Celebrating two Holy Weeks

We are cruising through April and time for another update. I can't believe it has been more than two weeks since the last one, especially because there was so much happening in March that a weekly entry could barely keep up. With less travel, the overall pace of this month has been considerably slower, despite the fact that the past two weeks have been filled with reporting coming from partners which we must review, respond to, and eventually put into our database. In addition, our annual report to the Govt. of Ethiopia was due at the beginning of the month. With regard to the latter, I spent about two weeks completing the many pages of tables they want regarding our partners and projects. When our logistics officer delivered it where the Charities office informed us that they now had a new format. So I have had to start over from scratch as it is not really similar to the previous one. 

I should come up for air here, but suffice it to say, office life has been incredibly full, even without the addition of field visits. In addition to all of the reports we must process, we are also trying to sell one of our vehicles. (A 1983 corolla) I am amazed at how long people keep cars running around here! The truth is, the import tax on a new vehicle is 3 times the price. So a $ 25,000 vehicle would cost $100,000 here. MCC needs a new pick-up for our field visits but I don't see that in the cards any time soon.

The process for selling a vehicle here is incredibly elaborate requiring many letters to and from the govt. (who set the price) then an open bidding process over several weeks with a sealed chest for offers to be submitted and then opened on a specified day. Potential buyers may look at, but may NOT start or test drive the vehicle. Effectively they must purchase 'as is' without any information on its history. That is how valuable vehicles are here. You buy and then do whatever repairs are necessary.

Along with our office work, we continue to slog along in Amharic language class. We are at a stage where noticeable progress is difficult to see. Grammar is very difficult and some of the initial vocab. begins to fade. But I do feel I can communicate on a basic level to our non-English speaking staff, which is evidence of progress. 

The last two weeks have been Holy Week. This is because the Ethiopian calendar is behind ours with regard to Easter (I might add that they are currently in the year 2014.) Our Holy Week involved a lot of preparation for services Rebecca and I agreed to be responsible for. The big one was Good Friday. 

Planning the service took more time than usual because I had a special event in mind. A number of years ago, I wrote a dramatic reading through 7 meditations based on the last words of Jesus. I have been wanting to use it again. the opportunity to lead the service came when a sheet was circulated to lead upcoming services. 

The service I envisioned was a Tenebrae (service of darkness) with candles being extinguished as the words of Jesus are read. I also had a list of Taizé songs I wanted to have sung between the meditations. Rebecca agreed to lead music and she was able to recruit 2 other musicians (a flutist and trombone player), who supported the cantor parts. 

The service was very moving with Oren, reading the part of John, Pete (our neighbor who is a trained actor) reading the part of James, and Mary was read by our friend Frida. Jesus' words were read by our Zambian friend Moses. We actually did some rehearsals to get it solid. I also built a life-size cross for the front of the sanctuary and put the pews in a box around it. 

The service was very meaningful and attended by over 40 people. Particularly memorable moments occurred when the congregation was invited to put a votive candle at the foot of the cross while singing "Jesus remember me when you come into your kingdom" following Jesus'invitation to the thief on the cross next to him to be with him in paradise. Also, at the end, the lights were all out and Moses walked up to the single candle and blew it out as he said "It is finished", then we sat in a discipline of silence in darkness for several minutes, before the musicians started singing: "Within our darkest night you kindle the fire that never dies away." The evening felt like a sacrifice of creative adoration in preparing it and seeing it come together. 

Easter Saturday was interesting in that a bull arrived at our house. Actually, it was quite dramatic. Our staff usually share a bull (an Ethiopian tradition) for Christmas and Easter. About 10 of us buy a share then the bull is purchased and slaughtered and divided up by a traveling butcher of sorts. 

This bull, however, was quite savage and several of our staff came in with it in a truck looking shaken and one was injured. Apparently right after purchase, the bull escaped in the market, charged and nearly gored one of our guards, then rammed a taxi motorcycle driver, before running away into a nearby field. With the help of some local youth nearby they were able to get it into the truck and to our house where they put it tied in the pen at the bottom of the yard where the chicken coop is. 

I was a bit worried because, by popular request, our house was chosen to host an Easter sunrise service at 6am (because we have a lawn). I was hoping the bull would not freak out and escape and start charging around. It seemed to calm down a bit in the afternoon. 

In the afternoon, our next-door neighbor's kids came by in the afternoon to dye some eggs. Eggs are really not a part of Easter anywhere but the US it seems, but the Brits were happy to participate. 

We got up at 5am, and with the help of early arrivals, set up our lawn for a sunrise service, followed by a breakfast potluck. It was well attended! We had over 70 people, I believe--the weather was perfect, and the bull was quite calm! I was actually surprised to see so many kids at that hour. Breakfast was an impressive international affair with many dishes from all over the world, including Scandanavian devilled eggs with smoked salmon and caviar on them. (Lots of chocolate as well!)

I don't remember much about the rest of the day, except taking a long mid-morning nap. 

The following week was the beginning of Orthodox Holy Week so it felt like we were starting over, albeit we were not involved in any of the events. 

Other highlights of the last two weeks included some activities for the kids: Oren went to a formal dinner dance for the high school. He looked pretty good dressed up and was very happy to be going. It is good to see him fitting in well considering he was one of the new kids at Bingham this year. 

Oren has been very involved in doing mock exams in preparation for his first set of A levels this year. Levels are the British (Cambridge) curriculum and as I look at the syllabus, quite a bit more challenging than what I did in high school. He has really excelled in math, history, and chem this year. 

In the office, the biggest highlight was the successful renewal of both my work permit and our family residence permits. Many have had trouble doing this, but Wonde our logistics officer is really gifted at cutting through the challenges. 

The workweek felt very full of pressing deadlines and meetings. We have been having a lot of calls to headquarters about new projects, and recently launched a large new food security project funded by the Norwegian Govt. It is really helpful to be getting larger grants to enable our partners to do more, but they require a lot more administration on our end as well. 

When Good Friday #2 came around, we did not have any responsibilities for church and the kids had a school holiday, so we went out to Bishoftu where there are cabins for rent near a lake owned by a mission org. called SIM. We were there for our church retreat and it is only an hour from Addis. It was nice to relax there and stand up paddleboard. Some other families were there as well so David had some friends to play with. Oren actually studied a lot of maths.

Rebecca and I decided to take a long swim across the lake so we took turns, one on the paddleboard and the other swimming< swam across, she swam back. The lake is over a kilometer long but very manageable for us as swimmers. It was really nice to take a long open water swim like that. 

One cool thing we found out is if you drive outside the compound where the cabins are after 8:30 pm, you can see many, many hyenas along the side of the road looking for carrion. We tried it, and it was true. Since it was night, we needed our flashlights out while we passed them, but they were there in droves, nearly 100 all told ambling along right next to the road. I have never seen so many hyenas together in one place in my life. It was like a night safari. Photos were hard to do, but here is a photo of one.

We returned early Sunday morning (Orthodox Easter or Fasika), The bull had been slaughtered at around 5am, so when we pulled into our house at 8:30 it was pretty much completely butchered and divided. All of our staff were there to get their share. They were looking forward to Kitfo (raw beef) for Easter celebrations. We put our share in the fridge and freezer, and will probably have enough beef to last us until Christmas. 

Dividing the meat

The dogs were thrilled to be able to scavenge a number of large rib bones. (They looked like Dino the Dinosaur on The Flintstones, carrying huge bones around in their mouths --for those who get the reference!)

Fasika Sunday afternoon, we were invited by our colleague Solomon to his house for a traditional Ethiopian meal with his family. We went there for lunch and brought some games for the kids. He has two daughters that are close in age to David and Oren. They speak excellent English which is helpful since Oren and David do not speak Amharic. 

We had a lovely meal with just about every type of dish one could imagine, but featuring doro wet, a traditional spicy chicken stew, with enjera bread. We had a nice visit, they all wore traditional Easter outfits, and the girls enjoyed learning some games like Dutch Blitz which they are likely to use when they go to the US at some point soon for study. Our family returned home and ended the extended Holy Week period by watching the new Spider-Man movie. (Monday is a school holiday.)

Team photo we took this week