Biking across Burundi

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Thursday, July 21st. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Myrna Brown.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. Coming next on The World and Everything in It: cycling for a cause.

Many people would have a hard time finding the African nation of Burundi on a map. It was once a single territory along with Rwanda to its north. Today, Burundi is one of the poorest countries in the world after civil war and genocide decimated the country.

BROWN: Earlier this year a missionary joined a cycling group and set out across Burundi to raise money and awareness for disabled soldiers.

Here’s WORLD Radio intern Grace Snell to tell the story.

GRACE SNELL, REPORTER: On May twenty-seventh, 2022, a strange sight greeted passersby.

KLEAGER: The people are running to the side of the road because, honestly, in the up country of Burundi, seeing a white person in spandex on a fancy bike is probably one of the most rare things that person thought they would ever see when they woke up that morning.

Brian Kleager is a former U.S. Army officer. He’s been to Burundi about twenty times over the past decade, but never like this.

Kleager’s joining five other riders—all Brits—on a seven-day, four-hundred-mile ride around the country. They’re doing it to raise money for various Christian ministries in Burundi. Kleager’s riding to support soldiers wounded in Burundi’s civil war, which ended in 2006.

Kleager first traveled to Burundi eleven years ago—hosting conferences and seminars for soldiers and police. An Army chaplain introduced him to one-hundred-fifty disabled soldiers living on government support in a motor pool.

KLEAGER: All the broken down vehicles are on one side of the motorpool and on the other side of the motorpool are the broken down soldiers and they just put them in this huge bay, you know there's over 100 cots with mosquito netting over them, they just had their little space, put stuff under their cot, and that was their life.

Kleager and some locals started a program to provide food, clothes, hospital rides and discipleship for the men.

His riding goal is to raise enough money to support the ministry for the next six to nine months.

He visited in December and joined his Burundian ministry partner–a man named Kiki–on a hospital visit. Bone-thin men lay in hot, dirty hospital bays waiting to recover.

KLEAGER: There was one guy and Kiki told me he had almost died the week before, but thankfully, God had saved him and he's still living. And if I'm honest, from a human, physical standpoint, I don't know what he has to live for. I mean, he lays in a bed in the poorest country in the world in deplorable conditions. And yet, when Kiki and his team come visit them and pray for them, God's still at work. He's still doing things in and through these guys in ways that I can't imagine.

But they can’t do the work without support. So that’s why he’s here–sweating in eighty-degree heat and riding around sixty-five miles a day. It’s taken four months of training and forty hours of travel just to reach the starting line. And the road isn’t getting any easier.

KLEAGER: There were some stretches of the road that were quite nice, but the majority of the stretches you always knew to be looking for a pothole, looking for a bump, there were sometimes sections of 50 to 300 feet that just no pavement so you're just kinda slowly working through gravel.

Biking is common in Burundi, but the rules of the road are different.

KLEAGER: Whenever the Burundian honks their horn that rider always moves to the side and the car doesn't even slow down, they just know they’re going to move over, and the car goes flying by.

Sometimes, Kleager rode with two or three of the other cyclists. Other times, he rode alone—praying as he went.

KLEAGER: During stretches you're talking with another rider. When you're going uphill the more fit person talks, when you're going downhill, you can't hear because the wind's blowing through your ears.

The team stopped at local ministries as they rode, including a training ministry for Burundian pastors. Three of the workers there hopped on old bikes and peddled along with them.

A support team of five Burundians drove the route with them to help with food, hotels, and social media coverage for supporters back home. Each day brought a new set of ups and downs as they worked through the Burundian hills.

KLEAGER: I think it was the end of day five, we had a couple-mile really steep climb. And so you really are just grinding. Sweat coming down out of your helmet. it's dripping down your eyes, so your eyes are stinging, you're going just a little bit faster than the Burundian who's walking and you're grinding your way. And you don't know where the top is. And so there's this kinda: "I gotta keep going, I don't know when it's gonna end."

One of the other riders got a flat tire at the top of the hill. Kleager rode a quarter mile back down to signal the support vehicle. Then, he got left behind and had to wander through a busy marketplace to find their hotel.

At night, the team circled up and shared personal stories. In the mornings, they geared up and hit the road again.

The team spent their final night at an orphanage. There was no water for showers, so they started their last day already sweaty.

The last twenty-five minutes of the ride were all downhill. The bikers rounded a corner and the valley opened with a view of Lake Tanganyika.

Their support team staged a finish for them outside the city.

KLEAGER: We tied the balloons to the back of the bike because we had a couple more kilometers just to get down to the edge of the city. so we're riding down now with balloons behind our bikes and they're kinda popping…

For his part, Kleager raised over $5,000. Twenty-two different donors supported his ride. The trek may be over, but Kleager’s time in Burundi is not.

KLEAGER: I keep going back because the needs are so deep and the people we're working with are doing such fruitful ministries. I can't not go to Burundi, like, I love the people there so deeply, Until God releases me from the call of connecting and loving and serving and partnering with people in Burundi, I'll keep going to Burundi.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Grace Snell.

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