Homeleave 2023 First Installment-- MCC Ethiopia Reunion, and Oren Surgery

It is admittedly hard to get motivated to write a blog entry while we are on home leave, but a number of things have happened and will be happening this summer that we want to document. 

The last entry was written en route to the US and covered the weeks prior to our departure which we were packed with various trips. The long flight back is almost therapeutic as a way to transition between one life there and a return to family and places we know well in the US. 

It is always amazing to me how arriving back makes me see things here new again as if it is the first time. I particularly notice the trees-- the variety and height here, but also the wall-less neighborhoods. This is particularly true now that we live in a very crowded city and have few opportunities to be out in nature. 

Rebecca's mom picked us up from Dulles Airport and took us back to their house which is in a county north Baltimore. It is a suburb on the edge of the country so it has the feel of both-a mixture of houses and farms. One of the highlights is the Little Gunpowder River which runs about 2 miles away. It is a great place for a walk on forest trails, or for fishing. David and I love to fish there and you are almost guaranteed to catch a brook trout and some smallmouth bass every time you fish there. 

Coming back though is not really vacation as we need to be in communication with our team in Addis on a daily basis. Some time during most days needs to be given to work, to keep everything running smoothly. We were also on a mission here as an injury that Oren got last October playing volleyball never healed correctly and he now needed to have surgery on our return. 

We had scheduled an appointment with an orthopedist prior to arrival and met with him within the first 3 days of returning. Oren was scheduled to have surgery about 10 days later. We were pleased it could be done soon so that he has the longest opportunity for recovery (which will take 3-4 months in a boot.) We are hoping he will at least be able to walk on the boot by the time he starts College this fall. 

The surgeon was great at the first appointment and told us the risks and best outcomes. The injury is complicated and would require a bone graft and some stem cell implantation. Fortunately, it is done arthroscopically so the invasion is minimal, but restoring the weight-bearing talus bone to full health is not guaranteed from the procedure and may require another operation. 

In the weeks between the first appointment and the surgery, we had a number of activities including a celebration of Oren's Birthday with his Grandparents. It is great that all 4 of his grandparents as well as Rebecca's brother's family could come and join us to celebrate. We had a small gathering on his actual Birthday, then a bigger event at Rebecca's brother's house a week later. Other activities included attending a cousin's daughters wedding and seeing old friends, a trip to the National Aquarium, a driving range, and numerous shopping trips. 

One of the really interesting highlights in the first two weeks of our return was a gathering at MCC headquarters in Akron, PA (about an hour and a half away from the place we are staying in Maryland). A former Rep. couple, the Woolners (Pete and Kath) organized an Ethiopia MCC/EMM Alumni gathering at the Welcoming Place at MCC Headquarters. There were over 50 people who were planning to attend as well as several leaders from the Ethiopian Meserete Kristos Church (Mennonite church). It was a rare opportunity for Rebecca and I to meet quite a few of our predecessors. It did occur to us that some unresolved issues around the title deed to our house, for instance, might be explained by those who were there at the time of its acquisition. 

We went as a family and arrived in Akron on a Friday afternoon.  It is not a long drive from Rebecca's parents. Upon arrival, we met Solomon and his wife, our Programs Manager from MCC Ethiopia who is also visiting family in the US. It was actually quite interesting seeing him and his wife in this context. 

Our family has been going to MCC Headquarters in Akron since Oren was 3 and we were getting ready to go to Burundi for our first assignment. It is always a nice place to come back to and we have many memories of times we have prepared to go on assignment in Rwanda/Burundi, Tanzania, and Ethiopia. 

By Friday evening, most alumni had arrived and we saw our most recent predecessors, Bruce and Rose, along with their predecessors, Pete and Kath. By Monday morning we found that 8 sets of Reps going back to 1980 were present. I got a picture of 7 generations of them together here. 

The times of sharing were very good. On Saturday we did a presentation and answered questions about the Ethiopia program currently. In the afternoon we had many people share memories of the past. It was amusing to see some of our longtime staff in their youth from early photographs. 

In the evening there were games including an Ethiopia trivia game won handily by longtime Ethiopia alum Carl Hanson. After that, the youth who were there, including Oren played a giant game of Dutch blitz where they had to run giant cards out to the center of the room to play them on a stack. 

We had a nice service on Sunday with a YAMEN Ethiopia alumnus from Indonesia sharing scripture along with memories of his time as a volunteer in Ethiopia. 

We left on Sunday afternoon and returned back to Rebeca's parents in the evening. We brought Solomon and his wife Seble with us as they were continuing on to see relatives in Portland from BWI airport. It was great to have Solomon stay with us Sunday evening as we also invited our friends/tenants from our house in Baltimore, who are Ethiopian, Melkamu and Genet, to have dinner with us. This is the first time they have met and it was great to host them together and practice some Amharic to boot. 

The next day was July 4th and we had the aforementioned full family Birthday party for Oren at Rebecca's brother's house with his cousins. It was well timed as the next day, July 5th, Oren was scheduled for surgery and would not be able to do anything on his feet with them for several months. I think his cousin Miriam gave him some information about what it is like to be in college as well. 

Rebecca and I took Oren to the hospital for surgery on July 5th morning. He was prepped for surgery and was in the operating room for about 2 hours. The doctor said the surgery went as expected, which was a relief. It is an out-patient procedure so we took him over to my parent's retirement community apartment where we decided he could best convalesce for the first week. 

Rebecca and I took turns staying with Oren at my parents' while the other stayed with David at hers. They only live about 20 minutes away from each other so it is not difficult to switch. Rebecca's parents' house has a lot of stairs while my parents' place is completely handicapped accessible. Oren recovered from the surgery pain quite quickly. In the meantime, we enjoyed playing games with the grandparents including Rummikube and some epic games of Scrabble. 

We were happy that had recuperated well enough and was becoming reasonably adept on his knee scooter so that we were able to go to our next destination, a vacation home belonging to an acquaintance on a very far northern estuary of the Chesapeake Bay. We have spent time every summer at this house since the pandemic when we discovered it. 

It is a very cool A-frame that is fully decorated in 'Brady Bunch' 1970's wall-to-wall shag, complete cathedral ceilings, a loft, large sectional couch, and a floating spiral staircase covered in deep shag. It is in surprisingly pristine condition, like some kind of museum piece. It is great to stay here. We bring out our inflatable kayak and stand-up paddle board and get to boat, fish, play croquet, and corn hole. My brother Jonathan with his wife Emma and son Fletcher (Oren's age) come out and we have a great time together. 

We are currently here and have some interesting plans including Oren's baptism which will be included in the next entry.