Paul and Rebecca Mosley in Ethiopia: Nature Positive Solutions and A Flurry of Social Events

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As nice as it would have been to do an end-of-April blog entry, but life has been beyond busy. As readers know from the last entry, we made a momentous decision to move to Kenya in August. With that has come a whirlwind of responsibilities and 'urgencies' that were lying dormant for the past 2 years. Many of them are facing the immovable edifice of the Ethiopian bureaucracy, including trying to get the MCC car, now in customs limbo for 8 months, into our hands. There is also a similar problem with the title deed to MCC property which has never been fully resolved (since the 1970s!). While we are not likely to complete any of these tasks, we need to 'sow seeds' that others may harvest in the future. Along with all of this, there are processes with immigration of getting exit visas (yes being allowed to leave is not a process without complexities) and I have had to renew my work and residence permit since I am likely to need to be working here until the end of August, before new Reps take over.

Other MCC work with partners has also reached a climax with many meetings and field visits necessary. I was out for a week in Southern Ethiopia, in the city of Soddo for a conference on a large Global Affairs Canada grant that two of our partners are sharing along with several others in Ethiopia, Kenya and Zimbabwe. Nature Positive Solutions is the name of the program and it is the latest trend in food security/climate-sensitive development initiatives.

Nature positive is actually a very exciting concept and I have been on a steep learning curve in understanding the approach. In essence, it begins with a detailed analysis of a landscape. A landscape has an expanded definition beyond the scope of a geological feature. It includes the relations of all natural and human activity in a defined area, and the ways in which they interact. It is a holistic approach to developing, through natural restoration, a sustainable life for humans and the environment to mutually support each other. It can include watershed rehabilitation through gulley stabilization, controlled grazing of livestock, tree planting, re-introducing biodiversity of indigenous vegetation, farmer-managed natural resources (like indigenous fruit trees), conservation agriculture, etc.

The difference from our traditional food security project is that the impact objectives would look beyond simply an increase in food production and consumption in a household. It measures also, the sustainable natural restoration of the landscape to promote improved livelihood for all its inhabitants.

It may sound a bit overly complex, but a good example would be coastal areas where mangrove forests are restored leading to a restoration of fish populations which in turn leads to a return of the fishing industry in a nearby village. Without restoring the natural landscape, sustainable human economic activity was not possible.

So with that in mind, I attended this conference with two of our food security partners who are on the verge of beginning their activities. The conference featured presentations by other organizations in other countries and Ethiopia who have been implementing similar projects. It is honestly quite impressive to hear about how they have impacted the landscapes and communities in which they work. One of the more impressive presentations talked about how some communities are benefiting financially by receiving carbon offset credits. (If you are an environmentalist you know what these are) through programs such as 'Participatory Forest Management (PFM)" where local communities restore and care for a forest in their landscape (instead of cutting it all down for building and firewood). One project had restored and were caring for 550,000 hectares of forest in Southern Ethiopia, and received regular sums of money at the household level through carbon sequestration credits they are awarded.

It was good to be with many colleagues and we were able to go out on a field visit one day to see landscape work of one of our co-partners. I visited a self help group that had changed their farming technique to conservation agriculture and increased their crop yields by nearly 100%. I listened to one farmer telling me he used to buy lots of fertilizer for 5 hectares of land and the entire yield was eaten by his household, and still another 4 quintals of corn had to be bought to feed them through the year. Now, with much less fertilizer, his same field produces a surplus of about 8 quintals which he can sell for profit.

With the increase of wealth, and mutual savings the group built a warehouse to store grain together, creating a market aggregation group. The problem in the past was, when one farmer took his surplus to the market, he had to pay for transport for his grain. When he/she got there, the merchants would offer such a low price, that it was not worth it to sell because it did not even pay for the cost of transport. They would just leave it there as they could not even bring it home to eat. (they would get the lowest prices at harvest time because they could not store it at their farm until a time of market scarcity.)

With a number of them now producing a surplus, and the aid of a small grant to build a small warehouse, they safely stored their grain together. When prices began to go up, merchants would actually come to the warehouse to buy grain, eliminating transport costs for the farmers, and they got a premium price for their larger quantity of grain. With increased money they could buy more seed and other inputs and have been able to improve their lives. They have also planted fruit trees and other trees around their fields as well as fodder crops so they can stop free grazing of cattle which can destroy land. It is really impressive to see the economic interaction of people with their environment in such a clear success story.

On the last evening we had a big celebration (over 100 of us were in attendance). It included a lot of traditional Ethiopian dancing presented by performers from Soddo, although when the Kenyans, Zimbabweans, and Rwandans saw the dancing, they all took turns doing dances from their own countries. It had been quite a ho-down by the time we were finished.

I was very ready to come back after being away from Addis for 6 days, but was glad to have attended, and did get to meet some of the Kenya partners I will be working with when we make our move.

That is probably the most interesting activity on the work front. Socially the end of April was packed, and Rebecca has provided a summary of events below.

Since we made the decision to take a new position in Kenya, life has not slowed down in any way. Eyerusalem is our accountant. On the same week that we announced our coming resignation, she let us know that her husband Moses had finally gotten his visa to go to Canada and take the job with MCC British Columbia that he was offered last year. Their son Jeremy also was given the visa, and Eyerus was asked to go through some other processes. Within two weeks, she received the answer to prayer she had been waiting for: she was granted her visa as well! We had already begun to prepare ourselves to do a very quick recruitment process and so we posted the open position the next day. It has been a stressful process to get someone recruited in short order, but somehow we have managed it. The offer was just accepted yesterday.

And so, we needed to add a bittersweet event into our team schedule: a farewell party for Eyerus and Moses. Our whole team has been overwhelmed with work tasks, so this time, we ordered a special Chinese meal and just enjoyed more time to visit with one another. All our guards attended along with our program staff, housekeeper and substitute, and even two former employees, Mesfin and Sisay. We had time for some heartfelt speeches of appreciation for Eyerus and prayers of blessing for her. It was a sweet time together.

Yeshi and Mimi

The one person who missed the entire party was Wondwesen, our logistics officer. It was incredibly sad because he is always the life of any party. But he was completely jammed up, trying to finish the process for Paul to renew his work permit and then get a resident visa before leaving the country on May 1. There are systems in Ethiopia that used to work predictably, if bureaucratically, which have now gotten jammed up in really unspeakable ways. I can’t even begin to count the hours and useless trips across town that were required before Wonde was finally able to to produce the prize of a Resident Visa for Paul, one day before travel. He had already helped David and I to process exit visas the week before, a quest which went a little better and only took three hours in immigration.

Women's bible study

It is a season of farewells from all corners. Somehow, many of us have made the decision that this is the time to leave Ethiopia. We had one farewell acknowledgment in our women’s bible study on Friday morning. In the evening, we celebrated together with Liz Polk as she and her family prepared to go at the end of May. She had originally planned to have a party to celebrate the purchase of a washing machine; and then in the end, after much pain and suffering and searching, she did not purchase the machine because her family decided to leave. But she held the party anyway. Liz is one who takes very seriously the title of one of her favorite books, “Every Moment Holy.” So we began our gathering of middle-aged women with Liz leading us in liturgy, and I have to quote a few of my favorite lines from this astonishing prayer:

“To gather joyfully is indeed a serious affair, for feasting and all enjoyments gratefully take are, at the heart, acts of war.

All will be well!
Nothing good and right and true
will be lost forever.

In celebrating this feast we declare that evil and death, suffering and loss, sorrow and tears, will not have the final word….

Take joy! Let battle be joined!”

The food was amazing, the conversation uplifting and the music we shared very joyful. I am truly a better person for having enjoyed the company of these incredible women, who opened their hearts to me for friendship in just the three short years we have been in Addis.

Together with Liz around her broken washer

Community choir

Another major event finally came together on the last weekend of April: our choir has been preparing for our spring concert since January. This year, it was paired with a student-oriented Talent Show, featuring kids from Bingham Academy. Bingham has not really had any opportunity for high school and middle school students to share their gifts for about 5-6 years. Our Friend Lori really was amazing in getting the ball rolling and organizing event, hosting tryouts and rehearsals for the students who made the cut. I had the privilege of trying to assist as a parent in the talent show rehearsals, and I was so impressed with the ways Lori was able to give students constructive feedback, pushing them to take it up a notch, without dampening their confidence and enthusiasm to try something new.

Chamber Choir

For example, there were about 5 solo singers in the group, and during our first run-through, every one of them just stood stock still on the stage, clutching the mic and mostly looking at their phones to remember the words. Lori let them know, in a very funny way, that standing still during a solo was “Entertainment death.” They all needed to figure out how to use movement and gesture to bring more life to their performances. It is a lot to ask middle school students to release their self-consciousness and just be dramatic.

Three finalists -- all fabulous

The kids slowly warmed up to the idea as well. There was a lot of work to do with the stage crew, getting mics in the right places, and moving props on and off. We had drama involving the availability of the sound system. It was an arduous process to get every aspect of the Talent show ready.

By Saturday night, all of us took it up a notch. I really loved seeing the students shine and perform even better than they had in the rehearsals I’d witnessed. The choir was pretty much together! There were some songs we sang the best we had ever done them. It was overall a really wonderful and joyful experience together. There were certificates and there was judging, which to me was not really necessary. But I guess the student winners appreciate the competition. David ended up with 2^nd prize, and he also sang better than he ever had, with a lot of feeling and depth. HEre is a link to his performance. https://www.facebook.com/paul.d.mosley/videos/1535444557048892

Redeemer moving crew

One final big event: our church, Redeemer, celebrated our moving day on May 1. It was a public holiday and so many of us had the day off from our normal work. We had a very big crew of workers who showed up at our original building, opened in 1963. Parents and kids and teens and singles all worked together, loaded up cars of furniture and craft supplies, and said farewell to our old building. And then we headed to the new place. It has a smaller and cozy chapel which now looks quite nice. We are renting an apartment that will serve as a Sunday school and office space. It’s quite different and perhaps not quite as convenient, and yet it opens up new possibilities for fellowship and worship in a more informal setting. It was again a joyful time to work together, load, lift, clean, arrange, and then enjoy pizza together. I am truly thankful for this church community we’ve made in Addis.

Bonus photos!