Ethiopia in Review

So it has been two weeks since I last posted, and I am currently in an Ethiopian Airlines 757 traveling from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to Entebbe, Uganda. This must be the most comfortable flight of my life: I have three seats all to myself. I curled up for awhile in an attempt to sleep, but then we were served lunch and I decided that I’d like to type up this blog so that I can hopefully post it when I get back to the guesthouse. I had a rather short night last night, probably because of the massive amounts of caffeine that I ingested yesterday as well as anticipation over returning to Kampala today. So, Ethiopians love coffee. And although I had only had one or two cups in my life before 3 weeks ago, I drank between 1-3 cups every day. I mean, you have to engage the culture, right? So here’s the story from yesterday: We went out for breakfast and I had a macchiato (one part coffee, five parts milk), then at lunch I had milk with coffee (steaming hot with a spoonful of sugar, this is probably a 9:1 milk to coffee ratio). During the afternoon the 4 of us girls walked around Addis for awhile and stopped at…. a coffee shop where I had another macchiato. When we got back to the Norwegian Missionary guesthouse where we were staying, we sat outside awhile chatting, and became slightly chilled. So Suzy made some VERY strong black tea, and I drank that to warm myself up. An hour or so later Tesfa (our driver) and Aweke came to pick us up for a cultural evening. This consisted of one last delicious meal of njera with various vegetables and shiro, excellent Ethiopian dancing, and of course: a coffee ceremony, where I ingested my last cup of the day.
But life here isn’t all about the coffee. After my last post, Tessa, Eli, and I spent one more week in Sasiga. We continued to develop relationships with the staff, and came to greatly appreciate their love for the communities and their commitment to Christ. Tessa and I spent a good “girls night” with Banchayo, Chuche, Tigist, and Zabiba when they braided our hair. We looked truly “abesha” (Ethiopian) with our new style. Okay, well, Tessa looked a little more authentic than I did, but the maintenance free style was a plus either way. On Saturday we met up with Suzy and Kristen and went past Bareeda to a gorgeous waterfall. We got to ride with Adani, their driver, which was the ride of a lifetime. He was pushing 100 km/hr (60 mph) on dirt roads that are slightly more dilapidated than the farm lane at my house that goes from the chickenhouse to Rt. 283. And he keeps the windows shut so as not to let dust in the car- I was thankful that I was able to keep my lunch down because of the lack of ventilation!
Sunday we attended a church service, which was conducted in Afan Oroomo. Beautiful singing, bright purple and green choir robes, adorable children who were crowded next to us on the backless wooden benches. The weekend was pretty quiet around our compound because several of the staff were in Nekempt for business. Monday morning we walked to Madajala with Dawit, and informally talked to a few farmers on the way. During the afternoon our sheep “Dinner” met his fate at the hands of Eli and a knife. In the evening we celebrated Eli’s birthday with a bonfire, devotions, singing, a meal, and of course: coffee. But this wasn’t just any coffee, it was “forenge” coffee because it was “prepared” by Tessa and I. In reality, we only stirred the beans a bit as they were roasting, ground the beans, and poured as we were instructed by Zabiba. She is the one who provided all of the expertise.
Much to our dismay, “Dinner Number 2” showed up at the compound on Tuesday. Thankfully we didn’t have to eat him as well, but he did occupy the extra shower stall at night so Tessa and I were serenaded with the sweet smell of manure and the bleating of a tired animal as we tried to clean ourselves. We did a few more community visits and education talks on Tuesday and Wednesday. We had a staff debriefing and goodbye on Wednesday night. It was sad to leave these people with whom we have spent two wonderful weeks.
Thursday morning Aweke came with Kristen and Suzy, and we left Sasiga bright and early for an all day journey to Ambo, punctuated by stops for tomatoes, berries, roasted corn, charcoal, macchiatos, etc. We stayed overnight in a fantastic hotel, and were able to scrub more of the dirt off of our bodies. I discovered that I actually DO have a tan from my chacos sandals: it wasn’t just dirt caked around the straps. Friday we drove, on much smoother roads thankfully, to Zeway. We stopped briefly at the FH office there, then checked into our hotel. That hotel wasn’t quite as nice as the previous one, and we only had water sporadically. But we managed to stay half clean. We had an orientation on Saturday and visited a market. We attended church on Sunday, and relaxed for a good part of the day. Monday we made some home visits, which were quite incredible. All of the children that we visited are in FH’s CDP- Child Development Program. I was saddened by some of the living situations, but encouraged by others. We visited a child-headed household (a boy of around 13 who lives by himself), a Muslim family, an ill grandmother who cares for her young granddaughter, and two single mother households. One of the fathers died from tuberculosis, and another died in a drunken brawl. One home was perhaps 7 by 7 feet- barely large enough to hold the bed and pile of dishes necessary for the family of three children and a mother. The doorway was only 4 feet tall as well, so we had to duck to make it inside. We were quite a sight, all 8 or so of us crammed into the tiny hut.
Tuesday morning we drove to Addis, where we spent time meeting staff at the head office. Since then we have gone shopping, continued enjoying coffee, and just hanging out and debriefing at the guesthouse.
Practicum has been an incredible experience, and it is hard to believe that Part 2 of the GoEd experience has come to a close. I have learned so much and I am still processing it. I’m not looking forward to writing my practicum paper, but I know that it will be helpful to me to think through things.
Oh my, this plane is nearly ready to land, so I must bring this update to a close. I ask that you continue to pray for an open mind and sensitive heart, that I can be compassionate and loving to all around me. I especially ask for prayer for direction in my life. God has been teaching me a lot of new things, and I want to learn so much more.