After Marlon vigorously searched through IBJ’s resumes, we found a French criminal defender who was interested in IBJ’s work. We called him and within a week we were meeting our trainer. Mehdi Benbouzid, a French criminal defender with extensive experience training lawyers, students and police, has an invested interest in Africa and a commitment to human rights. He also had the necessary amount of francophone civil law expertise, as he had a Law degree and a Masters in Law from Université Jean Moulin in Lyon. He had been actively practicing as a criminal defender for twelve years, all the while teaching and lecturing on criminal law. He had lectured on war crimes and crimes against human rights. He had recently completed work with the International Red Cross in Syria and Jordan as a field coordinator/team leader, interviewing suspected terrorists held in Jordan and providing human rights assessments in Syria. He was perfect.

When Mehdi first arrived I was not aware of the extent of his qualifications, I was just relieved that he spoke French. His first meeting with IBJ confirmed his commitment to see the project through to the end. He would eventually help design the training, prepare the training materials, and be the primary trainer, all pro bono. We got down to work and began to brainstorm on how to design a cross-cultural four day training that would speak to the needs of the various participants with whom we would be working. We held a series of work sessions over the next three months.

Practically speaking, we didn’t know what to expect. Neither Mehdi nor I had been to Burundi. Even though Mehdi was familiar with the framework for their antiquated French Civil Procedure Codes, we didn’t know what the actual practice of law would be like.

Karen’s experiences working in China, Cambodia and Vietnam suggested that the starting point for rebuilding and healing was to get people to engage in identifying the values that motivated them to enter their professions in the first place. Taking it beyond a basis of fundamental skill building, our training would start with each group identifying the highest values they associated with their profession. As we planned, we decided that it was critical that the various groups articulate their hopes and dreams for their system. We also prioritized creating exercises that would sensitize the participants to the particular difficulties and each other’s perspectives. Finally, to get people to come for all four days we had to include a measure of humility well integrated with lots of humor and fun. If, at the very least, we could help create feelings of respect and trust among the group, we would have achieved a lot.

Then, the week before our trip, we experienced a minor catastrophe. Mehdi wasn’t going to be able to get a visa for the Rwanda portion of the trip because the French had severed their diplomatic relations with Rwanda. I had already left for Burundi to handle the pre-training logistics when I heard the news. To my relief, I learned that Mehdi was tenacious. He parked himself in the visa office and managed to get the visa issued two hours before closing time on Friday. On Sunday he boarded his flight to Bujumbura.