Postlude: The Realization of a Long Deferred Hope

Bereket arriving at Dulles

I lied. I said the last post would be my last one on the Ethiopia blog site. Rebecca has already created a new Kenya blog site and will probably post this week. But there needs to be a postscript. This is mainly because I returned to Addis for a final week of closure last week, and to wrap up some final aspects of handover. 

The week proved to be momentous in a number of ways that are worth recording here. 

Rebecca, David, and I returned from our home leave on August 5th, this time to Kenya. It was a start to our new life and we arrived in the late evening. Rebecca will recount the events of our first week in Nairobi, but I knew that I had one more trip to Ethiopia planned the following week to finish several tasks that had not been concluded prior to our departure in June. This included canceling my work and residence permits (a requirement by the govt. to keep our organization in good standing). I also needed to sign a few official documents over to the new Ethiopia Rep., bring some new computers and supplies from the US, and pick up the cat and bring it back!

Sisay at desk with former Reps
in photo.

Admittedly, some of these plans were based on our presumption that the new Ethiopia rep. would be an expatriate and would require a longer handover period. With Sisay taking over the role, some of the tasks related to his immigration status became irrelevant. 

One task that was added during our time in the US was a plan to accompany Bereket, our dear friend who actually got his US visa for attendance in College in the US (EMU). He went for the visa interview 2 days after we left. We did not have much hope despite momentous efforts to maximize his chances on the second attempt. And they did bear fruit. I received a Whatsapp at 2am saying he had been accepted!

(Aside: I relived the horrific moment 12 months before when I dropped him at the embassy and waited outside. After a year of applications for college, TOEFLs, SATs, getting IDs and a passport, only to be rejected days before his departure is almost too traumatic to relive. The drive back to our compound... The details are recounted here A Hope Deferred ). I since found out that the acceptance rate for F-1 visas for admitted students from Ethiopia is about 15% on the first try and less on the second. This was a miracle!)

Bereket's family

With this amazing news, I arranged a ticket to have Berket depart on the same morning I would return to Kenya so I could help get through immigration. He would be going to Dulles, but there were flights to both our destinations that were fairly close together. 

In addition to all of this, I planned to also move our last 6 50lb suitcases and the cat to Kenya on my flight out. That along with Bereket out of the country was sufficient for a fair amount of anxiety about departing at the end of the week. 

I flew out last Sunday evening. The trip from Nairobi to Addis is very short, less than 2 hours. I arrived and was met my Wondwesen, our Logistics Officer. I was really happy he wanted to pick me up as it made the trip back that much easier. I was fairly well loaded with stuff for Ethiopia that I intended to leave there. 

It was late when I arrived. When I arrived in the compound I was greeted profusely by Fikre one of our guards and even more so by Bella and Friday our dogs. Sisay and his family were already asleep as it was late, and I did not want to disturb them. The plan was for me to stay in the guest container. It was a nice bookend to my first arrival during the handover from Bruce and Rose. I spent 2 weeks there before eventually moving into the house. It is not uncomfortable and Friday (the dog) and Charly (the cat) were happy to join me on the bed the first night. (although they were not very keen on sharing between each other.)

The next morning I joined Sisay and his wife Tazita for breakfast in the house. It was pretty much exactly how we left it except that they had bought some new living room furniture (This was a year overdue!) They seemed to be very comfortable and I was happy they had settled into it so well. Yeshi the cook arrived a bit later as well as the MCC staff. It was good to greet everyone, and I had a fair amount of work to do in the office in the morning. 

The first order of business though was to go with Wonde to the Labor office and begin the process of cancelling the work permit. They claim to have a very streamlined process, that is supposed to be entirely online, but it does not work. Predictably we spent about 8 hours there on Monday and did not complete-- being asked for things that were not listed as required on the website. Wonde went back on Tuesday and finished the job and honestly, I don't think any expatriate has succeeded in canceling their work permit in less than 24 hours as we did. This is thanks to Wonde nurturing connections in all of these offices. (Still, I was glad that as an Ethiopian, Sisay would not need to go through any of this process!)

After canceling a work permit, the next step in the process is to cancel my residence permit and obtain an exit visa so I can leave the country legally. One might think that once the work permit was cancelled this process would be fairly automatic, but it is not. In fact, the immigration office has been making this process very difficult for expats, and it can take over a week even when the request is accepted. You can pay a high fee for an expedited process though, which is what I intended to do. 

Wonde and I have coffee after 
failing at immigration

To say the 2 days spent trying to complete this process as traumatic, is an understatement. I can only describe the immigration officer who was to give final approval as malevolent. 3 times I stood in line to have my documents checked by a person at another desk only to be rejected in the next line by this man. Even the person at the document approval desk could not figure out the problem. After 3 tries of not explaining the problem, he told me that as Country Director, I was not authorized to approve myself for departure. Only a new Country Director could do so, but that person had to present fully authenticated documents from the US that he was the new Director. This request was entirely impossible to fulfill within 3 days or even a month. The authentication of a contract and Power of Attorney coming from the US takes over a month to arrive. Sisay was therefore not authorized to approve my departure either. 

Checkmate. They had actually created an impossible situation for me. I had to leave Saturday. I could not get an exit visa for a month. My only option was to leave again with my residence permit (it had not been canceled since my application was not approved). But since I am not coming back, Wonde will have to clear this permit in my absence next month. This will cost MCC Ethiopia a hefty fine. And if he does not do so and I ever return to Ethiopia I am likely to be arrested. It was very distressing to realize that I would have to leave in these circumstances, but I had no choice. 

Having failed completely at immigration had the minimum value of allowing me to use the rest of the week to do many of the other tasks at hand. And there were many. One thing I needed to do with Sisay was to go to some meetings with partners for final handover discussions. This became extremely important the currency had devalued 100% in the past 2 weeks. This completely annulled the Grant Agreements we had with several partners that had grants based on the previous birr value to the USD. We had productive meetings with Food for the Hungry and Action Against Hunger about their project grants. The floating birr means that MCCE can have a USD account in country. This has never been possible in Ethiopia and has huge implications for the program grant distributions and MOUs going forward. 

I admit, I am sighing some relief that this particular issue is not my problem. Kenya has enough challenges that I will need to deal with. The Ethiopia program has even more. I am really thinking that God's hand was in the timing of our departure to have an Ethiopian Country Director at this time. I think Sisay is particularly well qualified for the challenges that are coming up in Ethiopia. 

Among the other tasks on my checklist was a dinner with Bereket to describe in detail what it is like to walk into an airport, go through security, check-in, immigration, and get on a plane. He has never done any of those. While I was planning to be in the airport with him, there was no guarantee we could be together long. I let him know there were bathrooms on a plane, the food was free, there were movies to watch, and turbulence was not dangerous. I am guessing those last few days before departure were completely surreal for him. 

I also had a chance to go over to his house. His dad Muluneh, is one of our house security guards and has been with MCC for about 20 years. He and his wife Yelfign graciously invited me and Sisay over with Bereket to their house. We had a nice Ethiopian meal and talked about ways they could communicate with Bereket. They cannot speak or read English but Bereket left them a smartphone with Whatsapp so they can at least call, and receive photographs. We talked a long time about Bereket leaving. His parents truthfully, are thrilled he can have this opportunity, and thanked MCC for the help we all gave in making this opportunity possible. 

I made a number of contacts with our vet, and a vet. service in Kenya to be sure Charly had all the correct documentation to travel. This was a point of great stress as I feared the cat's documentation might prevent me from getting on the plane on Saturday morning. I was assured all was in order and I was to bring her to the ticket window and she would go in cargo. I had to trust this was true. 

On the second to last day I became very anxious about imagining traveling with 6 large suitcases. a backpack, carry-on suitcase and a cat. I did not think it was possible. On an impulse I drove to the enormous Ethiopian Cargo hangars and asked if I could ship 4 suitcases airfreight. When I pulled up in my car to one of about 30 truck bays and wandered in, with no help from my logistics officer, I think they thought I was insane. So a kind clearing agent directed me through a process that went to half a dozen different offices and people in different places, over about 3 hours. But at no point was I prevented from accomplishing the task. I could not believe it. I succeeded in getting my 4 bags into airfreight all by myself!! It was the opposite of the immigration experience. 

That gave me peace of mind, knowing that I would only have 2 suitcases to manage with the cat when I left. That night I met some of our staff (Wonde, Hannah, Gulma) at a restaurant for a goodbye meal. It was really great to hang out with them. 

Friday was one of the meeting days in the morning, and I had a last supper at the home of our cook Yeshi who also invited Sisay and his family. I was relieved Sisay was there since Yeshi was set on stuffing us with enjera and doro wot, and I knew I could not eat a lot of it myself. Sisay's family helped eat all the extra helpings we were served. It was a good end to the week. 

Wonde took Bereket and me to the airport at 5 am the next morning. I kept the cat in my container all night so I could find her in the morning. I put her in the cage, got my bags, and Bereket, Wonde, me, and Bereket's parents drove to the airport. We said tearful goodbyes at the departure terminal, and Bereket and I went in. 

Departure from Addis with Barry's parents

I feel I got the best karmic payback for all the hurdles I faced up to that point. At the airport, everything went perfectly! We got through security easily. At the ticket counter, the agent asked if I wanted to take Charley in the cabin for about $150 less than in cargo. I was thrilled to oblige. Bereket went through immigration without a hitch. They stamped his passport without a question and he got to his gate and boarded his plane. (there are horror stories about Ethiopians with new passports being harassed by immigration officers). I had about a 2 hour wait then boarded mine. Charley was able to be tucked under an empty seat beside me. She was surprisingly calm--like she knew she was going on a journey--and that journey was going to bring her back to our family. She did not meow or complain. She sat contentedly in the cage on the flight. 

At the airport in Nairobi, I was treated like a VIP. The vet service met me as I exited the plane, bringing with them Charley's entry permit. They then escorted me to the front of the UN immigration line and down to baggage claim. Rebecca eventually met me there and we left with my bags and Charly, back to our apartment in Nairobi. 

By that time I knew Bereket was about halfway through his journey, and I was watching my flight tracker until I saw his plane landing at about 2am our time. Whatsapp lit up as Jean (Rebecca's mom) and Oren were meeting Barry at Dulles. They had photos of him coming out the doors at Dulles. (No problem at immigration). They drove him down to Harrisonburg Virginia that night where he rejoined his host family-- former Reps. Bruce and Rose and their son Jacob, Bereket's other friend. 

It was a true answer to prayer to see the photo I received the next morning, of all of them together. 

Oren, Jacob, Rose, Bruce, Bereket in Harrisonburg VA

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. 

Hebrews 11:1

This is the end of our Ethiopia journey. 

Memory Stuffed Interval Between Two Assigments

Too short. That could sum up our entire summer break in the US this year. For that reason alone, we have not managed to put up a single update here this whole summer break. This blog will also need to serve as our last entry in the Paul and Rebecca Mosley in Ethiopia blog space. Actually, our assignment ended on August 1st and we are no longer connected to the MCC Ethiopia email. That firehose is now going into the very capable hands of the new Ethiopia Rep, Sisay. 

We have mixed feelings about the hand-off as Rebecca and I needed to spend many hours in our last week here making sure we had done all we could for a good hand-over. We cleaned up online files, the program database, completed the transition manual etc. We had started hand-over in our last month in Ethiopia and have 2 more weeks with Sisay: one week in Kenya, and one week with me in Ethiopia. But Ethiopia has not made the hand-over simple for the receiver. Last week the currency devalued by nearly 50% in one day. This is because the govt. has been required to stop fixing the exchange rate and let the birr float to its true FOREX market value before they can receive debt relief from the IMF. Sustaining an artificially low rate for years, as Ethiopia did, is a recipe for economic catastrophe, and correction is necessary but comes at a huge cost to ordinary citizens who experience the changed rate all at once rather than bit by bit over several years. “Unleashing market forces” is a lot like an economy in a hurricane.

Needless to say, this throws all of our grants and salaries completely out of whack. We need to try to adjust quickly to the anticipated inflation rate, but the currency is likely to swing wildly up and down for the next several weeks before finding its true rate. It is a huge mess to manage for Sisay who must work with our area directors to evaluate the changes, then have partners redo all budgets, sign new project agreements, and renegotiate all MCC staff salaries. I can't think of a more challenging situation we could have handed off, and it all happened a couple days before we were officially cut off as reps, so we cannot be of much help. Honestly, it was a bit eerie when I opened my computer Thursday morning and found that the Ethiopiarep positional email was no longer accessible to me. I had a sense of sadness and relief, all at the same time. 

I shouldn't make it sound like we are getting off easy though. On the same morning, the Kenya/TZ Rep emails started arriving and I am fully authorized (and required) to receive and answer the Kenya/TZ Rep emails. 

Let me step away from work now and talk about the past 4.5 weeks. I will say, that true to form, I am sitting in Dulles airport, waiting to board our flight to Brussels and onwards to Nairobi in about 2 hours. (I say true to form because it is usually at these junctures that we finally have some time to sit and reflect.) Oren and David Sack (Rebecca's dad) drove out with us to bring the car back. It is still an odd feeling that Oren is not getting on the plane with us. It was hard to say goodbye to him at the van and go into the departures terminal. Our time this summer was short because we were transitioning between two jobs and had to extend at the end of our time in Ethiopia, then start up in Kenya for David's school next week. Although we did almost everything with Oren, there was not much time spent alone with him during our curtailed time in the US. 

We started off well though, as far as time with Oren. We arrived the night before Oren's birthday and bought him a bunch of gifts from duty-free stores in Nairobi and Brussels. David went all out and got him a really cool replica of the shark submarine from Tintin's Red Rackham’s Treasure. I got him a stuffed Snowy doll. (Those who read Tintin books will know what these are.) We had a nice party with grandparents the next day. Oren chose a nostalgic trip to the Baltimore zoo for a family outing. It was actually a lot of fun for just our family. We have nearly two decades of zoo memories, and it was fun to stroll through them as we visited the animals. Oren and David tried on some classic photo shots, like sitting on the lion at the entrance, and sitting in the huge birds’ nests in the Maryland exhibit. Needless to say, they can no longer sit to together in either of these! We also had our first of many meals of grilled salmon and corn on the cob-- our favorite summer meal. 

We planned to spend our first week in Baltimore with Rebecca's parents Dave and Jean. Their house has been our most consistent base point when we are back as they have 2 guest rooms to accommodate us. Oren has been staying this summer with his Uncle Paul’s family, but did move over to Dave and Jean's house when we arrived. He has struggled to find summer employment on a steady basis. 

We scheduled all of our doctor visits and other required appointments (getting a criminal background check for our new position as well as many documents notarized.) Fortunately, Dave and Jean can make one of their vehicles available to us, and we ran around town over the week doing various shopping and business trips. We were also able to see my parents several times during the week at their nearby retirement community.

The other great thing about staying at Dave and Jean's is their proximity to the Little Gunpowder River and the woods surrounding it full of trails. Rebecca likes to walk and run in the woods; David and I really like to fish. We can dig up a dozen worms in about 30 seconds and fish for smallmouth bass, brook trout, and bluegills. David even caught a 2-foot eel! (Fortunately, it came off the hook before I had to remove it – I was not keen on doing that.)

 

We went on Sunday to North Baltimore Mennonite Church, our home church, and heard our former boss, Ruth Clemens, share about the vanishing art of Christian hospitality and its importance in building the body of Christ. (Are we growing more and more isolated from each other in this digital age? Can we continue to affirm our community values through simple hospitality? meeting together-- sharing food, potlucks?) Afterwards Oren had us go out to a Korean BBQ he had tried with grandparents. It was an interesting kind of K-pop fusion restaurant, the likes of which I have never seen.

I should add a note that Rebecca started to feel sick by our second day in Baltimore and tested positive for COVID. Almost miraculously, none of the rest of us got it, and that included 4 elderly grandparents! Fortunately, her symptoms remained mild.

The second week promised to be a highlight. Ever since 2020, we have made a connection with some acquaintances who have made a lovely Swiss chalet-style Bay house available to us for a week. We love the retro 1970s Brady Bunch decor, and the huge windows overlooking the Chesapeake Bay. It is so comfortable to be in, and they have this incredible oversized croquet set that is awesome to play. The Bay is just a hundred feet away, and we bring our stand-up paddleboard, kayak, canoe, and fishing gear down to use during the week. We also invite friends to visit us.

This year, in what has become tradition, our friend Jennifer, a former MCCer from our Burundi days, came and spent the week with us. It was great to see her. She has continued to work as a humanitarian worker and has been living in Ukraine working for NRC. She was in a job transition in the week she was with us, but also came with many stories and updates from old friends and is always ready for good political debate. Another former Burundi MCCer, Melody, joined us as well on the first night with her husband Alexis and 2 kids; we have not seen the family for several years. It was good to catch up with them as well and Melody is back with MCC as Peace Programs coordinator.

At midweek, my brother Jonathan and his son Fletcher came out for 3 days. We really enjoy getting together with his family (although his wife Emma had to stay home and work). He is a geneticist at Vanderbilt, but when he comes out he is a jazz, rock, bluegrass guitarist. One thing I did not mention at the beginning, but having been playing Banjo since this past December, I ordered a better one (Deering Good Times 2). Jonathan also brought out a guitar and banjo and we had several opportunities to jam with me, him, David, and Rebecca. We worked on some bluegrass, as well as some oldies. Not enough time to really get anything great together (possible exception was “Wagon Wheel”). We played croquet, grilled salmon, played some new games including one called ‘Telestrations’—a fun combination of the ‘telephone’ game and ‘Pictionary’.

We had parents visit midweek for Rebecca’s Birthday and our Anniversary.

Jonathan and Fletcher left on Saturday morning with David and Oren for our next destination. We had planned a Mosley family reunion earlier this year at a place called Lake Anna in Virginia. We rented a vacation rental that started that Saturday. Jonathan and the kids went on while Rebecca and I cleaned the previous place.

It was about a 4-hour drive away and Rebecca and I arrived that evening. It was a huge place with a boat house right on a really nice lake. We could fish, kayak, and paddleboard. The Mosley family reunion was going to include all children (me and my 2 brothers Jonathan and Mark) with our wives, as well as all the grandchildren. (Only one could not come because she just had a baby.) It was a really amazing time. We don’t get to see my brother Mark and his wife Christine often since they are in North Carolina and cannot always get away from work. Their second daughter Grace came as well. It has been even longer since we saw her. I don’t think my kids even remember their cousins in that family well at all. Emma and Fletcher, Jonathan’s wife and son were all there. They just got a new dog and had some truly squeamish stories to tell about roundworms.

It meant a lot to my parents too. They are both still very much alive but are losing some capacity. So being able to connect with the whole family at once was a rare treat. Except for the weather… it was stinkin’ hot. 100 degrees F. Fortunately, the inside of the house was very cool with multi-levels of activities including Ping-Pong, pool table, satellite TV, and an excellent kitchen.

On our second day all together, the young folk (that included me and my brothers and wives and all cousins) went to King’s Dominion—a very cool amusement park. It was a really hot day and I was worried about the length of lines to get on a roller coaster (there were about 9 coasters). I have to say, my memory of going to amusement parks and waiting over an hour for one ride was very much in my mind (from the 1980s). I don’t know if it was heat, but the park seemed empty! There were no lines for any ride, even the most exciting ones. I think people just did not want to go out in the heat.

Fortunately, they also have a waterpark. From midday to afternoon we went there to cool off in the lazy river, wave pool, and slides. I went on one slide that began as a vertical drop when a trap door opens beneath you—very intense! The only problem with the slides is you had to go barefoot which meant there were about 100 meters of hot pavement to run to go up the ladder. It was insanely hot, and we only went down about 3 times each because of it.

On rollercoasters: I have ridden roller coasters since I was a kid. And I like to ride them all. The problem is that the extreme factor seems to be the only direction to go outside of the full-immersion parks like Disney or Universal Studios. The biggest one at Kings Dominion hits 4.5 Gs at the bottom of the big hill and bends back upwards. The experience is a near black-out. Just as you begin to lose consciousness you crest the next hill and the blood comes back to your head. I checked with Oren and Fletcher and we all had the same experience. This is a feature, not a defect. Fletcher immediately went 2 more times. I am fine with the thrills but it did not seem to be so much thrilling as just weird. I don’t know how many more years of roller coasters are in me these days.

It was a great day, although the downer at the end was losing my keys (on a roller coaster I am sure) and having to have a locksmith come to the parking lot to get us back in the car. Despite that, it was one of the best amusement park days we all had. All of us had a great time.

David and I went fishing a number of times along with cousin Fletcher. We caught several really big catfish in the marshes near our rental. It was fun to catch them, although we did not keep them, as I am not a big fan of catfish meat. Rebecca really enjoyed going out on one of the kayaks at the rental and birdwatching in the quiet evening.

My brother Mark made us a great steak dinner one evening, and we played a lot of games, watched Dune 2 and generally had a great time together. One of the big highlights on our last full day was renting a pontoon boat that could pull an innertube. Jonathan (my brother), Oren, David, Christine (Mark's wife) and Rebecca, all went out and we had a great time riding the innertube. From my childhood I remember being pulled around behind my great uncle's boat. The idea was seeing if the rider can be tossed off by wakes and tight turns. All of us took at least one turn riding and with Jonathan and Rebecca driving, had a thrilling experience. 

We left on the following Saturday having had a great week, each of us going our own way. Our family returned to Dave and Jean’s house to catch up on MCC work. There were many standard work tasks and a team meeting we needed to attend, but we also had some relational times. We did have one evening with friends Chris, Lisa, and Ella, fellow travelers (missionaries) from the past. It is always great to commiserate with them about the challenges of cross-cultural child-rearing, etc.

On our last weekend we had one more opportunity to go out to the Chesapeake Bay for 2 nights to Charter Hall, a retreat center co-owned by Rebecca's family. We invited a number of friends from our past. Both sets of grandparents came with some family friends from that generation. We also had 2 sets of friends from Rebecca's college days-- Amy and Adam with family, and Margaret and Mike with family. It has been many years since our kids have been together, and although kids did not remember each other well, they quickly made connections. We did some singing with guitar and banjo, and a lot of kayaking and canoeing and stand-up paddle boarding. We canoed up to a bridge at the end of the estuary which is a great fishing spot and David and I both caught some huge catfish. (We did not keep them.) It seems like catfish were a consistent theme throughout our fishing excursions this summer. It was a short time together but we enjoyed cooking, playing games, singing, and sitting around a campfire by the dock together. Another reminder that the summer break passed too quickly. 

Our last week we were given an opportunity to house (and dog) sit for Rebecca’s brother’s family who were going on vacation in Delaware. They have a great house and left us two small dogs to watch. This is the week where we heard about the currency devaluation just days before the end of our term. We had several meetings with staff Sisay and Area Directors to decide a way forward. This was also the week we frantically tried to be sure that our database and transition manual were up to date.  I think the kids were frustrated by how much we had to work until the email cut off on Wednesday night. And then we got about 2 relaxing days of fishing, biking, exercising, watching the Olympics (Simone Biles!), cooking, and meeting some final friends that we had missed to that point.

We did get to see our subletters who live in the same neighborhood. We rent our house in the US to some very dear Ethiopian friends and it was good to catch up with them and talk about the state of the country in Ethiopia. They made us Ethiopian food (which somehow tasted better than Ethiopian food in Ethiopia). They are probably more used to the American palette that does not love the sour fermented taste of everything. It was good to see them and talk about the future. It is hard to believe we have been renting our house to them since 2017.

We also had a quick visit from some old friends from our New York days. Courtenay came with her two kids Asa and Alexander. Asa and Oren were born very close together in Poughkeepsie. They had not seen each other for at least a decade. It was a nice surprise to have this serendipitous visit as they were passing through Maryland on the way from New York to Virginia. 

When Paul Sack’s family got back we had a final meal and talk with them then moved back to Rebeca’s parents’ for our last night. My parents came over and we had a big salmon dinner and a time of prayer. It was hard to believe that it was already over. (or that it had even happened!)

We did our best to leave everything in good condition. We had done yard work at their house, and hopefully left things looking good.

This blog is being completed on Brussels Air over the Atlantic. A fairly uncomfortable plane on this leg. 

We will start a new blog for the next phase of our lives.

Bonus Photos: