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