We Are Here

They say you should do lots of writing when you enter a new culture. Write in a journal, a blog, email, letter, anything. Why? Because those first days, weeks and months are the times you can “see” things that will become normal to you later on. So allow me to offer some random impressions as well as a recalling of events upon our arrival.
John and Holly Blosser Yoder, outgoing CR’s, had a full schedule planned. We were glad to soak up as much information as they could provide in 10 days before they left, but it looked like a lot to 5 tired bodies. Our internal clocks were ticking on the wrong time. Wanda and I found ourselves waking up between midnight and 3 a.m. for the first couple of nights. We tried in vain to go back to sleep but ended up turning on the light and reading something. The girls did surprisingly better on that adjustment. We explored our new house that night and the next day. The mornings are cool and the evenings can be as well if it has rained a lot. There is no heating of any kind so one has to wear layers of clothes. That first night the house felt cold and clammy. It’s hard not to feel a bit depressed and homesick in that first night state of mind.
The MCC house is in a compound about the size of a half a football field. Inside the gated wall there is our house, two ship containers back to back (one is a storage shed, the other a guest room), MCC offices, parking area for the 4 MCC vehicles and a nice little garden area down below the house. Everything is green right now, plenty of daily rain. There are always one or two “guards” at the gate by day and by night (no weapons, mostly deterrent). They screen visitors at the gate and open it when a vehicle comes and goes. Yeshi is our housekeeper and comes weekdays. She arrives after breakfast and starts housekeeping; washing the dishes, making beds, straightening up, cleaning floors, washing and ironing clothes, making meals. She makes the evening meal and puts it in the refrigerator and leaves about 4:30 p.m.
The house itself feels a bit “dark” on the inside. We are used to bright lighting and single bulbs from the ceiling in the middle of a large room has an old movie feel to it. The area immediately around the bulb is fine, but large pockets around the room remain dark. There aren’t as many electrical outlets and it may be just as well. That first night we tried to plug in two space heaters to warm up and off went the electric! John thought it was just a normal cut and it may have been but the power stayed off. Eventually we checked the circuit box and found out it was us.
Our first order of business the next day was to see the school the girls were going to go to. Bingham Academy. It was a 15-20 drive from the house. By day we could see Addis. I think the traffic and roads struck me the most. To us westerners it looks like there are no rules on the road, it seems total chaos. But in fact rules exist, it is only that they are informal, not codified. For example, the road is shared by buses, minibuses, taxis, trucks, cars, SUV’s, people, donkeys, horses, goats, sheep and the occasional chicken. Traffic flow reminds me of people who are all trying to exit a movie theatre, there is no lineup, everyone is moving forward together. But one by one they squeeze through the door. As long as your vehicle’s nose is in front of the other’s you are given the right of way. People and animals walk into traffic and vehicles casually steer around them.
I had seen this before in Cairo but this has been a new experience for Wanda and the girls. Another new experience will be the “supermarkets” I don’t expect to see any supermarkets that resemble a Zehrs or Buehlers. But we will be shopping in a “Seven Eleven” supermarket that is slightly larger than a 7-11 or Avondale.
The weekend and week of July 7-10 we were on the road south of Addis. Not only does Ethiopia have mountains but beautiful lakes and large tracts of farming land. John and Holly want us to meet as many MCC partners with them as possible before we go so we headed for the Boricha project way down south, an 8 hour ride. No 4-lane highway here but a decent 2-lane outside of Addis. We stayed in at the Norwegian Lutheran Guesthouse; a series of little efficiencies built on the side of a hill overlooking Lake Awasa (get your map out or go to Mapquest). Mosquitoes were present so we were taking our malarone pills. They say there are hippos in the lake but we saw none, nor heard any. But the girls saw lots of wild roaming monkeys and exotic (to us) birds.
We also went through Nazret (Nazareth in English) on the way back and stayed overnight at the Safari Lodge, which was neither. It was located in the heart of a city of 300,000 and was a motel. But it did have a pool and the girls did jump in. It was too cool to stay in long (I managed 15-20 minutes) but they played around the pool.
In all the places we stopped the girls stayed back at the motel or guesthouse with someone watching them. All the projects are time consuming with lots of adults talking about things uninteresting to 7-9 year olds. That has been the way we’ve handled it here in Addis this week as well. John and Holly knew a family with two daughters who agreed to watch our girls this week while we go all over the city meeting church and project leaders. So our girls have stayed away and played far from the boring action of MCC activities.
Much more could be said but that is it in a nutshell. Again, I will try to post at least once a week (which may be longer) but may post shorter observational blogs during the week. It all depends on how much time we have and what our internet situation is . . .