Getting Back into Routines on Shifting Sands

Staff Lunch

It is a good time for a catch-up on a Sunday afternoon. We are committed to updating twice per month and we really have not had a chance to post news about our first month back in Addis as a family (less Oren of course who is in College). 

Many foreigners, who have the option, leave Addis in the summer because of the amount of rain we have here from June until the beginning of October. That means that the month of September is a continuation of the rainy season and most of the activities we do are organized indoors. At school, for instance, it is volleyball season and David is on the JV (under 16) team and has been going to practices at 6:45 a.m. Tuesdays and after-school Fridays. They have already played a number of matches against a rival school and are currently undefeated. I have had the chance to attend several of the games and it is great to see him play. 

Minecraft get together

I am happy to say he has developed a nice cadre of friends who live in the neighborhood. There are two families in particular who live within walking distance, the Kempens and the Polks who have boys close to David's age. Rebecca and I also sing in the choir that Lori Kempen directs and the Polks participate as well. This means there are many connections and we have even gotten together for a sing-along just for fun last week. 

Indoor spike ball -- pretty risky for the breakables!

September is a season full of national holidays so we have also had a number of days when David has had friends over all day for outdoor activities like spike ball (sometimes played indoors during rain) basketball, board games like Settlers (with one or more expansions) and of course Minecraft, and Super Mario Cart on the Nintendo switch. It is an answer to prayer to see David developing an active social life.

Clothespin hairstyles

Church life is full as well (sometimes too full?). I teach Sunday school to 4th -8th graders most weeks. I have done it several years so they know me well. Rebecca has been preaching and leading music when needed (she is currently the only member of our pastoral team in town). This is an all-volunteer church so 'the harvest is great, but the workers are few' as the Bible verse goes. We continue to meet in our small group as well, although trying to find a week when everyone is in town is a challenge since most of us travel at least 25% of the time for our jobs. 

We have also started the youth group again and Rebecca and I hosted the kick-off at our house. It was well attended with about 30 kids, who really enjoyed our backyard crossnet game (a brief reprieve from rain that afternoon). We also had a fun icebreaker game where kids were asked some questions that they answered on slips of paper, and then others had to guess who was the author of each answer. It was a good way to get them to know each other better. The adults met together at the end and it looks like we have a number of parents that are willing to help. 

Other aspects of life around the compound remain interesting. We were able to harvest the sweet corn we started growing before home leave. The ears were not as big as the ones in Maryland because of the excessive rainfall in this season, but it was very good. We also harvested about 40 apples that grew on our apple trees in the back of the house, and we re-stripped the leaves off the trees to prepare for another growing season. 

Our chickens were another story. We have kept up the MCC tradition of raising chickens and keep about 50 which provide us, our staff, and other friends 25--30 eggs per day. They were 2 years old this year and were starting to die off. By the time I got back in August, we had about 15 and now we are down to six layers. (The Ethiopian New Years celebration in September was a great opportunity for some of our staff to buy the old ones for Doro wot.) About 2 weeks ago, we bought a new batch of 65 'layer' chicks. They should start laying in about 3 months. Hopefully, the 6 we have left can give us 2-4 eggs a day until then. 

youth group parents meeting

We are no experts in poultry farming, but fortunately, our guard staff know quite a bit. We bought the new chicks from a reputable dealer and had a guy over to 'debeak' them last week. (This is just burning the sharp tip off of the beak so that they do not peck each other too much.)

There have also been a number of improvements around the compound including painting the office block and putting fresh concrete on parts of the sidewalk around the house that was starting to crack. With a heavy rainy season there needs to be regular concrete repair. 

Yeshi serving coffee

I have not really come around to work up to now, and here is where it has been a bit more disheartening, or at least challenging. The biggest challenge has been the recent disability of our cook Yeshi. We have had Yeshi with us since we took the position and besides keeping the house and office clean, she prepares lunch on the compound for our office staff and us every day. This is a huge time saver as no one has to leave the compound to get lunch. It is also a good time of bonding for our team. We usually have all manner of cultural conversations during tea time and lunch hour, where we also have the chance to improve our Amharic. 

Shortly before David and I returned, Yeshi slipped on the pavement behind our house, in the rain, and injured her knee. She did not think it was that serious at first as the doctor gave her a steroid injection. but within 2 weeks she was almost completely unable to walk. This has made returning to work impossible, and Rebecca took responsibility for making sure she could see a good orthopedist here and get a good diagnosis. Recently she had an MRI and the doctor found she has serious bone and cartilege damage to her knee. He will advise as to whether surgery is necessary but did say he could perform it with a good result. 

Youth group hairstyles

It is hard to get Yeshi to fully understand the benefit of surgery. She would prefer traditional massage and prayer, and it is a culturally sensitive issue to assert our preference that she receive a Western medical treatment. And the fact is that MCC will only cover these kinds of interventions and not traditional ones. But honestly, we are concerned that a non-Western approach is really likely to do more harm than good, since it is not likely the ligaments or bone will grow back together on their own, and we don't want her disabled for life. 

Her medical leave makes our life more difficult because we rely heavily on her role to assist us with cleaning, shopping at the market, preparing lunches, etc. We have had some temporary people come in, but will probably need to find someone to cover for Yeshi for a couple of months. 

A serious game of Settlers

We are in the season of developing new concept papers and have been busy reviewing new project ideas, or renewing old ones. Much of the work is done on the computer by email, between our project staff, partners, and our regional supervisors, but sometimes we are out of the office. Rebecca and I both have made visits to partners to negotiate new budgets for projects. I also was able to travel out of town to a town in Oromia called Batu(Ziway), to see a maternal and child health project that is up for renewal. It was a really good visit. I met with the director of our partnership as well as regional officials at the Ministry of Health, the Department of Women's Affairs, and the Ministry of Education. It was great to hear how appreciated this project has been in Batu and support we had from the local govt. ministries. We talked about priorities for the next phase. The overwhelming response was nutrition. There has been a spike in childhood severe as well as moderate acute malnutrition, and there needs to be more education for mothers on dietary diversity, complementary feeding, as well as some food provision and referral to feeding centers for the severely malnourished. Our project focuses on peer-based care groups of pregnant and lactating women who can be trained and can support each other. It was good to get such clear direction for the next phase of the project.

The sad reality is that rising malnutrition reflects how bad the economy is here, Inflation has been over 30% for nearly 2 years. On imports, inflation is even higher. There is also a huge distortion of the currency exchange rate which makes our dollars almost useless to reduce the inflation rate in our projects. Everyone is in need of more money and we are getting requests from all partners and even our staff for inflation adjustments to allow them to even maintain the current level of project activities. We are sadly not able to increase in most cases because costs have made many of the activities prohibitive. (The cost of building a single well has tripled in the past 2 years, for instance, because it has imported parts.)

Tree planting with the MKC president 

We are also in another national conflict. Less than 2 years ago, there was a revolt in Tigray that almost brought the Tigrayan militia to Addis to overthrow the govt. Since the signing of a peace treaty between the federal government and Tigray, a huge conflict has arisen between neighboring Amhara and the federal government. This is the region where most of our food security projects are located. All internet and phone contact has been cut off, roads are blocked, airports are closed, so we cannot even communicate with our partners there. There is virtually no coverage of this in the international (or national) news. It is like it is not happening, but it is having a huge impact on our work, and we have heard that many people are being killed in fighting. 

It is a hard time to be working here. We are hoping that when Parliament comes back in session, there may be some work at a peace accord. There is no military solution to a war between federal forces and Amhara militia. 

Rebecca and I did have one other out-of-town trip together to attend the Meserete Kriston Church Annual Meeting (that is the Ethiopian Mennonite Church). We go as a sign of solidarity. It was a long day of driving and listening to speeches in Amharic. We managed to sneak in a swim on the way back home at the end of it, which helped.

Update on Bereket: 

I was touched and stunned at the response I got from the story of Bereket (2 entries ago linked here )  and our journey to get him an opportunity in the US only to be stymied by being denied a US visa. We have not given up, and we did get a new appointment for him. Sadly it will not be until June of 2024-- the embassy will not grant an expedited visa since he was denied once. That means without a miracle he will not be able to defer for only a semester. It will be a full year before he can attend in the US, and only then if he is approved for a visa. At least one member of Congress has expressed interest in the case, but so far nothing has changed. Please keep this in prayer. I have tried to have a conversation with anyone at the embassy, but they have a very strong firewall of form responses to my emails that makes talking to a human about this nearly impossible.