Update on our Work at the Start of a New School Year

I realize it has been a while since our last update about the end of our home leave a few weeks ago. It is time for another report, although finding time, when you have been away from your office for 8 weeks can be tricky. I am currently lying in bed with a mild fever, so thought I would try to begin to fill in the gap. 

One thing worth mentioning is that it is really cold and wet here. I am getting used to the idea that our Annual home leave takes us from hot Maryland August into a very cold wet Addis. The rainy season here is long and very damp everywhere. Nothing dries. We keep our fireplace lit nightly and usually bring in our wet laundry to hang over dining room chairs at night. Last week we had a gigantic hail storm that left a layer of ice on the ground that looked like a snowstorm. 

This year we came back to a new much less pleasant surprise as well. Because of the heavy rain which led to flooding, the reservoir where our water supply comes from was inundated with sewage, as well as some drowned rats. Our staff had had it cleaned out the day before we arrived 

But this week it happened again. Our 10,000-liter tanks fill once per week with city water; when we looked into the tank yesterday the water was blackish green, and I could actually see tapeworm segments and other parasites with my naked eye floating on the surface. Since I am not feeling well today I am worried that it was too late, even with filtering. Today we broke down and paid to have it emptied and cleaned, again, and filled by a water truck. It was a reminder again, that life here has challenges we are not always prepared for in the US.

back from the 1st day

School started the day after we arrived back, which was a challenge (not great planning on our part). But David and Oren were good sports about starting a new year. I think not feeling like the new kids this year was helpful. 

Rebecca and I have jumped right back into office work and since our accountant Eyerusalem, who was pregnant when we left, had her baby Our newly hired bookkeeper Hana had stepped into the accountant's role for now. Rebecca jumped right into providing her with further training, and we set up some new office protocols around cash box, etc. 

Hana's birthday

We have also been in touch with all partners to let them know we are back and arrange some visits. In the past two weeks, we have hosted several at our office and are making a plan to travel where we can. Because of increased instability at the moment, (for reasons I will not detail here), we are having to weigh the advisability of travel, particularly by road, each week. This is the season of developing new project concepts and proposals, so that also involves quite a bit of administrative work as we advocate for budgets for our program with MCC HQ.

Among the new projects we have going this year, I am particularly impressed by our partner who run a free school for very vulnerable pre-schoolers. They are planning to train and incorporate mothers and guardians into self-help savings groups (SHGs), so they can help send their kids to school with a lunch. In this particular population, many of the mothers are single commercial sex workers who have little opportunity to make an income in other ways. The SHGs are an opportunity to provide food security for their kids as well as earn income in another way. (The partner is called RPC for those who know them.) 

Other projects getting underway for renewal since our return including a project to bring several dozen containers of turkey meat to refugee camps for Sudanese refugees in the South. We also are supporting the drilling of wells at a health center and referral hospital where they do emergency obstetric care without any running water!

Honestly, a lot of our work in these projects is administrative, but there is a sense of purpose and motivation that comes with supporting projects that have such a significant impact on the lives of people here. 

We have been getting updates on our other food security partners. It is kind of exciting that MCC has been at the forefront of promoting low-tillage conservation agriculture in the country and even supports a large training program of govt. extension officers to support it throughout the country. We currently have two partners that are implementing scale-ups of these interventions supported by the Norwegian Govt. (NORAD) as well (hopefully soon) the Canadian Govt. (GAC). It is very satisfying to be able to visit projects where we see how an individual preschooler is given an opportunity for an education, but also see projects where partners are reclaiming 1000-2000 hectares of eroded land and transforming it into fertile farmland again. We have not visited these projects since our return, but get regular updates from our food security programs manager Mesfin, who is frequently with our partners. 

Maresha visit

This past week Mesfin and I went on a field visit to see the production of a technological innovation on a 'maresha' a traditional Ethiopian plow pulled by oxen. This maresha will have a wheel which operates an automatic seeder, allowing a farmer to plant while he rips a furrow at properly spaced intervals for conservation agriculture. The maresha was an innovation developed by our friend Neil Miller in Tanzania who was inventing it while we were living in Arusha together. It has been good to see him drop in from time to time to check on progress of its development. 

Meeting with Dr. Getnet
and APDA staff

We have met recently with a consultant who is helping us advise our Afar partner APDA on developing a fodder production plant as a social enterprise for their organization. Fodder for livestock, particularly goats is vital for the Afari people, especially in the dry season when grasses are scarce. Goat milk is the primary food source among nearly all of these nomadic people; food security for the animals is the only way to ensure the food security of their human caretakers. Trying to produce fodder in a sustainable, semi-commercial way requires consideration of a huge number of inputs, and we have been grateful to be working with an expert on livestock production in the Afar region to advise us. 

math tutoring

Our most recent field visit was this weekend on a Saturday morning to see one of our supplementary education programs for vulnerable youth living on the outskirts of Addis Ababa. Several hundred kids from K-12 participate in after-school programs as well as Saturdays. They come from particularly vulnerable families and would have little chance of academic success without extra help. The Beza Church Development Association BCDA is our partner that provides this service to them. Rebecca and I were able to go together to see students in their classes. Then we were treated to a program of skits and poems, along with some games (like bobbing for candy in a vat of flour.) Some of the younger children told riddles.

a riddle...

While I could catch most of this in Amharic, it was good that Solomon our Programs Manager was there to translate as well. (One 3rd grader told our group a riddle that went like this: "An old woman is on one side of a river and sees a magician on the other side. What must she do or say to the magician to get across?... Answer: She farts, the magician smells it and starts waving his hands to fan away the smell, thus parting the waters, and the old woman walks across."--- It is interesting to see those 3rd graders here have the same sense of humor as 3rd graders in the US!)

There seems to be at least as much going on at our church. We have become very involved in various capacities. A less-than-ideal nexus of people on leave and others stepping down has led to several months where the pastoral team of normally 4, is currently 1 in-country, that being Rebecca. This means a lot of coordinating work as she is responsible to be sure there is a preacher every week, among other responsibilities. She has already preached once since our return, and I preached this week. I am also one of the two main Sunday school teachers and am teaching 5-8th graders. We started last week and we have about 30 kids on the roster for 2 classes. 

Sr high youth

Related to that, Rebecca and I hosted a youth group meeting this weekend to see who was interested. We had about 20 youth and several parents who are willing to help us organize semi-monthly meetings for the group. As we are an all-volunteer church, this takes commitment from a number of people for it to work. 

Shalom, Solomon, Seble, Senper

We have had some exciting news from among our staff. Our program manager Solomon had the opportunity to send his teenage girls to finish high school in the US.  Two weeks ago they went to Kenya for a visa interview, at a considerable cost. We were very sad to hear the girls were denied visas. His wife, a person of great faith, told him that she had a vision of the woman who helped the prophet Elisha who in turn resurrected her son. His wife had a vision that God would 'resurrect' the dream of going to the US even after the denial! She begged Solomon to do one more interview in Ethiopia. Miraculously they got an expedited appointment, and were immediately approved!! So now Shalom and Senper, his daughters are going to the US this week. We had a farewell luncheon for them last week. 

In the same week, while we paid a visit to the home of Eyerusalem (our accountant who just gave birth) and Moses her husband, we were told that Moses just got a job at a refugee resettlement organization in Canada. They felt like this was a huge answer to prayer as Moses is not allowed to work in Ethiopia until they have been married for 2 full years. They have been struggling with him being unemployed. While they will be separated for a time, it is a great opportunity and allows Moses to help support his family. Eyerus has a big family network here so she will continue to have support for her son and herself while he is gone. 

If you have been reading the news, you are aware that there has been ongoing instability because of a breach of the ceasefire agreement between the govt. and TPLF forces. Fighting has renewed along the Tigray, Amhara, and Afar borders. We are praying that the govt. and TPLF will return to the reconciliation process and we will not have a repeat of the extensive invasion of TPLF we experiences last year. We would ask that you keep Ethiopia in your prayers in the coming weeks and months. 

Bonus Photos

Our Team with new MCC shirts we brought back from the US

A new grill we ordered before we left that arrived when we returned!