Back in San Jose

Dress: check. Venue: check. I guess those are the main things I needed to get done but there sure are a lot of other little details! It is a little complicated to register for gifts by sending Brian emailed pictures of plates, duvet, towels, etc...!!! I think we're making alot of progress but it will still be a very busy couple weeks before we get home!

Time away from Langano has been mostly full of family and wedding thoughts, but I want to take time to evaluate what is going on with my job/ministry, and get some New Year's perspective. My thoughts:

1. Use the systems already in place- show up at the community meetings instead of creating my own, work through the women's association (I had no idea until recently there was such a thing!), work along side the government paid agriculture guys, and health girls.

2. I don't want to do community health alone. The support staff at the clinic are people that live in the community- that means THEY can be the agents for community based change! So I don't want to show up at the meetings alone, they should be with me! I think they are happy to get out of the clinic and go to meetings where there own interests are at stake and where they get to hang out with their friends.

3. Spiritual work: This is a wide open door that I want to walk through. The wife of the evangelist is eager to start some kind of woman's ministry, but she needs encouragement and someone working alongside of her, at least at the beginning. People have done this before, why hasn't it lasted? How can I get her to really own it? I think we can work together really well in this area.

So, here and there I am thinking, between bridesmaid dresses and fine china.... how does God want to use me in this next little chapter??

Post-engagement news...

This weekend I'm up in Addis with Brian.  Man, the two weeks since we got engaged were so hard!  Not in terms of being engaged, but wow, the Langano Health Project is a monster, Kim has been out of town, and the week I was in charge made me realize I don't ever want to be in charge.  That is not what I came out to do:  manage a clinic.  It is a hard job, and better done by an Ethiopian.

Ethiopia can be a tough country in some ways:  the government is the only internet provider (!!) and its slow, and the cell phone network is patchy outside of Addis.  I am so thankful for texting!

Anyways, we had a really encouraging meeting last week about the Health project, and it was encouraging because we all realize we need to get Ethiopians into these upper level management positions or the project will never last.  I hope we can pull through and get those changes into place!

I mentioned some kind of a seed project- that was just my off-the-wall idea of a way to help out in this time of hunger- backyard gardens growing things like spinach, potatoes, and carrots, that we could water with some kind of drip irrigation system and have a bit of agricultural education happening at the same time.  Well, we have picked two sample gardens so far, one man is digging up his land and is allowing us to use it, the other man has already dug it up and prepared the land.  We have a boy raising seedlings for us, then we'll transplant to those plots.  I hope it can help in some way...

Now I'm in Addis for a few days-- being with Brian is great!  I haven't had time to catch up with many others, but I'll take my time with him.  It is a new world talking about combining~  fun!!  Today we tried to talk through wedding plans.

So now he's back to school tomorrow and I'm off to run errands before heading back to Langano on Tuesday.  Its been a great time up here!!

The Long Version (engaged...)

Well, I guess I should have/ started to see it coming.  Brian and I have found our groove this fall, and we have so much fun down here in Langano.  He comes down usually on his motorcycle and stays for the weekend (in a tent in the middle of all the houses).  We even "checked out" a baby from Mana Abdii the orphan house to practice for the day!

 

This last week was his fall break so he came down to Langano for it.  He brought his car (old Land Cruiser from the 70's fixed up) down with a trailer on the back with three motorcycles.  When I asked who was going to ride the third one, he said, "when we want to go somewhere together!"  So he got here on Monday, and Tuesday our task was for me to learn to ride a motorcycle.  He brought a "Yamaha 250" down for me, explained the gears and all that, and I started riding around the compound a little.  On the long stretch of road I was feeling good and he was walking behind me so I just sped off and then of course fell and the motorcycle fell over and was reving and smoking really loud and I was calling for him while the compound guard wandered over to see what was happening!  Ha!  Then we went outside the compound and he told me to drive though these (TRICKY!) puddles which I did, but then the last puddle I lost control, fell, and hit an old man on the side of the road!  I said "Excuse me."  When I fell I couldn't pick up the bike or restart it so he was very nice and patient about restarting.

 

That was fun.  Then Wednesday he warned me we were going to have a scavenger hunt, so he pulled out this "packet" of papers and showed me page by page my clues.  It was called, "10 Reasons why I love you" scavenger hunt, and at each spot he named a different reason.  He had put so much thought into it, and funny clues, and funny places, it was great.  One was a little soda shop in town that we went to before we went to the mosque on the Eid, so we rode our bikes out (6 kilometers, on my second day!!) there, then to Wenney lodge for lunch, then the last clue was "a place to waterski," so that was his friends house on the other side of the lake.  So we rode the two seater Honda there, and the clue said, "Your prize is in the pocket of the life jacket."  We chatted with our friends for a while, then (it was later than he thought I guessed:  about 6 or so, and chilly and the water was really choppy) he said, "Let's go find your last clue!"  So there was a lifejacket floating out in the water maybe 20 feet out so we got in the water both freezing!!  (He said later that helped him not look nervous).  When we got close to the life jacket I saw there was a bottle tucked inside of it and I said, "Oh, its a message in a bottle!"  So I was dancing around from being cold, and he opened the bottle (which took a long time because it was taped so securely) and out came a little jewelry bag.  Then I knew for sure!  He pulled it out, and dutifully knelt down (putting his face up to his eyes underwater) and asked me to marry him.  I said yes!

 

When we turned around to get out, everyone on the beach was taking pictures!  Christina had towels and a fire ready for us, and then we had a celebratory cake and champagne.  There were a few Ethiopians gathered around and when we were still in the water they were doing their wave sticks/dance/chant happyness thing and I loved that there was a bit of Ethiopian culture there for us.

 

So we enjoyed our lake beach scene with the fire at sunset- it was so beautiful!  Then Brian said he was taking me out to dinner to a lodge nearby, so we got changed and when we pulled into the parking lot I saw plate number 00943 and said, "hey, isn't that the Langano clinic car?"  And when we got there the Langano station was there to meet us!  Brian had invited them out.  So my brain was just swimming, and they were loving it!

 

Since then (Wednesday) Brian has been making all kinds of funny comments now that we can talk about life together.  "I better go see where I'm going to put my horse coral."  "What size bed do you want, king or queen?  I'm going to make it"  "I wonder which [Langano] project I should work on"  "How about making a deck that wraps around that tree over there and stringing Christmas lights around it?"  "What baby names do you like?"  "We're going to have to take that picture down because I want this room to be African themed."  All kinds of things, it is so funny.  We are thinking mostly about living here in Langano but that sort of depends on what he would do- he has options to think about down here that could be great.   We need to pray that God will show him what is best, whether or not it is in Langano.

 

He left this morning, and I am sad without him!  I told him I like his boots on my veranda.  We have quite a challenge these next eight months between trying to seeing each other, communicating with our families, planning a wedding, figuring out how to blend our worlds that are so separate now, language and culture stress, and all our radically different opinions!  I do love him, and I am excited to see things unfold.

 

On Being out Here

Let's see, for me being a missionary involves being far from my family and not having hot showers or fruit stands.  No nectarines, and no itunes downloading.  But I buy strawberries at the strawberry stand in on the side of the highway in my rural Ethiopia for 60 cents, and I live on the edge of a lake with Egyptian geese flying low through the sunset, and hippos in the reeds.  No Thanksgiving dinner tables, but feasted royally on roasted corn and milk last night with my friends in a grass roofed hut.  I'm not sure what is better, but I think life out here is.

 

The conversation over the corn and milk was about the rain.  There isn't any, and these men are wondering how they will feed their families.  I am community health nurse in Langano in the West Arsi Zone of Ethiopia, so these communities we serve with our clinic are seeking our assistance.  "Below God's hand, we are looking to you for help!"  I hear the statement several times a week………

 

My job out here is health and peace- physical and spiritual.  It involves lots and lots of crossing cultures, so sometimes I even start thinking their culture is more normal than my own.  You mean we don't go visit each others' homes when our relatives die?  And we buy our chickens with no heads and no feathers wrapped up in plastic??

 

It can be hard in any culture to find the right opening for the truth of the gospel.  I wonder as I am sitting on low stools in dark huts, how do I explain Jesus?  And why He is important for their eternal salvation?  Where is the open door- their sense of spiritual need?  I am new and haven't answered those questions yet.

 

Another side to my work is growing the Christians around me.  The clinic staff consists of ten people who have all professed to be Christians.  They have the great challenge of caring for and loving over 100 people a day that come through our clinic doors, and these staff are a great gift to our ministry.  I want them to grow in their sense of ministry and purpose.  Tomorrow at our staff meeting I am giving them each a copy of "The Purpose Driven Life" which is available in Amharic, and my prayer is that God gives each of them a magnificent sense of His purpose in their life and work.

 

It is new, I'm fresh out of language school on the ground.  I'm learning as I go, but I do know this:  this is the life for me, a life of adventure, challenge, green fields, land cruisers, dirty feet, roasted corn and new languages around me.  A life full of amazing potential to see God build His church in one of His great world's far corners…

Our House of Hope

There is an old woman walking through the mountains carrying a baby on her back.  She has been sent by her extended family, seeking something for this little baby who needs help.  She is walking to SIM on the edge of Lake Langano.

 

It isn't just one woman: we have found many of these older women on the veranda of our clinic.  Their stories are often similar- she is a great aunt, or a grandmother, or a great grandmother.  The mother of the baby is said to have died in childbirth, and these women are hoping we can help feed the baby in the critical early months of life.

 

So we discuss whether these babies should be admitted to our House of Hope- "Mana Abdii" in the local Oromo language.  This house is a place babies can live for the first nine months of their life, be well cared for, and receive the nutrition they need.  Once they are eating table food they are returned to their families and communities. 

 

To gather information regarding the children's families and communities, we recently decided to make a visit to the home of each baby that came to us.  Which is how, on that Thursday morning, I found myself riding a horse through the barley fields…..

 

Have you seen barely growing?  The green is so bright and beautiful.  "Here up in the mountains, teff does not grow, and we can't grow corn.  So it is barley here."  Our guide explains their farming practices, so different here a few hours' drive into the mountains than our lakeside scenery.  I'm wearing a jacket as it is cool, and enjoying the look of the clouds hanging low over the rolling fields.  Surely Ethiopia is beautiful.

 

People come from this distance to our clinic and for our House of Hope?  I am amazed, as even with a car we are still left with a couple hours of horseback travel through country impassible in our Land Cruiser.

 

And I sit in the saddle and marvel- surely I am at the ends of the earth, am I not traveling further than I have ever been into these mountains, away from all I know?  New roads, new territory, to see the family of this baby seeking help and assess the environment……

 

…but wait, why am I traveling new roads, riding into these far reaching hills?  Not just for some milk powder, or someone's nutrition.  Have my feet not been shod with the gospel of Peace?  Did I not leave my country to share the message of salvation through Jesus Christ?

 

My mind wanders as we move through the hills, arriving at last at the village's central meeting place.  The village elders have gathered to hear what we have to say.  Adanech explains to them after we sit down, "We have a house that can help this baby whose mother has died.  We have come to meet you and learn about your community."  She continued to explain that because of the expense and energy of raising one child to nine months of age, we seek to gather information carefully before admitting the baby to our House of Hope.  The elders listened, nodded, and spoke very cooperatively and warmly to us.

 

"Also," I added, as we finished our business, "we are not here only to help a child.  We are able to help these children because people in our countries want to show you God's love.  Just like this little baby who is helpless to help himself, we are helpless before God.  He gives us the gift of His grace and favor when we did not deserve it."

 

Our House of Hope is made to show God's love to anyone it contacts.  Those listening understood and agreed with our cause, stating they were only grateful we had come and that we were willing to help this family from their community now in need after the death of this baby's mother.

 

So this little baby was admitted to Mana Abdii.  We are grateful to have a relationship with the community in which he will grow up when he leaves us, and grateful that they heard and understand why we exist.  We have been able to lift a great burden from this family at a critical time.

 

 

 

The Eid

 

Another Week...

Things out here are good.  In some ways it is SO nice-weird to finally be settling into the "life/ministry" long-term wise that I've always been preparing for-  I really hope God uses me out here!  I'm grooving on the nurses- a few Ethiopians who are young, single, live here on the compound, and cool Christians.  I think I will have lots of "discipleship/encouragement" type chances with Adanech.  This afternoon at 3 I'm going down to "drink coffee and work on reports" at her house.  Even when there's not that many firenges I don't feel lonely when they're around.

 

Tomorrow is the end of Ramadan (Muslim fasting month).  This morning Joan just told me that she and I were invited to the Alem Bada mosque to "party."  (Be part of the ceremony or whatever).  I'm SO into that, partying with Muslims I think is my favorite thing on the planet.  Doesn't that sound groovy to just join the festivities??  :)  So we'll see.

Weekend Highs and Lows

So there I was sitting on my veranda on Sunday afternoon, in my bathing suit and a sarong, having jumped in the lake for a swim and now feeling the afternoon breeze, sitting with my friends from Addis eating lunch.  We bought a catfish- at least 8 pounds- for less than one US dollar, and now we were eating it fried, with pasta and salad.  Whoa, this IS the life!  Beachside living in the bush in Ethiopia, wow!

 

Brian brought 25 people down over the weekend, some of them new to Ethiopia, some who had never been down to the shores of Lake Langano where I'm working.  Over the weekend they got to see a teeny glimpse of the clinic when we had a delivery on Friday (4 lb. 4 oz teeny little boy!), and got to get a feel for the compound and the lake.  They all seemed to think I was living the greatest life ever, in this quiet relaxing place away from Addis smog and traffic, and I think I believed it by the time we had eaten our catfish and they had left.  I love it out here!!

 

Well, then I walked over to Allyson's because she said she'd cut my hair.  That's when it all changed, because when I sat down and she started looking at my hair she had to inform me that I had LICE all over my hair and she even pulled a few out to show me that they were alive and crawling on her fingers!!!  NOOOO!!!!!

 

Well, now here I am in the bush, no washer, no warm shower, and I have to wash EVERYTHING, and no hot water, so how do I wash it all hot??  And my whole body is itching now and I feel creepy crawly feelings EVERYWHERE and................. I'm dying for the city and forget the catfish...  :)

 

In the end, Workenesh showed up Monday morning so I gave her a huge mound of laundry to wash, and thank goodness Allyson had lice killing shampoo to lend me, and I washed and combed them out.  So, all that to say, with clean hair, I think I still do love it out here....

Visits

I'm sitting in the guest room!! Ha! We had a lovely time at this house.

Home Visit

VIP Latrine Construction

And this is my project?? I thought I was a labor nurse!! But I do
love being out in the community.

Home Visiting

I transported the lady on the left to the hospital during labor where she delivered a healthy baby. When I visited her I held her(diaperless) baby who promptly "messed" my shirt. These ladies asked me for my shirt, which I took off and gave them (!!) to wash, so here in the picture I'm wrapped in one of their shawls- (the baby's next diaper....) I had a great time, though, and then returned my clean-but-wet shirt before I went home!

Me as an Oromo?????

I'm not sure....

Can you see Ethiopia behind us?

Can you tell she is beautiful? (the country....)

Horses in the fields

Have you seen barley grow? It is so amazing and bright green.

Going home visiting on horses!

The ups and downs of the week...

I can't quite figure my schedule out.  How much do I get into the community?  How much do I help in the clinic?  How can I prance in and out of the clinic and leave the nurses with all those patients sitting on the veranda and getting impatient??  Oh, I see Usman as I walk down our little dirt road, how is his baby anyways, that had such bad malaria with seizures?  I need to go see him.  When do I do that?

 

I hope I can help arrange for Negesso to get his drivers' license.  He does a great job in the clinic as a translator and general "assistant," and we need someone else that can help with the driving.  So I came down to the clinic yesterday to get information from him about the driving school he wants to go to and was just writing down numbers when they called me saying there was a labor patient.  Somehow they figure us L&D girls want to be in on the deliverys, and I suppose they are right!  It was a beautiful delivery, before lunch even, a bright eyed looking baby boy.  Nothing like feeling the shoulders slide right on out, past all your fears, and seeing a little boy with his face squinted up and arms stretched out with good muscle tone!!

 

The day continued... my afternoon taken by the clinic, but that is ok, I do so much like being with the staff and want to build into them.  Ganamo is the boy I hired to help build our latrines- my first community health project!  He comes by and says the community is refusing to help him pour the cement and he wants SIM to hire another person or two.  Wait, I think I am supposed to give the community more ownership than this, right??  Why don't we go visit the kebele leader (village mayor) and ask him to help us?  Plus, I want to start dialoguing more with him, anyways.  Hey, that's the kind of thing I really came for!

 

We admitted a little three year old to the inpatient room with severe malaria- again, seizing, that is the cerebral kind- and just as we were finishing our patients, she died.  Wow, malaria, we said to each other.  We hate it.  It takes too many these days. 

 

And its the end of the day now, and I turn from the chaos of the clinic to see the lake- just right there behind me, with a few achacia trees in between, and the sun setting through the clouds behind.  Its Africa, and another sunset.  And I'm thirty now, when am I going to stop and think about that?  I'm glad I don't need to, I have arrived.  This is exactly where I am supposed to be.

 

 

Clinic Stories

The other night a girl came in that had poisoned herself -- a newlywed married for 2 months! Tons of people came with her, and I was asking around, and apparently that's what the girls do when they have "domestic issues." We tried to give her an alkaline IV solution because she seemed acidotic, gave her glucose, aspirated her stomach, etc.

The next morning she was conscious and better. I had everyone leave the room and then asked her, "Did you drink the bad stuff?" She said yes. When I asked her why, she said, "My husband and I were mad at each other." I was fascinated. I asked her if he hit her and she said yes. I was just TRIPPING out that in the states that is mandated reporting, but oh, no, that is the answer I expected, and the answer everyone around me knew. Whoa. But there were lots of people around, and this one man I could tell was sharp, understanding my questions, and answering them, following my train of thought. I said so to Allyson. I found out a few minutes later he is the kebele chairman -- basically the mayor for this area, a man I have been wanting to meet and that I will be working closely with. I was excited to see he was sharp, and now after this experience, I can ask him questions about it, and it will be a great lead in to psycho/spiritu-o/wholistic health care.

Weekend Call

So I guess its us- Allyson and I- on call this weekend.  The nurse that was supposed to do it had a family emergency.  I hope I hear them if they knock on my door at night....this new house has such nice doors and windows, they seem pretty sound-proof! 

 

Well Friday night I was in bed reading- 11 pm, and they knocked.  This better be a real emergency, I thought.  People that live close to the clinic just show up for any old thing, they're abusing us, and we're going to get burned out, and then we'll leave and close the clinic, then what will they do??  Thus the uglyness of my own thoughts as I pad out to the veranda to greet the guards. 

 

"There is an emergency.  A baby.  Diarrhea."  He's being nice, he knows I don't want to be bothered.  "Should I tell them to come back tomorrow?"  Aaahhh, long sigh, I wish I could get out of this, hmm, ok, I'm coming.  The moon is full and its a bright night, I notice the acachia tree outside my veranda window against the sky.  Allyson and I agreed that we would go together if they called us at night, but I'm sure she's sleeping, and I know how to treat diarrhea, I can't bring myself to call her.  And the night is bright and friendly, I don't mind being out alone.

 

The woman is sitting on the clinic veranda holding a girl.  I'm still muttering to myself that if its not a true emergency, I will send her home without treating her and she can come back in the morning-  if we turn them away once or twice, word will spread that they can't take advantage of us like that...

 

My thoughts are interrupted by my own voice greeting her, and she is friendly and greets back.  How old is her baby?  When did the diarrhea start?  Let's see it- ok, yes, watery, right on her mom's dress.  I feel the girl, and she is hot, and her pulse feels fast.  She hands me the little girl's clinic card and I unlock the door and let them in- she is sick enough to be seen.  I am not being taken advantage of, I am being called to help a girl who is quite sick.  It is more of an inconvenience for them to walk her from home to the clinic than for me to drive half a kilometer to the clinic to see her......

 

The girls mother carrys her in, accompanied by another woman.  They answer my questions articulately, and I have the subconscious gratification of language working- they understand me, I understand them, we are communicating- connecting.  I check her pulse, temp, lungs, she is sick, but we have the meds she needs.  I give her a phenergan injection and instruct them to give her her first dose of Bactrim when they get home with her.  They nod and understand, they are following me.  They pay and take the medicine and I'm closing the clinic.  The guard, Teneshu (pronouned Tennis Shoe), is kind and says to me, "You are tired.  You went to the funeral today and now you have to work at night."  He had seen me in the community earlier that day.  I appreciate his words.  I lock the door and notice again the moonlight, and there is an amazing view of the lake from the clinic.  My moody thoughts are gone, and I am reminded again that I love these people.

Langano Life

Hmmmm............. Let's see............. I had a very nice weekend- relaxing without much being asked of me, and that's what I needed. We had a delivery Friday night that ended up delivering Saturday morning around 6:30. Otherwise I just puttered around - hoping to be able to move into my new house, but still the plumber is trying to fix leaks, no kitchen, someone's working on some closet shelves for me, etc. Jake said he wants to put some guests in my (current/temporary) house so he wants me to go ahead and move, but Shane said, "No, don't worry about it. Don't move, those people were warned they would have to tent camp." So I need to talk to Jake and decide what the right thing is.

Today the cook came to me early (before 8) moaning about her pay. I had helped Shane translate when she signed her contract last Friday and I asked her then if she had any questions, and I said, "If you have a question, you have to bring it up before you sign!" She didn't have any questions at the time, but that evening she brought up her unhappiness to me, and this morning again. It caught me off guard and made me sad. Shane has been happy with her and thinks she is happy, and he increased her salary from what was originally agreed, so he thought she would be happy with it. I don't want to have to break it to him that she is grumbling to me! (I already did). It is hard being pulled into things to translate when I don't want to be involved, and I let my opinion get involved, and this week I am going to be more careful to stay out of most things and only help as I am asked, you know, I don't mind helping translate, but not jumping into it and trying to solve it myself. What a funny thought I keep having, "Is knowledge of the language a blessing or a curse??" Of course I know the answer to that! I am really so glad I can be equipped to help.

Shane was talking about the concept of "redundancy" in the camp. When the generator breaks, (once a week at least it seems), the dining hall goes dark and there's no backup. When the head cook gets malaria, she basically still has to work because she doesn't have an assistant. Most essential staff members don't have backup!

There has been rabies scare around. A woman died with the disease last week, and a rabid dog was running around the camp. Shane told the guards, "We can't take the chance of a camper (or short termer from the US!) getting rabies, so we need to kill all the dogs running around on the compound." (We've had problems with lots of stray dogs). The guards agreed, but later one of the nurses said, "We have to go through the Zonal head office and the woreda by submitting letters because the community could get mad at us and it could cause conflict if we just kill them." Whoa! We feel like we don't have time for that, plus Shane already said the word!

Ah, the sunset over the lake was beautiful yesterday. I went to pick up two of the nurses from the road - me who hates driving - and had a lovely time chatting with them and catching up with them after not seeing them over the weekend. Now that it has rained, the landscape on the way in here is unspeakably beautiful. I do like it. I am settling.

(The picture is of me with a young girl wearing an eye patch. A wonderful team from my home church, Venture Christian in Los Gatos, California, came to Ethiopia in early July, and I worked with them for a week in Heerara, a village near Langano. This girl had a "lazy eye", and so did I when I was younger, so we were able to connect as I explained to her and her family how to use the patch.)

The Delivery

Sunday afternoon found us in the inpatient room with a woman in labor. I'm new so I'm just asking around and practicing my Oromo. "Are there midwives in this area?" I asked. My hope is to be able to provide some training to local midwives in the future. "No! None," says one old woman. "Our midwife is this clinic!" Hmm. So I asked around - who are these women with her? One is her mother, and one is her "co-wife" - sharing a husband. Interesting that I suppose English has never needed a word for that relationship, but Oromo has one.

So the woman is uncomfortable, but the baby's heartbeat and her progress are all reassuring. Her mother squats next to her and says over and over again, "Ya Rabbi, Naa hikki, Ya Rabbi, Naa hikki..." Hmm... I am thinking about the Oromo I know - Why is she saying, "Oh, God, untie me?" Untie...loosen... ahh, deliver. She is asking God for deliverance - help for her daughter's sake, as best as I can understand. We chatted and had a nice time.

And about 7 that night - a little girl! Over three kilos, healthy looking, no complications. I went to visit her yesterday and was greeted warmly by her family. They served me "gunfo" - some sort of porridge served at post partum times/visit, and a fish. We had a nice time chatting. It is the beginning of the visiting and relationships!

Catherine Hamlin's 50th year in Ethiopia

Yesterday there was a program out at Desta Mender- that is the village that was added on to the fistula hospital to provide a place for long term patients to live.  It is a beautiful place, I love it everytime I'm there, feels almost like a campground with a little pond/lake and tall trees.

There was a big program for the 50th anniversary of Catherine and Reg Hamlin's arrival in Ethiopia.  The hospital itself has been open for 30 something years.  It was neat being a part of it, maybe the speeches were a bit long, but the neat thing is that their intention when the first came was to build a midwifery school, and instead they were taken up with this big problem of obstetric fistula, and now after all this time we also celebrated yesterday the official opening of the college!  It was fun to be a little part of that as I'm teaching the sociology class there at that college.  The students were so cute in their matching uniforms.  I will be sad to say goodbye to them.

All that to say, it was a nice day but made for a long one.  I am glad I was there.

My weekend adventure....

"They've moved, that's the news."  My friend is leaning out of the Land Cruiser, greeting a friend of a friend as we drive through a market area.  I am sure we are almost to the end of the world…

We are heading out to visit a clan that has great spiritual interest- part of an unreached nomadic group in the eastern basin of the country.  When this clan told my friends that one of their biggest problems was women dying in childbirth, my friends wanted to bring someone along who could teach a bit on the subject, so I joined them for a weekend trip.  But now the news is the clan is not where expected- we'll have to drive a lot further, and maybe cross some water…….

I'm not the driver, so it all sounds fun and adventurous to me.  I don't generally turn down chances to see a new part of the country.  I could tell we were quite a bit lower than the Ethiopian highlands from the mosquitos and stuffy, hot air at the hotel the night before.  But now in the car it was not uncomfortable, and I was enjoying the stark desert scenery.

We cross a river over a big bridge, and then came to a big muddy looking area- not really a river, maybe a place where a riverbed hadn't dried?  Camel watering hole?  They did, I will say, get out, get wet, walk around in it, and try to figure if we could cross.  We thought we could.

But………we were wrong.  The car got stuck right at the far end of the watering hole- really stuck, sideways/tilted and wedged in this mucky looking water. 

The story is long, but I will make it short.  We waited 8 long hours in that hole- us gals staying at the car and the men walking to look/ask for help.  In the end, at the end of the day, a tractor came and, for 87 birr an hour, pulled us out of the "miry clay."  We had an amazing sense of unity with all the community standing around when the car was finally pulled out. 

We never made it to see our friends and teach!  Why did God orchestrate our weekend that way??  I don't doubt that God has His reasons and I am eager to visit again.

 

And my Tuesday........

My Weekend..........

Why is it that I love those blue and white taxis??

Addis Abeba's public transportation system consists largely of minivan-style taxis.  There are also larger, tightly packed "Higer Buses" (ask Becky), motorcycle taxis that carry 6 people counting the driver, and bigger buses, but the blue and white minivans are the most common.........  and I love them.  I have been wondering this week why I love them instead of driving myself around in a nice big firenge (foreigner) land cruiser.

1.  Nobody in the taxis begs money from me, or asks me for a pen, or says "You, Firenge!"  They only say, "You're learning Amharic!  You're gobez"

2.  You can watch Addis pass you by from the window- sheltered inside the vehicle, but watching the street go by is like watching a movie.

3.  I understand most of the brief comments the little caller/helper says:  "Move closer together" (when an extra person is getting on) or "Do you have 15 cents change?" or "Let her get on" (the passive tense in Amharic...)

4.  You can get anywhere in Addis for less than 50 US cents- most standard routes are between 7 and 20 US cents.

5.  I can put my ipod in if I want, and enjoy the ride.

6.  Anything funny in the van is funny to everyone.  You don't just share a joke with the person next to you.  When I was on the taxi yesterday I said hi to the little boy on his mother's lap next to me, and he burst out crying, afraid of me!!  The whole taxi burst out laughing and I asked, "Has he ever seen a firenge before?"  His mother said no.  We all had a good laugh until they got off.

7.  The seats- back seats especially- are always a good opportunity for humor, if not danger.  Seats come loose. The other day when the driver hit the breaks, I slid forward, and so did my seat cushion!  I couldn't help snickering to myself and the other man in the back seat shared a smirk with me.

8.  I do not think about anyone cutting me off, taxis pulling in front of me, pedestrians running in front of my car, or potholes that might ruin my car.  Its not my car, not my stress, not my responsibility.

9.  The drivers drive fast when they can!

10.  My pedestal is gone- I am making sure I get my 20 cents change back, I am paying like the rest of the city, moving like the rest of the city, less foreign, less different, less wealthy.  I am one of them.

So the main issue with the taxis is time- it can take double the time to get around.  I am glad that at this point in my life and ministry, I have the time to spare.  When I am going out alone I do not take a car (I do have one at my disposal for now) but I am enjoying the taxis.  Surely ministry will take more of me later, but for now, I am watching Addis from out my window and I do love it.

Life in Ethiopia....

So a variety of things keep me entertained and busy.........  I had such a nice Valentine's Day with Brian- I made him his favorite dessert and dropped it off at his house, then he took me to a Hararian Arabic restaurant- the food was great- a big pile of meat and rice with all kinds of wots and flavors.  They had a sheesha lounge too, which was fun.

Yesterday I went to an Amharic speaking church with Mekedis- it was good!  I thought the pastor (from what I understood) emphasized each person reading their Bible, very good.

So last night when Lid got home she thought Cubby (the dog we are dogsitting together) looked worse.  She has been sick, not eating, but still moving around the yard and somewhat social.  But last night she was barely lifting her head.

When I got home, Barry was in the backyard getting ready to put an IV in her, Dan and Lid and Allyson and I stood around and helped and it was kindof neat comradary, not in the best circumstance, but still good communion as we worked towards the task together.

She slept inside by the dining room table and when I got up this morning Lid (who slept on the couch) said Cubby had been throwing up since 5:30 and Lid was up cleaning things up!!  I sure hope she turns the corner soon......

And language school goes on- we have a late start this morning which is good.  I am trying to move through the material quickly but still really learning it.  I am into the object suffix chapter..........  Saying things like, "Look for it for me!"

And that's life..

Only if you live in Ethiopia....

So there I was walking across the street. Well actually its the ring road- sort of like a freeway- and I was walking across near a
roundabout that has a crosswalk painted on the ground, but I wasn't using it. Yea, we call that "jaywalking" at home.... So these 2 policemen are standing in the median and they beckon me over. (I wasn't too nervous about getting a jaywalking ticket seeing as I didn't have any ID on me and I knew they couldn't track me down. How can jaywalking be illegal in Ethiopia??? People are flooding everywhere!!) Here's our conversation:

Them: Yes Hello, how are you? (In English)
Me: Hello! How are you? (In Amharic)
Them: Oh! You speak Amharic! (now all in Amharic)
Me: Yes, I learned it.
Them: Why didn't you cross at the crosswalk? It is painted.
Me: I didn't want to trouble the cars.
Them: How long have you lived here?
Me: I have lived here 2 years.
Them: Oh, we need to write you a ticket since you didn't cross at the crosswalk.
Me: I drive. And when I drive, people always run in front of the car and I have to slam on my brakes. (Slamming of brakes was communicated with drama)
Them: Where is your country?
Me: US.
Them: Obama! (No kidding, very typical one word response.)
Me: Yes, I don't know, but he is a nice man.
Them: We want to buy you coffee or tea, let's go!
Me: (!!) No, I need to go home now.
Them: Oh, since you're a guest in our country we want to treat you to something, at least a soft drink.
Me: No, I have guests tonight for dinner, I need to go. (Partially true- I was a guest for dinner but said I'd help with the guacamole..........)
Them: Do you have a cell phone?
Me: No (No partially true, all false....)
Them: We love you!!
Me: OK. (How do you respond?)
Them: The thing we want to learn in English so we want to practice with you. We need to speak English for when we pull over firenges.
Me: [As if I am going to further that cause...] I come by this road a lot so we will see each other.
Them: Don't you have a phone at your house? Where do you live?
Me: Up that road (vague arm motion). I live in someone else's house so it is not my phone. Why don't you give me your number, I will call you?
Them: (They write their number down). Are you afraid of us? We are _____ (something along the lines of being educated or upright kinds of people)
Me: OK, I have to go home now.
Them (one of them): Find me a friend [female friend].....

Might sound creepy, I was neither scared nor creeped out nor about to have coffee with them! People in this culture warm up so fast if you attempt Amharic!!

The Trip to Langano

So there I was.... sitting on the bus next to Becky yesterday thinking to myself, what kind of girl puts her little sister through this kind of experience in Ethiopia?  Becky was feeling a little off/sick on Friday and was feeling dizzy when she stood up so she spent most of the day in bed.  So then on Saturday we are standing on the main road to Addis at the Langano turn off, in the middle of nowhere, crowd of Ethiopians around us, trying to catch a bus, running and waving in front of any large vehicle flying down the road (then running back off to road so as not to get hit!!) and it took longer than I thought!  We were standing there for at least 30 minutes, Becky just sort of standing by her luggage with everyone crowding around.  I kept asking her if she was ok, and she was perky and kept saying she was fine, but still!!  What kind of sister does that??  So then we finally catch a bus to Mojo (about half way to Addis) and are rushed on trying to keep track of our bags (!!).  That's when we finally sat down (very back seat with 6 people packed onto the bench) and I wondered what I was doing.  

Just then she says to me, "This is a pretty cool experience."  She was certainly getting the adventure of it all!  She was perky and agreeable the whole time.  It was easier to catch an Addis bus in Mojo than I thought.  On the second bus I ended up moving was up to the middle/front of the bus while she was in the back (see photo below) and I was telling everyone around me, "Ethiopia is amazing to my sister.  She was amazed when she saw goats walking down the road in Addis."  Of course Becky can't really hear me or understand me anyways, so imagine her surprise when a man sitting next to her (who must have heard the story??) says to her in English, "Do you know what a goat is?"  She realized I had been telling stories and entertaining Ethiopians at her expense!!  (!)

It sure felt good to get to Addis- we were a little pressed for time as we were having dinner with some friends in town, so we needed to rush home, get showered, then head out for dinner.  So we are SO, SO, SO incredibly dirty from basically only bathing in the brown Langano lake water, limited shower possibilities during our week in Langano, plus the bus always just makes you feel dusty and grimy so as we rush home for showers there is no water at my place in Addis!!  I rushed outside to turn the city water off and the tank on, but still no water pressure!  We tried to be cheerful but it was depressing to have to just change clothes and brush your tangled hair and head out for dinner!!  What are the chances??  When we got home from dinner (which was great to have a nice American meal with good conversation!) we had great water pressure and hot water, but no electricity!  We both took candlelight showers.  What a wild time.

See anyone you know???

This was yesterday on the bus.