Another month where the tension between living life and taking time to chronicle it seems completely unmanageable. In our last update, Rebecca described our exceptionally blessed holiday season with a very restful break in Kenya and Tanzania. But it seems that every day taken off is paid back double in workload later, and we have spent the past three weeks in very intense activities, to try to catch up again. One reason for this is that our fiscal year ends in March and there are a number of internal events that need to be completed before the money is no longer available.
Not that any of this is an odious task, in fact, we have had some great times with our staff in at least two of these. One of the first things we had on our schedule upon our return though, was convening a meeting of our advisory committee. MCC requires us to have local advisors in every country context and it is our responsibility to convene an appropriately austere and experienced group to be able to advise us on issues we are encountering as we try to fulfill MCCs strategic goals in our context. (For those of you wondering what MCC's strategic goals are for the next 5 years globally, they are focused on relief for those harmed by displacement--especially from conflict, including peacebuilding as part of all of our relief and development work, and providing relief and resilience for communities harmed by climate change.)
MCC had had an advisory committee meeting together pre-COVID, but with all of the complications of the pandemic, the meetings had lapsed and Rebecca and I were virtually restarting. Fortunately, we have a large number of contacts and MCC Ethiopia's stellar reputation in the country, which made recruitment easier than we thought it would be. We were able to get a senior person (and MCC alumnus) in the Ethiopian Mennonite church (MKC). We also got an ally in the Ministry of Agriculture, as well as a program officer in the Canadian Embassy, the Country Director of Tearfund UK, and a former advisor for the Canadian Food Grains Bank, to agree to be on our committee. Honestly, it is a very illustrious group and I was almost intimidated to convene us all together.
They graciously agreed to meet together with us on a Friday afternoon and we shared lunch, followed by a two-hour meeting where we overviewed the program and asked for some recommendations regarding strategic direction.
We were pleasantly surprised that all of them, given the last two years of civil strife in the country, strongly advocated for us to pursue peacebuilding initiatives in our current development and food security projects. It felt like a mandate and something we will be exploring in the coming year. I do agree that sadly, even with the fledgling peace agreement for the Tigray conflict, other regions and ethnic conflicts have seemed to ignite and the country feels, in many ways, more fragile than ever. Most recently there has been a major rift between the Orthodox (Coptic) and Protestant churches, and even within the Orthodox church itself.
We left the meeting challenged and inspired by such generous and esteemed colleagues who took the time to wrestle with these issues in the current context. We were also happy to have our entire team of project staff to listen in and contribute.
Preparing for the meeting required fair amount of logistics to make sure everyone could get to a particular restaurant with a suitable dining/conference room, with powerpoint capability etc. But it was dwarfed by the activity we planned for the very next day-- a Christmas party (Orthodox) for our entire MCC staff and their families. This included all guards, our cook, and all office staff with all of their families. About 40 in all, nearly 2/3 children and youth.
Our bookkeeper Hannah, Rebecca, and logistics officer Wonde, did a lot of the coordination. We planned to rent a bus and go down to a sports resort about 45 minutes from town in Oromia region to play games then have a big meal together. Things seemed to go as planned and we were all able to be there together to ride horses, play pool, foosball, basketball, volleyball, and soccer. Everyone had a very good time and it was good to see our kids playing with kids of our staff who they do not see often as they are all in different schools. Sadly David did re-sprain a recently healed ankle, but it was quickly on the mend.
The party included lunch, then a huge gift distribution. Thankfully former reps left the names and ages of all kids in previous years, and we have added the new babies since, so we were able to shop, this past summer and during our time in Tanzania for everyone, and find an appropriate gift. (Shout out to Decathlon Sports store in Kenya where we got a half dozen soccer balls for $9 each!) I think people genuinely appreciated the gifts and our efforts. We were also blessed with some nice Ethiopian traditional clothes.
We had nearly 5 days off before we were off on our next big social venture (and that included Rebecca preaching on Sunday). Besides the all-staff Christmas party, we normally have a multi-day retreat with the families of our professional staff. This year we made arrangements to go to a Haille resort in the southern town of Hawassa. It is about 6 hours south of us by car and we took 3 vehicles down to accommodate all the families who could come.
This was a smaller gathering, more like 18, with just over half kids. Fortunately Haille had a lot of options for kids including a pool, a lake with boat tours to see hippos, put-put golf, soccer, basketball, volleyball and ping pong. Thanks to Yoffet, the teenage son of Wonde, we had several full group games of soccer that we played on a small field. It was actually a ton of fun, despite the fact that most of us do not take after Messie or Mbape. All the girls, boys as well as men and women played together. We also had devotionals in the morning, as well as some other organized indoor games. Surprisingly, Pass the Pigs was one of the biggest hits of the indoor games.
We returned on a Saturday, and as usual, Rebecca and I were very involved in the service and Sunday School at our church the next day. We really enjoy being a part of Redeemer, but it is hard to keep up with our responsibilities when our work is so demanding.
Our string of programmed weekends was not to cease the following week, but this time it was an event at our kids' school that took our time. Field Day is a historically important day at Bingham Academy pre-covid, and this was the first year they have brought it back in full. It is two full days (9 hours each) of track and field events for the whole school which is attended by all family members. Families come with chairs, and food and plan to spend the whole of two days watching the 3 school Houses compete against each other.
I was skeptical of the time commitment but ended up enjoying myself and even made myself an unofficial photographer and photographed and shared photos from all the events. There were even several family events including a Dad's 400 meter. I took a chance and competed. (I did not win!)
Both our kids participated in multiple events, and David surprised us all by winning the shotput in his age group!. They both racked up a number of team participation points as well. (Not enough to carry their house, Taylor, to victory though.)
We were thoroughly exhausted the following Sunday but did manage to lead music (Rebecca) and do Sunday school.
There were many other interesting daily activities, but these were the main events of the past three weeks so I will end there with life in Ethiopia.
On a personal note, I finished reading (audiobook) a very long biography of Abraham Lincoln written by poet and Illinois homeboy Carl Sandberg. I cannot recommend it because of its length, but I am better for hearing it. Both the man and the time he led the country were truly extraordinary. I am currently reading a less ambitious book about Mennonite history called The White Mosque. It promises to be a fascinating story as it is told through the eyes of a Somali American Mennonite woman.
No comments:
Post a Comment