Renewing for the New Year

 

A walk in the Tigoni tea fields

Happy New Year! Greetings from the tarmac of Kilimanjaro International Airport, where we are about to take off for Addis again. This is my favorite place to write blogs apparently, in an airplane seat, looking back and reflecting on what has just happened over the past two weeks during the brief transition in between.

At last writing, it was just before Christmas, and I had been diagnosed with COVID. Thankfully, I was not very ill – but still felt quite contagious through most of Christmas Weekend. So, I tried to stay outside and wore a mask in the house. 

Roast chicken chefs

My illness meant that we could not participate in a 4-family gathering we had really been looking forward to. We had already bought a fresh chicken and made cranberry sauce from craisins (look it up! It’s pretty good for us overseas Americans). And yet it was a very interesting opportunity for Oren and David to really take the lead on a lot of traditional Christmas cooking, because I was trying not to be in the kitchen or touch food. So, Oren, together with his friend Barry, prepared an excellent roast chicken for Friday night. On Saturday morning, the boys worked out together how to make a triple batch of sweet dough and formed it into cinnamon rolls with their friends. Paul was master of ceremonies in terms of baking and constructing a home-made gingerbread house. The boys were happy to decorate it thoroughly!

Gingerbread house

In the late afternoon on Christmas Eve, Paul, Oren, and David headed off to participate in our family church service, a service I had been preparing to lead. But with people planning travel the next day and those with pre-existing conditions in our church, I didn’t feel it was right to go and share my germs. I am very thankful for my co-worker in the vineyard, Bob, who took on leading that service as well as the one on Christmas morning. It was quite strange to be alone at home as the sun set on Christmas Eve. And yet it also was something of a gift. 

Christmas Eve scene in our home

I absolutely love listening to the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols from King’s college, and I have taken it as my own meditative practice annually for many years. As it turned out, COVID allowed me the backhanded reward of that introverted celebration. We finished our annual Advent readings as a family when the men came home and then went to bed.

Our Christmas morning was quiet. We were incredibly blessed to have some actual Christmas gifts to unwrap, thanks to our Ethiopian friend and Timonium house tenant, who had come for a visit home to Addis and had brought a few things from our families. 

Christmas morning gifts

Paul had also found a very special import shop that carried Cheerios, Jiff peanut butter and maple syrup – the little things become incredibly special in Ethiopia. I gave out invitations to my family members to special outings, but I did find a simple, local fire pit for David. And our big family gift to one another was a home-made Corn Hole set. Paul and Oren put together the platforms. I worked on the bean bags, trying to transform a pair of old pants. Unfortunately, the sewing of the local seamstress did not hold up and a few of the bags split within the first 3 throws. David and Barry were picking up (and counting) 154 black beans at least per split bag. We would need another solution to have a real game ready to go…

An abbreviated round of cornhole

Mid-afternoon, we welcomed our British friends, the Myers, to come and play games in the garden – they also were not super well, so we decided to share our illnesses (or just care less about them). A younger German couple also joined us – they had been our neighbors for a year before moving. And it was a really nice time to play Kubbs, trying out some of the games my brother had sent, and also play a 4 bean bag version of Corn Hole. The Myers helped to bring some significant old-world charm to our Christmas feast. We all stood around the table and pulled open Christmas crackers in the required cross-armed fashion. Katy made chicken with Yorkshire Pudding, bread sauce and a “well-fed” Christmas pudding for dessert. We listened to the King’s Speech on BBC, and missed his mother more. In spite of being different than we had expected, it was a good Christmas day celebration with friends.

Pulling the Christmas crackers

Christmas on Dec 25 is not an Ethiopian holiday, so Monday was a normal workday, and we really needed it in order to be prepared to leave on vacation Tuesday. Paul and I spent all day in the office trying to remember all the most necessary tasks, signing and stamping all the important letters and making sure our team felt adequately supported for our absence. I had the most tangible case of brain fog I think I have ever experienced, though I felt better physically, so it was hard to think straight. COVID can really take you by surprise. And Tuesday morning, we left early for the airport to start on our East Africa break.

Kristen with their youngest at landlord house

Our first stop was in the environs of Nairobi. We ended up at Brackenhurst Conference Center, but passed through one of Nairobi’s many malls very expeditiously (our plane was 3 hours late) for some sporting goods and a few key groceries. Sadly, no bean bags could be found at Decathlon. We went on to spend the evening with our Area Directors Kristen and Wawa. It was our first time to visit their amazing home, surrounded by Tigoni tea fields. They are renting an old colonial cottage for a great price in a big, green yard. Previously, they had worked in hospitality, running a boutique guesthouse. When they ended that business, the furniture came with them, and their house is exquisite, in a very simple way. David loved playing softball in the yard with their three older kids and trading riddles. Oren was really engaged in talking about college with them. We took a lovely stroll through their gardens, past the main house, and enjoyed having a delicious dinner by their fireplace. Later in the evening, Wawa helped to get us over to nearby Brackenhurst and we found our rooms.

reconnecting with good friends

Wednesday was the beginning of the Renew Conference, which was the main reason we had decided to come to Kenya in the first place. A little background: our closest friends in Arusha, the Taylors, have been part of Renew since they moved to East Africa nine years ago. We finally decided to join them for the Conference in 2019. It was such a great experience, to enjoy good teaching, really interesting conversations with fellow Christian workers, all in such a beautiful, refreshing location, in the forest and tea plantations. We had planned to attend in December 2020, but COVID. 

Music team at Renew

In 2021, we were back in Arusha because of the evacuation. Renew still could not meet in person but we joined the Taylors in helping to prepare music for an online conference day and we did an interview about our experience of moving to another country in the midst of such uncertainty. Katie invited me to join the committee that January. We had just moved to Addis, and it seemed like a good idea to make a commitment to join the committee and attend Renew in 2022, so we could all see our good friends again. Of course, along the way, back in Addis, a majorly huge set of church commitments came up. That made it a bit tough to keep up with late night committee meetings at various times during the year. Still, it was really a joy to keep connecting with Katie and another old friend from Burundi days, Alison. So, we had planned a year in advance to be in Nairobi by December 28, 2022.

Kids playing Spike ball

For full disclosure, this turned out to be a somewhat costly commitment. Midway through the year, we learned that five different families with whom we had been quite close were planning to return to Burundi all at the same time in mid-December. It became a massive reunion of the Burundi mission community, which is now basically down to one long-term family that we still know. This was a once-in-a-lifetime reunion, for sure. We looked at the possibility of flying to Burundi first and then going on to Kenya, but it was just far too expensive to manage 2 separate international flights. It would have required taking our kids out of school, David missing his special 8^th grade Northern trip, and also not celebrating Christmas in our new home with our present church and community. And if we only went to Burundi, our kids and ourselves would not have the chance to be with very close friends we left more recently, or to reconnect with a place that had truly become home to us. 

Walking in the tea fields

We were faced with a choice of loyalty – with which past would we decide to be more deeply connected? Do we sacrifice commitment to our present community to remember the past? I have had days where I really struggled with envy of those who develop a deep connection with only ONE other country and language and culture and Christian community. For all those other families going back to Burundi, that was the only place they had served outside their passport countries. I even think of my parents, deeply bonded to Bangladesh, or our dear friend Louise who holds dearly to the memory of the years she spent in Ethiopia. I think of virtually all the mission community families we know currently in Addis – they have just one place they would go back to.

Outdoor lunch at Brackenhurst,
intersecting communities

We have moved too much; our hearts are far too divided to ever make it an easy choice.  I absolutely do not regret the decision we made. But it’s interesting when you are suddenly faced with very tough choices between wonderful reunions how you have to both rejoice and suffer at the same time. I wrote a blog five years ago when we had recently arrived in Tanzania called Fractured Ubuntu. I reread it recently, and I don’t think I can improve upon this expression of grief and ambivalence at our nomadic lifestyle. I hope I don’t alienate any dear friends we have met along the way, and for whom we are very grateful. But maybe there are others like ourselves who have moved too much, and need someone else to describe to them the inner dislocation they feel. Click above, and read. If that’s you, you’re welcome.

Let me get out of this dark and deep hole of introspection and come back up to the sunlight of the joys of the Renew Conference! We arrived a day before the conference and so we had the morning with the kids to enjoy a walk in the enclosed forest around the Center. And then by lunch time, I was on duty, meeting with the all-volunteer committee, trying our best to remember what we needed to do to make everyone feel welcome. My main duty was to help with worship music during the 4 days. Several other people had volunteered to sing or play instruments, but sadly, all of them had been prevented from coming at the last minute. And so it came down to just Mosleys and Taylors on the worship team. By the end of the week, I counted up 10 worship sessions we led in total! Yet it was so fun to play music together with such good friends, including their immensely talented son who played piano during the times he wasn’t in the youth sessions. Their older daughter often ran the PowerPoints. Paul sang, too. And I became convinced that I should probably lead music with the guitar more than with the piano. I am thankful for the Spirit’s guidance through the preparation, bringing out the response of the people.

Simon 

Another huge joy was seeing our Conference speaker again. Simon Guillebaud had been a good friend in Burundi. He and his wife have kids of similar ages to ours, so they were one of the first families we met and bonded with when we arrived with very young kids in Bujumbura. Simon is a sort of famous extreme missionary, the kind who proposed to his wife by saying: “Are you ready to become a young widow?” He’s witnessed the unexplainable power of God firsthand, over and over. Raising teenagers has also given him an increased level of compassion about the kinds of inner challenges we might meet as mission families. He spoke on the letter from James, making our call to discipleship practical with stories from his own experience as well as from renowned missionaries who have gone before us. I went away from all that good teaching reminded that following Jesus is never going to be easy and we need to be diligent in staying close to Jesus in order to persevere.

On our first free afternoon, we had a guided walk through the nearby tea fields. As we went along, we were led on more and more narrow paths through the tea, until at a certain point, we were just swimming through, pushing our way through tea bushes. On the good side, there was no way you could fall! A few of the smaller kids might have gotten swallowed up somewhere, though! It is a great joy to have opportunities to take such a long walk in open, beautiful places. We also loved the chance to walk and talk with friends old and new. We arrived back a bit late and footsore and needed to postpone our folk dancing for later.

On the second afternoon, a few parents took the kids on a special outing to a mall 30 minutes away for some time in their trampoline park. Paul took our kids and I elected to remain back at Brackenhurst for a quiet afternoon—the schedule was pretty packed for us leading music, and I had arrived from Addis quite weary. I was grateful for a nap and time to journal a bit about what I was hearing from Simon. Brackenhurst is an amazing place for birdwatching. 

However, Ethiopian government regulations make it impossible for me to carry my binoculars on a trip like this. Then I remembered that Paul’s camera has a good zoom lens and so I went back into the forest. I was so delighted with the birds I saw, the flowers set along the path, waiting to be marveled at, the wind and sunlight and clear air. It was such a refreshing walk, and wonderful to have time alone in a forest, without security concerns. These are simple pleasures we have no way to enjoy in our new home, Ethiopia, and are the ones that have sustained me over previous years.

New Years Eve included a packed schedule. We had a few people interested in line dancing before dinner. Paul and I took a brief walk before the sun set. At 7 pm, all the younger kids made tons of noise to welcome New Year in Australia (they wouldn’t make it up to midnight). 

New Year in Sydney

We had an evening teaching session with Simon – I should mention that throughout the conference, we had our teens sit in the main teaching sessions because Simon is such an engaging communicator. I know they got a lot out of what he shared, though they may be still processing. After the serious stuff, we enjoyed a hilarious DIY Show (Talent show). Lots of kids participated in reciting poetry, bible verses and sections of Hamilton. One adult participant led an audience participation Pantomime-style drama of the Prodigal son. We laughed hard, but didn’t lose the point of the story. David had his moment to shine as he performed Weird Al Yankovic’s Amish Paradise, with Paul and I singing backup vocals and me on the electric keyboard. He’s really a great singer and enjoyed sharing his newfound love of pop music spoofs, along with educating people about our Anabaptist heritage 😉. After all those laughs, we had a quiet and reflective watchnight service and then moved out to a big bonfire to welcome in the new year at midnight.

DIY show drama

And the whole Conference wrapped up on Sunday morning with teaching, worship and communion. We had a leisurely lunch, saying farewell to many wonderful new friends we had made in just 4 days. The kids didn’t want to stop playing Spike Ball, which they had become professionals at during that time. And it was hard for our boys to separate from their best friends for a few days. But finally we got a taxi to take us back over to Wawa and Kristen’s house. The Chege’s were away on a camping trip, but let us stay in their place overnight. That was a huge gift. Just about all my extrovert energy had been expended during the conference, and then we had a little space to be introverted. 

David in the cow pasture

We played some frisbee in their big yard and watched a pair of colobus monkeys pass through in the tall trees overhead. I took David exploring through the gardens and down into the forest past the cow pasture of the main house. He really recovered his curiosity about nature, given a few days for it to awaken again. In particular, he relished the little gooseberries we found here and there along the paths, along with trying nasturtium flowers and pasture clover. In the evening, we had some good laughs with a card game my brother had sent for Christmas, and helped Oren to wrap up his college application for William and Mary while David sat in front of the fire. It was a good, peaceful night there. We woke early to tend the Chege animals and then got a taxi at 7 am to take us to the airport where we caught the shuttle down to Arusha, the final stage of our little vacation.

It's just a 5-hour drive, with an hour at the border, to travel by road between Nairobi and Arusha. Although the kids moaned a bit about being on a crowded coaster bus, honestly it was cheap and easy. We were happy to share the bus with many foreign tourists coming to spend their money in Tanzania again. When we arrived, the husband of our former MCC accountant Lucia met us at the bus station. We had made an agreement with them to pay for some maintenance on the former MCC car they had bought, in exchange for using the car for the week. It was a win-win situation that was a major blessing for us. This allowed us to drive to get some lunch at Andrews (our favorite local nyama choma place with amazing grilled chicken), and for Paul and I to run around getting our phones working on the TZ system again, grab some breakfast groceries and then finally land back at our former compound in the late afternoon. 

Chege's backyard, monkey in tree

We had just enough time to drop our stuff in “Wendy’s apartment” next to our old house and then for Paul and I to take a walk down to Atomic before sunset. After the bus ride, it was exactly what we needed to reset and feel like we were home. We came back to sit on the porch in the dusk, and noticed our old companion, the Verreaux’s eagle-owl, perched on a branch overhead. During our last year in Arusha, they were always just in sight around our house, a constant reminder of the protective, unpredictable hovering of the Holy Spirit. In fact, we only saw one the whole week, on that first night, but it felt like a very spiritual welcome.

On Tuesday, we had a change of plans and actually had nothing on the schedule. Paul observed that you know you really have time to rest, when you have nothing to do tomorrow. David found his old neighbor friends and spent the morning running around with them. Paul and I exercised on the porch and tossed out a few emails to keep the work at bay. And then we took the boys to their favorite Arusha restaurant, George’s. We also managed to get Paul’s phone repaired and finished shopping for our MCC Ethiopia staff Christmas party. In fact, it was quite a productive day, yet restful for not being very scheduled. There was time for another long walk in the evening.

Lunch at George's

On Wednesday, by contrast, we needed to run around a bit. First, Paul and I went to visit our former housekeeper Nay and her children. We had hoped to keep it low-investment for Nay, just chai and conversation. But she urged us that she had cooked anyway, and so we had to stay to eat some rice and spinach. It’s interesting how much Tanzanian hospitality is about sacrificial generosity, while we were trying to reduce our burden on her. It was good to catch up with her and that really helped our Swahili wake up and get into action (our brains are very language-confused over the past 2 years switching between Kiswahili and Amharic, over and over). We had to leave too soon and pick up the kids to take them to hang out with the Taylor boys for a while. 

Jam session at Millers

Paul and I then continued driving on out to a really spectacular music jam session, hosted by Neil and Christy Miller. Jon with his guitar and Megan with her fiddle joined us, along with the Miller’s old friend Cynthia Yoder whom we had just gotten to know during her 5-month service term in Ethiopia. It’s amazing what a group of great musicians can do to dress up the old classic folk songs like “500 miles” or “ABCD” (requested by Megan’s daughter).

Soon we needed to leave that party of musicians and go on to meet the whole Taylor family along with some Wensels at a beautiful new restaurant called Tumbili Lodge. The owners have actually been working on landscaping their large grounds for the past 6 years and the winding paths and beds of varied vegetation are an absolute work of art. We just loved walking through and talking together, noticing all the little touches. The kids are all great friends, happy to continue their on-going Spike Ball game. 

The garden at Tumbili

We adults had a good long time to talk about how they are doing in school, their challenges and joys, a recent vacation to the Mediterranean and other news. Arusha has numerous options for beautiful gardens in which to sit and enjoy good food in a quiet, peaceful setting – yet another thing we miss about the high quality of life there.

On Thursday, I made a spontaneous decision to join the women’s bible study meeting on the other end of town to catch up with a couple of friends I hadn’t yet seen. It was good to go and listen and know better how to pray for those friends. We sat in Lena’s yard, which is one of the best-ever places for birdwatching while studying the bible and supporting friends. It was so funny to observe that all of those women are avid bird-watchers and know the birds by their calls. I certainly haven’t found a comparable number of bird-watching women in my Addis bible studies….Maybe the environment itself creates such a passion in missionary women? There were a few other gifts to pick up for Ethiopia staff before I met Paul and the boys for lunch at another favorite restaurant, this time Indian. That’s another thing our kids were longing for – going out to restaurants where the food really tastes good. Arusha certain has lots of options. We did not need to go on any expensive excursions to satisfy their longings on a vacation.

Spike ball at Tumbili

That afternoon, we were back at our compound for some good conversation with our former neighbors the Robertsons. David was running around like a maniac with their boys and some of the Tanzanian kids from the compound. Unfortunately, David badly sprained his ankle and it swelled up alarmingly. We iced it all night, but he insisted he could still hop over to the main house next door to enjoy a “sausage sizzle” at Alan and Lynda Stephenson’s fire pit. In that way, we managed to have a good chance to catch up with the owners of our former compound, along with other guests they are hosting.

Lunch with MCC Tanzania former team

Friday was full of other highlights. We met our MCC Tanzania former colleagues Lucia and Chrispin, along with Lucia’s daughters, for lunch back at Andrews. It had been one of our favorite places for work lunches. There is a lot to talk about after a year of not seeing each other, catching up on kids’ education, the status of projects that were just beginning when we left, and the whole situation in the country. We remain so thankful for great colleagues in our time in Tanzania. Then we headed off East to meet the Taylors again. Paul had made a plan with Mike months ago to play a round of golf at Kilimanjaro Golf Club. David insisted that he would not be prevented from golfing, so we had found a good ankle brace for him that morning, but it was still painful after 2 holes, and he went back to sit for a while at the clubhouse. Paul observed that David would have become a talented golfer if he had been able to continue practicing, but that is not an option here in Addis. 

Kili Golf club house

Meanwhile, I had time to take a 2 hour walk with Katie around the perimeter of the golf course and have a good long talk about things besides which songs to prepare for the next worship session. In just a year, a lot happens in a family and people have their ups and downs. It’s really a gift to have a good friend to share with. We arrived back at the clubhouse in time to get a drink and watch the men finish their 9^th hole. Kili Golf at sunset is the most extraordinarily picturesque place with it’s little lake, sprawling lawns, and impala running across the greens. It was almost too good to be there as the moon rose, our kids played happily (Spike Ball again) and we could talk about what is happening in our churches and mission work. And what is amazing is that it is not at all expensive to enjoy that kind of quality of life in Tanzania.

Ultimate Frisbee players

We had to fly out on Saturday afternoon, but we planned a grande finale activity in the morning. As soon as the compound kids saw us again earlier in the week they asked, “When are we going to play with the flying disc? We miss it!” And so we realized we had time to squeeze in a morning Ultimate Frisbee match, with just enough time to shower and head for the airport. It was an incredible joy to have 18 people come out and join us in the hot sun that morning: some Taylors and Robertsons, 4 young men who are teachers from the Joshua school, 5 teachers’ kids from the compound (all under 12), and our family, with David and Oren limping around, each with their sprained ankles, but not wanting to be left out. Some of the kids have gotten really good at catching and throwing over the past 2 years, and it was amazing to just let them take the lead on our team, with no adults needing to add in any heroics. We still won! We really miss having easy access to a big field and the opportunity for people to mix across cultures and classes to enjoy sport together. And then we had to part ways, with barely repressed tears on my part, to clean up and head back to Addis.

Our old house where we were able to stay

The flight was not long enough for me to finish recounting all that has happened over these past 3 weeks, so I’m wrapping up now on Monday afternoon. Thankfully, it’s a public holiday for Ethiopian Christmas and Paul and I have some time to catch up on office work and home work on a quiet compound. We look back at this time we’ve been away and it was both super-refreshing, as well as filling us with bittersweet regret for the life we had to leave 18 months ago. Now we need to pray for new resolve, for perseverance, and for appreciation of the place where God has called us to serve in the present. We would be grateful for your prayers on our behalf.

Bonus photos:

Christmas cloth

Cinnamon rolls

Playing kubbs

Christmas cracker hats

 

 

Visiting Nay's family

Exercise on our old porch

Relaxing at the Chege home

Final communion service at Renew

Brackenhurst tea time

An interview with new participants

New Years morning

More Spikeball

New friends at Renew

Tea fields

Simon and Paul

Friends on a walk

Charades bible verses

 

 

Ultimate Frisbee

Joshua Foundation

Moonrise and spike ball

Evening at Kili Golf

Kili Golf

Simon sharing conversation with Renew participants

White-eye

Crazy trampoline park

Little bee-eater

Jam session

Violet backed starling on a walk with Katie

 

The "Spoilings" of War, and Other Pre-Holiday Updates

Twas the night before the-night-before-Christmas, and I am sitting in our living room surrounded by Christmas lights enjoying choir music singing classic English Christmas carols. We have had a busy day making Christmas cookies and constructing a gingerbread house. We are also feeling a bit wary because Rebecca tested her mild head cold and found out it is actually COVID. We are hoping this will not affect our travel plans next week. 

I am trying to get one more blog entry in this year about my last field visit before we do a more extensive holiday blog. I had mentioned in the last entry that I had gone to Woldiya, a city in Northern Amhara to see the work of one of our partners called EMWACDC. It is the development wing of the Mulu Wongel church and has been working in this area on providing food security and watershed rehabilitation for many years. 

Women self-help group leader

Arriving by Woldiya by plane is the most efficient way to travel from Addis. The drive takes about 10 hours, and requires passing through some areas where Amhara and Oromia share borders where there have been some attacks on vehicles in the recent past. The flight takes about 45 minutes. The airport is actually in the town of Kombolcha, about 2.5 hours away, but easily accessible by car. 

From the air, the unique contour of the land is very apparent. First, if you look off to the right you can see clearly an escarpment that goes into the rift valley--the arid region of Afar. But the mountainous area directly below looks more like it was carved out by dwarves of Middle Earth. All the 'mountains' are flat on top and the same height, but they are completely furrowed with canyons and ravines. It looks like an enormous glacier may have sat on this land and carved out the contours. These aren't mountains that pushed up, but valleys and giant ravines carved by ice and water onto a flat plateau. Landing in Kombolcha is like diving into one of the larger basins. It seems people live in the crevices, not on the tops.

I was traveling with Mesfin, our food security program manager on this trip. We met our driver at the airport and he took us to Woldiya with a short stop in the town of Dessie for some breakfast. Dessie is a large bustling town, as is Kombolcha. I was remembering a year ago as we heard news reports of the TPLF overrunning and occupying these towns just a year ago shortly before we evacuated. There is still some evidence of destruction and a lot of construction on some buildings that had been destroyed. It seemed hard to believe that a town this big was occupied by an invading army.

Once in Woldiya, another descent-sized town with large mosques as well as Orthodox churches in evidence, we checked into our hotel where we met Gesesse, the project manager for EMWACDC. He was quick to tell us that the hotel, the best one in the town, had been headquarters for the TPLF top brass when they invaded. He also pointed to nearby mountain overlooks where they had brought munitions and shelled the town. 

Gesesse, like most everyone we were to meet, seemed to want to tell his story about the TPLF invasion--a way of processing the trauma I think. Five armed soldiers came to Gesesse's home where he was staying with his wife and two children. The soldiers took every scrap of food and all the grain they had for making injera and bread. The soldiers then marched Gesesse over to his vehicle and tried to force him to give them the key. Gesesse said it was not his car, it belonged to an NGO and he did not have the key. The TPLF had many technical specialists who quickly hot-wired it and took it anyway. Gesesse and his family spent months without electricity or running water, and had to scrounge some hidden food reserves to eat. It sounded really scary. 

The hotel also showed signs of wear. There was no regular electricity or water while we were there. They ran a generator after 6pm for light and had water on for about 2 hours a day. All the rooms had been looted and there were no TV sets or other electronics (or working hot water) in them. 

Nonetheless, the food was still good (authentic Amhara food). After settling in, we had a meeting at the EMWACDC project office, then returned to the hotel and slept comfortably. The next morning we went out to see some of the work they had done in the past. 

EMWACDC had spent the past 6 years working with communities on gulley rehabilitation as part of their watershed rehabilitation strategy. This is very appropriate considering the terrain, as most of the farmers live in the valleys between the steeply rising mountains. Gulleys form quickly when land is not well managed; when the rainy season comes and can swallow whole fields in a single season. 

We walked up several gulleys full of trees and multiple check dams that had been stabilized. Some had even become markedly shallower as soil was reacaptured by check dams. We talked to multiple farmers living along the gullies who are trained in how to maintain the waterway to keep it from cutting too far left or right and beginning erosion again. All the farmers expressed gratitude for the work EMWACDC had done, and it was clear that the work of community education and motivation had gone hand in hand with alot of manual labor. 

There were some areas of the larger gullies that needed repair, and it was an opportunity to see how quickly farmland can be lost when the soil is not stabilized.

Along with gulley rehabilitation, we had the chance to see the work they had been doing in promoting conservation agriculture adoption. CA is a low tillage farming technique that includes mulching, spacing, intercropping, green manure cover crops, and other strategies to improve soil and increase yield. I was actually surprised at the level of success they had had in promoting adoption, as it is very different than the preferred method of cultivation. An Amharic proverb talks about a bare well-plowed field is a sign of dilligence while a grown-over field, the sign of laziness.

The theory of change they are using is called Diffusion of Innovation and is based on identifying and training comunity innovators and early adopters who will start to use the technique, then influence their friends and neighbors to do the same. 

We interviewed several farmers including a very charismatic old woman who practiced CA and had convinced all of their adjacent neighbors to do the same. The difference between a CA and non CA corn stand was really clear to see. I could see why others might want to adapt as well.

Like Gesesse, everyone we talked to had a story of the TPLF invasion. Even in the rural areas, soldiers had come and looted all of their stored grain and left them with nothing. They described, often in tears, a very difficult 6 months. They were also quite grateful for an emergency intervention that EMWACDC had done in the past year to help them recover. With support of MCC, EMWACDC had supplied them with 6 months of food relief as well as some livestock to help them restock their herds. 

The next morning we were out again in the field. We began by visiting a woman's self-help group. we sat in on the meeting and listened to the women tell us their successes and challenges in saving together so they could do small income-generating projects. Despite setbacks and inability to meet during the occupation, they had started up again and had saved about $1000 between them to date. The self-help group also served as a support group to process trauma. 

We ended our field visit by meeting some local govt officials in a new Kabele where they hope to be working. The local officials and community elders were very hopeful about having training in CA and some watershed management assistance. 

On the way back to the hotel, we had a debrief at the EMWACDC office then took a trip toward Tigray and visited the nursery that had been part of the past project phase. It had been destroyed by the TPLF and sadly, one of the nursery guards was shot and killed when the TPLF arrived.

It seemed like a very full week for a 2-day visit, and Mesfin and I returned, encouraged by the work they were doing. 

While I was gone, other things were happening for other family members. Rebecca picks up from here:

Life in Ethiopia is always unpredictable—no wait, make that life in East Africa. Or, to be more accurate, you have to be very, very on-top-of-things to foresee the ways that things are going to go wrong.

We have long planned some rest time out of the country after Christmas. First we hope to join old friends from Tanzania days and Burundi days at a missionary retreat conference outside of Nairobi. Then we plan to take a shuttle bus down from Nairobi to Arusha and spend the rest of New years’ week in our old stomping grounds. It was a fairly straightforward plan, right? We even got airtickets one way for the same price as a round trip. Until I went online to apply for our visas ahead of time…

As I was applying for David’s Tanzania visa, I realized that David’s passport will expire in mid-May. A long time from now. And yet Tanzania requires a passport to be valid for at least 6 months from the date of entry to issue a visa. So David’s passport is already de facto expired. And really he needs to have 6 months validity to re-enter Ethiopia. This was a big problem because Tanzania has no embassy here dealing with visa issues. Getting an appointment at the US embassy to renew David’s passport? Well, the first available appointment was in February. But I sent a panicked email and they granted us an expedited interview. It was exactly 14 working days before our travel, and the embassy states that they return new passports in 14 days – so it was a long shot that we would even get the new passport back before we traveled. Both parents need to be present to renew a minor’s passport, unless you can get a form signed and stamped by a notary public, which is an legal entity that does not exist here in Ethiopia. There was nothing for it but for Paul to change his field visit plans, stay in town, and go together with me and David to the visa appointment. There were many other small details of what might have been a horror story—like getting the photo studio to print out David’s headshot in the correct size, going back there at 8:30 pm the night before the appointment.  

last Sunday School class before Christmas

Here's the good news – we got the new passport back in just 10 days total! I was overjoyed that all the trouble we went to actually paid off in this case and wasn’t a futile waste of time. And now we have visas in hand for all our December/January travel.

So last week was supposed to be Activities Week for all of middle and high school students. David’s 8^th grade has a traditional class trip to Northern parts of Ethiopia, in conjunction with their curriculum studying history and geography of Ethiopia. We are grateful that Northern Amhara around Bahir Dar and Gondar has been stable and it seemed OK for them to travel there. Here is a little forced dictation ;-)  from David about this trip:

I took a plane with my class to Bahir Dar and we drove to the Jacaranda hotel. The hotel was fine. Then we took a bus to go and take a hike to a waterfall, The Blue Nile Falls. On the first part of the hike, we walked through a bunch of rocks and then we arrived at the waterfall. We had to cross a narrow suspension bridge to the waterfall from the other side. Some people were scared, but it was fine. The next day we got on a boat, and we sailed for about 4 hours to get to an island with an monastery. When we got off at the island, we went inside the monastery. The walls inside depicted scenes from the bible for people who could read, to help them understand. Our tour guide was a pretty cool dude, and told us a lot of things about culture. We visited one or two other monasteries on a different island. We spent less and less time at each monastery because they were planned all the same way, just different paintings. In between monastery stops, I was reading the whole day. We were on the lake (Lake Tana) for about 7 hours that day. On the third day of the trip, we walked around the city of Bahir Dar for a long time. We saw one market, and a bunch of other stuff. In the afternoon, we drove up to the palace hill, saw the sunset and walked all the way back down. On the fourth day, we had a long bus ride to Gondar. We moved hotels and on the way we got lunch near a castle. I really enjoyed the Ethiopian food that day! We visited the castles and baths in Gondar.

At the new hotel, me, Peter and Ahmed explored the 6^th floor and realized that the 6^th floor was like a horror movie. It was pitch black with no light and really terrifying. So we devised a plan to bring people up there so that I could scare them. There was a tiny crack in a door and I spoke in a creepy voice. That was the most fun part of the trip.  On Friday morning, we flew back to Addis and I was picked up my parents who are fine, and I was forced to write this, so that’s why it’s not that well written.

So back to the rest of Activities week… At the last minute, the government declared that this very week would be a week of exams. This was a problem for Bingham because most of the service activities involved running sports and kids’ camps for government school kids. These kids were suddenly not available to come play for the week. Furthermore, some of the sites further outside of Addis seem to be more unpredictable in terms of security. Long story short, the Bingham administration had to make a decision 4 days before activities week started to postpone it. I felt so bad for all those teachers who thought they had finished their teaching for the term, needing to come up with last minute lesson plans for one more week…

Paul and I had been planning to have a nice quiet week without the kids. But as it happened, Paul left for Woldiya on the same morning that David had to be at the airport. And Oren was home.  So, Oren and I had a quiet week at home instead. We spent a couple of evenings working through special essays for a few of his college applications. We also enjoyed watching the World Cup Semi-Final games, staying up way to late to watch Morocco narrowly lose to France in a nail-biting, frenetic match. It was really lovely to see how those teams appreciated one another and gave warm congratulations at the end in a real spirit of camaraderie. Maybe that’s because France is one of the most African teams in Europe and we were all sad to see the World Cup ambitions of an African team come to an end. Oren especially was rooting for Morocco. It was really nice to have that special time with my oldest since we don't have many more months with him under our roof.

The biggest event of the past week was our Community choir concert. We had to prepare ourselves to leave early for warm ups at St. Matthew's church across town. It was a truly wonderful occasion, and I think we sang as well as we could be expected to have done. More changes though – one key person got very sick that week and couldn’t come to play piano for the Hallelujah Chorus. It was amazing that another young man had 24 hours to practice and get it up to scratch for the concert. We had some community Christmas caroling with a small band of 2 trombones, trumpet, violin, flute, piano and percussion. Other ensembles and soloists filled out the program. I really enjoyed a 5 person a cappella ensemble with amazing blend. Two of those singers also introduced an original composition on piano and violin that was quite delightful, about Jesus and the visit of the Wise Men. It was probably the height of Christmas festivities for us.

The next evening, we set aside time to watch the World Cup Final. What an amazing game, completely worth watching right up to the very end. One of the most riveting games ever played, probably. And we had many passionate discussions about it with our colleagues over tea and lunch break in the following days. It’s really nice to find these points of discussion in which everyone can participate and are not about the political or religious situation in Ethiopia.

Sadly, I began to feel unwell on Sunday, with a whole kaleidoscope of symptoms. But I was pushing through, finishing work, getting plans in place to lead the Christmas Eve service at church, as well as the Christmas morning service. I really thought I just had a bad head cold by yesterday. But this morning, when I woke up and couldn’t smell the Vicks Vapor Rub I was using for congestion, I thought I better take a COVID test. And sadly, I am positive. This changes everything about plans for this Christmas weekend. We have had to miss a family gathering today that we were really looking forward to. I don’t think it will be wise for me to be at church. This will be a very different Christmas, keeping out of the way of everyone. I pray that the rest of my family can stay healthy, and that our travel plans are not interrupted. But as I stated before, life is very unpredictable.

 

 

 

 

Advent Activities in Addis Ababa

I am currently in a hotel in the town of Woldiya, in Northern Ethiopia. This is a place in Amhara region that Rebecca and I have not had a chance to visit since we began working here. We have a partner, EMWACDC, who is doing a watershed and food security project here, but due to the conflict last year at this time, this entire region was under TPLF occupation, making travel here impossible. I will give more details about my visit in the next blog, but I need to catch up on the past two weeks in a brief update.

I will note that David is also out of town this week on a class trip to visit Bahir Dar and Gonder, two historical cities in Amhara region. So far, from some Whatsapp updates, he seems to be doing well. I am planning to be back in Addis tomorrow (Thursday), and he will return on Friday, so both of us will need to give trip updates in the next installment. 

The past two weeks have felt very full of activities equally divided between work and social/church events. We are definitely feeling in the Holiday spirit, having decorated the house with an abundance of ornaments that we brought from Tanzania combined with many lights and a tree left for us by former MCCers who lived here. 

Rebecca and I have also been having weekly choir rehearsals for a Christmas program at the Anglican Church here. The choir is sounding pretty good with a huge amount of musical talent in the community we are part of here. Even kids as young as 7th grade are accompanying us on the piano. We have a number of very nice pieces, ending with Handel's Hallelujah Chorus. 

Our small group has met twice in the past two weeks and we have shared some Christmas goodies with each other, most recently thanks to our German couple who had a variety of homemade treats from Germany. 

We have started our annual family Advent ritual of reading a story together after lighting our advent wreath. We are aware with some melancholia that this is Oren's last time to do this with us before he will go to college. Speaking of which, Oren has sent in several applications and has several to go. He has been accepted at Goshen and Messiah so far, but probably won't make a decision before he has heard from all, particularly his 'reach' schools. 

We are also helping his friend Bereket with the application process as he is considering, possibly going to College in the US, as well as keeping his options open for University in Ethiopia as well. Bereket, who has grown up around MCC his whole life is as much a 'third culture kid' as Oren, it seems, despite never having left the country. They do seem to help each other in terms of studying and completing the application process. 

Work in the office has been busy with many reports on our emergency projects of the past year coming in, as well as requests for more support for new crises that have emerged. We continue to be optimistic about the peace treaty between the Govt. and the TPLF, but there are other conflicts that have recently been amplified, particularly in parts of Oromia and on the Oromia-Amhara borders where OLF militants have been carrying out terrorist attacks and kidnappings in various, seemingly random places to stir up fear. While this may not represent the majority view, there are some Oromo that would like to see a separate Oromo state independent of the rest of Ethiopia. 

Honestly, it is very difficult to hear weekly, reports, of new attacks, and makes us somewhat uncomfortable to travel very far outside of Addis by car. Generally, we prefer to fly to towns that are more than an hour or so away. 

Rebecca recently attended a meeting of a Council of Evangelical leaders as well as another meeting of the Bible Society that has convened Orthodox and Protestant leaders to challenge the Church in Ethiopia to play a prophetic role in calling for peace. Many of the ethnic conflicts in this country fall along partisan denominational lines, and the church has not always been bold to take its leaders and members to task to be peacebuilders and not inciters of violence. Rebeca brought reports of laments by some that the church has been 'a light under a bushel' at this time. 

Our Programs Manager Solomon spent a week with our Mennonite Church partner MKC visiting their prison reconciliation program, as well as a number of trainings for school peace clubs in the area. In the area where MKC works, the problem of revenge killing is huge, but also a quickness to resort to violence and even killing to address conflict, according to Solomon. Changing the cultural mindset about honor, pride, and vengeance is a huge challenge.

Other social highlights outside of work include some Bingham Academy Christmas programs that David was part of. Parents were invited this past Friday to watch a Christmas program put on by all of the elementary and lower secondary classes. Rebeca and I went to attend the outdoor event that was set up on the soccer field. We were feeling grateful and almost amazed to be able to see a school singing program since COVID. Ethiopia's COVID incidence remains quite low, despite many other respiratory illnesses going around. Most of us have recovered though. 

Every class had a song or two led by Allison, the music teacher. Some groups had instruments, including ukeleles and recorders. All were done well, and David looked good in a white shirt, black pants, and new haircut, with his classmates who sung a cool version of Joy to the World.

The highlight of the afternoon was about an hour later when the student drama club put on A Charlie Brown Christmas in the multipurpose chapel. David was Charlie Brown, and actually, Rebeca and I were lucky to get into the show as it was very sold out and full. I am happy to say that David and his classmates did a great job. Shroeder, played by David's friend Nathan was definitely a highlight as he could actually play a good part of the Vince Guaraldi score on his electric keyboard that was set up for him. It was also nice to see quite a diverse cast with a Tanzanian Lucy and Snoopy, and an Ethiopian Violet. 

We celebrated afterwards with Coldstone icecream--or at least what is being offered by the Coldstone store. It continues to be very apparent here that there remains a foreign currency crisis here, with very few imports coming in. We are becoming better at eating entirely local, although we all miss easy access to small indulgences like a good chocolate bar, or piece of cheese. 

Saturday was the final youth group event and I was impressed to see nearly 40 youth in attendance. It was at the Norwegian mission compound and there were a lot of activities including volleyball, a zipline, and a gingerbread decorating contest. It is good to see the growing enthusiasm for this group of kids. 

At Sunday school we have been rehearsing "The Friendly Beasts" for our Christmas Eve service at church. And all of us, family and MCC staff, have been watching the World Cup, rooting at this point for Morrocco, since the US was knocked out. It would be great to see an African team win!