Babagoya, Ziway, and Meskal

Just enough time to get another blog into the month of September. My latest excuse for delay is language study. We have, as Rebecca said in the last post, begun the study of Amharic which has been, frankly, a great relief. I cannot tell you how discomforting it is to not be able to communicate in even a simple transactional way with anyone you may meet on the street. Even our house guards do not speak any English. We have been at it for about a month now and it has made a significant difference in going to the store, walking around the neighborhood, and asking for help with some outdoor tasks. We are only focusing on conversation for the time being and have not begun to learn the Amharic alphabet and how to read.

Being in a routine since our return, with kids in school and able to get a shuttle ride both ways has meant that we have been able to establish some patterns that sustain life. Our day begins for me at 5;30 am when I get up make coffee, make the kids lunches, and breakfast. I iron a shirt for myself then. Rebecca is usually up and we have a cup of coffee. I let the dogs in who immediately jump into David's bed and wake him up. We wake Oren up and get the kids dressed, fed and out the door between 6:30 and 7:00. Rebecca and I do our brutal HIIT exercise routine and stretched between 7:00 and 8:00 while we listen to the Daily Audio Bible. Then we shower and change and are ready for the day of work by 8:30. (We don't eat breakfast usually.)

Three days per week, the first two hours are occupied by Amharic language study. The rest of the day is at the office. We enjoy the tea break which is usually prepared by our cook who also makes lunch for us and the team. This is a perk of having your office in the same compound as your house.

Kids arrive home at 3:30 and we finish work at 4:30. Notice what is missing?? No commute!! That is one of the best parts of working so close to home (20 meters away). We don't spend any hours traveling during a normal work week. 

That said, every week can have a different contour given the variety of tasks in our job. We have been spending many hours in the office working on getting emergency relief projects submitted by partners approved by headquarters. The Tigray crisis has morphed into an internal displacement crisis and hundreds of thousands have fled from their homes in northern Amhara and Afar. 

We currently have 3 new projects to support these IDPs. Oneis a WASH (water sanitation hygiene) project to provide clean water to 3 IDP camps that have exceeded their capacity to provide fresh water to their growing ranks. The second support Afari pastoralists with traditional woven shelter mats. This is in a very remote area of the country. The third is working with pregnant and lactating women and children under 2 to provide food supplements to prevent severe malnutrition in several camps in a town near one of our project sites that was overrun by the TPLF. We continue to pray that there could be a negotiated peace agreement at some point in the near future, but for the time being there is little interest in negotiation while there is active conflict.

Despite the work, we were able to take a weekend off and go to a retreat center near a  lake about 50 kms away from our house. It is by a small crater-made lake called Babagoya. It is quite charming in a rustic, unkempt kind of way. This was an old mission retreat center that has past its heyday in many wayts, but does have good food, reasonable lodging and a very nice clear lake where one can fish, boat, or swim. Fortunately we brought our fishing gear and inflatable standup paddleboard from the US so we were ready!

We were very fortunate to be joined by our next door neighbors Pete and Katy and their three sons. The oldest is between Oren and David's age and the second is David's age. Having a group of friends made the whole weekend more enjoyable, and besides outdoor activities, we played many board games. Pete and Katy liked Carcasonne. Oren and their oldest played Risk with the younger kids then got involved in an enormous game of Axis and Allies (a WWII scenario game) with another friend who came out for one afternoon. It is really nice to have a place that has a bit of a feeling of Charter Hall (on the Chesapeake Bay) here. Our house is small and in a very urban setting with a relatively small yard, so there is definitely a need for us to get out into nature. 

I should add that David and I had no trouble catching the abundant tilapia as long as we had worms. We did have trouble finding worms around here though. We are going to have to ask our gardener to help us before we leave next time.)

The day after we returned from this trip, I was off on a field visit for three days with our program officer Solomon to Ziway, a town about 2.5 hours South of Addis. I felt a bit bad about leaving Rebecca alone to deal with all the morning routine to get the kids out the door, but she has had to do this often enough. 

I drove to Ziway and fortunately the road is new and four lanes at this point. We made good time and checked into our hotel late in the afternoon on Monday. We had an early night then spent the next day visiting the project activities and some beneficiaries of a maternal and child health program we are running through the development office of Mennonite Church of Ethiopia (MKC-RDA). The project is relatively new but is built on some previous projects and has a good success record. There are a number of axes of intervention. a peer-based support group structure for providing training in infant and young child feeding to women through peer trainers. Women meet together at a health center or in neigborhoods and learn abou the importance of antenatal care, facility delivery, exclusive breastfeeding, and how to introduce supplemental foods after 6 months. 

They also work with other vulnerable comunity members with a big outreach to commercial sex workers in the town. (The town has a large commercial sex trade because young girls come to get jobs in the large flower industry in the town, but often cannot get work and fall into commercial sex as they fall into povery. The large tranistory labor force creates demand for commercial sex work as well.)

The MKC-RDA program provides girls and women with a way out through training in alternative careers like hair-dressing, making enjera, opening a small business, and helps set up support groups for recovered sex workers, many living with HIV, to meet, receive counselling and training and encouragement. 

We were able to meet several of these women. I have included their stories below for anyone interested. Collecting and sharing their stories is part of our work as Representatives to continue to let MCC constituents to know about the impact of this work in personal way. (beyond the statistics.)

Meseret Nebi—mother, Nafiyat Ts’egay--- oldest girl (16), Bahai Ts’egay—oldest boy (14), Ayantu Ts’egay—younger girl (6), Eyerson Ts’egay—youngest (3)

Meseret’s husband was killed in a car wreck when she was pregnant with Eyerson, the youngest girl. When her husband died they became destitute. One day her sone and daughter were sick and went and saw a doctor at a private clinic. She did not have enough money to even pay for an office visit (40birr). He treated her free of charge and connected her to the MKC-RDA MCH project, as he is a member of the Mennonite Church. The doctor (Getu Wake). The project provided her with a place to live and an injera maker (local bread). She is able to earn sufficient income to pay rent and feed her children.

They still face challenges with paying for school supplies and currently Nafiyat, the oldest girl and Ayantu the younger girl are not able to return to or start school. Nafiyat had dropped out of school to help feed the family. Fortunately she was able to avoid commerical sex work, the fate of many such girls because the MKC-RDA project has provided her with hair syling training and she is planning to work in a  salon when she is done. (Hair styling for women is a profession in high demand in Ethiopia as women often require elaborate hair styles to attend wedddings and other celebrations).

 Bahai is planning to return this term, but is several years behind at this time.

Semira Yada, Shilme Abune, and Yegle Hussien started a beauty salon a year ago and currently are able to earn 500birr (($ 12 per day) each minimum and up to $100 per day when they have a wedding group come in. They had come to Ziway to look for work at the flower company (a large industry here) but ended up as commercial sex workers as they were not able to get a job with the skills they had and rapidly fell into poverty. MCC-RDA works in collaboration with the office of Women and Children’s Affairs in Ziway to identify commercial sex workers and provide them with a way out by giving them training in various trades. Semira, Shilme, and Yegle graduated a year ago, and have been able to maintain a successful business that has permitted them to escape the commerical sex trade here in Ziway.

Genet Lemma and her Tsenet Sileshe,

Genet Lemma, like many women in Ziway who fall into poverty after being abandonned by their spouse, was forced into the commercial sex business to stay alive. Sadly she contracted HIV-AIDS and soon after gave birth to a son, Blaine who also contracted the virus from breast feeding as Genet was not able to get ARVs at the time of his birth.

She was living in poverty when she was introduced to the MKC-RDA project and was provided with housing as well as an injera maker. The ministry of health provides her with ARVs and her situation has improved greatly. She is now able to pay for rent on a small room where she lives with her daughter Tsenet who is virus free. Tsenet is ambivalent about whether she will be going to school, but MKC-RDA project will advocate for her mother to send her.

Volunteers for MKC-RDA project doing a cooking demonstration at the health center for MKC-RDA MCH project do a cooking demonstration for mothers to show them foods that can be used for supplemental feeding when their infants reach 6 months of age. The importance of providing a nutritious variety of local foods is not necessarily known to new mothers and the pracitical demonstration provides both information and self-efficacy to prepare foods for infants properly.

Yechalu Tilahun teaches hygiene to a support group for commercial sex workers. MKC-RDA provides sex workers with technical training and small business loans to help them establish their own businesses and escape the cycle of poverty that forces many women into commercial sex work in the town of Ziway. The weekly support group meets to learn as well as support each other as they work to transition into a better life.

Kedija Bushera and her 3-year old daughter Semira Worku attend a commercial sex worker support group where she learns about proper hygiene to prevent diarrhea and other water-borne illnesses. 

After a long first day, we spent the second day visiting a second project run by another partner. Not nearly as picturesque but equally important. We had sponsored BEZA another Church based NGO to provdie improved pit latrines at three schools. The need is shocking. 3000 students were sharing about 3 stalls in two of them. Open deffication on the campuses was rampant and a huge problem in terms of disease. The project also rehabilitated water sources in each of the schools. Solomon and I visited all three recently completed latrines and they appeared to be a great improvement. (Full disclosure, I did not actually try out the latrines). I did try out the sinks at each latrine all had running water, which was great. School is not in session in Sept. in Addis so students were not around. But we were still happy to see that the work was completed on time and within the specified budget. 

Solomon and I returned on Wednesday and we finished off the week in the office writing up reports on our trip. Rebecca has been deeply involved in helping to convene a conference of church leaders across all denominations to try to bring peace to the country. There is division across ethnic and religious lines to some extent in the current conflict, especially tension between Orthodox and Pente (protestant) believers. A unified vision from national religious leaders could have an impact in moving toward a peaceful resolution of the conflict.

On the weekend, it was good to be back in church. We are becoming more involved with Rebecca helping with music at least once per month and me with Sunday School. We have also offered to host a small group which we will begin this coming Sunday. 

We also continue to enjoy having next door neighbors who are friends. Pete and Katy came over during the weekend to our house and we set up the crossnet game Oren got for his birthday. It was a big hit at Charter Hall and the kids here enjoyed it as well. 

Monday of this week was a festival called Meskal. It is an important Orthodox Church holy day celebrating the discovery of a piece of the true cross of Christ in Ethiopia. (I do not know the whole story of how it was supposed to have conme here.) The ceremony begins with large outdoor events on the night before where people gather, pray, and burn enormous bonfires. When the fire begins to burn it reveals a cross hidden in the firewood. 

We walked down to a nearby field to see the ceremony. It was a combination of Christmas (with a giant tree shaped stack of wood and twigs) and July 4th (because they light it on fire!). We had Beriket, a friend of Oren's from the neighborhood (actually the son of one of our guards0 who took us to see the even and explain it to us. It was a nice change of pace, and we are told that the rainy season will end right after Meskal (here's hoping!)

Rain, COVID, Wildcats, and a New Language in a New Year

Ethiopian genet in our tree

Happy New Year 2014! This is a big holiday weekend here in Ethiopia, where they count the birth of Christ as taking place about 7 years later than we do in the West. Over the past few days, we have noticed preparations going on around us. All the small shops around our neighborhood began to sell little yellow sunflower decorations to wear in your hair or put up in the house – this seems to be the symbol of the new year, much as the poinsettia is a symbol of Western Christmas. Yesterday, the floor of our local mall was strewn with clean fresh grass and papyrus reeds, as decoration and to make the place feel beautiful and welcoming. Outside the churches, people were selling more grass, candles, and long pillars of some sort of dried brush (presumably for burning, but it wasn’t clear to us).

It’s a day of feasting and so people were getting ready to acquire fresh meat. On Thursday evening, I noticed a group of 10 hobbled roosters out for sale around the corner.  Apparently, older people really prefer to eat roosters on this holiday, rather than hens. One of our guards bought a whole sheep to celebrate his father’s visit from the village. The sheep found temporary lodging near our chicken coop until it could be slaughtered this morning. Sorry – but that is just the circle of life!

New Years decorations at the mall

We are very new here and so we don’t have any particular social obligations this weekend. I’m sure that will change by next year. We are just taking time to rest up and prepare ourselves for the week ahead. There is something about moving countries that puts one in an interesting place relationally. On the one hand, we are eager to make friendships and build a community. On the other hand, there are hidden ways that we feel our energy to be quite drained and so it actually feels essential to pull inwards and just have quiet family times more than we might in a year from now when we are more accustomed to this context. There is also a big increase in COVID, and so indoor socializing is not a great idea. We had one activity planned for today: to take the dogs back up to Gullele Botanical gardens for a walk. Unfortunately, the sunny morning turned stormy the moment we parked the car. We sat out the first round of heavy rain, started walking, sought shelter again, walked another 20 minutes and then concluded that that it was just too wet to keep persevering. Rainy season makes any fun outdoor activity very difficult! The dogs still had a blast running around, exploring, getting soaking wet.

David and Bella
waiting out the rain (in vain) 

We have now been in Ethiopia for about four weeks, and certain things are falling into a rhythm for us here. Our kids now have places on the school bus that leaves from a neighboring mission compound. We are grateful for continuing very strict COVID protocols on the bus (masks, open windows, no kids on the bus if there are covid cases in the family). The school also continues to take the rapid spread of the Delta variant here very seriously – every week, one or two classes have gone to online school for 12 days because someone in the class tested positive for covid. It’s just a matter of time before this happens in one of our kids’ classes. We remain extremely grateful that we have all been vaccinated, reducing the risk of life-threatening illness. The wife of one colleague became extremely ill about two weeks ago and in the end had to be hospitalized with their infant daughter. After receiving good treatment for five days, she was able to be discharged. Still, it was a near miss, we are pretty sure. A neighbor who runs a guesthouse Mennonites have used for years, a woman my age, died suddenly on Wednesdays, the day after a Mennonite pastor died (someone who refused masks and vaccines). This disease is real, deadly and deeply impacting society here in Addis. Anyway, back to routines and off of the sober subject that has caused not only death, but family division and long-term health consequences for so many.

David with Bella and Friday before school

The kids really wish we were still driving them, but as a compromise, I walk them down to the bus every morning at 7 am, for that last few minutes of conversation and togetherness. I have also found that it is really helpful and important to have conversations with the various other missionary moms dropping off their kids. I am now on a list to order tortillas and bagels weekly, have found out the best brand of local butter and learned more about the grocery stores which stock weird things like fish sauce. I’m usually back by 7:25, when Paul and I do our morning workout in the living room and listen to the daily audio bible. There is just enough time to break a sweat and then get a shower before our language teacher arrives at 8:30 am three days a week.

Poinsettia and the "tukul"
where we study Amharic 

We started Amharic lessons on September 1 and so far, it is very interesting and engaging. We sit under an outdoor shelter, rain or shine, so that our teacher can feel comfortable taking off her mask to pronounce Amharic words carefully for us – pronunciation of this language is incredibly intricate and subtle, and we need to see her mouth. The methodology involves listening and memorizing a lot of vocabulary, and then recognizing and pointing out the correct word when she says it. She has pages of pictures to show us, and we make recordings on our phones. Our homework is listening and memorizing. We probably won’t start learning the Amharic alphabet until 2022. According to the pure method, we shouldn’t even be speaking much yet, but it just makes more sense to try to use what we are learning. Our colleagues are very amused by our progress each day of lessons. And it’s true that there is so much we can’t say or can’t say properly. At the same time, I am already able to communicate more with our guards, and that is very practical and helpful.

New Years sheep in our yard

We finish lessons at 10:30 and then head over to the office for a quick cup of tea with our colleagues. And then there is always lots of email to catch up on, etc. We continue to share staff lunch together Monday through Thursday, sitting under our larger outdoor shelter. I am so grateful for the atmosphere of camaraderie on this team, a very healthy team dynamic that we have inherited. We share good serious conversation along with a lot of jokes each lunch time, talking about the political context, about cultural nuances and holiday traditions. It’s very easy to get along with our program staff, and we are confident that they will let us know if we are getting ready to do something inappropriate to the culture (personally or in work).

The kids are getting used to walking themselves back home from the bus, so that we normally work until about 4:30 pm. On the rare sunny afternoons, we try to go for a walk around the neighborhood with Oren – the best time to actually talk with our teenage son. Other days we have one or another of the neighbors over here hanging out with our kids, playing video games. We try to suggest playing basketball or badminton in the few breaks in the rain. By 6 pm or so we need to switch gears to homework and dinner. We need to make a fire in the fireplace on lots of evenings because it’s super damp and chilly. By nine we need to head to bed because it’s an early morning at 5:30 am!

Cobblestone streets in our neighborhood

In the last blog, Paul mentioned that we have needed to turn  a lot of attention to short-term humanitarian assistance efforts. We are grateful that people in North America have taken note of the human toll being taken by conflict in Ethiopia, and that we have some funds to put towards food and non-food assistance. In addition, we’ve found our colleagues at headquarters extremely responsive to getting short-term proposals approved quickly. It has been a real joy to find ourselves in a place where we do actually have some power to do good quickly. Let me cite just one example.

We partner with an organization called Afar Pastoralists Development Agency (APDA). They are a local NGO based in the Afar region, one of the hottest, driest and most desolate places in the world, tucked into a volcanic depression south and west of Somalia. In theory, the Afar region has nothing to do with the violence that has broken out around Tigray. However, there was an increase in conflict in August, spilling over the borders of Tigray and Amhara into Afar. Thousands of people had to flee their homes empty-handed to escape with their lives. People from APDA had to go on a three-day journey on foot to find these internally displaced people, hiding in a remote grazing valley, in order to make an assessment of their situation and their needs. Hunger is a big problem, but one that is easier to solve through traditional humanitarian organizations like the World Food Program. It turned out that many of these people had absolutely no shelter at all. Every evening and night it was raining heavily, and all they could do was to try to hide under little bits of scrub bush for protection. People were chilled and in danger of sickness, particularly children and the elderly who had fled their homes.

Camels bearing palm mats and sticks
for traditional shelters  in Afar
Photo credit to APDA

We got the report from this walking assessment on a Tuesday, and by the end of the week a concept paper was approved for MCC to support APDA to provide shelters for 630 households. Typically, UN agencies provide plastic sheeting for internally displaced people (IDPs), but we learned from APDA that plastic was totally inappropriate in that environment. Clear plastic provides no shade during the day, and is easily ripped and destroyed by the high winds of the region. APDA suggested that locally-produced palm mats (what people normally use for shelter in Afar) would be much more appropriate and durable – in fact, if we provided a woman with 6 palm mats, she would have a home she could use for the next 10-12 years, an important factor in her recovery from displacement. Local producers were ready to make the mats and they would be transported out to the remote areas by camel. I tell you, this is an amazing project because of the multitude of ways it is designed to be appropriate to the community, meet their actual needs, and use locally available materials and means of transport.

Traditional Afar houses
Photo credit to APDA

Anyway, through the next few days, we were able to help APDA write a full project proposal, in spite of high winds blowing off the roof of their office in the process, cutting electricity and causing delays. We just kept pushing through because the rains continue, and people continue to suffer without shelter. Every time I sat in our house, on a rainy night, I couldn’t stop thinking about them. Last week Friday, I was able to sit in my chair, get news of the final project approval to APDA, send them a Memorandum of Understanding to sign, enter the details of their project into our MCC database, and start the process of requesting funds to be sent over to us ASAP. It had been just 10 days! I know that sometimes our administrative job can seem a bit dull, but it was really amazing to feel the power that we do have to push through help for people who are really suffering if we sit and work at it faithfully.

We worked on a 1500 piece puzzle
for our first 3 three weeks

As far as other details of our after-hours life, I’ve been really happy to start getting involved in music at our international church. For now, I’m joining other people who are leading the music, figuring out how it works in this community. Paul is also now on the list of Sunday school teachers for this church and will probably start teaching in the next few weeks. I was able to join an evening ladies’ bible study here for the first time, and I trust that will also become a group of good friends. It’s great that I can also share a ride with our next-door neighbor Katy.

Last Saturday, we also had a really nice afternoon with another American family who has lived here for 7 years, the Kempens. He studied at Johns Hopkins University under Paul's dad, and they lived in BAltimore for while, so we have many, many mutual friends through that connection. Our oldest boys seem to share a real love for complex military-historical board games, and our younger boys also have a lot in common. I hope we will find ways to keep connecting with this family. 

Completed puzzle

When we got home that evening, our guard, Solomon, brought us down to the lower part of the yard. Here is how David described the scene for school:

At around 5pm on Saturday the guard randomly called us out, I knew something was up because the dogs were running around barking around the base of a jacaranda tree. The guard beckoned me over to a part of the tree where there were no leaves and in the tree I saw a wild cat. it had Weasley body with a long ringed tail, it had a leopard’s coat but was very small. Afterward, he was throwing rocks and sticks at it to keep it away from the chickens because it could potentially kill the chickens. A few days later I learned it was called an Ethiopian Genet.

We only had one visit of that exotic wild predator. The other exciting news is that we have rats that seem to know how to get into our house and night and wreak havoc. We are working on ways to catch or kill them. A little too much wildlife around here this week!

That’s the round up of things going on around here these days. More to come in another week or two.

Heavy rain and hail on the way back from school

New years preparations on the street

Relief Work and School Start

Dogs wake up David for school.

It is getting late on a Sunday evening of our second full week back in Addis. As Rebecca wrote in the last update, this time it is for keeps. That is, after the many months of tag-teaming, then going for home leave, we are finally here in residence. 

Our first week back seems a bit of a blur, arriving on a Tuesday morning, I did try to go over to the office (reminder note: our office is in a building in our compound so going to work is only a 25-meter walk). Solomon, one of our program officers was there as well as Eyerus our accountant, and Wondweson, who picked us up from the airport. I made it through about half the day before I went home to sleep in the afternoon. Jet lag seems harder coming in this direction, and for several days it was hard to sleep through the night or stay up through the workday. On top of that, I found I had picked up a cold, probably just before leaving the US, and felt under the weather much of the week. 

Despite that, we did take the opportunity to do some exploring on our first weekend and returned to Entoto Mountain Park, which is hard to describe well. It covers several hundred acres on top of a mountain near Addis, and at points along a 10-kilometer walk, various activities, scenic overlooks, and restaurants. Included in the activities are a ropes course, trampoline park, zipline, go-carts, a playground, a future waterpark, laser tag, climbing wall, and I probably am missing a few things. But it is all in a forest and these activities are not all together. 

Going to an outdoor place has risks during rainy season because there is guaranteed to be at least some rain every day. This was not an exception, although most of the time we were there it was clear. David and I tried out the go-carts and he jumped on the trampolines as well. On the 3km way back to the car, we were glad we had our raincoats as it drizzled most of the way back. 

It was also good to be back in the church we are calling home here on Sunday. Our new next door neighbor, Pete, was preaching. It was vision Sunday as people were starting to come back from summer vacation, and it was good to hear something about how the church perceives itself. It has a new name too Redeemer International Congregation. The service was somber in some ways because of a freak flash flood that happened when a river in Addis breached its banks and tore through the Lutheran Seminary where some of the congregation works. It killed about 9 people and destroyed the homes of several of the missionary families. Many of the people there had been involved in clean-up and support of those affected.

Pete is an Anglican and during our home leave, he, his wife Katy and 3 kids started renting the house next door to ours. This seems almost like a miracle as we were really hoping to find a way to connect with friends in the neighborhood. One of their kids, Seth, is David's age, and they have already spent many afternoons together playing outdoors or on the computer. It is also a blessing to us, because Pete and Katy are a very nice couple, who have helped us settle in, and we have shared several meals together in the past two weeks. 

Oren has also inherited a friend in the neighborhood, Bereket (or Barry), who is Oren's age and the son of one of the MCC guards who lives close by. He and Oren both enjoy many of the same activities (admittedly quite a bit on screens), but also chess, and other board games. We also inherited a basketball goal that is set up in our driveway and I am hoping it will become one of the activities that kids can do at our house. 

I feel like I was back in the swing of things at work by the end of week one and the beginning of week two. We are facing an unfolding humanitarian crisis in Northern Ethiopia with an ongoing conflict between a rebel group coming out of the Tigray region (TPLF), and the National Defense. In the past month, the conflict was centered in Tigray, but after a govt. withdrawal the TPLF began moving South and has caused the displacement of over a quarter of a million people in Amhara. Our partners, who have been carrying out food security and WASH projects in parts of northern Amhara have needed to pivot to providing relief aid, especially those working in areas where IDP camps have been set up. 

This has meant a ton of work in the office as we have received no less than 5 new concept papers asking for support for food and non-food emergency aid. In order to release funds, we need a full proposal that includes objectives, criteria for selecting beneficiaries, coordination with work of other relief organizations, gender analysis, environmental impact, risks, a monitoring and evaluation framework, etc. It takes teams at both the partner office and MCC to move this quickly to approval. We have managed to move 3 forward at this point, but it takes a lot of time. 

In addition to office work, we have had some visitors come by including the project coordinator from our Somaliland partner, World Concern, who has been overseeing our maternal and child health project there. It was good to get an update, but we will probably not be able to continue to support after the end of this year. I also did a visit to one of our partner's offices in Addis to discuss relief work they intend to do with IDPs in one of the towns where they have a regional office.

We have also been dealing with a fair amount of hardship in our office. Some of it COVID related. Several of our staff have sick family members, and two have lost parents in the past month. We continue to work in the office with masks, but were greatly relieved when the govt. announced that the Johnson and Johnson vaccine was available to anyone over 35. That was all of our staff (8 people) but one who is younger. They all got vaccinated last week. We are hoping this reduced the risk of spread through our office, but we all continue to use masks with the virulence of the delta variant and number of breakthrough infections. 

The other big event last week was the beginning of school. Rebeca and I drove the kids to and from school for week one and will do so for several days this week as well. But we have arranged for them to share a minivan with some other kids in a compound near us. That will be nice not to lose nearly an hour in the morning and afternoon, although frankly, it is great that the trip to school is actually pretty quick--20 minutes each way. That is an improvement over Tanzania. 

There was actually an orientation on the first Monday for new students and parents. The kids had a good impression then, and after coming home on the first real school days both of the kids expressed pleasant surprise about how good it was. Oren, who is doing A levels starting this year felt like the place seemed like University, with a lot of independent time to study. He is doing Chemistry, History, and Psychology, and will need to take his A-level maths online as it met at the same time as history. We are still working out the logistics of that. 

Weekend number two, we decided to try a new adventure, this time with the dogs. We went over to the botanical gardens, which is again, more of a forested hilltop with many hiking trails. We took Bereket to help us avoid getting lost. Again, almost as soon as we got out of the car it began to rain. Fortunately, it was kind of a Seattle drizzle so we did take a long walk with the dogs and only got a bit wet. (The dogs did manage to get quite muddy as they happily romped through the woods whenever they were off-leash.)

We have slowly been making our house a home when we have the time. We were happy to see that it had been painted while we were on home leave, and we have put up new hangings on the wall, had some bookshelves built, and rearranged a lot of furniture. David has been keeping us active with projects. He built a lego Taj Mahal in the first week, then set out a 1500 piece puzzle we have been working on. I am glad I set up two tables in the dining room so we still have a place to eat when we are working on puzzles. 

There is probably a lot left out, but that is a synopsis of our first two weeks here. I am not sure when we will begin to travel in-country, at this point, going north is off limits with active conflict going on in several of the places where we have projects. We will see if going South will be possible in the weeks ahead. 

Homeleave reset before a new start in Addis

Our month of home leave is over: we are on the plane back to Addis Ababa. So as I sit with a 13-hour flight ahead of me, It’s good to look back and document some of the great (and not so good) moments of this time back in the USA.

We arrived on a Thursday morning in Washington and my dad picked us up in their van to drive us back in the direction of our family home north of Baltimore. We didn’t waste any time starting the process of being fully vaccinated, showing up early for our appointment at Walgreens to get Pfizer shot #1 before even landing at my parents’ house. 

Jam making with Gramma Jean

I can’t describe how grateful we were that all four of us could get that COVID vaccine; it’s a huge relief after feeling like we were constantly entering situations in our work and social life that challenged our risk tolerance. We are also glad that we can be part of the solution to this ongoing and changing pandemic, stopping the spread of new variants and keeping our parents, friends and colleagues safer.

We were tired but it was great to be back in the USA, and taste our first of many meals of grilled salmon and fresh Maryland sweet corn (favorite foods that we’ve missed in East Africa). In the first three days, our kids enjoyed doing some “normal” American chores with their grandparents. 

Oren mowed their lawn while David helped with weeding, and David also tried out the riding lawn mower for the first time. My mom involved David in making some wineberry jam. I also went to a local organic farm to pick blueberries and blackberries with my mother and to share some good conversation.  We also picked up cousin Gabriel to hang out, play games and even take a trip down to the Little Gunpowder Falls for a refreshing dip in the river. It was his first time to swim there and we all enjoyed diving down, seeing the fish in the stream, and trying to swim against the current in a few of the deeper swimming holes.

Cousins

The highlight of our first weekend back was a big multi-celebration with our family in Baltimore, to recognize 2 anniversaries (ours and Paul’s parents) and 2 birthdays (Oren and mine). Paul’s parents came over to hang out and share lunch, together with my brother’s family, and even Aunt Emma, Jonathan’s wife. It was great to see our boys having a chance to catch up with Miriam and Gabriel, their cousins, who are super fun to hang out with. They also started having sweet times with their grandparents, giving warm hugs after two years. We all marveled at enjoying conversation indoors with no masks, because everyone else is fully vaccinated. It was such a remarkable contrast from last year, when we only met outside, at socially distanced tables.

Paul, Oren, Gabe, Paul, Henry, David, Dave

On Sunday, the most restful part of our home leave began. Last year, we spent about two months staying in a borrowed vacation house by the Chesapeake Bay, free rent in exchange for time spent painting and doing repairs. We contacted Dr. Eric again, and he was willing to rent his place to us again. Then he came back to us, and invited us to do some mowing and a few small repairs and he would call it even. We honestly can’t believe his generosity in letting us stay in that great location free of charge, but we were happy to do it. It’s a big three-bedroom A-frame house with plenty of air-conditioned common space indoors and a big yard ideal for various lawn games.

One of many family picnics by the Bay

In fact, it was the perfect place to spend time with the family of Paul’s youngest brother Jonathan. They came to meet us there last year, and so it was great to recreate a really nice 10 days with them again. With all the outdoor picnic space, and a lovely view of the Bay, it’s also a great place to invite our parents to come and spend time with us and in nature. We had several different gatherings out under the trees, enjoying grilled dinners and salads, and the view of bald eagles soaring past over the water, as well as the raucous calls of the blue herons scared up from their fishing spots.

Fletcher v Oren

Jonathan drove up with his son Fletcher (his wife Emma came earlier by plane), and thankfully they managed to fit in his awesome home-made corn hole set. Corn hole was a hit last summer, and things only got more competitive this year. Various combinations of cousins, uncles, aunts, and grandfathers formed teams and played cut-throat rounds of corn hole against each other. 

Even the grandmothers who didn’t play enjoyed watching and cheering. I could probably fill this entire blog with photos of our extended family playing corn hole on many, many days over the past month.

Dr. Eric has a high-quality croquet set at his house and we also had a great time setting that up and getting a game going at least once a day. It was especially funny to play with my dad, who is truly a croquet shark and just about unbeatable. There was bocce ball all around the house. Frisbee on a few evenings. 

And Oren enjoyed his birthday gift yard game, Crossnet, foursquare meets volleyball. When Miriam and Gabriel came out to visit, they really loved playing this fast-paced physical game together.

We anticipated needing some watercraft this year, and so Paul and I invested in an inflatable 2-person kayak and an inflatable stand up paddle board. Both of them turned out to be high quality and functional. 

Together with my parent’s canoe, we had enough boat space for at least five people to be on the water at a time. Sadly, by mid-July, the shallow water of that part of the Bay can get clogged with sea grass. In fact, our whole water access needed to be cleared of land weeds, and then we had to wait for high tide to get through the water weeds and out to open water. It’s a little less nice than in Spring, but we still got out onto the water almost every day.

The thing about Home Leave is that we still needed to be able to answer emails now and then; even Jon and Emma had to do a few hours of work each day; and the internet in the boonies was just terrible! But we managed to do what was necessary to keep our office running, sometimes going out to the public library for better internet.  The kids are now old enough to fend for themselves for entertainment when they need to. So we also enjoyed quite a few board games, and David enjoyed assembling two 1000 piece puzzles in two weeks, all while singing along to Hamilton. (many of us pitched in on the effort, but David was the chief puzzler).

On one of our first days together, Paul and I took David and cousin Fletcher on a canoe trip up the Principio Creek. Fletcher was my canoe partner. He doesn’t have much opportunity to canoe except when he visits us, and he was really attentive and full of questions about the natural environment, the birds, our history in the area. It was really a pleasure to share that time with him. 

David just loves getting to the picturesque spot under the Amtrak railway bridge and throwing in a line. Even Fletcher got involved in the fishing. I simply love being out under the trees and on the water. I took at least one solo trip in the kayak and explored for various places where it wasn’t too muddy and the weeds hadn’t taken hold and we might actually get the kids in the water to swim (that is also a drawback of the weedy summertime). 

As I will relate later, we never got to take advantage of those potential swimming spots… Along the way, I tracked down a lush orange Northern Oriole (hiding too well in the underbrush for a photo), and got some great views of the eagles.

We also enjoyed a couple of excursions around the area. One afternoon we all went to a local mini-golf place and had fun goofing off and hitting the ball around. On another evening, we visited the Cecil County Fair. We were some of the few wearing masks at a red-county celebration (and I got a little bit of jeering for it), but the kids found it pretty entertaining to ride the rides on the midway and pay too much money for fried fair food. We even got to watch a few minutes of the rodeo, and marvel at the athleticism of the guys who do steer wrestling, jumping backwards off a horse to grab a young bull by the horns and wrestle it to the ground.

Fair games: he won a pink dolphin!

During the month of July, I got a little bit of a bee in my bonnet about pie. I had read an article on July 4^th about how Americans are in danger of losing the art of baking our national dish: pie. Cake and cookies have really replaced pie and these days, most people don’t even know what to aim for in creating a light, flaky pie crust. I realize that I truly don’t need to eat pie. But, my mother-in-law Bunny has been called a pie expert, yet  I hadn’t ever baked pie with her. Bunny was gracious enough to get out her pastry equipment and to walk me through her family recipe for making pie pastry, showing me tricks along the way. 

Pie-making with Bunny and Jean

She also related stories of her childhood when they relied on growing a big garden during the summer so that they could preserve vegetables and have healthy food to eat in the winter. There was a ton of work to do on the farm, but fruits were plentiful and so they made two pies a day to feed their big working family and any of the guys helping out for the summer. We put fresh blackberries and peaches into some pies, and really enjoyed them with our parents.

Jonathan is remarkable jazz guitarist and his beautiful new guitar also claimed some real estate in his car on the way up to see us. We had several nights of jam sessions after our parents left for the evening, with Paul and Jon remembering all the old classic rock albums they enjoyed in their youth. Lots of the songs were good ones for harmonizing (Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Led Zeppelin, et al). Paul would just start singing some famous guitar riff off the top of his head, and Jonathan would somehow know exactly what tune that was and how to play the song perfectly to accompany our imperfect singing/mumbling of the lyrics we couldn’t quite remember.

 

Oren and Miriam chatting

Besides our parents, we had a few other day visitors. Miriam and Gabriel came out to spend some time with us (Miriam spending two nights, actually). We got in the pool for a little while and played a bunch of great board games indoors (the weather got super-hot and biting flies made it harder to be outside for a few days). Our friend Ashley came out with two of her kids, and David was delighted to have his age-mate Liam to share time with him fishing. They spent a long time on our dock and actually caught fish from between the see grass. We had planned to build a bonfire and roast hotdogs on sticks that evening, but towards late afternoon we realized that a storm was imminent. 

Campfires, s'mores, evening water

Ashley suggested protecting some of our firewood in the garage, and so we frantically ran around with the wheelbarrow and gathered up the fallen wood in the yard. Then, after a tremendous and quick storm, we had a collective effort to build a fire and still had our weenie roast with marshmallows later on.

Along the way in those two weeks, we also had some unfortunate events. One early morning, David was out by the dock trying to catch minnows for bait. He had gotten a really good bait net from Amazon, the kind that could telescope and become longer. However, as he was swiping through the water, chasing minnows, the aluminum telescoping pole snapped off. He discarded the broken handle and kept using the remaining 2 feet of pole, continuing to aggressively jerk his net through the water. I was outside to exercise and suddenly I heard him cry out in pain. He came running up the walk, blood running down his lower leg. When we got him settled, we discovered that the sharp broken end of the aluminum pole had acted just like a scalpel and sliced his leg deeply, long and clean. We put pressure on the wound, got his leg elevated and waited for the urgent care center to open. 

Games with Emma, Paul, Henry, Jonathan, Oren

The nurse thanked him for cutting his leg so cleanly, and he was pretty brave through the pain of the lidocaine injections. He ended up with seven stitches holding together this gruesome injury. And what was worse: he was absolutely forbidden from getting in the Bay water (or any water) for the remainder of our vacation. No swimming in the Bay. So very unfortunate for a nature-loving kid like him. ;-(. 

Serious mini-golf

I won’t lie: there were two separate times when David was playing near the water and, due to an unfortunate mishap, managed to submerge his leg up to the knee. Straight into the shower he went to wash the wound again. But still, after 10 days, he developed an infection in the wound and needed to be on antibiotics. Probably I can’t post any wound photos here, lest we get banned from Facebook. He’s all better now, but the kid has a scar and a story that he can tell for years to come.

Meanwhile, Paul somehow developed an infection in his leg. We have no idea how it happened, but two days later he was feverish with a very swollen calf. He drove in to town to consult with our doctor and needed to follow up with a surgeon to cut the cellulitis open and get it to drain. 

In his case, it was a bit scary with the risk of a systemic infection. But thankfully the antibiotics started to help after a few days. Still, these medical issues cost us quite a bit of time and money, and took away some of the fun – it’s hard to stay up late and enjoy company when you’re in a lot of pain. And for two weeks, Paul and David had matching bandages around their calves.

Paul was really worried about how he would get the repair work done with his wounded leg, but fortunately he was feeling better by the end of our second week. He borrowed a truck with a lift so that he could go high up on the front cedar siding and fill holes in the wood damaged by woodpeckers. The next day he stained the wood and made it look almost as good as new. I did some deep cleaning of a few public spaces. And we did our best to help the house look fresh and welcoming for whenever Dr. Eric came down again.

Jean, Henry, Fletcher and Emma

On a Saturday of perfect weather, we sadly had to spend much of the day cleaning up to leave. My parents came to help and to take our kids home with them to mow. But towards mid-afternoon, Paul and I were done. We had a little time to sit and enjoy the view and contemplate how far we had come. Since January, we have been in a constant state of transition and upheaval, without steady family routine, and with a lot of anticipated change. We were really looking forward to this time in the US as a time to reset and regather strength so that we could fully enter into our new life in Ethiopia. 

Final fishing trip up the creek

When we first arrived in Addis in July, it was just too quick of a transition and too close to the grief of parting with friends in Tanzania. We really needed the quiet, green space by the Bay, especially now that it is infused with so many homely memories for us as a family. It’s a spot I’ve been coming to since I was 8 years old, and Paul has been joining me for the past 20 years. And layered on top of that were the fascinating months of lockdown last spring in this same location. It was good to remember what that time of stillness felt like (though this home leave was much busier) and to remember what nurtured us as a family through those four months last year. We also had to turn and face the next two weeks—packed with all the doctors visits and many more gatherings with friends. It’s not easy to be back in the US for this relatively short time. There’s just too much to savor, too many good friends to try to catch up with, too many things to remember to bring back with us. The pressure to make it a good visit is high…

Paul, Jean and Henry

We especially wanted to return Saturday evening so that we could be part of a church picnic on Sunday after a Zoom worship service. Sadly, the weather turned from bad to worse. A few people made it to the church picnic, but it was already drizzling when we arrived. Our kids stayed in the car and we just stood around in our raincoats, just enough time to greet a few people before the heavens opened and we all scattered. Then we spend a lot of the afternoon waiting around in the urgent care facility to get David’s infected wound tended to. Finally, we made it to Paul’s parents’ apartment where we spent some time and dropped off David for a sleepover. Oren had his sleepover later in the week. I’m so glad that each of our kids had intentional and individual time with their paternal grandparents.

Oren

On Monday, my mom took us to the Aquarium – one of our favorite places to visit in Baltimore. I think Oren enjoyed it even more this year and was very observant about what we were seeing. David has less stamina for spending a long time in front of any one tank, but it was still great to be there. In the middle of the day, Jean took us to the Hard Rock café, truly a blast from the past (1980’s) kind of cool. It was really interesting and funny to realize how little my kids know about rock n’ roll.

Lincoln Memorial

Tuesday was our Washington Day. Cousin Gabriel joined us for the outing, and we were so glad he did. Because of the rising risks of Covid, we elected to do a self-guided walking tour of several national monuments around the Mall to keep ourselves outdoors. So, we drove all the way downtown and then started with viewing the White House from a distance. It’s amazing how much more security there is surrounding the place these days. We walked past and through the WWII monument – very grand and nationalistic – and then noted the stark contrasts with the Vietnam Veterans memorial. The cost of war is so much more personal and reflective in the second monument. 

We moved on to the Lincoln memorial, and I was most impressed with the engraving of Lincoln’s second inaugural address, given in the midst of the deadly Civil War. He was essentially asking: who are we to complain if our just God judges our nation for the sin of slavery, and if he, for every drop of blood spilled by the whip, demands payment by blood spilled at the point of the sword. He was praying for mercy, but clearly placed himself humbly under God’s justice. I didn’t know he was such a theological thinker and I was truly moved. 

MLK,Jr monument

Next, we arrived at the Martin Luther King, Jr. memorial, which was again very moving and inspiring. King was a national treasure, taken from us far too soon, a fact expressed artistically by the unfinished parts of the statue honoring him. We continued walking around the tidal basin to the Jefferson Memorial and noted how MLK’s monument lies across a straight line between Lincoln and Jefferson – a very interesting bit of monument planning with interesting interpretations. Finally, we walked back to the National Mall and the American history museum to get some late lunch and eat outside. We were pretty tired by that point, having walked 8 km, but it was good to see some interesting history exhibits after all the monuments. We drove back home in the evening, tired but glad we had gone together.

We needed a quiet day Wednesday after all that activity, with time to catch up on our work. I also had doctor’s appointments Weds and Thursday. I got one long walk in the woods by myself after a trip to the doctor in town. Paul and I made a special anniversary supper for my parents one evening. 

Anniversary dinner

Towards the end of the week we were due for our second Covid vaccine, and also needed to do a bit of shopping. Most of us had some flu like symptoms after the second shot, perhaps because the kids and I almost certainly had Covid last December (only Paul felt totally fine), so we also needed some down time at the end of the week.

Friday was a big day. Our friends the Ballards came over to spend time with us in the early part of the day. It was great to catch up with them and also fit in a game of croquet. 

Anniversary flowers

And then Paul and I got dressed up to go to a home church wedding, between two young adults at North Baltimore Mennonite Church. The groom was the son of our good friends and renters of our Baltimore house, who happen to be from Ethiopia. We carpooled with my brother’s family and met lots of church friends at this wedding. The service was in both English and Amharic, and involved a real blending of cultures. It was a wonderful opportunity to catch up with a few old friends we hadn’t seen yet, while we also got to meet a woman who will be our neighbor in Addis. It truly felt like a small world. We had left the kids with my parents, but later realized that they would have enjoyed the dinner and dancing aspect of the evening a lot with their cousins and other kids from the church.

Hannah and Israel

Over the weekend,  we took the chance to take a walk at Loch Raven reservoir to a peaceful corner in the woods. And Paul, David and I were really wanting to enjoy some good sushi, so we fit that into our day.  We got to attend church in-person on the lawn outside the sanctuary and really enjoyed that. We met our parents for a traditional Indian lunch – something we used to do often when we lived in Maryland. And then we joined up with my brother and his kids for some time at their pool – which was very refreshing and relaxing.

Log walking at Loch Raven

Our last week of home leave took us in a few different directions. Paul and his dad left for a quick trip to North Carolina to see his middle brother and wife. It was just one overnight, but it really felt important to see them and spend some time and visit them in their new home down there. I think Paul also was glad for the time in the car with his dad and the time to talk with nephew Charlie on the phone while they drove.

Paul and Henry with Mark

Meanwhile, I woke up early with the kids on Monday and we went to support the VBS program of our church, Peace Camp. Oren and David volunteered as junior youth leaders for three days that week, helping to animate and focus the younger campers (grades 3 – 6). I caught my boys actually having fun themselves playing the big group games outdoors and working on skits with their small groups. I really wanted them to find a way to keep that personal connection with our home church somehow. It’s harder this summer with only one possible in-person service, and no youth group meetings. But I think serving was a good way for them to stay connected and challenged. I also helped by leading music for the group on those days. Then I went off to do my office work in some corner of the public park where the kids were meeting.

Peace camp banner

 

Peace Camp met at the same park where the zoo is located and so on Monday our friend Ashley agreed to take us into the Zoo, along with her son and another church friend David’s age. The three of them were quite a trio and I think they really enjoyed themselves seeing the animals and even going through all the slides several times. 

zoo friends

They are pushing the upper end of the age limit, but it’s great to see 12 year olds still willing to enjoy their childhood, not growing up too fast. When we left the Zoo, we went to spend a little time with my Aunt Jo. I was so glad to see her and talk with her a little bit one-on-one. Oren was fascinated by her description of the disputes with her Trumpist neighbor, who has literally built a wall of Trump signs to divide their properties. She has decided to do nothing – nothing including not cutting the grass next to those signs, in hopes that the weeds will grow up and obscure the barrier with green! This is how personal the political is getting in our country right now.

Cousins gathering

Our final activity of the day took us to my cousin Colette’s house, where we met Gretchen, my cousin visiting from Texas. It has been incredibly long since we’ve seen each other, and I was so glad to be in town finally on one of her visits. Gretchen is a marvelous facilitator of conversation, and she got us all talking about what we did for our first jobs, as well as what we might dream of doing in our lives if we had the skill and opportunity. We were hosted by my cousins Colette and George, and joined by another cousin, Dan, so it was truly a great family get-together.

David, Oren, Gabe, Miriam

 We were back at Peace Camp Tuesday morning, but then came home to spend a quieter afternoon recovering. Late in the day, I decided to take David to this great fishing hole I’d seen on one of my jogs through the forest. I thought it wasn’t far, but it turned out that we had to walk 25 minutes to get there. By the time I had found some worms as bait, the sky was starting rumble. We saw a hole bunch of big fish, including a long American eel, but these fish were clever and weren’t biting. The sky kept rumbling more seriously and I urged David that it was time to go to avoid flash floods. 

At the fishing hole

But he still hadn’t caught anything and really wanted to persist. Finally a few raindrops started to fall and, and he also became alarmed and ready to go. As we turned to leave, the wind picked up and I remembered the other hazards of being in a forest in a storm: lightning and falling limbs. The danger was suddenly pretty clear to him too and we literally ran back to the car as fast as we could make our legs carry us (return trip in 15 minutes), with small leaves and twigs falling around us and lightning getting close. The rain started the second we reached the car, and by the time I had backed out and started driving away, the heavens opened and it was bucketing rain. As David said, as far as a fishing trip it ranked 0 out of 10; as far as an adrenaline rush adventure, it ranked about 100! Oren had been left at home alone and he was really worried for us, so he was glad to see us back. We topped off that day with dessert with our family friends Louise and Jack Ballard.

Dinner with Henry and Bunny

Other highlights of our last few days included a nice dinner with Bunny and Henry. We enjoy going to one of their dining rooms with them, and then going out in the cool of the evening to play bocce ball on the great course they have in their senior living center. On Saturday, We had a little time to visit with Genet, our friend and renter. And we were able to stop by and wish Miriam a happy birthday, as well as seeing my brother a few more times. We needed time for packing, of course, but also fit in some yard work with my parents and a few more trips to the Gunpowder, much more peaceful, with excellent fishing on our final Sunday in Fallston.

Final Gunpowder outing

And now we will be back in Addis in about six hours and finally I think we are ready to be back. We are looking forward to establishing a home there, making friends, and really digging into the work. We got good news in the midst of our home leave that David finally got a place in 7^th grade, so he will be going to school in the typical fashion, making it much easier for us to learn about our new context and do our job together as a couple, rather than needing to learn how to facilitate home school on top of everything. And there will be much to do when we return to Ethiopia, particularly a new and concerning need for emergency relief work. Violence in the north is spilling southward, and out into other regions. There are hundreds of thousands of people displaced who need food aid and other support. We will need to work hard with our team to figure out the appropriate responses. And so that will be our focus in the coming days. Thanks for praying for us as we work to transition into a new normal life, and for the nation of Ethiopia, especially for a peaceful resolution of these conflicts which are making life so difficult for so many ordinary people who just want to make a living.

 

Many bonus photos:

Cousins playing horseshoes

Rainbow at my parents' house

David, Oren and Miriam

Oren at Peace Camp

Picking blackberries with Jean

Butterfly in the berries

and another

Pie almost finished

Our view of the Bay

Fishing

Dave and Bunny

Cornhole again

Full moon on the water

Gorgeous moth

More corn hole

Swinging at the Fair

David and Liam fishing

A good throw at Bocce ball

Paul and Bunny

Measuring a close call in bocce

Gabe in DC

Jefferson monument, our guys in the background

Sushi feast!

morning Spiderweb in the forest 

Peace camp games

Zoo lion

and more zoo lion!

Oren as all the animals (panorama shot)

Gunpowder Falls beauty

Final morning of great fishing

Henry and Oren

David and Dave

David, otters at the zoo