Morning team meeting on our final day in Burundi.
Impromptu photo with the very nice and helpful hotel staff just before leaving for the Unity Monument. (We wanted to take a photo with the Peace Torch and more staff later - but it never happend!)
We took the van to the city center - our goal was to see the Unity Monument, where the big Peace Run Cermony on the 4th was supposed to start. But due to confusion or miscommunication we finally started at the foot of this also very significant monument.
The Mausolée of Prince Louis Rwagasore, the final resting place of the country’s beloved 20th-century monarch and leader, who had fought for independence. The words on the other side of the monument facing the terrace where our ceremony had taken place, read: “Unity, Work, Progress.”
Only a few hundred meters further up is the main monument of Bujumbura. We had shown the security guards our government permission and were allowed to take photos with the Peace Torch.
The monument was built as a symbol of reconciliation after many years of hostility between Hutu and Tutsi and serves as a site of great historical and architectural importance for the Burundi nation. We hope to come back to Burundi again with the Peace Run, and maybe then the start can be from this highest and most significant point.
Pierre proudly holding the Peace Torch for the unity of all cultures, beliefs and ethnicities.
Children love the Peace Torch!
We had some baked goods with us - and the kid was happy to get a present. Her mother in the back.
New family....
Lake Tanganyika and Democratic Republic of Congo in the background.
Burundi smiles
At 5 pm we boarded our plane to Nairobi, Kenya, via Kigali, Rwanda and Entebbe, Uganda.
Byebye Burundi - thank you for an amazing Peace Run experience with your drummers, dancers, marchers and very inspiring schools. May your unity, peace and progress grow and glow - and we hope to be back in the not too distant future.
