Eliza Tew pulls into a guarded compound and up to a brick building nestled amid lush green mountains. Children sing, dance and play drums in anticipation of her arrival. They run up and greet her with their warm smiles and even warmer embraces. It’s a familiar scene for Tew, because the rising College of Charleston senior relives it every year. Since 2009, she has spent her summers living with the children at the Gitega orphanage in Burundi.
     Located in Central Africa, east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burundi is the size of Maryland yet has a population of 10 million and ranks third on the list of poorest countries. Its crippling poverty stems largely from the long-standing war between the Hutus and Tutsis. The tension between these two ethnic groups has caused not only economic and fiscal damage, but also emotional damage for the nation’s children. Nearly all of the children at Gitega were orphaned as a result of the genocide, which started in 1993 and lasted until 2003, when both sides were able to agree on an integrated government, Tew explains. In some cases, both parents were killed; in others, one parent was killed and the other committed suicide.
     Tew has made this yearly trek with a mission group from St. Michael’s Church, located in downtown Charleston, to spread their beliefs, teach fourth- and fifth-grade-level English and help with daily chores, including laundry and cooking, at the orphanage. She even took it upon herself to give the kids guitar lessons. Since 2009, St. Michael’s Church has raised more than $200,000 for Burundi and the orphanage. “When I first heard about it, I just remember being instantaneously intrigued by the idea,” Tew says of the trip. “I wanted to have the opportunity to change people’s lives.”
     The trips have given her that opportunity and more. “I keep going back because it’s like a second home to me now,” she adds. “I’ve built relationships with these kids, and seeing the pure joy on their faces when I go back every summer is such a humbling experience. It is still weird for me to see how much I mean to these kids and that I am able to be a part of a movement so great.
     “I can’t imagine not going back and not getting to see these kids grow up,” she adds. “I think I left a part of my heart with all my kids, and I can’t wait to go back and see them.”
     Smiling and lighting up as she recalls a favorite game they played together, Tew says the kids make her realize how much we take for granted in our day-to-day lives. “They take Mike and Ike boxes and soda bottle twist-off caps and turn them into cars,” she explains. “No kid I know in America would find joy in items that we just simply throw away when we are done using them.”
     Adjusting from life in the States to life in Burundi takes some getting used to, says Tew. She has to stay up to date on a battery of vaccines, and she needs to sleep with a net over her bed to protect against malaria-carrying mosquitoes. Burundi also operates on a much slower pace than she’s used to. “One day we needed a ride into town, and we ended up waiting five hours just for a truck to come pick us up and carry us into town. They are in no hurry like we always seem to be in the States,” she says.
     Her favorite adjustment, though, is getting to be around children 24/7. “I woke up every morning to this one boy named Gabriel who would come outside my window and whisper, “Eliza, wake up!” she recalls. “And he would say my name until I woke up and went outside to eat breakfast and play with him. When I got back to Charleston, I had to get used to not hearing his voice and not giving hugs at night before we all went to bed.”
     Despite Burundi’s dark past, Tew says she has never feared for her safety. “ I felt just as comfortable there as I would if I was walking around in Charleston,” she says. “The Burundians were constantly taking care of us and making sure we were comfortable and felt safe.
     “If anything I feel joy that I get to go spend time with these children and be a positive influence and friend in their lives and in a place where stability is not a common factor for them,” she adds.
     When she graduates from college next year, Tew plans to spend a year at the orphanage and possibly make a job out of it. “Being able to watch these kids grow and learn and try to live and excel in life is truly an amazing experience,” she says. “If I were to spend a year there, I would be able to spend more time with them and make more of a difference in their lives.”
     When asked how long she would continue to work with the kids and in Burundi, Tew smiles as if picturing them all in her head. “As long as I possibly can.”