me. The boys are making a slingshot,  just as I did when I was a their age.

Perhaps, I ponder on my way to my golf lesson, it is not so bad after all, this lack of fancy toys.

The two urchins certainly don't drive their mothers crazy with their demands for constant stimulation and entertainment, as children tend to do in affluent countries.

If you are poor, you have to be resourceful and inventive. Even though, I suspect, they are going to try out their new catapult by shooting at dogs or birds.

Posted by: Lewana at September 13, 2007 15:23 | link | comments (2)
africa, bujumbura, burundi, by the roadside, catapult

Having a bad hair day?

 A salon in Jakarta, the Indonesian capital is offering a cut for $450 -- about a third of the annual per capita income in the Southeast Asian country.

If a 450 dollar price tag for a haircut cut  sounds a bit steep to you, there is always the alternative right here in Bujumbura. Provided you are willing to sit it out for two days, Antoinette can braid your hair for around 30 Dollars - artificial hair included. It doesn't  matter whether your current hairstyle is long, short or even unruly, streaked an ugly burgundy, braiding your hair solves all these little nuisances. Your new hairstyle will last for at least two months, then it has to be redone.

If you think that you have found a bargain, spare a thought for the majority of Burundian families  who live on sixty dollars a year.

Posted by: Lewana at September 12, 2007 15:37 | link | comments
africa, burundi, bad hair day

Missing drummers wanted...

Europeans may not have to travel to Burundi in future to experience a somewhat noisy and exotic performance.  'The  Dutch newspaper Volkskrant" reported on Tuesday that 12 of them disappeared during a performance in Nijmegen in the Netherlands.

Here, however I cannot note any absence of drummers in Bujumbura. But I may be mistaken and  many more may be packing their drums in the near future. After all, the prices here are rising and the governments coffers may be empty fairly soon.

Meanwhile - the drumming continues...

Posted by: Lewana at September 11, 2007 16:24 | link | comments
africa, bujumbura, burundi, missing drummers wanted