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)
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| 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.
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