First Week

Welcome to a new blog and a new chapter about to begin in our lives. For those of you who have followed our previous posts in the past, you know we have been writing from the Paul and Rebecca Mosley in Tanzania blog for the past 4 years, and we will continue to do so through June as our transition into our new assignment is being extended by the necessity of allowing the children to finish their final school semester in Arusha. We will alternate sites in futuer posts depending on whether they are written from Tanzania or Ethiopia.

I, travelled to Addis Ababa, one week ago today, to begin the handover process from the previous MCC Reps here, Bruce and Rose. The family will join me for a short visit in February. While first impressions are still strong in my mind I want to put a few down. 

I arrived last Sunday by Ethiopian Airlines. It was nice to have a flight that was under 2 hours in a
Boeing 787. The flight doubtlessly continues onto somewhere. I was fortunate that my COVID test process was relatively straightforward and I had all necessary documentation in hand prior to departure. The flight was not full, but it was not empty and there was not really any accomodation for social distancing. This was also true in the airport where there was a very long non-social distanced line. Fortunately, on the plane, mask-wearing was strictly enforced (unlike in the airport in Arusha). That was also one of the first things I noticed on arrival at Bole Airport in Addis--everyone was wearing masks. 

I arrived a bit after 8pm and found the visa purchase line. I was pleasantly surprised to find I could get a 3 month visa at the airport. That will give me time to complete the work permit process. Bruce and Rose were waiting outside the airport in a designated part of the parking lot. It was very kind of them to pick me up and drive me back to the MCC office/house, about 25 minutes at that hour.

The MCC compound has the Rep house on it as well as the office. There is also a container converted into a bedroom for guests--which is where I am staying. This is especially useful during COVID time for quarantine. I did not have much of a look around the first night as it was dark but did meet the guard dogs, Friday and Bella. They aren't too big, but seem to bark quite well. 

The next morning we started early with breakfast and then walked over to the office. There are four office staff, Jerusalem, a woman who is our finance officer, Wonderson, our logistics coordinator, Solomon, a peace and education project coordinator, and Sisay, a food security and WASH coordinator. On the first morning I spent some time with Wondi making sure I had brought all documentation to begin the residence permit, as well as drivers licence process. The rest of the day I spent with Solomon talking about the peace and education projects we have. There were about 7 as I recall several of them wiht the Mennonite church here (MKC), who is a very capable partner. 

I also did some debriefing with Bruce and Rose and got an introduction to the property. It has a bit the feeling of a small farm. There are several vegetable gardens as well as a number of fruit trees including apple, japanese plum (tree tomato), coffee, and passion fruit. There is also a large chicken coop with about 30 layers. They harvest about two dozen eggs a day. What they do not eat, they sell to buy chicken feed. They also occasionally raise broilers and slaughter them for meat as finding chicken in grocery stores is difficult. 

They also took me on a shopping trip in the neighborhood and I was happy to see many fresh fruits, vegetables and dairy products readily available within walking distance. In fact, heatlthy food is really going to be a highlight here. Thisi is especially true because we have an amazing cook on sight named Yeshi. She comes in 5 days a week, and there is a practice here of eating lunch together as a team. That means that Yeshi prepares a restaurant style meal every day at lunch. In the past week we had Ethiopian food, with about 10 different dishes along with injira bread, Mexican burritos with every filling you could want, a baked pasta dish, and I cannot even remember the rest. The highligh though is having a traditional Ethiopian coffee ceremony at the end of lunch. The aroma of coffee beans roasting is exquisite. Once we have had coffee, we return to work in the afternoon. 

I also met with Sisay to discuss the food security and WASH projects we have. I will provide more details about them as I have opportunities to visit in the future. But the MCC Ethiopia program has been part of a mulitmillion dollar project funded by Global Affairs Canada (GAC), to promote conservation agriculture in the country and is just coming to the conclusion of a 5 year initiative which has been one of the most successful CA projects in the world. We will hopefully be looking at a way to follow with this to continue to scale up in the next 5 years, perhaps funded by the Govt. of Norway (NORAD). (Note: all of this is provided to MCC through the Canadian Food Grains Bank-- CFGB).

The work week was very sadly disrupted by the death of Wondi's father, who had been recently diagnosed with cancer. This brought a halt to activities on Thursday when we went to a wake at his house. (We sat outside to allow for social distancing). On Friday we went to the funeral at the Cathedral of St. Mary. His father was Orthodox, so this was an Orthodox church. 

I was hoping it would not be too crowded at the burial and was planning to stand on the edges of the crowd. It turned out, however that it was hard to find the 'edge' on the grounds of the Catherdral as it was a high holy day in honor of Mary. So the place was packed with Orthodox parishioners. 

Despite the crowd which made parking a nightmare, I was happy to see everyone wearing masks. It was fascinating to see the priests in the distance performing elaborate rituals and chanting and singing long dirges. People bowed and gesticulated at various times, many inside, and a larger group circling around outside. 

The burial was in a nearby crypt behind the Cathedral. The body was put into a sort of mausoleum. I was able to stand outside and see some of what was going on inside. We gave our condolences to Wonderson, then returned to MCC for more debriefing with Bruce and Rose.

Saturday we took a trip to a place called Orumond Park where we did a long hike up into the mountains. It was quite a beautiful trip and took us to about 10,000 feet. (Addis already sits at about 8000 feet so it was not too much of a climb.) Bruce and Rose hike every week, although we were warned that there had recently been an increase in banditry. I was glad we had some dogs along. 

We stopped on the way home for lunch at a very nice restaurant Antica that offered a variety of food and boasts the best pizza in Addis. It ended up being a long day because in the evening we went out again to an art exhibition for a young artist who does Abstract Expressionist paintings of street dogs. (The dog population is legendary in Addis.)

Sunday was another day of socializing beginning with a visit to the International Lutheran church, an ideal fit for our family I think. This was followed by a lunch at the Addis golf club to meet another friend. We ended the day with a visit to a third family where we played a very competitive match of Carcisonne (a board game for those who do not know it.) Many of the people I met have children the ages of ours, which seems very promising. 

That is the news and I have not been able to even capture the smell, the sounds, the feel. Addis is like no where else I have lived. Amharic, the language does not use the Roman alphabet and seems syntactically like Hebrew. I am told it is hard to learn. The city is huge, bad air quality, and crowded int the streets, but I think driving will be manageable. At night there is almost always the sound of a Cantor chanting from a distant church. It has the feeling of a holy city with many Orthodox believers walking around in white. For the moment the weather is clear, dry and cold-- about 45 fairehheit (8 C) in the mornings. I have still been doing daily exercise outside though before office hours. The food, needless to say, is amazing.

That is the news from here. Will be joined by Rebecca and kids on Feb. 10th for about 10 days. 

Bonus Photos: The dogs we will inherit (Bella and Friday)