Mid-July is birthday week for Susan and me – and in keeping with the theme of “bet you never thought you’d be living in Rwanda due to politically related violence in Burundi” we decided to go as a family on a “bet you never thought you’d be hiking in an African rainforest” hike for fun. So…

We have now been gone from our home in Bujumbura for a bit over two months now – having left the day of the failed coup on May 13th.  The first week and a half we were with our team in Kibuye – upcountry in Burundi; and since then we have been staying at a mission…

We finally got a chance to spend about 10 days up in Kibuye visiting our sister team that works  at a teaching hospital about 2 hours outside of Bujumbura.  While the reason for our stay was not all that pleasant – it was a a really good time. Even though we were there only 10 days –…

I think it’s safe to say it has been a bit of a week or so for our family. Almost two weeks ago on Wednesday we drove out of Bujumbura to get what we thought was a few days of respite from the tension of the protestors clashing with security forces, the roadblocks, and the general disruption…

Everyone, As I’m sure many of you have already heard, there was a military coup declared here in Burundi yesterday afternoon. Susan, the kids and I are all safely with our Serge team 3 hours outside of the capital. Miraculously – we left Bujumbura what turned out to be just before the coup took place –…

The last few days we have been laying low. University classes were canceled, as it seems most other schools are, in light of security concerns in the city – it’s been a strange week in Burundi. To be honest – I guess I’m not sure to explain how it feels right now. I’m sitting at a small desk in a bedroom…

It’s 6.00 on a Sunday morning here in Bujumbura.  The weather is expected to be sunny and hot, with a threat of thundershowers – which seems to be typical for this time of the year, as the rainy season has not yet ended. However, this is not a typical weekend – at least it doesn’t appear to be.…

  It’s hard to believe it – but we have now been in Bujumbura for a about a month. We are back in our place after a week away, and it seems like it is one of the few places with a stable enough internet connection to get a blog post up  – so here it…

This past summer saw us wrapping up our four years in France, and this particular  quatorze juillet – la fête nationale -( what we foreigners call ‘Bastille Day’ )- I turned 40. We spent the weekend of my birthday in the breathtakingly beautiful village of Val d’Isere – as there was a trail race that I wanted to…

On our family’s last full day in London, we took the train out to the Royal Air Force Museum.   NOTE: If you’re wondering “why are they telling us about what they did in April?”..it’s because this blog has in many ways become a family photo album for us. It seemed like there were too many…

The rest of the week in London was equally amazing. (click HERE for Part I of our family trip to London) Our next full day we started by heading to the Tower of London.     We stopped to have a closer look at the Tower Bridge Spent a bit of time wandering through Tate Modern…

Yesterday our family took part in a run to raise money for some projects that a local church is doing in Burundi. So we decided it would be a good idea for us to Run for Burundi.   The Run for Burundi was a 5K fun-run – so we all decided to run it together – but…

At Easter time, we had a fantastic opportunity for a family trip to London at Easter to see the sights there.   We had friends who were going to be in Ireland, and very generously offered their house to us. As a famille nombreuse (Translation: “wow, you guys have a lot of kids!”) – it’s…

Right now here in France, it’s early in the morning of June 6. 70 years – to the hour-  since the start of the D-Day landings on the beaches of Normandy. Having recently taken a trip with my Dad, and my son to Normandy to see a lot of the WWII sites – this idea…

This past weekend we drove over to Lans-en-Vercors for a lovely day of trail racing in the alps.  The race is in the Vercors mountain range, across the valley from where we live – so if you’ve ever seen the view from our place (which is unavoidable if you follow me on Instagram) – it’s…

Our third day in Normandy we drove from our hotel at Gold Beach to the medieval island abbey of Mont Saint Michel. Mont St Michel is impressive – no matter how you look at it. Pretty much it’s just a small island, that is completely covered by the labyrinth of a walled-town that is draped over the…

In April, my Dad & his oldest son (me), and my oldest son (Jonah) went on a trip up to north-western France to see some of the D-Day sites in Normandy. We spent two days in Paris on the way there, then 3 days in Normandy. The most well-known are of course, the D-Day landing…

  On the way to Normandy – Jonah and I met up with my Dad for a quick 2 day multi-generational trip to Paris.  Actually, it felt a bit like I was in some lame movie –  when we made plans to meet in front of Notre Dame.  Dad was pretty much landing at Charles…

The where and the what posts that you may have already seen about our plans to move to Burundi were fairly straightforward. Mostly information about the country where we’re going, and what we’ll be doing there.  The the answer to the question of ‘Why go to Africa?” is really the heart of the matter. Perhaps fist…

Previously we put up a post with a bit about the where of Bujumbura, Burundi, and our plans to move there. Next we’ll talk about the why and the how..but for now, this post is for those wondering what exactly what we are going to be doing in Burundi.  The main trigger that is drawing us…

It’s hard to believe, but we now have two kids with ages measured in double-digits. Yesterday was Matéa & Grandpa’s birthday.   Grandma & Grandpa got here the day before so they were able to celebrate together. Last year we were climbing the fortress of Masada and swimming in the Dead Sea for her birthday.…

I thought I should get a few short posts up to give some details on what exactly is going on with our family and this talk of moving to Bujumbura, Burundi to teach at Hope Africa University.  I’ll try to cover the why, what, and how later – but for now…  the where  DISCLAIMER: I…

In November I travelled to Bujumbura, the capital of Burundi with my good friend Rob for a  scouting trip that we did for our families. The purpose of the trip was to investigate Hope Africa University and to see what kind of ways our skill sets could fit in with what they are trying to accomplish.  I…

The week before my mom left in December we drove up into the Chartreuse mountains to go for a hike up by the monastery of the Carthusian monks (the ones who make the Chartreuse liquor) – la Grande Chartreuse -up by the town of St Pierre de Chartreuse.  (Detecting a pattern?)   It’s not the…