A Change of Scenery

I was having night sweats in the middle of the day. The heretofore smooth flight had suddenly turned very bumpy as we began our descent to Oliver Tambo airport in Johannesburg, South Africa. The cabin had suddenly become very warm and I had broken out in a cold sweat. I tried to think of anything but the seemingly inevitable. Meanwhile Amani and Sophia seemed to be doing well. They were pretending they were on a roller coaster and bounced up and down with the cabin dips and rises. They didn’t notice Dad turning a whiter shade of pale. Ever been in a moment where time seems to be in slow motion? The plane seemed to glide downward forever. When it landed I felt a rush of gratitude and relief, even though I was still quite queasy.
The Ethiopian Airlines flight #809 went well overall, in spite of the turbulence at the end. We had gotten up early so as to be out the door at 6:30 a.m. The Ring Road around Addis was mostly quiet except for joggers on the side of the road and early church goers dressed in white walking slowly beyond the Ring Road on their way to worship. We stood in line at the airport entrance and had our bags screened. We stood in line to get our tickets and check our bags. We stood and filled out security cards. We stood in line and then handed those security cards in. We stood and waited for each other to finish going to the washroom. We stood in line to have our persons and our carry-ons screened. We waited for the plane to be ready and then stood in line to go to the shuttle bus that would take us to our plane. Finally we walked the tarmac and climbed the steps to the Boeing 737 Ethiopian airliner that would take us to our destination. When we arrived in Jo-Burg we did more standing and waiting as we lined up to leave the plane (we were in the back row) and we waited for our luggage, as well as when we were processed through passport control and customs. Patience is the key to flying these days.
It had been quite a week and Wanda and I needed a change of scenery. So here we are in the outskirts of Johannesburg. It is late evening (10:30 for us, 9:30 for South Africans) and everyone is in bed after a long day. But I can’t help but muse about the week’s events.
It started on Monday with an MCC guest, Ted DeKleine from Peace River, AB. Ted was at MCC for an internal audit. We liked Ted and he joined in playing games of Dutch Blitz and Pit which, even though he hadn’t played them (or played long ago), he was a good sport and hung in there. Actually he started to get pretty good and win at the end. Tuesday we had other MCC guests with Tina Burnett Mast, who works in the MCC Akron offices and her family. Wednesday through Saturday became a blur of activity as we tried to get a bunch of last minute stuff done in the office and for the house before we left. On Thursday noon, we met with leaders of the Meserete Kristos Church over lunch (love those power lunch deals, you get a good meal out of them!) and on Friday morning we attended a CRDA (Christian Relief & Development Association) plenary session.
But Friday afternoon was one of the highlights, mostly for our daughter Sophia. We hosted a birthday party for the girls in her grade 3 class. Wanda worked hard to pull it off, going all over town looking for birthday stuff and Sophia had a very happy birthday by all accounts. She was so excited about her special day on Friday. On the day of the party we were both worried we wouldn’t be able to pull it off. When I went to pick up all the girls at Bingham after school on Friday, all 8 of them (three were ours) were so hepped up, excited. After driving them home in 15 minutes and letting that chattering, screaming, laughing bunch out of our Toyota Landcruiser, my ears felt like they had just come out of a rock concert. They were ready to party, but were we? Would the girls like simple games like “pin the tail on the donkey” and “scavenger hunt” and “piñata” and “musical chairs”? We needn’t worried. It seemed to be a big hit. Wanda, with a big hand from Tamara (the one and only MCC’er other than us) and from Yeshi, our housekeeper helped to get the games and some of the food ready. I made homemade pizza and planned the scavenger hunt. One family even arrived early to pick up their daughter and we invited them to stay for the supper. So the house was full (fed 16 of us!).

Sorry I can’t name all Sophia’s little classmates (I do know a few). Wanda had the girls starting out by playing musical chairs with a small prize for the winner. Tamara made the piñata the day before so we put it in the oven on very low all day to dry it out. It was still wet inside but we used it anyhow. The piñata was so well built that the little girls had absolutely no chance to break it. They took turns hitting it with a wooden stick over and over again, didn’t even dent the thing. Finally we needed to be moving on so I thought I would take a swing at it. It took me a half dozen direct hits with an aluminum softball bat before it finally broke open. The scavenger hunt game I designed went all over the compound. The party-goers were divided into two groups and had to find 6 locations with riddle-type clues to go on. They discovered everything on their own even though they wanted us to give them the answers sometimes. Wanda had made a ‘pin the tail on the donkey” game and had the other team do that while the one was doing the hunt. Then there was the opening of presents followed by the supper. My pizza dough is getting better each time and I think this pizza was the best so far here. There was also a birthday cake with a big ‘8’ candle on it. All the happy party-goers got a gift bag as they left. It must have been a success because a couple of the girls told their parents they didn’t want to go at the end and the twins said they wanted a party just like that for their birthday (Wanda and I were anxious about the party and so relieved to have pulled it off, but Wanda made no promises. These parties take a lot of time and energy to coordinate, all you parents know what I’m talking about).
But the week wasn’t over. Saturday we spent the morning at the International Evangelical Church Bazaar. A great place for buying handicrafts or local produce and to meet up with a varied international crowd (languages overheard at the Bazaar include; English in American, British, Canadian, Australian, New Zealand and South African accents, Amharic, Dutch, Danish, German, Swedish, Norwegian, Italian, French, Spanish, Korean, possibly Greek, and a Slavic tongue). Then in the afternoon we went to our first Mennogroup meeting. Held at Negash and Janet Kebede’s house (he is the new president of MKC College), it is a meeting for all those who have Mennonite connections in Addis. There was a potluck meal and we met Calvin and Marie Shenk from Harrisonburg who were visiting their old stomping grounds. They had lived with their family in Ethiopia 40 years ago for a number of years.
Darkness falls early, and regularly, in Addis (between 6 and 6:30 every day of the year) and we had to excuse ourselves to go home to pack for Sunday’s early morning flight. Driving home in the dark in Addis is a scary adventure, even on the blessing that is the Ring Road. It’s hard to describe how it feels to be driving and looking out for potholes, slowing down at the roundabouts, coming upon stopped vehicles on the road in what seems like faint lighting (which, I hastily add, is better than no lighting in many places) and a population that jumps rails and fences to dart across in the semi-lit darkness. Seeing light colored bodies in white clothing would be hard enough but black bodies in dark clothes is very difficult and nerve wracking. So far we have made it safely every time (for us and the general population).
Well friends, it’s been almost 3 months since we landed in Addis Ababa. And here we are in the midst of our long anticipated trip to South Africa. Our whole family has travelled to Johannesburg where Wanda and I will participate in MCC All-Africa Country Representative meetings. Looking at the schedule, it looks like they will keep us in our seats in meetings for most of the week. The girls will be occupied with children’s meetings. We met the children’s program leaders, South African youth: M’pho, Nouria, Sam and Duncan. We packed clothes for sunny weather in the 80’s (high 20’s C) and it is a good thing. The warm sunshine and blue skies welcomed us when we left the airport. The air seems desert dry (I remarked to Wanda and the girls that the climate and terrain remind me of New Mexico and southern Texas) which means hot by day, cool by night.
That’s all for now, ciao!

A Wee Blog Entry

This is a short blog entry to pass on some information. Many good folks have been tempted to pass on via email inspirational emails to us which include a large number of pictures. Some have occasionally provided us with large number of photographs as well. We thank you for your intended kindness. The problem is that we have only dial-up Internet access (52 kps is the top speed) which is unstable at times.

This means that when a large email comes our way (2-5 MB) it takes anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour to download . . . and that is if the connection is a stable one. If it isn’t stable, the connection may fail anytime in between and then we have to dial-up again and start the download all over. MCC is charged by the minute for this Internet service, courtesy of Ethiopian TeleCom (ETC). I recently went to their offices to see if it is possible to upgrade. The bad news is ‘no’, not now. Our only option is what we currently subscribe to. We are too far from the downtown core (where, rumor has it, much faster Internet connections exist, perhaps even broadband). The good news is that someday they may run a line out our way, the man told me in a couple of months. I’m not holding my breath. More like 2 years or more.

So in the meantime, we would like to ask a favor of our friends and say, please send no inspirational emails with photos. We would, however, would love to have the occasional family or friends photo come our way. Please continue to send those to us, but only one or two at a time. Thank you for your consideration in this matter.

One more information piece to pass along; those who may wish to call us should use the ‘3219’ number. We offered the two lines to call in on, 3128 and 3129, and the former is unstable (it isn’t working right now). When it does work it is often a bad connection. And, of course, we have found that the government is blocking Skype so we can’t do the Skype thing like so many other MCC’ers in other countries do. Maybe there is another Internet phone connection we can use. We’ll have to look around for it.

Thanks for your patience.

Happy ‘Millennium Y2K’ New Year!

It is New Years Day here and many people all over the city are just waking up after a night’s worth of festivities. As Ferenjis (foreigners) we celebrated it in a quieter way; at home. After a hearty pasta supper our family played games of Pit and Dutch Blitz. We also did something we don’t usually do; we turned the TV on to ETV (Ethiopian TV) to watch the news and the broadcast of the New Years’ Eve festivities. It wasn’t much to watch early on, the cameras were turned on to the stage in the brand new Millennium building where musical groups were to play later on (including a ‘famous American group’ named the Black-Eyed Peas. As you may guess, I know next to nothing about them).

No one was on stage except for those who were setting up and doing sound checks. We continued playing Dutch Blitz when the power went off, for the third time in the day. This time we were in the dark so we scrambled and lit candles and continued to play. One can play by candlelight but the blues and greens become harder to distinguish in the semi-darkness. Finally we gave up and decided to get ready for bed. Of course just as everyone was settling in bed the lights came on! So the girls read a bit in bed and so did Wanda and I before turning in.

There was a loud BOOM in the darkness and suddenly there was screaming and shouting. It sounded like an army of noisemakers had surrounded our compound in the dark night, in Addis . . . in Africa . . . I jumped out of bed, disoriented, looked out into a smoky compound. I looked at the clock, midnight, of course. I went down and turned on the TV where ETV was showing what seemed like an endless fireworks show and more people screaming and shouting. So the New Year was ushered in, the New Millennium in the Ethiopian calendar as well.

What is happening here? Here is one article from the VOA (Voice of America):

"Ethiopia is set to celebrate the arrival of the third millennium more than seven years after it was celebrated in the west. Events are planned, across the country, as well as in several American cities, where there are large concentrations of Ethiopian expatriates. But, as VOA Correspondent Peter Heinlein reports from the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, the celebrations in the capital have been sharply scaled back because of security fears and factional squabbles.

"Traffic grinds to a halt on one of Addis Ababa's busiest thoroughfares, as young boys snapping their homemade whips hurry a herd of goats across the road on their way to slaughter. It is the final journey for these animals, most of whom will find their way to dinner tables as families across Ethiopia gather to celebrate the dawn of the third millennium.

"Ethiopians proudly follow the Julian calendar, which puts the birth of Christ seven and a half years later than the more commonly followed Gregorian calendar. Ethiopia's Christian Orthodox leaders note that it was the Roman church that amended the calendar, about 15 centuries ago, while they stuck with the original calculation. Addis is decked out in its finest for the occasion. The government has strung kilometers of colorful lights along Bole Road. Ethiopia's wealthiest man is building a concert hall at one end of the street for the occasion. He is planning to open it New Year's Eve, with a grand concert featuring the American hip hop group, the Black Eyed Peas.

"Days before the opening, construction crews are working feverishly, day and night, to finish the job. But political disputes and high costs have put a damper on many of the observances. Many citizens complain the cost of a ticket to the concert is nearly twice the average worker's monthly salary. And, a 10-kilometer Millennium Run that had attracted 35,000 entrants was canceled, because of security concerns. Ethiopian Culture Minister Mohammed Dirir notes the tense relations with neighboring Eritrea. He says the government is worried about the threat of terrorism.

"'We know that there is the government of Eritrea, which has, in the past, been sending disruptors and arming them with bombs and what have you,' said Dirir. 'These have been apprehended and it has been all over the media. I think security is tight.' A schedule of free events, including an open-air concert and a Taste of Africa food festival, had been planned at the city's Meskel Square, but most of them died in the planning stage. Culture Minister Dirir says the events were stopped because the organizers failed to coordinate plans with the government's Millennium Secretariat. 'Let me tell you about the noise of the Taste of Africa, or the lack of taste of Africa,' said Dirir. 'They have been working with the Millennium Council and, if they do not work with the concerned body and take an independent course of their own, that is a failure. The Millennium Council has advised them to make it as part of the overall events, but they wanted to go the wrong way. They have failed.'

"The confusion and political wrangling have led many who can afford it to go elsewhere for celebrations. Several leaders of Ethiopia's main political opposition party have made a point of flying to American cities, where communities of Ethiopian expatriates are planning elaborate parties.

"And, with the many of the planned events in Addis canceled, many ordinary citizens are planning to be out of town for the holiday. The owner of the Meskel Square cinema, movie producer Theodros Teshome, told VOA he is closing up the theater on New Year's Eve and sponsoring a rival celebration in his hometown, Jimma, 200 kilometers away. That event will feature Ethiopia's biggest homegrown music star, Teddy Afro. 'I will be celebrating the millennium in Jimma,' said Teshome. 'I will have the first fireworks ever made out of Addis Ababa, in Jimma. And, I'm taking the king of music in Ethiopia, Teddy Afro to Jimma, so my millennium is going to be the best millennium in Ethiopia.'

"But Teshome says, despite people's frustration with their government, Ethiopians are united in their hope that this new millennium will bring with it the promise of prosperity and a better life for the common people. 'The millennium is bringing hope that we will no more be a poor country; that we will no more be thought of as one of the countries that's not yet developed; and we are seeing a lot of development with the arrival of this government, so we are really excited,' said Teshome.

"But, on the streets of Addis, that excitement is somewhat muted. Many people -- perhaps following the government's security concerns -- say they are planning quiet celebrations at home with their family and, perhaps, the traditional Ethiopian lamb dinner." [end of article]

There are other articles to be found on the Internet as well. The BBC has both articles on the millennium celebrations last night and photos. Check them out. They are pretty good. The Washington Post and NY Times both did articles as well.

We did go out yesterday and will go out again today or tomorrow to take photos of decorations around the city. I was out yesterday but the camera battery went dead after a couple of photos, so the most I could do was look as we passed by many photographic opportunities. Double decker tour buses driving through the center of town with the top open, people standing and waving on top, music blaring from the bus, balloons tied to the inside. Herds of sheep being pushed through town by shepherds to be sold on street corners. Large reddish-brownish bulls to be bought and sold. Red chickens as well (red is a common theme. Because the devil’s color is red, tradition is that it is good to kill a red chicken and thus drive out the devil).

Our office staff is off today and tomorrow. Bingham Academy originally scheduled the students to be out Tuesday noon and Wednesday but something, or someone, prevailed upon the Powers-That-Be and everyone now has Thursday and Friday off as well. So we will need to go back to our summer schedule with the girls.

Fortunately it is beginning to feel like summer, i.e. the rainy season appears to finally be fading away. The rainy days won’t be banished completely, we are told, until the end of September. But in the meantime it is good to see more and more sunshine each day.

So, as westerners, we get to celebrate two of everything here in Ethiopia where east and west collide; two New Years, two Millenniums, two Christmas’, two Easters. Any excuse to eat good food and fellowship together with others. Happy New Year 2000 everyone!

Cinderella and Coca

It was a promise made long ago. Well, not a promise exactly, an understanding. It was around a supper table in our home one night in St. Catharines when Wanda and I were talking about what moving would mean to our family (going to Ethiopia, etc.). It seems all that the girls wanted to know was if they would be able to have pets at the new place. Knowing that there was a compound and that the current family had pets it seemed safe to say, ‘ok’ to their hopes. From then on we didn’t have so hard a time talking about moving. The idea of having a pet made all the difference to Amani, Abby and Sophia.

Coca was already here when we arrived, thanks to the Yoder family. Sophia laid claim to ‘ownership’ and so even though everyone plays with Coca, he is Sophia’s dog (that claim is tenuous since Coca shows much more loyalty to the men who are the guardians of the compound. Coca comes whenever they call). Sophia has taken to giving Coca the table scraps and bread which helped developed Coca’s loyalty to her. Sophia has also hugged and played with Coca from the first day so that helped as well. Coca, however, wasn’t so sure about me. It took several weeks before Coca stopped growling and barking at me. He doesn’t bark at me anymore even though I see him early in the morning, guess he has decided that I must belong to this family afterall.

Cinderella was added to our ‘family’ only the other week. Cinderella is a rabbit and is Abby’s pet. We were told that rabbits are usually sold at the International Evangelical Church bazaar, which is held monthly. Sure enough, 4 baby bunnies were in a basket huddled together. Abby wouldn’t leave the basket even though we wanted to see the rest of the bazaar. Where would we keep it? But that wasn’t important to Abby, what was important was that we would buy a rabbit. So we agreed, took it home in a large shoebox, and tried to figure out what to do next. I remembered a family in the S.I.M. compound with rabbits. I thought maybe I could see if they could help. Pat and Anita (Canadians by the way!) offered to let us borrow an older rabbit hutch and we were in business. So while we are having new rabbit hutches built for us we are borrowing this old one.

And we aren’t done. Amani knows that if we find a suitable kitten she will get a kitten. And even tho Sophia has a dog, we may say yes to a puppy for her. The girls love their animals and that is good. We see many animals that are out on the street, straggly and looking for food. Dogs and cats. There are simply too many and people can’t afford to take care of them. Dogs are used as guard dogs in compounds.
We’ll keep the numbers stopped at one new animal each. But it will be quite an active compound in the future.

Back to School

Everyone in our family was anxious for school. This is new. As parents we have always looked forward to the girls going back to school. And yes, some reasons were quite selfish. Better quality time at work, a quiet house during the day. But also we knew that our girls have always enjoyed school (apart from the occasional contrary remark). They enjoy their friends. They enjoy their teachers. They enjoy learning. But they love the school break too. Summer in North America meant playing every day with friends or visiting family and taking vacations to fun places or swimming at the Janzen’s pool. So they are usually unhappy at the prospect of regimented school life.

It took a month of being around the house here in our compound in the midst of the rainy season to bring our girls to the conclusion that they too wanted school to start. So our whole family was counting down the days until August 20.

We met the teachers and we met the director (principal) prior to the first day of school and enjoyed our meetings with Miss Root (Summer Root is the 4th Grade teacher for Amani and Abby who hails from California), with Miss Long (Clare Long is Sophia’s 3rd Grade teacher from Surrey, England) and with Mr. Overton (Murray Overton is the principal from New Zealand). Bingham Academy feels like any private Christian school in North America although the classroom demographics are wonderfully diverse. Nations represented are Canada, U.S., New Zealand, Australia, England, Scotland, Ireland, Denmark, Germany and other European nations as well as children of diplomats from African countries. Finally there are a number of adopted Ethiopian children to western parents who look Ethiopian but act and speak very western. Our girls have made friends quickly (photos to follow in the future).

So after 2 weeks of school, in spite of one fractured wrist scare (yes, Amani was hit by a dodgeball on Friday, August 24 and we were called to the school. We took the precaution of going to a clinic where a doctor saw her, ordered x-rays and the next day it was determined that there was no fracture, all normal) and with an open house on Thursday night, we are all feeling good about the start overall. In fact the twins are going to a birthday party this morning. One of their new friends invited them and we are going to find a bowling alley somewhere in downtown Addis (I’m getting better every day at directions), where the party is. Making friends heals the pain of loss (though not completely).

What I like about Bingham Academy is that they have a good director in place, they use the Cambridge curriculum and they add a distinctly Christian flavor. All students must memorize Bible verses and learn about the Bible in class. I am happy to say that all our girls are learning their Bible verses well here at the start. There are also some extracurriculars as well, such as ballet, gymnastics and Tai Kwon Do (a martial art). The twins are signed up for gymnastics and Sophia wanted to try Tai Kwon Do. This means a later day for the girls (and us). We’re back to school!