So, how was my trip?! It's a valid question, but not an easy one to answer. I've been getting this same question in regards to my Chicago experience, which is even more difficult to answer.
I feel like everyone is expecting me to enthusiastically say "It was great! One of the best experiences of my life! Everyone should do it!" but I can't really say that about either experience just yet. I want to be truthful and say that both journeys were very difficult and heartbreaking, but not everyone really wants to hear that. However, I don't want to dissuade people from doing things like this either, which makes me hesitant to give a "Debbie Downer" response.
Sooo, my typical response so far has been "Gooood, hard but good." or "really awesome and really horrible". Most people understand and respect the answer, thank goodness. Honestly, it's still hard to talk about Chicago and Ethiopia (especially Chicago) since it seems that no one else reeeeally gets it. Words can only go so far when I'm trying to convey my experiences to someone.
Anyway, at the end of September I had the awesome privilege of going to a Transition Retreat with my other fellow YAVs at Ghost Ranch (a beautiful camp in Northern New Mexico, where O’Keeffe was inspired and painted!). The weekend was really helpful in many ways, but it was mostly awesome just to reconnect with nature and the other YAVs who shared similar joys and challenges.
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| I'm on the very far left...I look a little funny because I had to sneeze! haha |
Alright, now I will attempt to summarize the Ethiopia trip. I went with my dad and brother Aaron to work with some PC(USA) missionaries, John & Gwen Haspels. We flew into Addis Ababa, where John picked us up. We stayed in Addis a few days, hung out with their daughter Heather and her family, ran errands, prepared for our journey to Tulegit. We drove to Tulegit (a 14 hour drive) to where the Haspels have lived and worked among the Suri people for about 20 years. John and Gwen have brought the gospel to these people and now there is a thriving church there with an average attendance of 100 people every week. Pretty cool.
The first couple days, Dad and Aaron worked on a tractor, which I was absolutely no help with, so I tagged along with Gwen. Gwen is a nurse, so we made several house calls to sick patients. We also prepared all of the meals, and I made bread almost every day to supplement.
One quick story that was pretty cool: I got to go to a funeral with Gwen our first day in Tulegit. She was very apprehensive about going since their funerals are pretty intense. Basically it’s a 4-5 period of grieving with the family. People will go to the family’s hut and just sit outside. The first 1-2 days are pretty intense- weeping and wailing (why Gwen was apprehensive). Fortunately we went on day 3 ish, in which everyone sat outside in silence. Occasionally, someone would come by with a tobacco leaf- he would put it in your hand and you would pass it back to him; It’s a symbolic way of saying “I share your grief”. I think Day 4 & 5 are like Day 3. After that, the grieving is over, and everyone tries to go back to life as usual.
The funeral was for a 28-year-old man. There were several different stories going around, but we think that his wife’s brothers killed him because he didn’t pay enough cows to marry her. Harsh is a bit of an understatement. Unfortunately this is not incredibly uncommon for young men to be murdered (for one reason or another). {Sidebar: there were 4 teenage boys working with us in Moga, and ALL of their fathers had died. 2 by guns, 1 by a snake bite, and 1 by disease.}
Anyway, I really admired how the Suri people are so open about grief. People there aren’t afraid to cry, while people in the US will usually cover their faces and try to stifle their sniffles. Crying is good for us! I think we could learn something from the Suri about grief!
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| Oranges, lemons, peppers and red bananas |
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| Making REAL lemonade! |
After being in Tulegit a few days, we traveled to an other village called Moga, where we would be working on a house for a Wycliffe bible translator. The journey to Moga was pretty interesting...
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| Dodging cattle |
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| Fixing a wobbly wheel on the trailer |
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| People really liked staring at us |
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| Oh and this is the road.... grass as tall as the vehicle |
The Moga lifestyle is also rather different...
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| There isn't a water source nearby so all of our water was collected in big barrels. This is a sample of our water...Needless to say we boiled it before drinking! There was also a dead lizard in one of the barrels. |
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| Squatty Potty |
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| Shower! You could fill the bag with water in the morning, let it sit in the sun all afternoon, and then it would be warm!!! |
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| Playing Soccer. |
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| Mixing cement. |
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| Simon (translator wearing yellow) was walking from visiting his parents in Ethiopia, back to his school in Sudan. I believe it was a 3 day journey. |
We had to leave Moga in a bit of a rush since it had rained all night and more was coming. The Suri boys put chains on our vehicle and fortunately we didn't every get stuck very bad. We did go over some crazy bumps, and there were times when I didn't think we'd make it, but we did! Gwen made a joke later about how driving in crazy conditions "improves your prayer life" and I had to give her a big "amen" on that one!
That concludes phase 1 of the Ethiopian Adventure....stay tuned for more!!
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