A radio interview with Florence, a 2023 YESS Professional Participant from Burundi on 3FM
On Sunday 9th April, 2023, Florence Kwizera, a young leader at Burundi Girl Guides Association who currently works with Ghana Girl Guides as a Volunteer Manager through Youth Exchange South to South (YESS) program was a guest on Beatz Africa show on 3FM 92.7 where she was sharing some fun facts about her country Burundi and the cultural shocks that she has already experienced so far.
Below are some of the highlights that Florence shared during the show.
What brought her in Ghana?
Florence has spent about three months in Ghana through the YESS Program with Ghana Girl Guides Association as her host organization. YESS girl’s movement is an international exchange program, undertaken by the World Association of Girl Guides and Girls Scouts (WAGGGS) in collaboration with NOREC, a Norwergian Government Agency. It is a lifetime opportunity to work, live and have fun in other countries for 6 months and 12 months respectively.
Interesting facts about Burundi
Burundi is a tiny country with 27.834 Kilometers square in size with a variety of landscapes from soaring mountains to lakeside beaches. It is located in East Africa and has two capital cities, which are Bujumbura the economic city and Gitega the political city. Bujumbura is in the western Burundi and north- eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika, the second biggest and largest lake in volume in the world. Gitega is located in Central Burundi.
The main port of Burundi is in Bujumbura and it ships the main exports such as coffee, cotton and tea. The first Burundian to win Olympic medal was Venuste Niyongabo in 1996 and the second was Francine Niyonsaba in 2016. Burundian like to have a good time around banana beer. Banana beer is made from mashed fermented banana. They are huge crocodiles that live in Burundi especially in Rusizi River.
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Similar facts for Burundi and Ghana
The banana beer is also well consumed by some of Ghanaians. There is a place in Ghana called paga crocodile pond where many Ghanaians like to go and feed the crocodiles.
Food
The main food in Burundi is “ugali” made from cassava or maize flour. You boil water, add flour to it continuously, and stir it. Burundians like to eat it with light soup that has beef, small fish and chicken, and “isombe”. Isombes are cassava leaves, pounded and cooked for more than two hours and spiced. You can add egg plant and beef bones to it for increasing the taste. The ewe tribe eat as well ugali.
Burundians also like to eat beans and rice like Ghanaians. However, it is a little bit different from “waakye” because they cook and serve beans separated from the rice whiles waakye is cooked together with beans and rice.
Music
They have Reggae, hip pop, afro bit, am piano etc. and these music are played in different pubs and night clubs across the country.
Cultural shocks
Ghanaians eat lots of chili. When you order for food even if you ask food without chili, they will still add chili to it. They want to warm up your body. Generally, it is not seen in Burundi that men wrap “kente” across the shoulders with shorts. If you wear like that in Burundi, you might shock the entire nation.
Weddings
For Ghanaians, when they go to the bride family they say that their sun has seen a flower in their family that they have come to plug it while in Burundi they say that they have seen a beautiful female cow. For weddings in Burundi, you should be ready for the speech between the representatives of the two families. In addition to that, some special people to the groom and the bride like friends, associations that they are part of and their employers also give their speeches.
In Ghana, the groom and the bride dance for their wedding while in Burundi there are people whose job is to dance during wedding and engagement ceremonies so you hire them. In the same way that there are people in Ghana who have a career in mourning. Their job is to cry during funeral.
Tourism
If you come to Burundi, you should visit one of the national parks such Rusizi National Park located just outside of Bujumbura and Ruvubu National Park located in East of Burundi. The lake Rwihinda national reserve where you can see many birds. There are also water flaws in southern of Burundi. Do not forget to eat mukeke a fish that can only be found in Lake Tanganyika.
As a Ghanaian you are required a visa to enter in Burundi and you apply for it on your arrival.
