Church Retreat, Bahir Dar Visit, All Partner Meeting, Oh My!

 

Pi day, the Ides of March, and St. Patty's, have all passed at this point and we have still not been able to get a blog up for the month. Again, not because there is nothing going on. In fact, this is precisely the season when too much it seems, is going on. Actually, I might begin by mentioning that I am listening to thunder at the moment. In the past ten day or so, we entered into the short rainy season, and for better or worse, it has been pouring here, almost every day and most nights! The mixed blessing is due to the ongoing need, but heavy rain on dry ground produces more floods than absorption. Even in Bolena, a zone in Southern Ethiopia that has had 5 years of drought is now being flooded. The rain is desperately needed, but the amount falling is almost wasted and is causing more devastation than help at the moment. 

In the past 3 weeks, it seems like we have had one event after another, beginning on the weekend after my return from Tigray, when we had our annual church retreat. I have been able to attend this for all three Februaries I have been here. The first one was prior to the arrival of the family. Last year we went together, and we were happy to find that our contribution of a folk and line dance evening was a huge hit. We were told that this year, there very was high demand that we offer this again. From what some said it was one of the highlights! 

The retreat happens next to Lake Babogaya, about an hour out of Addis. the SIM mission owns some property out there with cabins and bungalows on it along a fairly steep hill that runs up from the lake shore. (The contour of the lake and land around it resemble a crater, and that may have been how it was formed,) The lake is very cool with a dock and surrounding campsite on the property. The only hazard is that the water become quite deep within a few meters of shore. People usually bring boats and inflatables and launch them off the dock. The lake is small, about 1.5 kilometers across. It is perfect for our stand-up paddleboard. Rebecca and I also really enjoy taking turns paddling while the other swims. I will swim across the lake one way and she swims back. Our kids enjoyed playing with friends, we brought Beriket as well and he and Oren played chess, but both had exams to study for and spent a good part of the time studying for the next week.

We played a lot of board games as well--one of the popular evening activities. On Sunday we had an early service by the water with Rebecca preaching, then followed that after breakfast with our Annual Meeting. We are aware that there has been a loss of some significant contributors to church leadership because they have had to leave. The Annual Meeting was an opportunity to let newer members know about the opportunities for service. After the meeting, we took one more quick dip in the lake and returned back to Addis. 

The week of our return was already fully booked with Solomon and planning to travel to Bahir Dar, this time with a Canadian back-donor to MCC called Run4Water. They have been sponsoring some of our WASH work here in Ethiopia, especially drilling wells. Two members of R4W, the director, Dean, and a photographer Dawson were coming, along with an MCC Canada person, Jet. Their mission was to get good publicity photos for their next fundraising event. They sponsor a big run each year that raises over $100,000 for charity. 

We all met up at the airport on Monday morning, (they flew in from Canada the night before) and took the 45-minute hop to Bahir Dar, a city on Lake Tana in Amhara region near the project sites. We were met by Shimeta, the director of our WASH partner called AEID who is responsible for drilling wells in this area of Ethiopia (Amhara region West Gojjam). He had arranged a vehicle for us as well as a hotel. We checked in, had breakfast then headed out to the field to begin seeing wells. On most of Monday we drove several hundred kilometers and visited 3 communities that had just received wells this past year. It is very gratifying to meet people there who were delighted to show us the well-functioning pump and tell stories about how drastically the well has changed their lives. Almost all mention a noticeable drop in the incidence of diarrhea among their children. 

It is not difficult to get very good photos of very pleased project participants at a new well site. We met several water committees, interviewed women about the change that the well has brought in their lives, and even met with local govt. officials from the zonal water department at the end of the day. Each place we visited we were asked to sit down and share food as well as t'allah, a local meade wine, and areke, a local moonshine. We also received heaping portions of enjera and shiro (chick pea stew). By the second site we had to do our best to politely taste, but decline the large portions they offered us. 

We returned back to the hotel in the evening and debriefed. The R4W visitors felt it was very important to have a contrasting picture, a community where a well has not yet been dug and is in need of one. Shimeta made some arrangements for the next day to visit a community that is anticipated to get a well in the future but does not yet have one. We set off the next morning and it was a long drive, much of it offroad over bad terrain. When we arrived a large crowd of people gathered carrying jerry cans. They came and sat down and were ready to talk about the need for a well.

I don't think any of us were prepared for how emotional and heart-wrenching such a meeting can be, especially if you are not used to seeing a community in so much need. Several elders, mena and women shared about the hardship of getting water to their village. Women walked several kilometers. They actually were currently drawing well from a large puddle in a seasonal river that was shared by livestock. It was very dirty. After hearing several stories we drove part-way then walked the rest of the way to the water hole and watched women filling jerry cans alongside cows tramping in it. 

It was very difficult for our guests to see this and they really wanted to find a way to help this community immediately. We told them that building a well takes a lot of planning in collaboration with the hydrologist and local govt water department. It was slated for digging in the following year, but for now, they would be in this situation. 

It was, in retrospect, good to see the contrast. Even I usually go out and see communities where wells are dug when we do monitoring visits. 

Our last stop was of the day was at a community where the AEID drill rig was set up and working. They had just hit water and it was beginning to flash after going through 30 meters of solid rock. They were beginning to lose hope that the site would work. Again the community there was out to watch and was happy to offer us some food. We drove back to the hotel after dark, worn out, physically and emotionally. 

The visits of the first 2 days were so successful that we decided on Wednesday, our last day to do some sightseeing and take a boat to some ancient monasteries on Lake Tana. (Our flight left that afternoon.) We set off after breakfast and the boat arrived at one of the islands in the lake after a 30-minute trip. We had a guide who took us to a monastery that dated back to the 15th century and even contained some writings from the 900s in its museum. We walked up to the Orthodox church at the top of a hill and were allowed to walk in and observe a very old and gigantic Tabot (a large box-the holiest of holy place that only a priest can enter.) It is set up like the Old Testament tabernacle. It was covered with paintings mainly scenes from the Bible, but also The Book of Mary which was written in the 15th century. 

I was most intrigued by a picture of a bug-eyed man who appeared to be eating human body parts. I asked and was told by a young monk it was story of Mary and the Cannibal from the Book of Mary. In it, a man sacrifices his child to a demon to gain favor. He prepares the child for the demon to eat but is tricked and ends up eating the child himself. He then becomes a cannibal and eats another 30-40 people in his life. Close to death, he meets a beggar on the street who asks the cannibal, in the name of the Blessed Virgin, if the man will give him a cup of water. The cannibal does so. He later dies and faces final judgment. Before Jesus, his sins and good deeds are weighed on a scale. The sins of cannibalism are very heavy compared to the single cup of water, his only good deed on the other side. But then, because it was done in her name, the Virgin Mary makes the water heavy and it outweighs his sins, and he is allowed to enter into heaven. An odd story, in my opinion, but does have some lesson about undeserved grace in it. 

We left the monastery and got back just on time for Solomon and I to get back, get our bags and get on the flight. (Our guests had a later flight.) We were fully loaded with about a gallon of honey each, gifts from some communities. We were back on Wednesday afternoon. It was good to be home. 

We had a busy weekend at church. We had youth group on Saturday at our house. Rebecca and I were responsible for the program. We used an old but very funny skit on the Lord's prayer and had Beriket and Oren perform it, then had discussions afterward. We had about 40 kids, so it is good we have a big yard! There were games and snacks as well. I also preached on one of the Sundays around the Bahir Dar trip but don't remember which one. 

Last week was another very busy week. We had our Annual All Partner meeting. This is an event where we bring all of our partners together for networking and usually involves some capacity-building training. This year we planned for a big week. We rented rooms at a conference center in Debre Zeit near lake Bishoftu and brought everyone out to it. Rebecca and I made the trip back and forth from Addis daily. We had two units of trainings. On Monday through Wednesday morning we did trainings on self-help groups. This is a micro-loan finance scheme that creates mutual savings groups that allows participants to access credit from each other as their account builds over time. The training, done by our FS Programs Manager Mesfin included a visit on Tuesday to a self help group in a nearby town that had been running for several decades. They had over $100,000 in mutual savings that members could access to for credit for their small businesses. 

Wednesday through Friday we had a special treat. Our former MCC FS Manager Sisay came from Zambia and did a training on Kobotoolbox a survey tool that allows data to be collected on a cell phone. He also did a training on database management in Microsoft Access. The technical teams of our food security partners really appreciated this as they need to collect quite a lot of data for Canadian Foodgrains Bank-funded projects. 

It was a long week, and somewhat of a nightmare for our logistics team who had to deal with nearly continuous changes to the number of participants each night and keep the Management Institute apprised. I think they were quite relieved when it was over, but the partners really appreciated the venue and program. 

This past week, I was in the office most days for the first time in a month, it seems. We actually had a guest the first 3 days, our regional IT Bafana, came to do needed maintenance on our computers. He is based in South Africa but came up for our partner meeting and stayed a few extra days. We did have several meetings at partner offices, but on the whole, I was able to catch up on some emails. Rebecca on the other hand was at meetings in Addis several days this week. We had helped support a gathering of 5000 pastors from an Evangelical Church network. The focus of the meeting was peacebuilding and reconciliation. A friend of ours from Rwanda was one of the keynote speakers, so she was there as the MCC Representative. She felt like the gathering had value especially since there is much ethnic division and partisanship within church denominations themselves. There need to be peacemakers in the church in order to bring about national reconciliation. There were some luminaries in attendance including the mayor of Addis and the Minister of Health. 

We have a much-needed bit of R and R next week. We will go to Zanzibar. We were also really happy that Rebecca's dad passed through Addis on the way to Nepal. He brought us a lot of stuff from the US that we were running out of. It was great to get a few morsels of American food, like cheese, and Cheerios. Also, a few electronics including a GoPro for underwater photography while snorkeling. Hopefully you will see some of those photos in the next entry. 

SHG training