No time to stop, observe, write...but here's May

Hilton mini-golf

The past three weeks have felt like total immersion in frantic work and personal, end-of-school-year tasks, being buried in the computer, trying to keep ahead of deadlines, and struggling to stay abreast of the news. Coming up for air has not been particularly pleasant since it continues to heavily rain every single day. The heavy, grey, cold weather seems to drain energy. When we last wrote we were weighing our long-standing plans for hosting a learning tour of MCC Leadership staff against the current security realities on the ground in those places.

In the midst of that uncertainty, the kids had a long weekend with a Monday public holiday for May 1 Worker’s Day. It seemed like high time to make use of a newer policy in MCC – in high-stress environments, we are given an opportunity to take a few days of Required Renewal Leave. We found a fantastic deal at the local Hilton hotel here in Addis. Highlights included three rounds of family mini-golf on a very funny, quirky course. The breakfast buffet was also amazing. The hot spring-heated pool was wonderful on a super cold rainy night.  Other great things were not cooking or doing dishes or cleaning up anything.

And now, three weeks later, we are already past the middle of the month by a lot, already in the middle of our next big event, the leadership learning tour we are hosting. We have a personal commitment to post twice a month. It’s late and we’re tired. No time to describe and do justice to these past weeks. But I will just add a few other notable events briefly.

We got very clear messages from a major partner in the Amahara region – this is not a good time to bring a big group of visitors. So, we needed to quickly cobble together plan B for our project visits. Making those decisions and arrangements took almost all our energy for a solid week.

I preached a sermon on Habakkuk 3 that was incredibly demanding (spiritually and emotionally) in our local international congregation. Then I preached it again that night to a congregation in Vancouver over Zoom – this was the congregation that nurtured me in my first 3 three years of seminary. I didn’t recover from that pouring out for days.

David joined the volleyball team this term. It's one thing that has really been fun and engaging for him.at school. I was really surprised and pleased to go watch a match against another school and see that he has some pretty good skills. They've had coaching in specific skill development and I think it will be excellent to watch them all grow over the next few years.  

During the weekend of American Mother’s Day, we felt like we were flying in four different directions, all requiring tremendous energy.

Oren with senior friends

We hosted a meeting for our Advisory Board and got very good feedback and ideas from them about priorities for our program and assistance in how to carry out some of those ideas. Any hosting activity requires preparation, logistics, driving, protocol, etc. We are very thankful for such a thoughtful group of development professionals giving time to make our program better.

That same day, Oren completed his final A-level exam (6 total over the first two weeks of the exam period). Exams ended hard, with a history exam and a brutal Maths exam, all in one morning. It was stressful for him and us, and we are really glad that exams are done! We celebrated with dinner out, but only after leaving our Advisory committee, driving to our final choir rehearsal and then driving back in terribly heavy rain. We were all almost too tired to enjoy celebrating by that point.

Flag parade for international day

Early Saturday morning, we got ourselves up to make our contribution to a big school event. Bingham Academy celebrated International Day, with each willing country preparing a booth to share something of their food and culture. I didn’t want to leave my other American friends in the lurch, so I volunteered to give a little time in the morning, to bring a second firepit for s’mores, and offer people the chance to play cornhole. Other friends put in a lot of work pre-packing ingredients for s’mores in little bags, and I had fun trying to coach little kids as they roasted marshmallows. Paul also made a great contribution by teaching 2 line dances at different times in the morning. 

He started by sharing Cotton Eyed Joe, already well-known by students. It was very fun and a real hit. Later he taught a South African line dance, Yerusalema – about how this world is not our home, but we look for a heavenly home.  Now his secret is out, and Paul can definitely expect to get a lot more invitations to lead community dance!

We left for home sadly before I got to visit around to all the countries and appreciate all the hard work. I only heard rumours of the caterpillars being served at the Botswana table! I was nostalgic to try them again! Maybe next year… but we had to go prepare ourselves for our evening choir concert.

Although we had some scary and concerning moments in our warm-up, thankfully we ended up singing most of the songs really well. We had a very friendly audience who appreciated hearing lots of interesting show tunes. 

Skip to my Lou

Several choir members offered up individual pieces or duets. I was so impressed by the violin/piano compositions prepared by Aman and Sophie. Nathan played a Beethoven sonata really well. But the absolute highlight of the evening was a jazz trio playing a totally genuine rendition of the Cantina Song form Star Wars, with piano, saxophone and percussion. It has been very nurturing to be part of singing together with others in this community, connecting with people we wouldn’t have met otherwise, and simply participating in the stress-relieving activity of singing choral music, all together. There is science behind why choirs are good for your mental health!

S'mores at the USA booth

By the time we got home, we were pretty much shattered, as they say in the UK. And yet, we needed to get up in the morning and head to church, lead worship, etc. And it was Mother’s Day. I told Paul that a good celebration would be to just go for a nice walk at the botanical gardens – we went with two dogs and no kids, and it was nice.

All this past week, we have been trying to arrange all the final details for our big group of visitors, paying down payments, acquiring welcome bags, dealing with last-minute changes, etc. We had a really nice youth group outing on Saturday morning, heading into town to Friendship Park for fellowship, walking around and enjoying ice cream. I’m glad we have an active group of parents to support these kinds of activities. Our friend and colleague Neil was in town from Tanzania. He always travels with his mandolin, so he joined me with our music team on Sunday, and that was a great joy. Lots more details to talk about but I’ll leave it there.

 

 

Surface Pressure

Cantina Song

More mini-golf

Crazy mini-golf -- will it ever come out?