Dear People I Love, Admire, and Owe Money
Sorry its been so long since I've written you all together. Since
there are quite a few stories, once again, I've divided them into
sections, so you can pick and choose which ones you'd like to read
instead of going through all of them at once. I've attached the
stories as a document if that's easier for some, and I've attached a
news article from a local newspaper about the current situation here
in Ethiopia.
Also, I'm trying to do a little fundraising to help support me here.
The idea is to send boxes of goods that the children make here back to
various people in the States who can sell the items in church, at
work, to friends, etc. I've contacted a few people, but if this
sounds like something interesting you would like to help me with,
please get in touch with me. Also, you can just be on the lookout for
someone in your area who'll be handling the goods. A small brochure
is attached that briefly explains my projects (I work in three
associated with the Salesians) and also includes some pictures.
The Wedding
Along with many other Ethiopian traditions I've had the pleasure of
participating in, I recently was invited to the wedding of our driver
here at the project. Thinking that a driver doesn't exactly earn much
here, I thought this was a modest affair. What I should learn by now
is that any time you have an event here, there is nothing but
over-indulgence.
Over 500 guests were in attendance, and a full feast to make us all
drunk on food, let alone the actual drunkeness on the honey wine
(tella) and barley home-brew beer (tej). Im not actually sure what
happened as a part of the wedding ceremony as only the few close
family and friends could fit themselves into the house where I assume
the groom and his bride were married. The one part of the ceremony I
could see was when Teriku along with his party of men came bounding
and dancing through the tent, then all of a sudden, a fight broke out,
and just as quickly stopped. It was later explained to me that as a
part of the tradition the groom has to fight the males of the brides
family in order to prove that he's strong enough and dedicated enough
to marry. But the fight stops so quickly because the groom sprays
perfume in their eyes.
After eating, we danced traditional dances like eskista (shoulder
dancing) and had a generally good time. Definitely one of the more
exciting ceremonies I've participated in.
The Funeral
I also had the experience of one of the sadder ceremonies here when
one of my students' mother died leaving him and his brother as
orphans. Accompanying his classmates to his house after Saturday
class, I spent time on our walk talking with them about these sad
moments in our lives. My students are rather lucky, but still half
only have one living parent. There is no proper funeral service as in
the States, rather there is a continuous flow of people in and out of
the house to mourn with the family. People sit under a tent, and
women wail, moan, and beat their chests in a dramatic display of
sorrow that could bring the coldest soul to tears. I watched my
students sit rather meekly reflecting on what if they were the one
sitting in white with more of the burden of an adult life and less of
a future in front of them. Food is brought to comfort, but, as I've
been told, it is not in the tradition to be distracted from the death
of a loved one. Unlike in the States where it is acceptable to watch
television and busy ourselves with something else, in Ethiopia, for
months, you are to remind yourself of what's been lost.
Meskal
One of the biggest celebrations here in Ethiopia is Meskal, the
finding of the True Cross of Jesus. The story goes that Queen Saba of
Abyssinia (Ethiopia in ancient times) had a dream that she must find
the True Cross of Jesus. God told her where to find it, and she found
a fire burning on the place where she should dig. Meskal celebrates
the start of her digging. After 3-6 months (depending on the version
of the story), she found the Cross. It is now divided in four parts
and resides in 4 different Orthodox churches in Ethiopia. Just like
the Ark of the Covenant, ordinary people are not allowed to see the
True Cross and it is only protected by priests and monks who are
allowed to enter the Holy of Holies in the church. (You can believe
what you will about this story)
The celebration nowadays consists of having large bonfires, singing,
praying and eating. Going to Meskal Square in Addis, you'll find
thousands of people gathered to watch the main bonfire for the city.
I've got to say, its definitely the biggest fire I've seen. As the
sunlight faded, people slowly lit their t'waff (candles) to illuminate
the square. Too bad you need a really nice camera to catch this
spectacle on film.
Adventures in Teaching
As for the everyday part of my life, I've been going strong as a
veteran English teacher of 1 year. Thankfully, I learned quite a lot
in that first year. For some reason, this year they assigned to me
grades 9, 11, and 12 (not 10). As Grade 9 students are small and
annoying, I wasn't thrilled. I'm still not, but at least they fear
me, so they keep pretty well behaved. There was a nice rumour that
I'm a former American soldier.
This year I've learned how to adapt my material better for the kids to
be encouraged to use English as well as try to force them to work on
time schedules and be responsible for work. Its still a hit-and-miss
operation sometimes. For Grade 11, we're doing a unit on cultures,
and as a part of that we played an adapted version of BaFa BaFa. (A
game where two groups with completely different cultural rules are
asked to complete a task together.) This resulted in one of the
groups enslaving another to build a “Tower of Peace”, the slaves
revolting, and an all-out-war ensued with plenty of throwing of paper
balls, pens and the like. I'm sorry I didnt catch this on video.
Inevitably, the teams got the best scores in the class.
Simien Mountains
I realise that this is rather old now, so the stories aren't as good,
but I did go trekking with my friends Chris and Mitchell who were
volunteers in Rwanda for the past year. This was my first time
traveling north, and the Simien Mountains are known for hosting the
highest peak in Ethiopia (Ras Dashen) and troupes of baboons for which
the mountains are named. If you're a fan of the “Planet Earth”
series, then you'll recognize these mountains from the opening of the
“Mountains” episode. And they look even more awesome in real life.
It was a regular backpacking trip filled with animals (domestic and
wild), cold nights of camping, long hours by the fire, and the like.
But the most memorable part of the trip had to be our scout, Mahabo.
He was more than a scout, he was darn near our servant. He never let
us cross a river without holding our hands, he always ran to get water
for us, tend our fire all evening, and even sang us songs to entertain
us. This cleraly wasn't the normal behavior of scouts, as most of the
others at the campsites would just chew chat and sleep and basically
ignore their tourists until they had to make them move to the next
site.
I don't think I've done Mahabo justice here. He was so dedicated,
that even before we started trekking, we had to spend one night in
this small town. He saw us walking the streets and made sure no one
bothered us. He walked us back to our hotel to protect us from
thieves and told us to stay in our hotel (and told the hotel clerk
this too) until the morning because it was dangerous. This was 4
o'clock in the afternoon. We didn't listen, but it was a nice effort.
Sometimes it got to be a bit much, but we understood the sentiment,
and gave him a tip that was probably twice what he was actually hired
for.
Medical Mysteries
This story is a little gross, in case you want to skip it. So, for
months I've had a small lump on my shoulder. I thought nothing of it
because it didn't hurt, wasn't changing colours, and generally I
didn't notice it. Well, apparently it got irritated after carrying a
backpack for a week. It started to get bigger (as in big enough to
notice it through two shirts) and really red and irritated. I kept
thinking I needed to do something about it, but it was at a bad angle
for me to lance it myself, and the volunteer who I'm sure would have
done it for me had already went back home to Austria.
Fortunately, after only a few weeks of this, I had another reason to
visit the hospital with another person. Since I'm getting to know the
doctor at this particular hospital quite well through my visits with
other patients, I asked him to just take a look at it. He looked a
bit concern and asked me to come back the next morning so his director
could take care of it. The director saw me, and said he could take
care of it right away with minor surgery. The abscess was so swollen
that even when he shot me with local anaesthetic, a large amount of
fluid surged out. But while he was draining it and cutting away my
insides, we were discussing all the people we knew in common, which
was definitely helpful, because local anaesthetic doesnt actually take
away much pain. Also, since he knew my project and that I was a
volunteer, after he sewed me back up, he said I could just walk out of
the hospital without paying. I just couldn't lift my arm to shake his
hand.
Conclusion
Thanks for sticking with me thus far. I'm looking forward to my next
several months here, but I'm also happily pondering the days when I go
forth to other countries. I have tentative plans so far, but I should
be attending World Youth Day in Madrid in August, and then I'll
probably return to the East Coast of the US at the end of next August.
Keep me up to date with your own stories, and I'll try to create more
entertaining moments here to recount to you.
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