A lot has happened since the last blog and I want to bring my blog up to date (and all you as well). So I shall put it in ‘bite size’ entries, three to be exact. This one will cover this past week,the next one around New Year’s and the third one the time around Christmas.
Monday, January 7 was likely just another day for 98% of North Americans but for your Eastern Orthodox friends it was a special day, Christmas. And for the nation of Christians in Ethiopia, Christmas was yesterday as well. The nation of Orthodox, Catholics and “Pentes”, or known as Evangelicals here all celebrated together, at least they have the Christian holidays in common with each other (one of few things they can agree on). So there were midnight services, bonfires and the flow of liquor (at least that is what we hear from the Pentes about the Orthodox believers). There were major services all weekend in churches and in public places. The Evangelicals rented out the national stadium and the International Millennium Hall for services which were open to the public. Very different than what most western Christians do for Christmas. We see the Christmas season as a family time and when we attend church as a family. But it is seen, by the Pentes, as a public celebration with mission implications.
The Amstutz family did not participate in any public celebrations on Monday. Instead we went to a very small house in a compound where 5 orphaned children are living together, Mom & Dad dead. They take care of themselves with a little help from friends and a family member in the states. Our fellow MCC’er has been personally helping them herself but invited us to join her on Christmas Day as she visited them with gifts from us and her. The children (oldest is maybe 19 but she doesn’t know for sure) were a little stunned to see all the gifts. It was good to see shy smiles from the boy and 4 girls as they opened gifts of shawls, jeans, shirts, skirts and tops. They were given new shoes as well. The scene was almost Dickensian, but even poorer than the Cratchitts.
Then we headed to the Hilton Hotel to go swimming for the afternoon. It costs a bit of money but can be written off as combat pay (ok, I mean ‘worker renewal’). So the girls swam in the cross shaped pool which is supplied by hot spring water. The regular pool is bathwater warm and the 4 smaller, shallower pools built in each of the corners of the cross are hot tub hot. The girls swam all afternoon until they were drained of energy. The ride home was the quietest we’ve had with 3 girls in the vehicle in a long time! No one complained of going to bed that night.
Tuesday night was to be a special night for me. Wanda and I went to our friends house to watch the BCS championship Bowl with Ohio State vs. Louisiana State in New Orleans. I didn’t look up the score on the internet but the end was hinted at in an email from Sports Illustrated, which made it clear that LSU had won. So it was with a heavy heart I went to the BCS party. But in getting together with friends it was enjoyable in the end. We watched just for the joy of watching NA football, a treat in spite of a disappointing outcome.
The girls went back to school on Wednesday, January 9. Except for Sophia. She was ill for the last couple of days so she stayed home. Everyone needed school to start and a routine to be established once again. But it may be hard for everyone to get up at 6:15 a.m. for a while. At least it becomes light out around that time all year around so that is good for our internal clocks.
So we are back in the routine, about a week later than most of you with school age children. And now today (Thursday) we will be throwing a bit of a party for our MCC workers and staff after school. There will be food and drink and gifts for each of the 10 families represented (sugar, coffee, k’olo, biscuit cookies, cooking oil). Prices of staples have risen sharply in the past year so we were told that this will be appreciated. When was the last time that such gifts were appreciated in your family history?
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