The Week That Was

Just a fairly quick update on the week that is almost finished. I was thinking to write this on Monday to include Saturday and Sunday but I project that we will be busy so I'm whipping out a quick eletter now.

Yes, Wanda is 'home' and there was great rejoicing (yea!!). On Tuesday night I tried to go to bed early but it didn't matter. Like so many times before I couldn't sleep before a 'big event'. On top of that I also felt a cold/ flu coming on. Dry scratchy throat and a general achiness. Great. Wanda was to call me so I waited for the call. Eventually it came, later than I expected but by 12:45 a.m. I was on my way through the mostly darkened and abandoned streets of Addis. Surprisingly there were some people out at that time. Yes, the streetwalkers as usual (eyeing me as I passed) but also the odd minivan and other assorted people. Wanda came through the doors to the outside of the airport (sparing me the pain of buying a ticket and being frisked to get into the airport), a happy reunion. She had her haircut and it was very nice (see, I noticed).

We came into the compound about 1:30 a.m. as quietly as possible but still Sophia and Abby woke up and groggily gave Wanda hugs and 'welcome home'. There were many pages of special drawn paper with colorful words of welcome as well as a large bouquet of roses from the family. After talking a while we tried to go to sleep.

I had to be up early in order to be at the US Embassy at 8 a.m. That meant, by my calculations, I should leave at 7 a.m. So I was out the door soon after 7. I was groggy and my body was now telling me that a cold/ flu was flowering inside. Had I known how the day would unfold I might have stayed in bed, or at least gone another way. Hindsight is 20/20. As I approached the unpaved Total traffic circle the lanes became tight as vehicles were avoiding the right side where a large pool of water stood. Slowly my car was being squeezed on the right and left. Then the bus next to me brushed my mirror and it went flat against the side of my vehicle. This was too close, so I stopped moving forward. The bus continued. A jarring action shook my LandCruiser as his back bumper (an old wrap around) acted like a crow bar and pulled against my smooth ride side bumper, ripping it out from the body. His bumper was bent back.

Oh no. My first accident in Ethiopia. I'm feeling crappy anyhow. This can only make it worse. The traffic was so tight I couldn't get out on my side of the vehicle. I rolled down the windows and looked. The driver did too as well as a small crowd. When the truck on the left moved I decided not to be in the flow of traffic and moved my LC off to the right side of the road. All the Ethiopians were startled, hey, hey! I shouldn't move. But I wasn't going to have my LC in the middle of rush hour traffic which would increase my vehicle's chances of getting dinged further. I stopped, got out of the LC and waited. I had no energy with my cold in full bloom. I stood there listlessly while a crowd of mostly men gathered around and stared at me. Two very young traffic cops came over. Neither spoke English. So a couple of men in the crowd tried to translate. The explanations started. The bus driver insisted I turned my vehicle into his. I told my story of how his vehicle edged over into my lane. But none of this mattered because these traffic cops had little or no authority. At one point the crowd began urging me and the bus driver to trade phone numbers and be on our way. At first, being sick and tired, I was ready to do that. But I finally remembered that I needed a police report for the insurance. When the crowd understood I was taking this to my insurance company there was a visible shrug of resignation. The farenji/ foreigner was going the expensive and time consuming route. So much for the rest of the morning. And I was resigned to that too. Finally one traffic cop who looked like he had authority came over. I was asked, again, why I moved my vehicle and I explained again. Yes, I shouldn't have moved my vehicle. Sorry about that (but I really wasn't).

I had called my MCC team. Yeshi and her brother were the first at the scene. Once she arrived my anxiety level went down. Finally someone who I know and trust. Soon Mekonnen and Solomon were on the scene. We were told we needed to go get a traffic officer up at the Kolfe Keranyo police station. If no one went it could take all day. So I immediately volunteered to go. Yeshi came with me and the other driver, at the last moment, jumped into my vehicle. I was too sick and tired to care. Let him come. We found the police station and brought the officer back. He seemed to be a decent chap. Back at the scene the officer insisted my LC be moved to place of the accident. So Mekonnen moved it for me (that was a scene in and of itself. Driving backwards into oncoming rush hour traffic, even with a cop diverting traffic around the scene). He wrote up the vehicle places and then it was over. I took the officer and Solomon back to the police station. The other driver drove his bus and now some others from his work that he called up, also to the police station.

It was there that the matter got solved, more or less. An officer took 3 of us into his office, the bus driver, Solomon (for translation) and myself. By now there was a tall bald man with a loud voice (or big mouth, depending on your point of view) who was acting as the driver's advocate. I thought he might be his lawyer but they said no. He certainly was acting like one. He insisted on being present in the room as the driver and I gave our testimonies. But the officer would have none of it and closed the door on him. So we presented our testimonies again. Solomon helped with translation but I spoke as clear English as I could and the officer did not once ask for a translation. The ruling came quickly, the other driver was at fault. The officer opened the door and let us out. The bald man, as soon as he heard the ruling, went ballistic. As Solomon and I, and later Mekonnen, sat in the room next door we could hear the man going after the officer, berating him. Mekonnen was shaking his head as he told me how this bald man was badgering and insulting the officer. But to my relief the ruling would stand. I had my doubts. This bald man was Tigrean (the ethnic group who is in power) and he was addressing an Oromo (the largest ethnic group in Ethiopia but also the underclass from times past). I wouldn't have had a clue which ethnic groups these men all were but Mekonnen and Solomon sure knew and told me. At one point this man came into the office we were sitting in to berate the officer who made the report. When I understood (with my very limited Amharic) that he was saying that the ruling was without logic I couldn't stand it anymore. I was sick, I lacked energy, just wanting to sit there quietly, but I roused myself to say that on the contrary, the ruling was completely logical, it was his argument that lacked logic. Interestingly, where he had demanded eye contact with the Oromo officer, he now refused to make eye contact with me. But it did shut him up for a moment.

So the matter is resolved, yet unresolved. The ruling stands, it was the bus driver's fault. They took his license away (I got mine back) and took the plates off his bus. They told him to pay a fine but the bald man insisted they wouldn't pay and demanded an appeal. The police said that the process is to pay then appeal. So I don't know where they left that. But we can't move forward in fixing the vehicle until the appeal is finished and we have the police report. I don't know when that will happen, hopefully next week. When the appeal is finished then we can take the LC into the Toyota garage for replacing the front ride side. But, here's the catch, the driver has to come with us. I have a feeling my LC will be unrepaired for some time to come.

So I am still ill. I've taken all manner of medication but nothing has helped really. I have a great hacking cough, enough frequency to make my head hurt. Wanda is still struggling with jet lag. Wednesday night/ Thursday morning we finally both got up and watched the DVD John Adams at 1 a.m. in the morning together. Oh, and by the way, I did get to the US Embassy with the papers to apply for the girls' passports. I drove that afternoon even though I wasn't in the mood to drive anymore that day (guess I got back on that horse and rode it). Then Thursday we took the whole family into the Embassy for an interview and passed that. So now in a couple of weeks the girls will have US passports to go along with their Canadian ones. I need to get a new US passport since my current one is almost out of open pages. The same goes for Wanda and the girls' Canadian passports, they are almost full as well. So we'll spend the money this fall to get all our passports up to standard. Then 4 out of 5 in our family will have both Canadian and US passports.

Last night we went to the airport and picked up our newest SALT'ers, Benjamin Chleboun and Naomi Yoder. We got stuck in the longest traffic jam I've been in, in a while here (I'm ready to drive in NA again). But in the end that turned out to be a good thing. We were late but we saw them inside the airport waiting for someone to pick them up. We didn't have to go inside. Good thing too since the line to get inside was at least 200 meters long. It would have taken an hour to get in. We figured out who each other was (having never seen each other) and waved them to the exit (Krista, our MCC SW'er had seen their photos on Facebook so it was helpful that she was with us). We took them to the MCC SW'er house where they will stay for the next 6 weeks as we do orientation and they do language school.

Tomorrow we have a house church service here since our regular church will be having special all day worship service in Amharic. Then a busy 6 weeks kicks off with SALT'er orientation, the girls beginning school on Tuesday, August 24 at Bingham, and MCC work to prepare for next year's budget.

Can't wait for the next break . . .