A Season of Sports, Work Challenges, and Thanksgiving

I am squeezing one more entry into the month of November to catch up on some things that are happening here at the end. Actually, it is an unusual month in that for the past 10 days, David and I have been alone in the house. (not entirely alone since we have our cook here during working hours M-Th), but Rebecca is on a two-week hiatus to the US. The reasons are several, first, it was her Dad's 80th birthday, and second, it was the right interval of time to check on Oren at college. He is still trying to get used to independent life in college and he needed some support with various appointments, purchases, etc. 

As much as we miss her here, having someone go to the US during the year is a huge bonus, especially with Christmas coming up. She is sherpa-ing a number of items we ordered on Amazon that we can give as gifts. Even Christmas tree lights which just burned out here are extremely expensive to purchase. She will be back this weekend though, and despite some envy of seeing many photos from Charter Hall (our Chesapeake Bay retreat center where they had Thanksgiving and the Birthday), I am glad she could do this.

Life here, in the meantime, has been quite full, of both work and social activities, although it has been a relief not to be traveling a lot in the country this month. Truthfully, with the conflict in both Amhara and Oromia and frequent kidnappings, we hear about regularly, travel to see our projects has been limited to places we can fly. And since at least one parent should be home with David, there has not been any opportunity to leave town. 

As if to make up for the time I have in the office, the work there seems to have multiplied. This is the season when partners, with our help, are busy submitting full proposals for concepts that were approved for the next fiscal year. It is a time of work at the computer, to mill words into outcomes, outputs, and activities. 

At the same time, we must deal with any number of challenges that require our attention, many of them novel to any experience I have had before. Several weeks ago, for instance, our partner, Action Against Hunger, who receive about 500,000 cans of turkey meat from us per year, reported to us that a container truck with our cans en route from the Djibouti port jackknifed a few kilometers from the refugee camp for which it was bound. They sent me pictures of it lying on its side (driver unhurt). This was a container that belonged to us, and we needed to follow up on the incident, find out from the shipper about how the container was insured, and provide some funds for salvage of the 40,000 cans that were in the truck. This took several days of phone calls and emails to sort out. And that was just one small distraction for that week. 

We are also dealing with trying to redistribute funding from a partner who is working in conflict-ridden Amhara region to partners working in more stable areas. We have a large grant back-funded by the Govt. of Canada (GAC) which is a lot of money in a very time-bound project. We need to complete all activities (valued at nearly 2 million dollars) in two years. There is no accommodation for working in a conflict zone, so we are trying to find a way to be sure that smallholder farmers in Ethiopia can maximally benefit from this grant by getting another partner to provide some of the trainings it is offering in other, less conflict-affected regions. It is a process that has required a lot of negotiation to respect all stakeholders-- those who stand to gain, and those who stand to lose.

The other major work headache is dealing with a phenomenally complex bureaucracy to import a car. This is a project that began several months ago as we are in need of a new Landcruiser for field visits out of town where most of our project sites are well off paved roads. Getting a vehicle in Ethiopia is astoundingly expensive because import duty can be 350% of the list price. That means a very basic new 4X4 can cost up to $120,000. In the past 4 months the govt. lowered the import VAT to 150% of the cost, and we took advantage of the opportunity to make the purchase. 

We have an extensive protocol related to the procurement of something of this value. We require multiple proformas, and a competitive review process to decide where we will purchase the vehicle. An Ethiopian company operating out of the port of Djibouti had the best deal on a new Landcruiser and we went with them. (The fact that the vehicle was already in the port was a plus since it would take less time to arrive. The process after purchase requires dozens of letters and documents. We need supporting letters from at least 3 govt. ministries and other agencies, before paying duty at customs. 

We were at the end of the process, had collected all documents, and paid the VAT. All that remained last week was to pick up the approved customs clearance affidavit from customs so the vendor could bring it in the country. 

When our logistics officer went to collect this on Monday, he found to his shock, that all the personnel at customs had been replaced. There was an entirely new team and when he asked for the form they announced that a new law had just been past and vehicle importation by NGOs was not allowed anymore. He tried to explain that we had already finished the process and just needed the affidavit, but they refused. Since then, this week, he has been running around from office to office in customs to try to get special permission to finish our process since it started before the law was passed. I am trying to be optimistic that we will eventually succeed, but not easily, I am sure. The process as a whole has the Kafkaesque feeling of The Trial (for those of you who appreciate 20th-century German expressionist literature)

Conservation Ag. in our back yard

The remodeling of our bathroom is going somewhat better and it is starting to look OK. I admit that there is far less precision in the way things are done here than in the US. But the materials are more old school--all mortar, cinderblock, and tile. But it will be an improvement from the mold-covered wood that our wall has become. 

Fortunately, there have been a number of social events and school events that have been a needed counterbalance to the stresses of work. Among the regular weekly activities that feel life-giving are teaching Sunday School, hosting youth group monthly, and choir practice. In some of these we are getting ready for Christmas programs. Choir is particularly enjoyable. Rebecca and I are in the smaller chamber group as well that is doing some special music including some Pentatonix arrangements. 

This seems to be the season of sport at Bingham as well. David has been participating in volleyball in the past few months and for some reason, the JV team (under 16s) has been completely undefeated in all of their matches. About two weeks ago there was a huge tournament that involved every International school in Addis. The event lasted an entire day and took place at two schools. In the end, the JV boys went completely undefeated. I don't think any team won a single game against them. They are very well coached which was apparent by their consistent serves, bumps, sets, and positioning on offense. It is good to see David so involved. 

I am jumping ahead chronologically, but the other big sports event was field days. This is a two-day intramural event held over a weekend and pits the three Bingham 'houses' against each other. Since both David and Oren have been educated in the Cambridge system most of their lives, the idea of intra-school house competitions (a la Harry Potter) are quite familiar to them. In Tanzania, they were in Athens house at their school which was an athletic powerhouse. Here at Bingham, Taylor House is more of the Hufflepuff of schoolhouses. They put in a great effort, but have consistently come in last the past several years. Despite this, David did win second in triple jump and shot put, and 5th in discus, in his age group. 

There are a ton of events including all the classic track and field events, including some kids' events like sack, three-legged, and wheelbarrow races. Some of the Bingham students are superb athletes so events like the high-jump and long jump were really impressive. Field days tend to be huge family events with almost every family in the school showing up with parents and siblings all donning house apparel to show who they are rooting for. There are also tents of food and crafts for sale, so it is a huge community event. 

American Thanksgiving was not nearly as auspicious for us, but David and I did appreciate being invited to the home of another American family where about 5 families got together to celebrate. Mike, M. our host, is fortunate enough to have US commissary privileges, so he bought a turkey that was perfectly cooked. All the other fixin's were there as well. I made cranberry sauce with a recipe that used orange zest and reconstituted dried cranberries. It was actually delicious and added that necessary cranberry flavor to the turkey and stuffing. Later in the week, David decided to make a pumpkin pie from the remnants of the jack-o-lantern he carved for Halloween. It was actually quite good. 

Addis does cool down in October and November. Not as much as the US, but mornings, temperatures are in the very low 40s. It has been a bit melancholic to see photos on Whatsapp of Rebecca in familiar venues but with bare trees, and Oren with a new winter parka on. I don't think we have been in a winter in the US since 2016. 

There is probably much more to say, but that is a catch-up on what has been happening here for the past 2 weeks. David and I got out the Christmas tree and ornament suitcase. We started setting stuff up, but are saving most of the decorating for when Rebecca comes back on Sunday. 

How do you feed a family of 10 on tired soil?

Shanka, Abebech and Tilahun (TDA staff)

We met Shanka Sadamu and Abebech Adaane outside their tidy home, decorated with blue and white painted designs and an inscription, declaring that “Jesus is Lord” (in English). We were surprised to learn that this young-looking couple together the couple have 10 children: 6 boys and 4 girls. The eldest boy serves as a pilot in the Ethiopian Air Force, the eldest girl is married locally, but the other 8 kids are still at home with them. Our group of visiting NGO staff, government workers, and researchers sat under the shade of a mango tree while we heard the story of how this couple got involved in Conservation Agriculture and Sustainable Intensification (CASI).

Shanka showing a plowed field

Two years ago Terrapeza Development Association (TDA) started this project by selecting lead farmers and taking them to visit other farmers who had been engaged in sustainable agricultural intensification for a while. The new lead farmers were amazed. The yields they saw under CASI were so much higher. They came home and started urging Shanka and others to try it.

For many years, Shanka would plow his fields seven times before planting. He worked hard. But he could hardly manage to feed his large family one meal a day. With every heavy rain, the topsoil of his well-plowed fields would be washed away. He got disappointing yields every time. The approach the lead farmers suggested seemed like senseless idleness. How could one not plow? All they suggested was to stop plowing and add mulch along with the other agronomic practices. It didn’t make sense! But finally, Shanka and Abebech decided to try it out.

They had just been through a personal turning point. In the past, Shanka had a habit of leaving home and wandering to the market, looking for casual work, failing and just hanging out with friends. His wife would panic when he was gone, but there was nothing lucrative or interesting going on on his farm. So why stay around? Then he got into a motorcycle accident. God spared his life and he decided that he needed to change his ways.

Praising God for an answer to prayer

Shanka’s involvement in conservation agriculture began with a spiritual experience, an answer to prayer, as the TDA staff person Admasu came and even knelt with them to pray as they started this experiment. They started with just a small plot, 30m x 50 m. But that one field produced an incredible yield. It was a total paradigm shift, “Like a miracle.” They could see the change in the quality of their land, and saw the mulch “fattening the soil”; it even changed color in one season as the moisture and biomass increased. Admasu came back and saw the test plot and encouraged them to keep going, to try more.

Their neighbors thought they must have gone mad, watching the couple carry more mulching leaves up from the nearby river. They began to work together as a whole family. “CASI is a magnet,” said Shanka. “No more wandering, going to market. Now I stay home to work on my farm. And other farmers come here.”

Shanka

There were challenges. Mulch is scarce and there is competition to use it to feed livestock. But TDA came up with an answer: green manure cover crops. These are usually legume crops that are planted to improve soil quality and/or control weeds, the way that mulch does. Ideally, cover crops may also provide human food, animal forage, or other benefits. They can be annual plants or vines like haricot beans and cowpeas. They might also be bushes or trees like pigeon peas. Shanka and Abebech got seeds to try out GMCCs in their fields and are now experimenting with at least 3 different options.

They no longer have any worries about mulch material. The cover crops provide plenty of cover to suppress weeds, retain moisture, and add biomass gradually into the soil. In addition, these plants fix nitrogen in the soil. They provide the right environment for bacteria and other micro-organisms that need to be in the soil mix, enabling a productive grain harvest. Even the structure of the soil is positively impacted.

Corn stalks lined up as mulch

The change in the lives of Shanka and Abebech is remarkable. They were barely able to eat once a day in the past. Now they comfortably enjoy three meals a day. They work together and are both invested. They have tried lots of different crops with cover crops and have gotten great results. For example, from a plot 40m x 80m, Shanka harvested about 500 kg of maize using conventional agricultural methods in the past. Using CASI, he harvested 2000 kg from the same size field. That’s a 400% increase in yield: astounding!

Rich soil around mulched ginger

In 2012, a disease impacted the major cash crop of the region: ginger. It became a losing prospect to try to grow ginger in the past 10 years when 100 kg of seed only produced 150 kg of marketable ginger. But Shanka tried ginger with mulching and he was able to get a harvest of 800 kg. CASI methods helped the ginger to be resilient against disease. He made a profit of about $420 US (a large sum for an Ethiopian farmer) and bought an ox.

Different cover crops side by side

We took a tour of his fields and saw so many interesting innovations in place. He had just finished harvesting both maize and haricot beans from one field. The cut stalks of maize were lined up neatly, covering the entire field like a blanket of protection. The haricot beans were still drying and hadn’t yet been threshed but he was confident he would make a lot of money on that harvest. He plans to use the field next season for planting Taro, a local root crop that requires quite fertile soil. Another field was planted with cowpeas, a legume crop that was totally new to the community. But since there is a good market for it as a cash crop, people are planting it and enjoying the mulching and nitrogen-fixing benefits too. Shrubby pigeon peas lined the fields and paths, serving as a source of animal forage. Coffee trees full of cherries and banana groves shaded other fields where Taro was actively growing, demonstrating how various natural resources can be maintained together. Other fields were dedicated to growing animal fodder exclusively, to provide for the new ox.  Shanka testified that even if the government told him that conservation agriculture was illegal, he would risk jail, even death, to keep doing it.

Banana with pigeon pea bushes on the right

Shanka and Abebech are trying everything, mulching everything, and getting great results. Other farmers are learning from them. They estimate that about 325 other farmers have started adopting these CASI practices, and the government extension officer Habakok Kikamo verified that this is true. In fact, for his job, he often has to travel between different communities. He loves to come to visit Shanka because he knows the family always has some food to spare for him.

Deresse Dana, 29, another
farmer trying CASI

Shanka and Abebech were just one family engaged in conservation agriculture in Adila Kebele, part of the Bolosso Bombe Woreda in the Wolayita Zone of the South Ethiopia Regional State. Terrapeza Development Association is part of a network of partners of the Canadian Food Grains Bank, and this Ethiopian network including several MCC partners has been doing a tremendous job of scaling up CASI all around the country. TDA is not a direct MCC partner, but is a sister organization, and hosted a national summit on green manure cover crops this past week. Gender balance is often a problem at these conferences of professional plant scientists, and for that reason, Paul said it was a good idea if I attended this event instead of him. I’m glad he suggested it! There were a few women farmers who attended the first day of the meeting, but I was one of only two women professional attendees out of 90 total.

MCC is a major supporter of this CFGB network, and so we were able to invite staff from four different partners to come and learn more and share experiences. 

Abebech, Shanka, and two of their kids

We were joined by many well-known researchers in the field.  It was quite a festive atmosphere as we met up with colleagues at the airport to fly down to Arba Minch. (Initially, we had intended to drive down south, but the security situation has gotten even worse these days with a kidnapping not far out of Addis). So, we flew down and then were driven 2 hours onwards to Wolayta Sodo through beautiful, lush countryside, dotted with lakes and fruit trees.

On Tuesday, we got an overview of the story of conservation agriculture in Ethiopia, as implemented by the CFGB network. A major science leader, Dr. Kindie, outlined the results of action research performed on CASI, trying to analyze which combination of agricultural practices produces the best results – not surprisingly, it all depends on the local context. The major practices of Conservation agriculture have proven very effective: low/zero tillage, mulching, and crop rotation. But two key problems have emerged.

Farmer demonstrating Taro

• 1.      There is a lack of mulching material
• 2.      Inorganic fertilizer is scarce and expensive

Many were surprised to hear that Dr. Kindie advocated for a half-half mix of fertilizer: organic (providing the necessary carbon biomass) and inorganic (providing essential minerals not found in most compost).

After a wonderful lunch provided by TDA, Neil Miller, our friend and ag expert, followed up with the answer to both those constraints to CASI: Green manure cover crops. We were able to meet with farmers who exhibited some marvelous produce grown with mulching. We looked at the seed options for cover crops. We smelled herbs and saw the pride of these farmers in what they could grow.

On Wednesday, we went to the field to different woredas in smaller groups to visit farmers like Shanka and Abebech. In fact, our group visited two more farmers and then ended up in the home compound of Gash Alemayehu Haliso. 

Alemayehu in a field of cowpeas

His large family had prepared tables spread out under the shade of some very old mango and hardwood trees. They carried out to us enormous plates of local delicacies, root crops boiled and nicely prepared. We sampled white and purple yams, white sweet potatoes, boiled Taro and mashed Taro, and a heap of Bula, a sort of cheesy-tasting, tapioca-textured culinary mystery prepared from false banana. All of this was flavored by dipping pieces into very buttery pots of hot “data”—garlic, chili, and salt. We finished off the meal with bananas and coffee with butter (or without butter in my case – I wanted to sleep that night!).

data and a platter of roots and bula

Thursday involved a debrief of our various field visits and some other thoughtful presentations to complement what we had already seen. One woman gender officer shared the importance of involving women from the beginning of a project, consulting them about their needs and their schedule, and making sure they could access training, agricultural inputs, and the benefits of marketing their products. She also maintained that CASI really benefits women, reducing their workload, giving them more nutritious crops to feed their families, and allowing for more time for tasks of caring for children.

Habakok Kikamo, extension worker (blue) 

It was very interesting to hear such support from the government delegation. Ten years ago, when this approach started, the Ministry of Agriculture was completely at odds with CASI and had no wish to support it. Agricultural policy at that time centered on pushing the use of inorganic fertilizer; conservation agriculture pushed just the opposite – GMCC’s. Now that fertilizer is very expensive or unavailable in Ethiopia, green manure cover crops look like a smart idea to everyone. Still, it seems best to use a combination of both at this point for the best yields.

Jakob (DF), Dr. Kindie (CYMMET), Frew, 
myself and Mesfin on an evening walk

Along with learning a lot from more technical presentations and the field visit day, I really enjoyed being in the company of this group of agricultural experts. A network of development organizations has been working together consistently to promote Conservation Agriculture since 2015. They have developed strong collaboration – even warm friendship and trust – over these years. And I am sure that the quality of their dedication, working from the heart for the glory of God, really makes a difference in how they are able to be so effective. I really enjoyed having time for evening walks with some very high-powered scientists, and dinner discussion of the details of their field research.

Rebecca and Mesfin at the end of the conference

half a new wall

On Friday morning, we woke up early and made the journey back to Addis by bus and then by plane. Within hours, I was back into normal life, dealing with household issues and heading off to choir practice.

One amazing development I came home to was the impressive progress in the renovation of our hall bathroom. We picked a contractor who was ready to really get moving on the project. Day 1, Tuesday, he carefully removed the bathtub, saving the tile (construction materials cost about twice as much as it should because of the currency distortion). 

full walls

On Day 2, he completely removed the wall between the bath and “Oren’s” bedroom, discovering that there was an additional hallway wall that was rotted and needed to be replaced. On Day 3, he built half the new wall of cinder blocks, and on Friday we watched him complete that new wall, along with the wall to enclose a shower box. Over the weekend, we had the task of “watering the walls” twice a day (in Amharic it sounds like giving the walls something to drink! Apparently that cures the cement somehow). It will be a big improvement to our guest bath facilities to have a shower option for them.

Work remained very busy for Paul and our other staff. There’s continued follow-up on our new vehicle purchase, but we won’t fully celebrate it until the car is parked in our compound. We’ve been working to complete our recruiting process for three Ethiopian young adult volunteers to serve with other international MCC programs. An intensive process of interviews and English tests absorbed the one week I was in the office between Djibouti and Sodo. We had a major team meeting that past Monday to review plans for completing our housekeeper’s condo. We were able to raise the needed funds, and Yeshi went with her contractor friend from church (donating his time) to go and buy all the necessary materials. Meanwhile, Paul has been working to develop contingency plans around the projects currently to be run in Amhara. Things continue to be very difficult in the Gojjam area, with a huge offensive from the federal military that started last weekend. There is little to no reporting on this conflict in local or international news. But we know that thousands have died and tens of thousands have been displaced. Farmers are not planting or harvesting, but bearing arms. The hunger crisis that resulted from the Tigray conflict two years ago remains a huge problem in northern Amhara.

Youth group spike ball and cross net

In other personal news, we hosted a fun youth group gathering last weekend. And then I had to preach the next morning. It was definitely a case of praying for sufficient grace to prepare and lead all the extra things after a busy work week, but grace was sufficient. And this weekend, David’s volleyball team played in an inter-school tournament. They have had some great coaching, quickly learning and growing in key skills. They also demonstrated such good attitudes and sportsmanship, caring for each other and not getting mad when kids made mistakes. And, as a good team, they actually won every single game they played yesterday, right up to winning the championship. We are really glad for David that he has enjoyed being part of a healthy, team-building athletic endeavor.

 Bonus photos:

 

More bonus photos:

 

Neil Miller and I on a walk

Mesfin and Neil, conference organizers

Honoring Neil for 10 long years of hard work,
Tirelessly thinking of how to support smallholder farmers

Djibouti Sejour and David's Fifteenth

RRL, otherwise known as Required Renewal Leave is one of the ways that MCC supports us in our assignment. It is an addition to our benefits package that allows us to take several extra days of leave per year due to the hardship of our assignment in Ethiopia. It was granted because of the conflict situations that are ongoing here, but in reality, the day-to-day life in the very crowded and polluted city of Addis Ababa is the thing we most often feel we need relief from. While active fighting in Amhara, and risks of kidnapping in Oromia are still threats, they seem somewhat removed from our life in the city, albeit our travel, especially out of town on roads has been greatly curtailed. 

Les Sables Blancs after the storm

We had spent a week in South Sudan for our regional Rep. meetings, and Rebecca wrote about that last week. While I would not describe Juba as a place I would choose for a vacation, there was a certain amount of restful diversion from routine since we traveled without David, and had a very nice hotel suite to stay in. 

When we returned, it was the weekend before David's fall break. Even though we had been out of the office for a week, we decided it would be good to take our RRL leave for the following 5 days while David was out of school. We had Monday back in the office to deal with the most urgent work stuff and then headed out on Tuesday.

One of our favorite leisure time activities we enjoy is snorkeling. Since most of the East African coast sits on a coral reef we have a number of choices including places on the coast of Kenya, like Mombasa or Malindi. Zanzibar is also a favorite and our default go-to vacation spot. Unfortunately, plane tickets have been pretty expensive to go there of late. 

Last year we decided to try a place that sounded promising: Djibouti. It is very close by plane, about an hour away, and pretty cheap to fly. In fact, we could go there with our air miles. We WhatsApped the place we stayed before and booked a reservation at Sables Blancs, a very remote guest house on the beach just a few kilometers north of a small town called Tadjoura. We stayed there last year and loved it because of the incredible snorkeling one can do just off the beach. 

Meeting of two tectonic plates

I would say that Djibouti is not a tourist destination I would recommend to someone coming to Africa for a vacation for the first time. It is an odd place quite frankly, a very tiny enclave at the southern entrance to the Red Sea. It hosts 5 armies (bases that is)--like the Hobbit. There are Chinese, Japanese, French, Italian, and American army bases, protecting this very strategic waterway leading up to the Suez Canal. There is considerable security interest by all these countries in protecting it. 

But Djibouti is mainly desert, an extension of the Afar region of Ethiopia and Eritrea. There is a very small native population there, some Afaris, and Somalis. Islam is the major religion.  It had been a part of Somaliland colonized by the French and remains a francophone country to this day. 

Its biggest claim to fame currently is a gigantic port that provides a huge amount of goods to Ethiopia and other inland countries. This is evident when one arrives and sees the enormous number of Ethiopian trucks on the roads or parked in huge lots around an enormous shipyard full of container-laden ships. 

The main urban center, Djibouti city, had a number of hotels and restaurants, both Ethiopian and Yemeni. It is also like a little Dubai with a number of malls and places where one can buy imported goods virtually duty-free. This was a great perk of going there: we could load up on things like cheese, chocolate, and other delicacies not available in Ethiopia for less than $80. 

For all these reasons we were happy to give it another go, and arrived on a Tuesday morning. To get to our hotel, which is across a rather large inlet (28 kms across) one can take a boat straight across (3 hours) or a Landcruiser around the coast (3 hours). We had planned on the boat but were told there was some concern about the weather so we took the Landcruiser. 

Honestly, when we arrived the sky was cloudless and about 90 degrees (35 C). We stopped at a mall, stocked up on some snacks for the week at the guest house, and headed out by car. The trip is actually quite interesting. One starts by driving on the road that goes to Ethiopia and is in line with many trucks. Eventually, you break off to the North and the trip is sublime, with endless hard rock desert in every direction. There is a place where there is a huge wind farm, another area that is several kilometers of black magma, that looks like you are on the moon. You cross the fault line where a continental shelf is slowly separating from Africa. There are huge caverns of solid magma coming out of the ground there. Then you pass an enormous salt lake, (Lac Assal) the lowest place on the African continent; it looks like an enormous white sand beach, but it is all salt. You also drive along a number of high cliffs that look down on clear blue sea. 

We eventually got to Tadjoura where I got a phone card then the last 30 minutes off-road to the guest house. This place really feels like you are in the middle of nowhere. After driving off-road over a completely unpopulated boulder-covered landscape you descend from an escarpment down to a narrow strand of beach where there are a series of bungalows. This place is not connected to any grid. Fresh water has to be brought in by truck, the electricity is solar or from a generator. Once you are dropped off, there is no way you are going to walk to a town. You would need to go by Landcruiser or boat. 

Sables Blanc is built on one of the few areas of sandy beach in the country, I have concluded, since most everywhere else is rock. When we arrived, we were surprised to see that we were the only guests there, but it is not exactly the season for visiting. May--October can be unbearably hot, and it starts to cool a bit Nov--March. We were there at the end of the hot season. And it was still hot. Fortunately, they have some efficient AC units in the room that they run from 10pm to 6am.

What to do there: I will say there is no place in the world I have snorkeled which has such extensive, accessible coral reefs. From one's room, you can walk 10 meters to the shore, put on flippers, snorkel, and mask, and swim another 20 meters, and find the edge of the reef that extends in each direction of a huge bay for as far as one could swim and even beyond. The variety of fish is staggering, as well as huge moray eels, barracuda, and sea turtles. 

In a sadly ironic turn of events, my GoPro had to be replaced and was in the US, so we did not have it for this trip. I wish I had underwater pictures to show. I think we went snorkeling about 4 times a day. Unlike Mombasa or Zanzibar, you can pretty much go out in high or low tide, the water is always calm and there is no significant current. I think the coolest fish we saw that we had never seen before was the Indian ocean crocodile fish. It really looked like a crocodile sitting on the bottom of a sandy spot on some broken coral. It was at least 1.5 m long (This is a stock photo here. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tentacled_flathead#/media/File:Pez_cocodrilo_(Papilloculiceps_longiceps),_parque_nacional_Ras_Muhammad,_Egipto,_2022-03-27,_DD_71.jpg)

When we weren't snorkeling there were a lot of places to walk along the beach. Much of it is on rocks, that look like cooled magma. There are a number of inlets along the bay going one direction. David and I fished a number of times as we brought our rod and reel. We caught fish on almost every single cast, with any bait or even a small lure. They were small fish, juvenile groupers, and snappers, were the main ones. We weren't fishing to eat, we just wanted to see what we would catch. I was hoping for a barracuda but never got anything big off the shore. 

Walking in the other direction, one mounts the escarpment which offers a commanding view of the strand of beach. David liked to go up there and look for geodes. He crushed open a number of rocks but did not ever find one. All the rocks up there are volcanic, or better described as magma, as there is no evidence of mountains in the vicinity. 

On the second night, we heard it start to rain and on the 3rd day morning, we had a torrential downpour that lasted most of the morning. I could not believe how hard it rained in such a short time. It flooded our room and the hotel moved us to a new one (the room was not badly flooded, but they had spare rooms as we were alone.) When the weather cleared we saw that the ocean had been pretty churned up and a lot of dirt had run into the bay. Also, it looked like some garbage from Tadjoura had spilled into the ocean as well and we could see some plastic bottles floating around. We guessed that this kind of heavy rain was not common and had flooded some places. 

We really got an idea of just how much rain had fallen when we walked up the small road that led up to the escarpment. The driveway down was almost completely destroyed. There was no gravel layer, it was just a string of large exposed stones and boulders, almost impassable by vehicle. 

Nonetheless, by afternoon the dirt in the water had settled and we were able to snorkel again. For the next two days, it rained some in the morning, but nothing like that 2nd night. We enjoyed all the activities we had been doing every day. 

Rooms at the hotel

We went over to a dining area with a veranda for our meals. It was like we had a private chef. What we found really cool, though, is the opportunity to use ALL of the languages we know. Both Rebecca and I speak French so we used that primarily in talking to people we met in Djibouti, but the cook and his assistant were Kenyan and we could speak Swahili with him, which he preferred. Our waiter/cleaner was Ethiopian and spoke Amharic. So we were able to speak French, English, Swahili, and Amharic with different staff at the guesthouse. We were definitely uber-powered in language skills in that place!

In the evenings we played games with David or listened to an audiobook. We also enjoyed reading. One cloudy morning we broke out our paints, which we always bring on vacation, and did a morning doing watercolors (or guache/acrylic). I tried to capture a particularly interesting rock formation I saw that looked like a colonial soldier with a tri-corn hat, hunched over with a great coat on, looking down at the ocean. I have included the original scene as well as my rendition for your critique. 

There was no internet connection except a SIM card I had for emergencies, but otherwise, we were really cut off from everyone. Strangely, that sense of isolation in such an isolated place was a welcome feeling. 

On our last day, we had some concerns about how we would leave. We had booked a car, but saw that the road coming down the escarpment was still impassable. Sure enough, on the morning we were to leave, a small boat came and took us and our luggage from the beach to the nearby town of Tadjoura where our ride was waiting at the dock. I was relieved there was a plan B if one could not travel by road. 

On the drive back we met a stunning sight, it was nothing like our drive there, for almost half the trip we crossed over dozens of places where the road had been destroyed by floods that had rushed down during the big rain. Tadjoura was flooded as well, and when we got to Djibouti city, it was very evident that much of it had been underwater for a day. The place was completely littered with garbage and debris displaced by flooding. 

Our driver explained to us that a cyclone had hit nearby Yemen and the tail of it had crossed Djibouti. The one morning of heavy rain where we were, had devastated much of the country. I could not believe it was not more evident where we were. But I guess it was mostly rock around Sables Blanc, so not much to move.

We stopped for lunch at a Yemeni restaurant for some great fish and galettes, then at the mall one more time, after settling our bill at the in-town office for the hotel. We loaded up on supplies and took an evening flight back to Addis. We felt quite refreshed and arrived back Saturday night. 

Fortunately the weekend before our arrival, we had done some preparation for the weekend of our return. I had to teach Sunday school the next morning, but then in the afternoon, we had David's 15th Birthday party! I had made a piñata the weekend before. This is a birthday tradition for the kids and between the two of them I have made about 30. This year I made a Minecraft Creeper. This is the 3rd year in the Minecraft theme, mainly because I only have cereal boxes to work with so everything has to look a bit boxy. 

David had his cadre of friends over that he really likes--several other boys that he hangs out with regularly, with a couple of siblings along. The adults hung out together while kids played--spike ball mainly, then they did the piñata, sang Happy Birthday, ate cupcakes, and David opened presents. All the kids brought costumes as well, as there was a Halloween party at the SIM compound down the road from us where one of the families that came, live. All the kids went down there after the party to trick or treat. It is an annual tradition at the SIM compound to do this since it is an enclosed area of houses that is safe for walking around.

David and Bereket came back loaded with candy and had a great time. David got some really fun games at his Birthday as well that we have tested out in the last week. 

The biggest thing happening at work these days is buying a new Landcruiser (imported from Djibouti.) Second biggest thing was interviewing four candidates for our young adult exchange program. Third biggest, finally selecting a contractor to renovate our hall bathroom and get rid of the black mold. Lots of construction dust in our future. We've been clearing the decks all day today. Yesterday we hosted youth group, and probably won't be able to offer much hospitality for a few weeks coming up. Hopefully, we will have an update on all that soon.