Paul and Rebecca Mosley in Ethiopia: 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!)