A week of journeys

 

David's Saturday brunch at a mall
in Kenya

This past week has been unusually eventful for all of us. And most of this blog has been written on one of 4 separate plane journeys for me. That's too much flying for one week, but here's the story.

After a full week of work, including one more last-ditch effort to persuade someone at customs and finance ministries to release to us the car we paid for, followed by a Friday choir practice, Paul, David and I took a few quiet moments to have dinner out together. We needed this quiet time because then we headed to the airport. Traffic was incredibly heavy at 8 pm, probably because of the Africa Union Summit going on in town. We had already had a chance ot admire how the whole city was lit up, sparkling with new lights and new trees and sidewalks for all the special visitors. A whole week of non-stop electricity! Sirens and motorcades kept us stuck for quite a while before we could get to Bole Airport, where Paul left off David and me. It then took us nearly an hour to even pass through the first security checkpoint and enter the airport – I don’t think I’ve ever seen it quite so crowded and so much of a hassle.

Don't forget
www.etakenya.go.ke

As we checked in, the attendant reminded me that I needed to fill out something called the ETA form online. This was a new thing to me – I have a 5-year visa, and David is too young yet to need a Kenya visa. So I was totally taken by surprise, but yes, I needed to do this on my phone with less time to spare than I would have liked. Apparently, Kenya is now a visa-free country! But you still need to let them know you’re coming, with scans of all your documents, and pay a processing fee… not sure how that is different from a visa. If you are in the region, please take note! www.etakenya.go.ke

We were literally walking briskly through the whole airport to our gate, while I was snapping photos of our hotel bookings and David’s passport, trying desperately to pay for this service on my phone before we had to board the plane. I managed to finish it (and also managed to block at least one of my credit cards in the process!) but then it said there was no guarantee that it would be processed before our arrival. Certainly not! It was 10:30 pm on a Friday and we were arriving at 1 am! We got on the plane and I prayed that somehow I would find a very kind person at immigration on the other side.

David was exhausted and fell asleep on the plane. Thankfully we did find a kind Kenyan official at the immigration desk – officials on that side seem much more understanding of people like me who didn’t get the memo that there was a policy change. We got through the airport, got our bags, found our taxi, drove through 3 am Nairobi, and finally got to our hotel on the northern outskirts of town. It was so weird that everyone kept saying "Good morning!" when it was 3:30 am and dark. Thankfully the hotel room was lovely and all we needed to get a few hours of sleep.

Holiday Inn viewed from our 
mall breakfast table

David slept later than normal – all the way to 8 am! And then he insisted that we get up and find breakfast. Here is where my plan really paid off. I had booked us a hotel adjoining the Two Rivers Mall. We were able to walk across and find an affordable breakfast at the mall restaurant. Then we went to the big sporting goods store, Decathlon, to buy a few things we needed, namely, soccer balls for the school next door to the MCC Ethiopia compound. We took them back to the hotel, packed up our room and checked out, and could still leave our bags at reception while we did the rest of our shopping. I was in the market for an electric lawnmower, and we even saw a good possibility in the mall, but it seemed too complicated to take it at that moment. Paul needed some markers and other things for Sunday school. And then we went to the grocery store to buy the non-perishable groceries we wanted to take back – things that are totally unavailable or unaffordable in Addis. 

David hanging out with his
young Chege friends

At the moment, that includes olive oil, balsamic vinegar (serious luxuries), nuts, linguine, powdered milk, peanut butter, cereal, chocolate, tahini… I think you get the picture. Yes, we had brought a third suitcase, but decided not to fill it up until the end of our trip. We had time for a fast-food lunch for David at Burger King and then met Wawa Chege, our supervisor, and his daughter, for a ride back to his home.

It's always wonderful to go to the Chege home – so peaceful with big, beautiful trees over the yard, birds and monkeys, big dogs, chickens wandering in the yard. David really gets along well with their 4 kids, even though the kids are so much younger than him. We played frisbee for a while, and then David and the kids played hide and seek for hours, while I helped get dinner ready and talked with Wawa and Kristen. It was amazing to see him come out of his shell and enjoy playing like a little kid again. Dinner was amazing grilled chicken, fresh bread and salads, out on the picnic table. It was so nice to just be there, talk, rest, share what is going on.

Picnic on a beautiful evening

In the morning, Kristen and I got up early and took the dogs for a vigorous walk for about an hour. Again, I was thankful for the time to be out in the fresh air and enjoy the morning. The dogs are big and definitely made the walk even more vigorous! After showering, we even had about 20 minutes to sit on the sunny veranda and pretend we could enjoy a leisurely breakfast before heading to church!

They worship at a small volunteer-led Anglican fellowship, St. Julians’, a tiny quaint chapel on the Anglican bible college grounds. I found out later that I know a few other folks for whom that was their church home in the past. I really appreciated the simplicity of the service, but also the recognition of Lent and their intentional practice of entering into the season. Also lovely was their practice of congregational prayer, where anyone who wanted to offer a prayer or praise would come forward, share, and then light a candle. I was sitting right by the open window and a fresh breeze was blowing in the scent of warm roses throughout the service. It was an extra-sensory experience of worship. Just 24 hours in this incredibly green environment was so refreshing.

St. Julian's chapel

A time of fellowship continued for more than an hour after the service. I was glad to see that David effortlessly connected with some other teenagers – one turned out to be a 9^th grader at Rosslyn Academy, whose family also served with MCC in Tanzania many years ago. They didn’t realize it until I pointed it out later. I had a very good chance to catch up with our MCC Kenya colleagues Anne Marie and Scott, who also worship there. There was far more to talk about than we had time for since we’ve had so many years working alongside each other. In fact, it seemed like almost half the congregation consisted of Mennonites, some I met for the first time. I was glad to be part of that time.

We joined Wawa’s mom and nephew for lunch, along with a family friend. The restaurant was picturesque and green, with a nice play area for the kids. I was really fascinated to have the chance to meet more family of our Area Directors. The friend is Ethiopian-Swiss, and completely understood the situation we are in, living in Addis, and why we are looking for education options for David outside.

After lunch, David and I grabbed our stuff and got in the Chege’s car (very kindly lent to us) to go start out on our real mission. We weren’t in Kenya for the shopping or the green space, but in fact, to visit a renowned Christian boarding school called Rift Valley Academy. For years I have had friends who attended there or sent their kids there, but I myself have never been. It is one potentially good option for David to have a more well-rounded high school education. 

View of Kijabe from our Airbnb

Here’s the problem – David’s current school is staffed almost entirely by missionary teachers who need to raise their own support. This model has worked well in the past. But the current situation in Ethiopia is really tough: life is twice as expensive as it should be, it’s very hard to get work permits and visas, and currently, the security situation means that we can’t even leave the capital city safely. There has been a lot of teacher turnover, and it is very hard to recruit new people into such a demanding situation. The teachers who are present are overstretched. For this school year, most of the Grade 11-12 classes are online classes – basically kids are homeschooled at school. Bingham really works hard to have a good sports program, but if you aren’t a team athlete, there are virtually no other activities after school. We made David join the community choir, just to do something, but he doesn’t have other school options for music, drama, leadership, etc. I just feel so sad for him, thinking about this being his high school experience, and so we wanted to look elsewhere and see if there is another school option for him.

David at RVA

But since RVA is a boarding school, and David is not keen on boarding, it was essential for us to go and visit. David needs to answer his own admission questionnaire, stating why he wants to come, and so he needed to see what he thinks. RVA is on a mission station at the edge of the Rift Valley in the little town of Kijabe. It’s only an hour from the Chege’s home, so not too difficult of a drive for me, thankfully. With a little effort, we found our super cheap Airbnb (Dorothy’s place, $15/night) and took an hour to admire the view and unwind. Then we made our way onto the RVA campus for dinner. Good friends of friends from our Arusha days had wound up on staff at RVA and their kids are all enrolled as day students. I asked them if we could possibly meet up and hear more about their experience. It was great to see David be so helpful as we tried to get a burger dinner on the table in short order. Another couple joined us for dinner also—he’s a teacher in the woodworking section and she is a physician at the teaching hospital down the hill. Two of the teenage kids were around for a while, and their 9^th grader took David along to the student-led Sunday night worship. I stayed longer to talk with the adults and then had some time walking around the campus in the dark with Christine who serves as a Sunday night chaperone/patrol.

In the morning, we went back on campus a little early. Mr. Ben had invited us to step into his woodwork class. I don’t think David had ever imagined such a class in high school. And they have really good, high-quality equipment there. Ben had some time, so he also took us around for almost an hour on an informal tour. It was interesting to hear some tidbits about relations between RVA and the local AIC church, as well as how they filter student-watched movies through Pureflix (Ben admitting they are much shorter and don’t make as much sense!), and to see older students having freedom in their study halls. We also learned a lot about monkeys on campus. We had our official tour at 10 am, with a younger woman who married into the Johnson clan. Johnsons in Burundi were good friends of ours, 10 years ago, and I knew that they had 2 teens in high school. I was hoping to find them to say hi, but never laid eyes on them as we took our tour through classrooms, boarding houses, gym, etc. David was really impressed by the spaciousness and beauty of the campus.

Meeting up with old friends

We had a little time to talk with the registrar about the admissions process. And then we went for lunch in the cafeteria. There is definitely ample food, and David thought it was alright. We were just heading out of the Cafo when I finally saw Oren’s old friend Zac. He was a bit surprised to see me but took it in stride. He called over his younger brother Micah and we ended up having almost an hour to talk during the rest of their lunch break while it was pouring rain. Talking with real live students, whom we’ve known in the past, was quite helpful. They have such a positive attitude about the school and the possibilities there. Zac has made great use of the opportunities to learn diving and snorkeling, part of his future interest in marine biology. We also learned about the Johnson menagerie back in Burundi, including their very own pet crocodile in his own enclosure, cichlids caught wild from Lake Tanganyika, and a monkey who lives in one room in the house. David was entranced.

produce collection

Finally, we bid the Johnson kids farewell and headed back up the hill out of Kijabe. It was still raining and yet I was puzzled by how slowly the car was moving. At one bumpy point in the road, a whole bunch of produce vendors mobbed our windows. I decided to buy some blueberries from a guy (turned out to be red grapes). And then the women vendors were indignant: “Support the girl child!” So I bought mountain pawpaw, carrots, peaches, and peas. David was just shaking his head. Non-perishable! Is what he kept saying. But it was all very cheap, and we ended up donating it to the Chege household.

Tyre repair team

At the junction, some other very helpful vendors pointed out that a tire was flat and directed us to the nearest filling station. We were able to get the flat tire repaired in just a half hour, so it wasn’t a big deal, fortunately. And then we continued along the edge of the escarpment back towards Nairobi. I had been hoping to take a hike in Kijabe, but the rain scrapped that idea. So I suggested to David that we stop at Brackenhurst conference center, right along our way. He was happy to revisit the site of our annual Renew conference. 

A stroll in the woods at Brackenhurst

I got him a milkshake and we sat in their sunny beautiful garden playing cards for a while. Then he was even willing to take a 30-minute walk in the woods with me before we got back in the car. We had one more lovely evening with the Chege’s, enjoying dinner at their picnic table at dusk. David convinced the adults to let him teach the kids midnight mafia after we finished dinner clean up. It was pretty funny playing that game with little kids: “Mama’s trying to kill me!” Anyway, I think the oldest Ella really enjoyed it.

On Tuesday morning, we accompanied Wawa and their kids to school at Rosslyn Academy. We also wanted to take a tour of that school to try to get a feel for what other options in the region might be like. 

Rosslyn tour

Rosslyn does not have boarding officially, but sometimes a kid might board privately with a family. Again, it is really stunning to see what a school can offer when it is well-resourced. We ran into the athletics director and learned more about the swim team. Along our tour, we stepped into the choir classroom; we were treated to a lovely phrase of music, and also David saw the kid he’d met at church on Sunday. The pottery classroom and woodworking rooms were well-supplied, and the other classrooms were very light and spacious. I was so impressed with the level of independence given to high school students for their study halls or group work sessions in lots of places. And apparently, there are tons of afterschool activities. The guidance counselor giving the tour had just returned from a model UN conference, the choir and band are preparing to tour, and the middle school musical Stuart Little will be showing on the weekend. 

Evening play with Cheges

We returned to the guidance counselor’s office and Carole offered to pray for us. And then, walking to the registrar’s office she introduced us to the HS principal and chaplain. They also asked about our situation and offered to pray for us. I was really touched – who knows what the future holds, but my heart is quite heavy for all the options and choices that we are facing on behalf of David and our family. I really appreciated the care that Rosslyn staff showed to us.
 We still needed to make our final shopping trip for the perishable items – cheese, pork products, etc. David also needed some good snacks to tide him over. And then we found a Thai restaurant in the Village Market mall. Fortuitously, German friends from the Renew conference were able to quickly drive over to meet us and talk. It was nice to see them at a time other than New Year's! And the food was incredibly good. Finally, David and I headed to the airport. We were told to come 4 hours early, and we had to do a lot of repacking of groceries in the parking lot. Anyway, we found a way to help 2 big bags of mangos travel safely!

David's birthday gifts to Paul
We missed it on Sunday

Paul picked us up in Addis, having just enjoyed dinner with my Dad. Ironically and sadly, Dave Sack has been in Addis all week long for a conference with the Africa CDC. But I’ve been gone the whole week!! Anyway, it sounds like he has been busy with colleagues. We will pick him up on our way home from our present travel.

Yes, I’m writing on a plane again! My 4^th plane trip in 7 days. On Wednesday, we had just a little time to catch up on work and do some essential things before heading out with our entire MCC team to Uganda. MCC is rolling out a new software system to manage projects and workflows. It’s a big deal and so we all needed to be well-trained. 

The online training is harder to absorb, so we were one of the lucky programs with the option of traveling to an in-person training in Uganda. We were joined by our MCC colleagues from Uganda and South Sudan, along with trainers from Kenya and Canada. A few really great aspects of this trip: Hana received her renewed passport just in time, and she was able to travel with us. It was her first trip on a plane and first time out of Ethiopia. In addition, we have just hired a new staff member, Gulma. He won’t start officially until March, but he was able to get time off from his current job to join us for the training, which was really advantageous professionally and relationally.

Hana, trainer Kayla, Eyerus, Wonde and Kristen

We arrived at our hotel in Entebbe in the evening, just in time for a little rest and then to meet other MCCers over dinner. It turned out to be a really beautiful hotel with an amazing pool. Paul and I made the most of that opportunity, getting in the pool by 7 am for 3 days in a row. It felt like a total vacation to have the opportunity to swim laps each morning before the training sessions.

The training itself was interesting – I think the system will be very helpful to us in keeping track of lots of work tasks. We are doing most of it well at present, but some things slip through the cracks. This system makes sure that you don’t miss anything crucial, and that everyone asks for the right reviews and approvals.

@ Imperial Botanical Hotel

Both evenings, Paul and I were able to take long walks through the leafy suburbs of Entebbe along the lake. There was a public access golf course just across from our hotel that looked really great for the general public to enjoy all kinds of sports. We also ended up walking into several other hotels in the area, just for fun. Ours was probably the nicest-kept. Yesterday evening, we ended up in a really creepy old hotel, with very few people around and big scraggly grounds running down to the lake. The trees were full of massive sails of spider webs, spun by spiders of epic proportions. I felt like we’d entered Mirkwood somehow. Nevertheless, it felt great to stretch our legs and walk and have time to talk each evening. It was also great to have time to meet up with our colleagues from other countries and to hear how things are going.

MCCers from Ethiopia and South Sudan

Yesterday after the training session, our Ethiopian team members joined a few Ugandans to do some shopping in town in Kampala. I think it was quite an adventure for them! They reported that it was far louder and more hectic than any shopping they had ever done in their lives. People were yelling, shouting, and pushing, and they experienced Kampala traffic with all the boda bodas (motorcycle taxis). At least they found some things to bring home for much lower prices. And today, we are heading back to Addis Ababa. As I said, we will pick up my dad and then hopefully have some time to hang out with him today and tomorrow.

David has been home alone for the past 3 days, taking care of himself. That is to say, he went home with his friend Peter on Wednesday afternoon to hang out with friends and he was given a really good dinner. Thursday, he took care of himself and got himself to school both Thursday and Friday mornings. His main challenge has been a power outage that has gone on for more than 24 hours. We will have to see what’s going on when we get back. I’m really glad he is such a reliable and independent kid and can handle that kind of challenge.

The Davids playing Corn Hole

And so to wrap up for this week -- we landed on Saturday afternoon back in Addis. Paul and I got out of the airport as quickly as possible, grabbed a cab, picked up my dad, and went on to our house to relax. David had survived and was happy to see us. We had two pretty relaxed days together at our house, talking and catching up, playing a few games, and cooking and eating a few good meals. We took my dad to church, but that was our only outing really. It was very nice that he could stop by and spend some time here, in between the legs of his trip. He went on to Uganda on Sunday night. 

And this week: we've all been working hard on implementing what we learned about the Insight program, getting ready for the new fiscal year about to start. Our audit has begun. We have a few monitoring visits to plan and an All Partner meeting to prepare. I took our housekeeper Yeshi back to the doctor for a follow-up visit on her knee surgery. She's doing reasonably well, although they had to remove a sneaky stitch that had hidden from view 2 weeks ago. Her condominium is almost finished, but we are waiting for her to recover fully from surgery and be mobile to go with her for a celebratory visit to see it. 

A whole lot of bonus photos:

Wonde and Gulma

Receiving our training certificates

Ethiopia team having a fun evening walk

Three MCC teams present for training

Wonde always gets involved in grassroots projects on a field visit

Wawa grilling chicken

Morning walk with Kristen

The view out the chapel window

Mennonite fellowship after church

Bouncy castle fun

Flat tire

Beautiful flower

Beautiful Classroom

Creepy hotel

See those spiderwebs?

And the spider suspended between the palms?

Amazing hotel pool

Papa Dave relaxing

Cornhole challengers

 

The Season of Lent Begins

 It is Saturday evening here, and I had meant to start this entry around noon after I got the kitchen chores done. I am actually alone here (well Bereket is here over the weekend, but he is working on some Canadian college applications.) David and Rebecca are in Kenya. I took them to the airport last night and they will be gone to visit a potential future school (Rift Valley Academy). I needed to stay and hold down the fort since work is quite intense these days. Today, Saturday was quite unprogrammed, which is rare. 

I mentioned kitchen chores above, but it is worth talking about some of the unusual ones that can take more than a little time. Of course, we do not have an automatic dishwasher, so on weekends when our cook is not here, we need to do that. But the thing that really took time today was making dog food. There is no option here to buy pre-made dog or cat food so the process of preparing can take time and usually, we try to prepare quite a bit in advance. We start with 'dog rice' (poor quality) and make a gigantic vat of that, and either Rebecca or Yeshi will go to a local butcher to buy scrap bone and offal (very disgusting parts of the cow.) Today I cooked all of that then chopped it up into small pieces (about 5 kilos). This is then mixed with the rice and packed into ziplock bags and put in our deep freeze. 

For the cat, we can cheat a bit by buying dry food whenever we leave the country. A big bag lasts a while, but her main diet consists of cow lung. This is also purchased, whole and raw from the butcher and cooked and sliced into small pieces. Lung is a large unpleasant-smelling organ when cooked with some tough parts that take quite a bit of knife work to reduce. 

All that to say, the kitchen chores took quite a while and then I was diverted for several hours by the banjo. I don't know why, but I have become a bit of a banjo-holic and practice quite a bit in my free time. A background in classical guitar has helped, but learning bluegrass technique is a whole new skill set. This should give me many hours of amusement when I retire. (Also I hear that Beyonce's new country album features banjo, so maybe I'll even be trendy!)

The past two weeks might be described as 'routine' as far as work, goes-- as long as one defines 'routine' here as trying and failing to accomplish numerous bureaucratic tasks and spending many hours and days in govt offices. (Like banging one's head against a wall.) I could continue to detail the Kafkaesque saga of trying to get our car. And I do understand now that we are caught in a bureaucratic conundrum created by customs itself: In essence, there is a law that all private vehicles permitted for import must be electric, but that does not apply to NGOs, for which there is no such official prohibition. But the practice of customs is to prohibit all vehicles that are not electric from entering (because the law does not explicitly state who is allowed to import.) So the problem is, that

they will not allow the import of fueled vehicles without an official mandate to do so, and the offices that are supposed to grant the mandate do not see any reason to since these vehicles are not prohibited in the first place. I will stop there.

We did have some miraculously good news for our accountant Hana who was able to get an expedited passport in the style of the parable of the persistent widow who is granted her request by the 'unjust judge'. (Luke 18). Despite being literally beaten out of line at the beginning, by continually returning over at least 6 trips, she was able to get her passport. 

The occasion for needing it is a trip to Uganda next week to which our entire office team is invited. MCC is introducing a new financial and project database platform that we all need to be trained in. They have arranged for regional trainings all over the world, so several MCC programs from countries from East Africa are going to Uganda for 3 days of intensive training. We are kind of excited about getting to do this together, and it will be great to have everyone learning simultaneously. Hana's passport was about to expire so she would have had to miss the training altogether and do it virtually. Needless to say, we were ecstatic and thanked God for the mighty deed of getting a passport expedited here. (I would say it is tantamount to storming the gates of Hell!)

Fortunately, it is not all bad news. In the past two weeks, we have had several really good social events and meaningful times in church and with friends. David has a very nice cadre of companions, Nathan, Isaiah, and Peter. They have a standing playdate on Wednesdays and engage in creative activities, like constructing things out of bamboo, or candlewax, wood, etc. David, Nathan, Peter, and Isaiah are also participating in choir this year. Nathan is an excellent musician and singer, and the rest hold their own very well. We are going to do a choir concert and talent show in the late spring, it should be quite entertaining. 

The kids I teach in Sunday school also sing in church for communion service once per month. They usually do quite a few gestures and a bit of choreography and it is well appreciated by the adults. (I have not worked the banjo in yet.) 

We also had a big church event last weekend with our annual retreat! It was not the traditional church retreat we have had in the past. There is a very nice compound owned by SIM on a lake just outside of town about 45 minutes away. In the past several months though, travel out of Addis into Oromia has been considered very insecure because of kidnappings by the OLA. We took the advisory and were going to cancel, but realized there was a large compound owned by a Norwegian Lutheran mission located in Addis that could house us. So we decided to have it there and do an overnight. It turned out to be a blast (missing the swim in the lake notwithstanding). 

We had a huge volleyball tournament with all generations of players, then dinner, games, and folk dances (which had a bit of rain on them). We stayed the night there and had a church service on the compound the next morning (there is a large chapel there). We had our annual general meeting after the service and a catered lunch. The whole event was very well attended and people really seemed to enjoy being together. 

Wednesday this past week was the start of Lent, --Ash Wednesday. Thanks to Rebecca we had a really beautiful/creative service in collaboration with St. Matthews Anglican Church, where some of our close friends attend. (The parents of Peter, Nathan, and Isaiah). Despite the challenge of traffic jams caused by the start of the Africa Union meetings, the service was well attended. Rebecca has set up a service in 3 parts, Repentance, Lament, and a Reflection on mortality. Bishop Martin did the homily. Each part included Taize music and activities, like writing reasons for lament on a tablecloth on the altar, lighting a candle, molding clay to reflect on us being formed out of dust, and God our creator. There was also the imposition of ashes on the forehead of course. The aforementioned families were the musicians and had guitar and recorder along with piano. We could tell it was deeply appreciated

There were many other smaller things. We had a visit from Jacob, the Rep. from DRC who grew up in our house when his parents were MCC reps. We talked to Oren and he shared with excitement the thrill of getting paid for his work-study job. He is a chem lab assistant. We hope that will also contribute to him building a social community around himself. I am still getting used to the dynamic of only having a family of 3 in the house. I am sure many of you know what I mean. 

Oren with safety goggles