Tere Linda, Van Bastard

Hello Dear Friends and Family and Estranged Acquaintances,

I know its a little late, but Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Warm
Ground Hog Day, Lovely Valentine's Day, and any other holidays on
which I have neglected all of you. I apologize deeply for my literary
absence, and I hope only to ease the anguish by preparing a
correspondence of great length.

The Second Coming of Christmas
Christmas passed this year with much of the same hullabaloo as last
year. This year I was more prepared for the gluttony that is always
bound to happen on holidays. Visiting 5 houses in three days, I
probably put on a good 15 lbs in the same time. We experienced
several varieties of Christmas this year as one of the Austrian
volunteer's family was staying with us. They even packed a fully made
gingerbread house into their carry-on and a miniature Christmas tree
in their luggage. I call that dedication to the holiday.

New Year's in Sodo, Who Dropped the Ball
My American compatriot and I were able to steal ourselves away from
our hole here in Addis to the southern region of Wollaita to visit
another American volunteer. Poor Steven was nearly completely alone
during the holidays as he's the only volunteer from our organization
at the site and his site director (and only other community member)
was away to visit family for a month. He's been hosting other
Salesian priests who have been filling in as site director in the mean
time, but its been a pretty solitary life for him.

Feeling compassionate, we grabbed a backpack, hopped on public
transport, and rode for half a day into the countryside. Upon
arriving at the compound we found it had beautiful new buildings,
spacious comfortable guest rooms for twenty, and a wonderful view of
the surrounding areas. Of course, the only amenities lacking were
running water, electricity, and a road that you can drive down during
the rainy season. But I think that's asking too much for one place.

New Years' passed quietly by as we watched the news about floods in
Australia, and celebrated watching R. Kelly singing at the Sheraton in
Addis. We even pulled out sparklers to the amusement of the visiting
priest. We found out that Steven was still alive and enjoying his
quiet life, so we rolled on back to Addis to find out that everyone
(the children and teachers) that we had gone to stay at the Sheraton
for the weekend.

Temket Rolls out the Red Carpet
I believe I explained Temket last year, but as a refresher, its the
holiday celebrating the Baptism of Jesus. This happens the week after
Ethiopian Christmas and continues to be one of the baffling order of
events created by the mixture of the Orthodox and Catholic churches in
Ethiopia. I have realised that on any given day you could be
celebrating holidays from two weeks before or a month ahead according
to the European calendar. Or somedays, they just feel like
celebrating according to the European calendar. I feel like Forest
Gump when walking into the chapel in the morning, because I never know
what I'm going to get inside.

In any case, having experienced the holiday the year before, I knew
what to look forward to. Unfortunately, I had to finish a lot of work
at the school before I could join the procession with the Ark of the
Covenant, and I couldn't go directly with my students. The churches
always process to a body of water to place the Ark of the Covenant on
a river for 2 days before processing back. I decided to come from the
opposite direction hoping to catch the front of the procession sooner.
I'm not sure if I noticed this last year, but as the beating drums
and ululating voices echoed down the road, I saw men running forward
with large rolls of carpet. They were actually rolling out red carpet
for the priests to walk on for the entire 5 km walk!

Holiday to Harar
I was finally able to enjoy a somewhat longer vacation (4 days) during
midsemester break from school. I was desperate to finish grading and
get out of town, and I had gone back and forth about where I actually
wanted to go, but I decided to head East for the city of Harar. Harar
is the oldest Muslim city in Ethiopia and its known for the wall that
surrounds the entire old city. Inside the wall, aside from the main
streets, the rest of the city is built like a maze with all the doors
built into continuous white walls of rock that narrow cobbled walkways
through the city. The city is rather small, so its hard to get lost,
but you do have to have a good sense of direction as you cant know
where you're headed until its a few metres in front of you. The
streets wind up and down along the hilly terrain, and people pop out
mysteriously from unforeseen holes in the wall.

The outer perimeter can be circumnavigated in about an hour, and its
spotted with pretty gardens and large, knobby trees which are a rarity
in Addis. The markets are frenetic, as is common, but there are much
fewer people begging or taking notice of the foreigners. The wall also
has holes that are gated; these are opened at night to let the hyenas
in and eat the refuse.

The hyenas were by far the coolest part of Harar, even though I felt
cheated as my friend got a my intimate experience with fewer tourists
vying for a chance to feed them. But we had made friends with a guy
who knew how to get things down, and I was shoved forward and given my
chance to sit face to face with the beasts that cause so much terror
and heartache throughout the country. But when I met them, they just
seemed like big dogs. Their fur is really coarse, and they have an
odd looking face, but the hyenas were so used to human companionship
that it was easy to feed them raw meat off a stick. And the "Hyena
Man" was a character himself. He had a barking high-pitched laugh and
he did everything to play it up for the cameras, just like the hyenas
themselves.

Other than feeding hyenas and taking a walk around the city, my friend
and I mainly sat with our new acquaintances chewing chat. Chat is a
local bush that supposedly has a drug-like affect like a stimulant and
is also helpful for stomach problems and headaches (I think its close
to a coca leaf if you've been in South America). I don't know why
they call it a stimulant, because anyone who chews it regularly just
sits around all day. In any case, it goes best with Coke and
peanuts, but gives you very bad cotton mouth, and I guess its
something cheap and easy to do for the unemployed young men.

After visiting Harar, I went one day to a city an hour away to visit a
former student and her family. Dire Dawa is very organised and neatly
layed out which is a contrast to every other city here, and has
expansive parks and plenty of greenery despite being in a near desert
area. I guess these are the influences of so many foreigners for the
past 150 years. Many people are of Asian, Turkish, or Middle-eastern
decent here, like my students family. Its a very relaxed city, and we
enjoyed spending the Saturday afternoon eating camel meat and smoking
shisha (hukah) with her female family members. Unfortunately, I had a
wicked bad migraine and had to sleep for the afternoon so I couldn't
explore the city more, but what I did see was quite affluent, new, and
pleasant.

Mohammed's Birthday and the Mountain
This year the mountain did not come to Mohammed or to Donato, and so
we moved ourselves and 300 children for a picnicking holiday. With
only six responsible adults, this is much like trying to control a
hurricane, the only thing you can do is prepare for disaster. It took
us 2 hours to walk all the way to our mountain spot, and immediately
the children flew themselves over the cols in search of rabbits and
hyenas and other wild animals that they were surely too noisy to find.

When it came time to lunch, we sat them down in groups of 40, as we
packed the bags of sandwiches and handed out food. Of course, we came
to find out that the older boys, perhaps ten of them) had consumed a
tenth of the sandwiches on their way to the mountain. Since this is
typical, we were prepared with extra sandwiches and an oath that they
would never come out with us again. Lunch finished, the children
scattered again, and after another hour of romping on the mountain we
blew the whistle for everyone to come back home. Of course, they
didn't hear or heed the call and Donato and Teresa started walking
back. They said that the children would eventually get hungry and
find their way home. So, while the first group of children arrived
back at the compound around 3 PM, others didn't show until 6 PM or not
at all. I think all of them returned home eventually, but then again,
its hard to count 300 children when they're moving.

Carne Carnival
With the Easter fast approaching, the Gr. 12 students hurriedly put
together their annual carnival. They had the usual ping pong tables
and foosball tables, basketball and football tournaments, and the
beauty contest. Learning from last year, I became the enforcer and
let no boys stand underneath the stage and certainly not take pictures
from too close a distance as the girls paraded in skirts that showed
off too much. It worked pretty well, and I don't think there will be
any obscene pictures this year, but it did take 3 hours of standing in
a sweltering hot room with sweating teenagers to get through the whole
event. I am, um, proud to say that the top three girls were all
basketball players. We may not play well, but we're pretty.
Nonetheless, the event did inspire me to dress prettier, and I raided
the donated clothes closet to find some cute dresses that I'll be
wearing after two months of fasting. The girls told me I had to dress
nicer, and so I suppose I'll listen.

I hope this message finds you all in good spirits and fine health.
Also, if anyone would like to purchase any items from my kids
(baskets, bags, necklaces, such) let me know and I can give you more
information. Looking forward to hearing from and see you all.

Cheers,
Virginia/Van/Va