Ok so I have been keeping a pretty detailed account of what's happened so far. Feel free to read as much or as little as you'd like. It probably won't be as detailed in future posts. Enjoy!
8/31-9/1/2012
This
day ran together so it’s extremely hard to make a distinction between the two.
So, August 31, 2012 Mom and Dad woke me up around 7:20 (and by that I mean they
kinda dragged me out of bed) and I sort of took my times getting ready before
Betsy met us at our hotel and we left for the airport at 9 am. It was sort of a
whirlwind from that point on. We got to the airport, went straight to check our
bags, got our boarding passes, said the quickest goodbye to Mom and Dad (sorry
Mom and Dad that it was so rushed), went through security, got our last
Starbucks iced coffee, bought a few breakfast sandwiches and hopped straight on
the plane.
We
were on that plane for 14 hours which seemed SO long while we were on it but I
couldn’t actually believe it was over when it was. To sum it up the best way I
know how (bear with me here, I love details) is that we met two American boys
who had just graduated high school that we adopted as our little brothers (it’s
like we’re trying to fill a void or something), I sat next to a French woman
who couldn’t communicate with me at all except through gestures (I had to
buckle and unbuckle her seat belt and put her food tray up and down for her
which was really funny), made a friend named Z who’s from Ethiopia but lives in
D.C. and he was going home to visit his parents, we laughed a lot, got anxious
so we sat in silence, only got frustrated with each other once, ate at what
felt like weird times, never slept, and flew forward in time to the next day
which is why the distinction is so hard to make. We got off the plane, waited
for our new little brothers, Evan and William, went through customs (which was
a piece of cake), the electricity went out in the airport and seemed so normal
to everyone (TIA: This is Africa), watched several physical altercations that
occurred over baggage carts (which always resulted in the women getting pushed
and yelled at and still waiting for a cart), we walked outside and found the
sweet man holding up the “Project Mercy” sign waiting for us. He then rolled
our cart (we got lucky with one) out to his Land Cruiser that was really just
parked in the street and we just got in and started driving. At this point we
still didn’t know to where. He then informed us that we were heading to Marta
and Deme’s house (the founders of Project Mercy) that they have in Addis Ababa.
We
drove for probably no more than 15 minutes but I still got to take quite a bit
in. Goats, cattle, donkey, and dogs just hang out alongside and often times in
the middle of the “highway.” Small children cross the streets by themselves in
front of large rickety buses. Sidewalk vendors/salesmen can be seen for miles,
very faint lines on the roads that no one really pays attention to. The drivers
just do a lot of weaving and honking of their horns. And there are lots and
lots of people always crossing the roads with no regards to moving vehicles.
Another thing I couldn’t help but to notice were the many many abandoned
efforts to high rise buildings. Streets are lined with mere skeletons of
buildings with exposed scaffolding (made simply out of thin logs) that looked
like they possessed small chance at all of being returned to and finished. We
then turned down this crazy bumpy, dirt, rocky road where there were boys
pushing buggies, people trying to sell things, and hundreds of people walking.
To or from where is anybody’s guess. Then we reached a point on this super
bumpy road where we just stopped at a white gate, our driver honked, and someone
came and opened it to let us enter. As we did Betsy and I could have sworn we
had just crossed a threshold in to another realm. It had such a different look
and feel to what was on the other side of the surrounding wall. The realm we
had entered was that of serenity.
When
we got there (still looking very worn from our trip) someone prayed and we all
sat down and had breakfast together. At that point it was something like 3:30
am our time so it was yet another weird time to eat. After breakfast we toured
the house, found a spare bed and napped for 3 hours before being woken for
lunch by our new middle aged colleague Zondra (who moved to Ethiopia 2 years
ago from California to teach at Project Mercy) because Marta wanted to make
sure we ate lunch before we kept sleeping. She has a true gift of hospitality
that’s for sure. We didn’t go back to sleep then so that we could sleep at
night in a weak attempt to combat the jet lag. So, we sat with our fellow
teachers Thomas and Zondra and sipped the most delicious Ethiopian coffee and
shared stories. Then it was time for yet another meal. We weren’t expecting
Marta and Deme to join us because they had just attended a private funeral
service due to the recent passing of the Prime Minister. (This has been
interesting because the whole country has been in an official 3 day mourning
period.) However, they returned early and we were privileged with their
company. While sitting in Marta’s presence I find myself awfully quiet (and
those of you who know me well know that doesn’t happen often.) She has such a
loving and wise spirit to her and quite frankly, I don’t think I have anything
of substance worth saying. Mainly I spoke only when asked a question and then
listened, watched, and absorbed. This is a woman who is a true walking
testament to the Gospel and I feel like I could sit at her feet and just listen
for a long time.
I
walked away from that meal thinking I don’t do that enough. Especially with
Jesus. I am always way too quick to speak, argue, whine, and wrestle with but
not often enough to sit, listen, watch, and absorb. My prayer tonight is that I
begin to learn to sit in awe at the feet of Jesus. And listen. And absorb. And
be transformed.
9/4/12
We
left Addis yesterday and finally made the trek to Yetebon where our Project
Mercy compound is located. On our way out of the city we ran a bunch of errands
and picked up our final member of our team, Jared. So now we are all here and
accounted for and our American team of teachers consists of Betsy, Thomas,
Sachi, Jared, Zondra, and I. We are quite the eclectic crew! The drive to
Yetebon took about 2.5 hours which was actually really fun. We learned new
vocabulary words from our wonderful driver Aragah which we repeated a lot and
it became sort of like a game, sat quietly while we all stared out the windows
and soaked up the beautiful African aesthetics, and then we were stopped by two
random police men standing in the middle of the road. There was quite the
irritated exchange between them and Aragah in Amharic. Aragah kept turning to
us, and in English, would reassure us that everything was ok. They then had
Aragah step out of the vehicle while one officer questioned Thomas a bit about
where we were going and to whom the car belonged. I couldn’t help but think
that it seemed oddly similar to a scene from a dramatic Hollywood film like
Blood Diamond or something like that (Sorry, Dad, for that comparison. I know
that’s not exactly what you wanted to hear.) Unlike most of the tragically
ending scenarios in the cinemas, Aragah returned to the vehicle unscathed and
we were once again on track for our destination. Turns out, the van had the
incorrect registration for an NGO vehicle or something to that affect. We
finally made it to the compound and I wish there was a way to capture the
incredible beauty of this place in words. However, I just can’t. I am blessed
to live in the most incredible mountains I have ever seen! It is undoubtedly
the incredible work of God.
Everything
has gone pretty smoothly up to this point except that Betsy and I are both
really struggling with jet lag. It’s really frustrating because it seems like
we’re the only 2 who are. Last night I slept for maybe 1 hour and 45 minutes
because my body just doesn’t know when it is suppose to be resting. Due to that,
I’m ailed by a slight cold (thanks, Mom, for packing me some cold medicine!)
Today
was a really great day despite the battle with sleep deprivation. After
breakfast we got a little free time which allowed us to hang out with some of
the house kids (the 70 kids of varying ages that live on the compound for one
reason or another who do quite a bit of work around here which is a really cool
thing because they have zero sense of entitlement; they just have spirits of
servants.) Then we ferenges (foreigners, aka white people) and a LARGE number
of the house kids loaded on to a rather smaller sized bus. This was just like
another scene from a movie. I mean we were packed on to this bus like sardines.
I couldn’t help but to catch Betsy’s eye through a crack between children and
just laugh a little bit. The kids were ecstatic to be on that bus. We drove
about two miles down the road, picking up some stragglers on the way, to where
our new high school building is. Lord willing, we will get to open that building
for this new school year (which we are hoping will start on Sep. 12; everything
is speculative around here which is awesome.) We dropped off the house kids at
the school so they could do some cleaning and we continued on about 5 miles to
the nearest small city, Butijira.
The
goal of the trip to Butijira was so that some folks could get some electronics
like internet sticks (which have been a struggle to come by) and cell phones
(which I have no use for.) As we were in town, we were forced to walk as a group
which I was really resistant to if I’m being honest. My reason for that is
because we draw so much attention to ourselves by doing this. A group of
Americans pretty much equals money to a lot of these people and they definitely
express that. It was as if we were magnets to small children who were selling
things such as packs of gum. There were times where kids from across the street
would literally just yell “Money, Money, Money!” at us. Anyway, we finished up a few things in
the city (including going to a hotel because we heard they had French fries so
we ordered some of them) and left town. Unfortunately, without all the internet
sticks we wanted. We made a quick stop by the high school again so that the
many, many children could once more squeeze their way on to the bus. In that
moment, while this sweet special ed girl was sitting on my lap and gripping my
hand like she never wanted to let go, I was overwhelmed with amusement,
gladness, and thankfulness for my life.
This
is my one prayer request at this time: “Pray also for me, that whenever I open
my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make know the mystery of the gospel, for which I
am an ambassador in chains. Pray that
I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.” –Ephesians 6:19-20
