No time to stop, observe, write...but here's May

Hilton mini-golf

The past three weeks have felt like total immersion in frantic work and personal, end-of-school-year tasks, being buried in the computer, trying to keep ahead of deadlines, and struggling to stay abreast of the news. Coming up for air has not been particularly pleasant since it continues to heavily rain every single day. The heavy, grey, cold weather seems to drain energy. When we last wrote we were weighing our long-standing plans for hosting a learning tour of MCC Leadership staff against the current security realities on the ground in those places.

In the midst of that uncertainty, the kids had a long weekend with a Monday public holiday for May 1 Worker’s Day. It seemed like high time to make use of a newer policy in MCC – in high-stress environments, we are given an opportunity to take a few days of Required Renewal Leave. We found a fantastic deal at the local Hilton hotel here in Addis. Highlights included three rounds of family mini-golf on a very funny, quirky course. The breakfast buffet was also amazing. The hot spring-heated pool was wonderful on a super cold rainy night.  Other great things were not cooking or doing dishes or cleaning up anything.

And now, three weeks later, we are already past the middle of the month by a lot, already in the middle of our next big event, the leadership learning tour we are hosting. We have a personal commitment to post twice a month. It’s late and we’re tired. No time to describe and do justice to these past weeks. But I will just add a few other notable events briefly.

We got very clear messages from a major partner in the Amahara region – this is not a good time to bring a big group of visitors. So, we needed to quickly cobble together plan B for our project visits. Making those decisions and arrangements took almost all our energy for a solid week.

I preached a sermon on Habakkuk 3 that was incredibly demanding (spiritually and emotionally) in our local international congregation. Then I preached it again that night to a congregation in Vancouver over Zoom – this was the congregation that nurtured me in my first 3 three years of seminary. I didn’t recover from that pouring out for days.

David joined the volleyball team this term. It's one thing that has really been fun and engaging for him.at school. I was really surprised and pleased to go watch a match against another school and see that he has some pretty good skills. They've had coaching in specific skill development and I think it will be excellent to watch them all grow over the next few years.  

During the weekend of American Mother’s Day, we felt like we were flying in four different directions, all requiring tremendous energy.

Oren with senior friends

We hosted a meeting for our Advisory Board and got very good feedback and ideas from them about priorities for our program and assistance in how to carry out some of those ideas. Any hosting activity requires preparation, logistics, driving, protocol, etc. We are very thankful for such a thoughtful group of development professionals giving time to make our program better.

That same day, Oren completed his final A-level exam (6 total over the first two weeks of the exam period). Exams ended hard, with a history exam and a brutal Maths exam, all in one morning. It was stressful for him and us, and we are really glad that exams are done! We celebrated with dinner out, but only after leaving our Advisory committee, driving to our final choir rehearsal and then driving back in terribly heavy rain. We were all almost too tired to enjoy celebrating by that point.

Flag parade for international day

Early Saturday morning, we got ourselves up to make our contribution to a big school event. Bingham Academy celebrated International Day, with each willing country preparing a booth to share something of their food and culture. I didn’t want to leave my other American friends in the lurch, so I volunteered to give a little time in the morning, to bring a second firepit for s’mores, and offer people the chance to play cornhole. Other friends put in a lot of work pre-packing ingredients for s’mores in little bags, and I had fun trying to coach little kids as they roasted marshmallows. Paul also made a great contribution by teaching 2 line dances at different times in the morning. 

He started by sharing Cotton Eyed Joe, already well-known by students. It was very fun and a real hit. Later he taught a South African line dance, Yerusalema – about how this world is not our home, but we look for a heavenly home.  Now his secret is out, and Paul can definitely expect to get a lot more invitations to lead community dance!

We left for home sadly before I got to visit around to all the countries and appreciate all the hard work. I only heard rumours of the caterpillars being served at the Botswana table! I was nostalgic to try them again! Maybe next year… but we had to go prepare ourselves for our evening choir concert.

Although we had some scary and concerning moments in our warm-up, thankfully we ended up singing most of the songs really well. We had a very friendly audience who appreciated hearing lots of interesting show tunes. 

Skip to my Lou

Several choir members offered up individual pieces or duets. I was so impressed by the violin/piano compositions prepared by Aman and Sophie. Nathan played a Beethoven sonata really well. But the absolute highlight of the evening was a jazz trio playing a totally genuine rendition of the Cantina Song form Star Wars, with piano, saxophone and percussion. It has been very nurturing to be part of singing together with others in this community, connecting with people we wouldn’t have met otherwise, and simply participating in the stress-relieving activity of singing choral music, all together. There is science behind why choirs are good for your mental health!

S'mores at the USA booth

By the time we got home, we were pretty much shattered, as they say in the UK. And yet, we needed to get up in the morning and head to church, lead worship, etc. And it was Mother’s Day. I told Paul that a good celebration would be to just go for a nice walk at the botanical gardens – we went with two dogs and no kids, and it was nice.

All this past week, we have been trying to arrange all the final details for our big group of visitors, paying down payments, acquiring welcome bags, dealing with last-minute changes, etc. We had a really nice youth group outing on Saturday morning, heading into town to Friendship Park for fellowship, walking around and enjoying ice cream. I’m glad we have an active group of parents to support these kinds of activities. Our friend and colleague Neil was in town from Tanzania. He always travels with his mandolin, so he joined me with our music team on Sunday, and that was a great joy. Lots more details to talk about but I’ll leave it there.

 

 

Surface Pressure

Cantina Song

More mini-golf

Crazy mini-golf -- will it ever come out?

Orthodox Easter (Fasika) and Early Rains

Fasika, traditional dress

"Belg" and "Kiremt" are the two rainy seasons we have in Addis Ababa. Normally Belg is shorter, more or less in the month of February and some of March. "Kiremt,' the longer one, begins sometime in June and seems to go through September. Unlike in tropical countries, rainy season here at 9000 ft above sea level is cold and damp. People will wear heavy coats, even parkas. We find ourselves using the fireplace in our house several times per week. We have to dry all our laundry indoors, strewn on various furnishings in the living and dining room. 

You might be wondering why I am describing Kiremt now. In theory, we should be in the space of several months between rainy seasons which, as summer approaches, should be relatively warm. In fact, we have had precious few sunny days since February. This is a mixed blessing. On the one hand, the blessing of rains have extended over nearly the whole country, and areas in the South that have suffered years of drought are experiencing relief, even flooding. But there is a need for dry weather to plant. Many fields are too muddy to plant or sow at this point. 

This could be climate change, but it could also be the effects of the cyclical change in Pacific Ocean temperatures known as "El Nino". The change from La Nina to El Nino has just happened this March for the first time in 3 years. "El Nino" is usually accompanied by increased rain in this part of Africa. 

Moving out of the scientific, rainy season is not my favorite time to be here. The damp cold wears one down, makes swimming outdoors very unpleasant, and breathing takes on a distinctly phlegmatic character. In fact, illness, in the form of colds, bronchitis, pneumonia, etc., seems to be pervasive at the moment. This has been made worse in the past 2 months with a vaccine-resistant strain of mumps that has been ravaging the Bingham school community, and much of Addis. Children come home from school with it, and suddenly both parents have it as well. Although I don't know of anyone who has been hospitalized, many adults have been unable to get out of bed for a week to ten days. (On the plus side, our vegetable garden looks great.) The unseasonable rainy season has also led to funny situations like the middle school "Beach Party," It was planned for the sunny days of May with a homemade pool built of tarps and haybales, slip and slides across the field and other wet activities. But on a cold and drizzly day, the favorite spot for middle schoolers was in front of a roaring fire in the teachers lounge! 

I am trying not to think about home leave, which is still a ways off, but I admit that I will appreciate a break from constant rain and cold. (I did experience this during 2 winters in Seattle when I was in grad. school; the weather in Addis feels quite similar to a Seattle winter.)

Dividing the bull

In the last blog entry, I talked about our Holy Week activities leading up to a sunrise service. In fact, the following week, everyone else in Ethiopia celebrated Orthodox Easter (Fasika). The observed Holy days are about the same, but occurred a week later in this particular year. One big difference is that most people go to church on either Friday or Saturday night, and stay up all night until 6am Sunday morning when they go home. Following this all-night vigil, on Sunday morning there are almost no church services because people have been praying and celebrating all night. Rebecca had a bit of an unexpected surprise when she arrived early to prepare the music for our service on Sunday morning and found the church completely locked up and the empty sanctuary in shambles, with food and trash everywhere, the furniture rearranged, and a massive rented sound system blocking the way to our office. There had clearly been a huge celebration the night before!

Besides the all-night service, the other Fasika tradition involves finally eating a lot of meat following the extended vegan fast of Lent. Many people prepare by buying a share of a bull and then slaughtering it, or goat if one cannot afford a bull. The bull is usually slaughtered on Sunday morning at dawn, with all 'shareholders' in attendance. As soon as it is killed, a chunk of meat is cut off and everyone eats their fill of the raw beef dipped in some berbere spice. The very friendly bull we had in our backyard met a similar fate on Sunday morning about 5:30 am. We looked on from our front porch but did not participate in the feast as none of our family are fans of raw meat, All of our office and guard staff were there to get their shares to take home for Fasika lunch, and to participate in the raw meat eating ritual. We bought a share on behalf of the organizational lunch provision and spent a number of hours cutting it into storage bag-size pieces for storage and food over the coming months. This included the entire lung which our cat loves to eat. 

Hana at home with Thursday, her puppy

I did eat some kitfo (raw beef) later that day when Rebecca, Oren, and I went over to our accountant Hana's house for lunch with her parents and brother. We went last year for Meskel as well and enjoyed a number of Southern Ethiopian delicacies. Beef is usually the meat of choice for this event. The family was very gracious and we had a nice time.

Back at home, our compound lawn is always a bit appalling afterward with a large pool of blood, quite a bit of small pieces of flesh, and an entire bull's head sitting out for a number of days. The dogs tend to sniff around in the compost for various pieces of offal that they will drag out into the yard, or even the house if they get a chance. (Our younger dog Bella actually dragged a piece of skin onto David's bed! He slept on the couch for three days afterwards) It is not uncommon to find carcasses and heads of goats and bulls discarded throughout the neighborhood, lying in rain gutters or on the side of the road. 

 Work-life has been a bit stressful the past 3 weeks. With the start of our new fiscal year, there is a lot of 'legal' work, involving re-signing agreements with all of our partners for their grants in the coming fiscal years. It is fastidious work with partners resubmitting annual budgets based on current inflation rates (this means adjusting scope, not getting more money, in most cases.) It has been a hard year all around because of the economic dynamics here. Ethiopia's inflation was about 35% in the past year, with no devaluation in currency whatsoever, so our dollars are worth less here and partners have in turn had to limit their plans. We are all feeling the pinch of high prices. The causes are complex, but the civil war with Tigray has been a major factor. War is expensive; paying for it is painful.

Youth group hockey

We have been very encouraged by peace negotiations with Tigray, but this has led to new conflicts in both Oromia and Amhara regions. Amhara region seems to be in the role of the 'older brother' vs. the Tigrayan Prodigal Son. As the Federal Govt. makes concessions for peace, Amhara which is adjacent to Tigray and bore the brunt of the invasion by TPLF is not fully welcoming of a reconciliation which may cost them land, or less security.

We are planning to have a 'learning tour' of leaders coming from MCC US and Canada in the month of May. We have planned this for about 10 months, and lined up a wonderful tour of some of our most visually expressive projects in the "safer" parts of the country. Now, the new tensions are rendering the security situation very dynamic in Amhara. We are reconsidering decisions about which project sites to visit and changing plans at this late hour is quite stressful. 

Among our stress relievers, choir has been one of the better ones. We rehearse on Friday afternoons and have a concert coming up. We have been doing a number of show tunes, from The Greatest Showman, Encanto, Brave, Fiddler on the Roof, and Harriet. It should be a lot of fun, although the arrangements are difficult. 

School is coming to an end, with end-of-year activities like banquets and award ceremonies. Oren, a senior, received an Academic award in the awards ceremony. He is a very good student and made the decision to attend the College of William and Mary (Williamsburg, VA) in the fall, Rebecca's alma mater. Sadly, he had an ankle injury from a sprain back in October that has not healed properly and will need to have surgery when we get back to the US. He will probably start college with a boot. He and we are trying to take it in stride and arrange summer plans accordingly. 

Senior Class

Holy Week Activities

Easter Cat

Time flies and here we are in mid-April. It now seems like Zanzibar is a distant memory. We crossed an important milestone, another MCC fiscal year ended and a new one started on April 1st.  There is normally a flurry of activity including many reports due, and lots of financial documents to complete. We also have an annual audit for the Govt. of Ethiopia which requires quite a bit of administrative work. I notice this year, at our third crossing of this boundary in Ethiopia, that we are actually a bit better at it this year. We kind of know what we are doing. That doesn't lessen the workload but makes it less intimidating. 

Junior high youth group

The past two weeks have been somewhat eventful. Most recently, we just passed through Holy Week. I will start by saying that celebrating the Gregorian calendar Holy Week in Ethiopia is a bit odd because Easter is one week later in the Orthodox calendar, so there is not much general community celebration on Western Palm Sunday. On our Easter Sunday, everyone else was in the streets waving palms and singing Hosanna. Finally, this coming Friday through Sunday is a national holiday weekend and everyone else is entering Maundy Thursday today. 

We did have a really good Holy Week notwithstanding. We actually hosted a Youth Group for the Middle Schoolers on Saturday. It was also a Birthday party for our next-door neighbor so kids got together and played games and did a scavenger hunt. They all know each other well and it is great that David has a group of friends that he likes. 

Jr high challenge

Palm Sunday was pretty normal. We enjoyed a church service with lots of green decoration, palm fronds and communion. The Sunday school kids sang a song that we had prepared. 

Following this, we had a busy week at work as the new fiscal year started. Meanwhile, Rebecca actually took a flight with our Program Manager Solomon over to Dire Dawa to see the graduation of a group of 'Peace Ambassadors' who had been doing a 3-year course through our Mennonite Church Partner. She will tell about her experience here:

One of the great things about working in Ethiopia is that it has an amazing network of frequent and affordable domestic flights that can take one to many corners of this huge country. This is especially helpful at the moment, since it isn't wise to travel through many different parts of the country. So, Tuesday morning, I was able to leave the house at 5:30 am, join our colleague Solomon at the airport a little after 6 am, and arrive in Dire Dawa by 8 am to start our work day. We had time to drive through this eastern, Somali-culture influenced city and check into our hotel before joining our partner staff for their graduation ceremony. 

Peace Ambassador graduation

Three different groups of people have been trained and accompanied over the past three years: church leaders, women leaders and Sunday school teachers. In particular, the Sunday school teachers have been learning about how to use a new, specially designed curriculum for children called Christ's Shalom. It goes beyond teaching bible stories to introducing a relationship with Jesus, and naturally integrates the best concepts of peacebuilding and dealing with conflict in a godly way. This project has now ended and so the trainees attended a special session of graduation as "ye Salam Ambasadors." The project coordinator, Mekonen, had asked me to share the word of God, and so I preached (with translation) about the character of a peacebuilder from James 3. Other leaders shared messages of encouragement and several graduates shared testimonies of what the training has meant to them. 

After the graduation, we had lunch and more conversation with Mekonnen, his fellow trainers, and several other church leaders from the Eastern region. I was glad to get to know the women's ministry staff leader, Kelem, as well as the Sunday school trainer Haymanot. I started to hear more about their recent visit to the far West of Ethiopia where the Meserete Kristos Church is also engaged in trying to bring conflicting ethnic groups into Community Dialogue. More on that later.

There was some time in the afternoon to catch up on the dozen emails that concerned the beginning of the fiscal year. And then I took a walk up and down the main street of the town. The community was noticeably different from Addis, just feeling more relaxed and integrated. Eastern Somali culture is somehow more accepting of different backgrounds, and I learned that more than 80 ethnic groups make up the population of Dire Dawa. Of course, the main item for sale by street vendors was "chat," and many young men were walking around with that glazed expression like their eyes are open but inside they are asleep. 

In the morning, we went back to the meeting hall for a final training session on peace with younger people. Students from several local universities and high schools had been formed into peace clubs over the past two years. They have ended their training by learning about the road to reconciliation. It was truly delightful to witness such an engaged group of young people. The majority of them are Muslim (reflecting the character of Eastern Ethiopia), but some were Orthodox or Pente (Evangelical). They demonstrated real respect for each other and commitment to thinking carefully together about what is ailing their communities. They held a lively debate about which part of the body is the most important and concluded that it's vital to respect what everyone brings to the table. Mekonnen asked me to share about the peace clubs MCC supported in Burundi, and it was good for me to look back and make connections with our past experience, in order to encourage these youngsters. The challenge for me was that the entire training was in Amharic. I can understand a lot, but not everything, and it becomes very draining to try to pay attention and grasp at meaning. I left for the airport at the end of the training session and got back home just before everyone was headed to bed back in Addis. 

While Rebecca was gone, I held down the fort as far as kids. Oren is getting down to the last 3 weeks of high school (there is an extended period of exam study leave from mid-April). David continues to plod to the end of the year. 

Good Friday was a real highlight. About 15 years ago I wrote a drama based on meditations on the last 7 words of Jesus during the crucifixion. It is told by 3 characters, the Apostles James and John, and Mary Magdalene. The setting is in Golgotha, some distance away but in view of the crucifixion. With each saying of Jesus, the disciples reflect from different perspectives: James is angry, almost cynical, but hoping for God's punitive judgment. Mary is emotional, hopeful, but devastated. John is circumspect, trying to make some sense of what has transpired. The meditations are presented in a Tenebrae service where the church gets progressively darker with the extinguishing of a candle at each reading. Between each reading was an interlude of Taize music. Rebecca and a group of musicians led the Taize music. 

Actually, the music came together through near-divine intervention.  Rebecca had organized a team and practiced earlier in the week. But several musicians became ill the night before the service. With 24 hours' notice, she asked a very talented young man, Christopher, to help out with some of the instrumental parts and he brought his whole family as well as another talented young musician who filled out the singing incredibly. It really became a community event as most of the musicians were together for choir practice, all hopped in our car, scarfed down take-away pizza and rearranged the sanctuary. Some of the musicians didn't even have time to rehearse, but they were all so skilled that they were able to pick up the improvisational harmonies easily. 

The ending is quite dramatic with the person playing Jesus (Oren's friend Bereket) stepping down off the dais, after saying "it is finished" and blowing out the remaining white Christ candle. At the same time, I cut all the lights and left the sanctuary in complete darkness for a 5-minute discipline of silence. Then Rebecca began to play the song "Within our Darkest Night, you kindle the fire that never dies away" as the lights slowly come back on and others join in. The other moving moment was a bit earlier when the thief says "Jesus Remember me when you come into your Kingdom, followed by Jesus' response and the Taize song "Jesus Remember Me" was sung while members of the congregation were invited to light a votive candle and set it before the life-size cross on the dais. 

Holy Saturday was fairly subdued, one of the only days that was not fully programmed. Rebecca and I took a walk with David in Gullele Park where the dogs love to run around. We usually take about a 5k hike. It is vigorous because the park is on the side of a mountain and goes up and down over 1000 feet in the course of the walk. In the afternoon Rebecca and the kids made a batch of cinnamon rolls for our Easter brunch at church, and we colored about 2 dozen boiled eggs that we planned to take to the brunch as well. 

We went to bed early because we had an Easter sunrise service at 6am and had to leave our house about 5:20 to get there. We made it in good time and most of the rest of our church was there as well. It was outdoors at the Norwegian Lutheran Mission compound, a place with a large yard, children's playground and an amazing dining hall and industrial kitchen perfect for potlucks.

The service was very nice and we put flowers on the cross that had been used on Good Friday so it looked beautiful after the service. We had a very well-provided potluck brunch featuring many Scandanavian brunch dishes, since many of the families in our church are Scandanavian. 

After church, we came home and spent time with Oren to finalise his decision about where he would go to college. He had 4 good options and finally settled on The College of William and Mary, Rebecca's alma mater. We were very proud of him and took him out for dinner at Laphto Mall to celebrate that evening. 

As explained earlier, since this was not Orthodox Easter, Monday was a work and school day, so the ending to Holy Week felt a bit abrupt. Oren is down to his last 2 weeks of school before the exam period. David is still plodding along for another month though. One addition to our household this week is a bull in the backyard purchased by the MCC team. It is traditional at Easter to buy shares in a bull and slaughter it on Orthodox Easter Sunday morning. Our Ethiopian colleagues love to eat some strips of raw beef sprinkled with beriberi spice. I may pass on that particular ritual as I am not a huge fan of beef sushi!

Work has been quite intense this week as it has been every week to get end-of-year things in, as well as starting the new fiscal year. When we are not on the road, we try to take time to do things together as a family, especially listening to audiobooks together and playing board games. Our current favorite board game is Catan with 2 expansions (Knight and Cities, AND Seafarers). It makes for an exciting and challenging evening, often going quite late if we can even finish in one evening. 

We continue to pray for stability in the country. There has been quite a bit of civil unrest, especially on the borders between Amhara and Oromia. We tend to fly when we have to travel out of Addis to avoid roads where there have been reports of attacks from rebel groups or bandits. It is hard that with the cessation of hostilities between the federal govt. and Tigray, the rest of the country is still in quite a bit of ethnic turmoil. The lack of foreign currency that has come with the bill for the conflict (War is expensive) has really hurt the economy as well and everyone, including us, are really feeling the 37%+ inflation. 

We do continue to develop community through our small group, our community choir, our church, our work colleagues, and our neighbors. We are thankful that David and Oren both have a good set of friends and that has helped when the situation here feels unsettling. 

In Memoriam:

Very sadly we lost a colleague last week. Olivia Okello, the MCC co-Representative for South Sudan passed away after a long illness.

She is survived by her husband Amos and two children. We were not able to attend the funeral in Uganda, but many from the region in MCC were. 

 

Back to the best spot in Zanzibar for Renewal

It's the last day of March, which means the last day of the MCC fiscal year (with all those work deadlines), while also high time to get one more blog written -- we have a personal commitment of putting something down twice a month at a minimum. 

Papa Dave playing with the grandsons

Looking back a bit, I realized that we didn't have much of a record of my dad's visit to us this month. He actually passed through twice, arriving at the end of the week when we hosted our annual MCC partner gathering. Paul was fully engaged in that work assignment, so didn't get much time with my dad. I, on the other hand, was very glad to enjoy a day and a half of quiet time with him. Oren was also home on a Friday because he had finished taking all his mock exams by that point and wasn't expected in school. It was quite rainy the whole time he was here, so we didn't try to go out and do any activities. Instead, the three of us just had time to talk and share, take a slow walk around the neighborhood, and give him a glimpse of everyday life for us on a quiet day. In the afternoon, we caught a taxi to our kids' school.  

Introducing the school tortoise

Oren gave Papa Dave a tour of the place where the kids spend most of their time. There were glimpses of David playing volleyball in the gym with his Under14 team, the community choir in the chapel as we prepare our concert of show tunes, and lots of other corners of the school. I arranged a ride back for us in one of the school mini-bus taxis that David usually uses to get back from after-school sports. It was not nearly as comfortable as I imagined, and very full of soaking wet, sweaty 14-year-olds who had just finished a football (soccer) practice in the rain. We definitely missed getting Papa Dave the business class ticket back home ;-). There was some time to play a couple of rounds of Rummikub with both kids along with a very funny game of Scattergories. We then took him to the airport on Saturday morning to continue on his way to Nepal. 

The following Sunday morning, my dad arrived back in Addis, to attend meetings with the Africa CDC on Monday and Tuesday. I had to preach that morning, so it was too complicated to try to get him from the airport, but it gave him a chance to catch a little nap before we picked him up at his hotel at 11 am. 

We drove to the nearby Friendship park, quite a photogenic new place built on part of the grounds of what was once the imperial palace. The flowers are now well-established, setting off cityscapes nicely. We strolled around, and talked some more, but noted that the park was totally jam-packed with people who were gathered to celebrate World Downs Syndrome Day -- no place at all to sit for lunch! So we went across the street to the Sheraton Hotel, a spot that is normally too upscale for our family to frequent. It turned out to be a lovely place to sit, in the garden by the pool, and we had more chances to talk with both Oren and Bereket about their upcoming options and choices for college. Then we dropped my dad off at his hotel again and ran home to wrap up work and pack for our long-awaited trip to Zanzibar!

Paul and David walking the steps while we stroll

While we lived in Tanzania, we were able to visit Zanzibar quite a few times, benefiting from a cheap 1-hour domestic flight and resident rates at hotels. We had two MCC team retreats there, staying at different kinds of places, and at least 2 family holidays. After looking around, our absolute favorite location turned out to be Ras Michamvi (now Pearl Beach by Sansi), where we stayed with the family of Paul's brother Jonathan for a week in 2019. It is located on the tip of a long skinny peninsula, mostly facing directly East onto the Indian Ocean, but with a sheltered bay on the backside. The restaurant sits atop a bluff with epic views of the ocean, and the place has 2 pools, a good swimming beach on the back side, and great access to free snorkeling on the ocean side. Also, very few beach vendors and tour operators make their way to the end of the peninsula so it is much quieter on the beach to walk and just enjoy. When we compared around, this spot was the absolute best!

Pearl Beach view out to the Indian Ocean

And yet, when we tried to return to this hotel another year, we found it had changed management. Our contacts didn't work. No one would return our emails. We were very sad. In January 2021, we had one last chance to use our TZ resident status for a visit to Zanzibar, staying elsewhere. And from there, we made a spontaneous day trip to Pearl Beach, just to see if it was still any good. They let us in, gave us access to the pool and beach, and we enjoyed quite an amazing seafood dinner. We got a better email that time but didn't know when we might use it. 

This year, as we were plowing through non-stop work in January and February, and as tensions in this country were really starting to affect us, we thought -- we really need some snorkeling to recover. Many thanks to MCC for supporting our lodging costs throught the Required Renewal Leave policy. We made an effort to reach Pearl Beach and Paul actually scored the WhatsApp number of the reservations manager -- now that's the way to get things done in East Africa! He called and inquired, and the guys said, "if you book today, I'll throw in half-board for free." Paul decided to go for it. When he had paid the money, the guy said, "If you want it, you could stay at the Private Beach villa for the same price." Paul had no idea of the specifics, but he said, "Sure, why not?" 

Private beach villa with plunge pool

So, we arrived on Monday afternoon, back to that same spectacular restaurant at the top of the cliff. Things looked good, the gardens were maintained, and stuff seemed to work -- honestly, it's rare to find a hotel in the same good condition for several years in a row. Entropy is real in the tropics. And then two hotel staff grabbed our bags and started to walk us to our rooms. We walked past all the rooms in the main hotel area, then down the hill past all the new bungalows around that sandy beach area. And we walked and walked and walked, through some shrubby forest, Oren complaining all the while about how far it was. 

The view from our door

Suddenly we came to a separate little compound containing a charming white-washed villa. There was a tiny two-level plunge pool right in front of the house as we came around the corner. Six rope chairs with colorful cushions lined up on a covered veranda. Two separate spacious rooms were well appointed with beautifully carved Swahili-style beds and furnishings, hibiscus flowers accenting everything. And two meters from the door, a set of six steps led down to a sandy part of the beach, perfect for swimming, with the ocean waves gently rolling in. We were absolutely stunned. This beautiful, quiet place was definitely worth the long walk!

David always finds the creatures

We took a dip in the ocean and tested out the little plunge pool. David and I swam around in the water as it got shallower with low tide, looking for cool shells. It was just amazing to be back in that spot again. Then we headed up to the restaurant for dinner. When we arrived, the manager greeted us with a handful of blue wristbands. Apparently, as returning guests, they had decided to honor us with the all-inclusive treatment! It was just really too good to be true, grace upon grace. No need to nickel and dime the kids about ordering a cheap lunch, or skimping on drinks. Pearl Beach was really trying to make a good impression -- and they lived up to it! The buffet was actually quite good for a hotel buffet and even included a fair bit of seafood, along with nice vegetables and salads. 

David is ready to snorkel

The only major negative change we noted was that most of the sand had left the formerly sandy beach on the protected bay. The beach volleyball net was standing on old coral rock and looked pretty uncomfortable. Meanwhile, it seemed like our villa end of the bay had collected all the sand. Paul learned that the climate effects of La Niña include a lot of droughts and also somehow, carry sand away from the shores. Someone official had declared that this past La Niña actually finished on March 8, and that El Niño had just begun. Maybe El Niño will bring some sand back to that beach to make it a bit more charming for the non-snorkeling beach guests. 

On the boat to snorkel

In the morning, Paul and I had a chance to do some lap swimming in the larger deeper pool. And then we got ourselves all organized to take a boat out to do some proper snorkeling. We were joined by four middle-aged French tourists, friends who were enjoying an African adventure. It took us nearly half an hour to reach the good snorkeling spot, but it was just so wonderful to be back in the water, with that slow snorkel breathing, the world coming alive under the surface with fish and coral, and sea plants. OK, after Djibouti, all other snorkeling spots look a bit depleted and washed out -- one can really see the change in coral reef quality over the past 10 years, and I'm sure climate change and tourist visits don't help. But still, it was marvelous to snorkel and chase fish and explore various grottos that aren't visible unless you are underwater. Besides, this time we had a GoPro, with a wrist strap and a floating tripod rod, so the kids had a great time taking footage of the fish.

Most footage was video; 
I'm not sure what these are!

And then it started to rain. "Well," I thought, "what's the difference? I'm already wet!" And then it started to rain really heavily. The water was stirred up and visibility went down some, but still, it was just fine for snorkeling. We weren't really having much trouble -- not those of us in the water. The poor captain and his mate, however, were struggling! I realized at some point they were bailing the little motorboat like crazy. They had tied up our bags under the plastic shade over the boat, but they themselves were soaking. We went back to ask, but they said, no stay in the water -- it's warmer than out here in the air, and we can't see anything anyway! 

It's true, the rain was coming down in absolute sheets and there was no way the captain could see his way around the coral outcroppings through to the channel. So, we just kept snorkeling for a while until we had to give up and try to get home. There was a lot of shivering in that boat, some measure of ridiculous singing and dancing to keep warm, and some nervous laughter, especially as we started moving, and the wind blew against us. It was definitely an adventure!

For the days after that, we just did our own free snorkeling excursions, walking out across the flats at low tide and then swimming around to find and explore different nearby coral rocks. There was nothing as varied as on the first day, but we had a lot of fun exploring. We have our own gear, including fins, which makes it a lot safer to be out as the tide is coming in and the water gets deeper. You have a lot more power as a swimmer in case of currents. And we all even have packs where can carry our water shoes when we swap them for fins. 

morning walk around tidepools

We had some very excellent moray eel sightings in and around the shore. Oren was particularly fascinated with those guys, although he's not as much a fan of snorkeling as David is. There is always one or two lionfish lurking around in a crevice under a rock, not aggressive but looking quite ominous. Sprinkled here and there were anemones with various famous residents of the Nemo variety, along with black white-spotted little fish, and then a warm golden fish about the size of a clownfish. I'm not so good with my fish ID's, so experts, please we beg your pardon. 

One absolutely gorgeous morning
what a place for quiet time

On a few mornings, I was able to take my swim for exercise right in the ocean. I just grabbed my snorkel, waded in chest-deep, and swam back and forth a few times across the bay in front of our villa. It was slightly more exciting than the pool, that's for sure. You have to keep your eyes open for things moving that are more than just vegetation being swirled by the waves -- I think I startled at least five moray eels while swimming. In fact, I saw more eels than regular fish! And the pull and push of the waves make it interesting. Going one way, you have to swim hard to make any progress at all. Going back, you feel like you are just flying through teh water, pushed by waves. 

Five Crowns game after lunch

We arrived in Zanzibar right at the beginning of the rainy season. We enjoyed one day with sunny, beautiful weather. But on the other days, we had to negotiate heavy rain at some point in each day. We had brought a whole lot of portable board games so we found our way up to the Swahili lounge above the restaurant and lounged on cushions to play. But on one morning, the rain was blowing in so hard, that it was impossible to keep the table or our cards dry. We ended up opening our umbrellas indoors to protect ourselves from the spray. Sadly, the lovely carpets on one side of the lounge were completely sodden -- I'm not sure how they deal with this kind of weather event if it happens a lot!

Playing in the pool

The staff was always eager to involve us in various potential activities. One afternoon, the boys and I participated in a Swahili cooking lesson, watching and assisting with the preparation of samosas. Another afternoon, Paul learned how to make fresh tamarind juice, which is a lovely, tangy beverage we enjoyed at breakfast -- just don't be put off by its cloudy brown color. 

I have to say a word about language here. We were decently conversant in Swahili by the time we left in 2021, and fortunately, we keep having opportunities to practice every few months. Amharic is going more smoothly these days, though, so I was worried... but within a few hours of being in Zanzibar, all that Swahili came flooding back. And it was so fun and delightful to speak with the staff at the hotel, who, unlike Kenyans, are proud of their language and enjoy using Swahili with guests. Somehow, I believe that you take on a persona together with a foreign language, or maybe the language itself has a persona. Anyway, speaking Swahili, I felt myself become more relaxed and playful, kind of like the way the culture is there: "Hakuna matata!" I felt more free and able to express myself well in Swahili than I do yet in Amharic, and I've missed that sense of being at home in a foreign language. 

Ironically, most of our fellow guests were French, so we also had the chance to practice some French conversation. I'm a lot rustier than Paul, but we were really flexing all our language muscles for a few days, which was actually refreshing in an unexpected way. The only problem -- coming back to Addis, my Amharic has been a lot more halting. I'll need to immerse myself more...

So, we had days of much time in the water, time to play and sleep and read and enjoy strategy games and enjoy food that someone else cooked, while someone else cleaned the dishes. I didn't look at work email the whole week, since I didn't even bring my computer, and the app on my phone stopped working -- another provision of grace! We enjoyed several long morning walks up the beach to the north. 

Every morning I could wake up and enjoy a different mood of the ocean, sitting on those rope chairs for a time of prayer and journaling. We could hear hightide come in every night, crashing right up against the steps of our villa. It was an absolutely magical place to be for a week.  We arrived in Zanzibar depleted and tired and grumpy and returned a lot more refreshed and ready to face the very intense week of work that is coming to a close. 

Back here in Addis, it has been cold, wet, and dreary, but we just needed to buckle down and spend hours in the office meeting year-end deadlines. Our poor accountant has stayed late every night this week doing her best to finish up everything in preparation for our audit. We still have a few more items of work to complete before April 1 hits.

Where will the open door lead?

And it's going to be a big week for decision-making for Oren. He has now been accepted into four good colleges, not accepted into two upper-tier schools, and we are still waiting on an answer from the last college. All of Oren's choices are good options so far, but it may be a question of choosing between career directions: chemistry or foreign service. We would really appreciate prayer for Oren and for us, that the Holy Spirit would give us all clarity about which of these good choices is the best choice for him at this time. And we also are praising God that Bereket has been accepted into 2 of the 3 colleges he has applied to -- he will probably get an answer from his top choice this weekend. He now has the paperwork he needs to apply for an expedited visa. And then it will be a question of finding the funding...

BONUS PHOTOS

Walkway past the beach bungalows and Baobar,
out to our private villa

Swahili lounge

David's favorite: spotting little creatures in tide pools

Another squall sweeping through

Sheltering in the Swahili lounge waiting for the storm to pass
so we could go out for more snorkeling

Paul's morning exercise in the rustic hotel gym

Lunch in StoneTown at the end of the week

Imagine being there, breathing deeply, hearing the water...
what a place for quiet time