From Jan 13 General Update:
 

Hello Friends. Here's a link to my latest pictures. I hope it works. Emailing pics takes too long, so this will be the route I take for the moment. If you can't click on it, copy the entire address and paste it in your Internet browser.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=58242&l=00d14&id=526567637

I-net has been sketchy recently, so I end up writing things down on Word and pasting them an email.

This from Jan. 6:

I rode around in a car for a few hours today--the pollution is bad here. I choked a couple of times. And it's funny, sometimes you'll be going down a newly paved road (thank you China) and then suddenly there's a 20-yard section of gravel--and it's been like that for years.

We (the people at Bingham and I) went a few days without water, and around 24 hours without electricity. Everyone here says in response "Welcome to Ethiopia!" with a huge smile on their faces. Great, so this is what a developing country is like. All things considered it is nice to be able to empathize with the people around the world who have shoddy electricity. You just get used to it, like anything else. For example when you do have electricity you put a bunch of water into plastic bags and throw them in the freezer, so when the electricity goes out, you throw whatever you'd like from the fridge into the freezer.

But when you see the people around here, and the conditions in which some live, you wonder a lot. But then you quickly come to realize that they have always been used to it—they've never known life otherwise. To generalize, you see lots of people on the street (they literally are always on the street in my neighborhood because sidewalks are for rich area--you just have dirt here) who seem to be happy.

(Next day)The water came back on today—hallelujah! What a luxury...

I'm having my first home-cooked meal tonight—spaghetti with tomato sauce. For this week I bought everything I was used to buying in the States: mayo, mustard, "deli meat", cheese, bread, potatoes, peanut butter (it's the natural kind, not Peter Pan, so I just end up adding sugar, but thank you Lord for PB!)…No difference yet. In fact, last night I met the MTW team (all Americans) for dinner. We had scrambled eggs, pancakes and waffle syrup (I was amazed at the waffle syrup. I can get more "American" items here than in France.) And the night after I arrived a group of teachers took me out for some Tex-Mex. Really. I did finally go to an Ethiopian restaurant for Sunday brunch to have some Ethiopian food. It was excellent, and pretty much the same as Ethiopian restaurants in NYC, although the flat bread was spongier.

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Driving in Addis.

I got my driver's license last week and took my driving test the other day—a 10 minute loop around the block. My driving instructor was on his cell phone the whole time yelling at someone­­— I had to decide where to drive. Needless to say, I passed. When I first arrived in Addis I thought traffic was chaotic. There are a couple of large intersections without working traffic lights—whoever gets there first has the right away. It's quite amusing to watch really. When you're there you're certain that at any given moment there'll be an accident. But miraculously there aren't. "Within the chaos there's always order" as they say.

But now that I've driven for a day I see that there's a certain Amharan order that keeps things moving along, very much similar to that of the Bronx. Although I'll have to admit, driving in the Bronx is more treacherous, where red lights are simply suggestions. (And I don't care what people say, it is not O.K., on a road with two lanes going the same direction, to make a right turn from the left lane, in front of the car on your right).

There are two things I've been told to watch out for here while driving: people and animals. Again, there are no sidewalks in my neighborhood so people walk all over the street. There's also the occasional shepherd pushing his herd of 100 sheep through an intersection—what an awesome sight, I'll have to get a picture. I've been told that if I hit an animal and kill it I have to pay for it on the spot. That seems reasonable. If I hit a person and kill him/her (people have explained this to me with a very straight face), regardless of fault, I'll get put in jail for 15 years, no questions asked. And the possibility isn't as small as you'd think, especially at night and especially where the street lights don't work and where people walk across the major freeway. (A friend said that she was turning the corner on the freeway once and a man was sleeping in the two-foot wide shoulder.)

 There's also the man who—this I saw last night—gets a bonfire going at night in the median of the freeway. Again, the median is about 3 feet wide, separating the two directions of traffic. He's been doing this for a while now—the police don't seem to mind. I'll work on pictures.

 I hope to have more stories about driving in Addis. I'm sure I will. Like for example, driving down the road and having to stop for a hundred sheep passing in front of you. Business as usual for the shephards.
 

Blessings.

 

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Language (From Jan. 10)

I'm just now beginning language classes. The language is called Amharic (Am-har-ic). The script is really interesting, (type "Amharic" in Google) like nothing I had ever seen. It's a Semitic language, like Arabic and Hebrew, which among other things, basically means it's difficult to learn. But you can only go so long without knowing anything, unable to do much in English (although younger people always surprise me with their English).  So I'm taking free lessons at our school. It's been so long since I've learned French I don't remember the early frustration. I guess now I'll have much more empathy for my students. Good for them. But the key to quicker language acquisition is immersion, so I need to go out more often and speak to the neighborhood boys who approach me each time I leave campus.

When I do go around the city and use the little Amharic I know, it's not like in France. People here are amazed that I can say even the most simple sentences, like "I'm a teacher." Right away their faces light up and they tell me I'm brilliant, "Gobez!". I humbly say thank you.  Nope, that wasn't the case in Paris.

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Taxis

I really enjoy taking taxis here. Basically the taxis are like buses (Russian VW's).  Each one has a specific route, normally going from one round-about (intersection) to the next, and back. So in order to get somewhere you usually have to take 3 or 4 different ones (I've got some pictures of these on one of my Facebook albums, they're blue and white vans.) Anyway, there are two people who work these privately-owned taxis: the driver and the "conductor". The conductor takes money once you get in, and more importantly, leans out the side window and yells the destination "Kolfe! Kolfe! Kolfe! Kolfe!" as a form of advertisement. There are only unofficial stops, usually underneath pedestrian bridges, or whenever someone flags the van down, or when a passenger wants to get off and bangs on the side of the van. (Yellow strips of tape haven't made it here yet.)  Once I find one with enough room (by room I mean anywhere to sit down—on the backside of the front seat, on the wheel, in the aisle. No, there are no comforting signs that read : "We're serious about safety—Your safety.") I pay my fare, usually, depending on the person, about $.08 a mile. And once I get settled, celebrity status kicks in with the kids: they stare at me, I smile, they smile back. When I'm ready to get off I in turn bang on the side of the car, yell "Wirage!" (Stop) and continue on my way.

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7-ELEVEN SPECIAL

I went to the supermarket, it's actually called 7-Eleven (I'll get a pic), last Saturday (about 30 minutes from my place, two taxis), which has become one of my routines. The people there at the store are very friendly. The first time I went there I had to buy quite a bit of start-up groceries, and for that amount of food (and money) I had three helpers: one to push the cart, one to explain confidently and repeatedly in English that they "have everything", and one to get whatever I pointed to.  Fun times.  Women who work there, the "stockers", normally walk around and look at you (the single white male), and wait to ask if you need help as soon as you start thinking about what you need for more than one second. Yesterday was a special trip. As I was looking through the tea section, a younger, chattier (rather pretty to be honest) female employee asked if I needed help. I said I was looking for caffeine-free tea. She didn't understand the concept.  She said she didn't speak any English and asked me to speak Amharic. I said I couldn't speak much, so she just smiled and asked me for my phone number. I chuckled and thought, "What a great county!"  Although it would have been a great opportunity to improve my Amharic, I kept my smarts about me and realized that our interests didn't match: she was looking for a long-term relationship and I only wanted Peppermint tea.

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It's been some time since I've last written, unfortunately.  This is all due to a virus called "The Worm" that has debilitated our network at school.  I actually still don't have internet at work or at home; I'm writing this from someone else's home. 

There are the good sides to not having internet—mainly productivity while I'm at my desk at school. But then you can't keep up with people and send pictures, which is not very convenient when you're on a mission and would like to keep your supporters updated. (Sigh). Oh well, it's all in God's hands. But if this problem continues it looks like I'll be writing quite a few letters. 

Things are going well after 24 days here. I would say that I'm feeling comfortable here, but I don't think I've yet been uncomfortable. I guess it's due to my itinerant nature: move to a city, stay there for a year (or three like in NYC), then leave.  I haven't really given much thought to why I like to do that (I do enjoy it).  I'm here in Addis because God wants me to do His work. But there is a "selfish" motive of wanting to encounter and understand different cultures. That probably also explains my desire to learn Amharic (the language here) and get to know as many natives as possible.

Anyway, life is good. I'm very happy with my job. From a professional standpoint, I've never been happier. I'm doing what I've wanted to do for years now: teach French to people who don't know it. 

Classes are going very well. I get along very well with my students, seventh and eighth grades. I'm really amazed at how more mature the eighth graders are. The seventh graders giggle at everything: my hand-drawn maps of Africa, the door slamming shut on its own, someone knocking over a book, saying "Ouagadougou" etc.—pure comedy to them. But it's fun. I'm learning.  I also help teach 9^th and 10^th grades—they're great. Never any discipline issues.

I'm hoping to initiate a high school fellowship group, at a different person's house, or even here.  But I've yet to talk about that with teachers here and the few parents I already know. The logistics might be too complicated, as kids don't have cars here and I don't think parents usually drive their children around town all night. We'll see; perhaps you could keep that in your prayers?

I'm also going to start co-leading a Bible Study group with the teachers at Bingham.  I'm excited.  It's been over a month since I've been in a group, and I'm missing it. I can't say enough about fellowship groups: great way to grow closer to the Lord. 

Otherwise I have two ministry updates. I've been asked to start working with a Christian non-profit called "Hearts". Some of the teachers here volunteer there and brought me to one of their info gatherings. Hear is an organization works with street kids—groups of kids, sometimes orphans, without homes. There are a couple of teachers here who go out on Wednesday nights to a particular neighborhood to talk with boys, start friendships and evangelize. I was speaking with one of the organizers of the organization last night and he said he'd be very happy to have me come. He also would like me to start teaching English to the kids at a new center they've created. I think they both sound like amazing opportunities to let them know about the Gospel and God's love for us. But this is all on the drawing board—nothing permanent.

God Bless

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