John - Bujumbura, Burundi – 29th July – 6th August

Where is the field?

All settled in now.  Bujumbura is more a town than a city, not to take anything away from it.  It’s great. It is surrounded by mountains and rests on Lake Tanganyika.  The lake is huge.  I don’t think Burundi could be categorised as being landlocked really.  I’m told you can see over the lake into Congo during the summer here.  Hope to visit Congo at some stage.

Before I came out here, I knew I was going to do fieldwork.  Sounds pretty straightforward, right? Coursework in Ireland and then onto Burundi for the fieldwork, what could be easier?  But when I got to Kampala, some NGO staff often asked me ‘Have you been to the field yet? ’ or said that they had just come from the field. Apparently, the ‘field’ is not the capital cities but out in the countryside.  But as Anne said to me, ‘But you are in the field.  This is all new to you!’ And right she was.

This point was brought home to me when I had a meeting with a nutritional specialist at UNICEF this week.  She explained how chronic malnutrition was also an issue in urban as well as rural areas.  Food companies were selling milk substitute products in Bujumbura and this was contributing to the ill-health of children as mothers were favouring these products over breast milk.  Of course HIV can be transmitted via breast milk and that is an important issue but under normal circumstances breast milk is very important for a young child, in particular the first 6 months of life.   These companies operate unregulated and UNICEF is lobbying for the introduction of laws to curb their product’s use.  I was at a local supermarket today and saw many of these products on the shelves, another example of unregulated neo-liberalism at work.  I hope to examine more on this topic while in Bujumbura and perhaps when I return home also.

Bujumbura is not your typical tourist location.  You won’t find any safaris or bungee jumps here.  And it’s disappointing because it is a beautiful country.  There are few ‘touristy’ activities but I was aware of one place to go before my arrival.  The Musee Vivant is a museum officially but it is really a zoo.  With crocodiles.  So, last Sunday I set off with Alex, a friend of a friend working at UNICEF, to see the zoo for myself.  Firstly, we met the guinea pigs where it was explained to us that for 2000 francs (1.30 euro), we could feed the guinea pig of our choice to the crocodile ( or alligator, probably) of our choice.  We politely declined.  They were fairly cute.

On the tour we saw all sizes of crocodiles.  They are massive creatures.  You would feel sorry them though, being in captivity in such small enclosures with Lake Tanganyika only a few hundred yards away, probably with their relatives.  Our guide was enthusiastic about us seeing them.  And touching them.  So he opened up one of the enclosures, entered and PICKED up the tail of one of the bigger crocodiles.  He insisted I enter the enclosure to hold the tail for a photo.  I put one foot inside the enclosure and just couldn’t keep out the thought out of my head of the crocodile whipping around and biting my hand off, which would be a major inconvenience.  So again, I respectfully declined.  Although, I was disappointed with myself later for refusing an invitation.  Sorry Tom!

As well as UNICEF, I met the representatives of the Food and Agriculture organisation.  They were very enthusiastic about my project, given that very little research has been done in Burundi on malnutrition.  The country just does not get a lot of attention, funding wise.  I had a great discussion with them.  They provided a lot of interesting background to Burundi which should stand to me once I head up to Cibitoke.  All in all, a good first week!