Two Years

Two years ago today there were many firsts.  The first time I'd experience a sunrise in Africa.  The first time I'd heard the chants from the Ethiopian Orthodox churches.  The first time I woke to the sounds of goats, donkeys, roosters, and children in the streets.

The first daylight drive through Addis Ababa.

The first time I saw those blue gates in person.



The first time I saw these brown eyes in person.

First snuggle with Daddy, November 29, 2010

November 29 was the day we met Rebeka.  The first time we felt her warm weight in our arms.  The first time I kissed her tightly parted hair.  The first time Maddy made her smile.  The first time we heard her cry.

If I close my eyes and hold so still, I can still feel Ethiopia.  I can smell it.  I can feel the warmth on my skin.  I can imagine the stone floor under my feet and hear the sounds of the honking.  I miss it so much, I can't even express, but what I can tell you is how wild we are about this girl.  I was talking to Steph today and we both said that this experience has made our lives are exponentially richer than before, on so many levels.  Just so grateful.

 

Gondar, Part 2: Castles, Blessed Injera, and Home Brew (Oh my!)

 When we left the school we headed to the castle complex.  Gech was a talented guide and made the stories and history come alive.  Ethiopian history is every bit as interesting, sordid, exciting, intriguing and poignant as European history.  It was a warm and sunny day and being in those ancient buildings and courtyards was magical.  I won't give you a history lesson here, but if you ever have a chance to read about it, do!  While we were there we kept seeing these girls from a nearby school.  Gech had them show us a traditional dance, and G joined in.  So cool!

 Looking at the exiled queen's castle on the hilltop.

  
When we were done at the grand castle complex, we walked over to visit the famous church.  It was also built in the 1600s, and the only church in the area from that era not destroyed by religious wars.  It is still used for services daily.  The church is inside a wall, and the wall has 12 towers to represent the 12 disciples.  Gech told us that monks lived in the small stone towers, even today.  We walked up to the church, but it was all locked up.  It was then that Gech noticed a group of 5 or 6 monks and priest sitting in a circle, eating and visiting.  Gech walked us over to them and introduced us.  They all greeted us, and then the man closest to us, a very old priest, tore off some injera and grabbed some lentils with it and started handing it to us.  Gech told us that was 'blessed injera' and that we'd better eat it!  Blessed injera!  WOW.  Keep in mind though, that we've been so, SO careful about our health.  We've taken GSE every day and been on probiotics since October.  I brought 4 (FOUR!) different kinds of wet wipes to Ethiopia and also straws.  When we order Coke I wiped down the bottle AND make my kids drink from straws!  So to eat injera and lentils (at least it wasn't meat) that was cooked by an unknown person in an unknown place and handed to us by someone else's hand?  It was scary.  But.  These people were offering us BLESSED INJERA.  To turn them down would be worse than incredibly rude.  And so, I said a quick prayer that we wouldn't get sick, and we ate some.  The boys passed, but Joel, Maddy, and I took some.  I told myself that we couldn't possibly get sick from blessed injera!  It was amazing though, to be eating injera from these priests, in this beautiful courtyard where people had come to worship for hundreds of years.  It was like we were in the actual 17th century.  You know those 'living villages' where you go and they pretend to be pioneers or whatever?  This was like that, except they weren't actors.  This was the real thing!

 One of the towers where a priest lives.

 

The priests and monks that shared Blessed Injera with us.

 Since the men were finishing their lunch, Gech decided to take us on a detour before we visited the church.  We went outside the walls of the church and started walking around the outside of the compound. There were houses, shacks by our standards, and Gech said that some of the priests and monks lived in them.  We came upon a building then that was wider, deeper, and taller than any of the houses.  It had a doorway, and maybe 1 or 2 small window openings.  As we approached Gech told us that many of the church elders and other local men were gathered together- drinking beer.  (On Sunday!)

Homebrew beer.

A younger guy that was either drunk or very excited, ran out and motioned to us.  Then he grabbed Carter's arm (Carter had the death grip on me with his other hand!), and pulled us into the building.  It was very dark and it took a minute for my eyes to adjust.  When they did, could see that we were in a big room, about 20x20 with a dirt floor.  A bench ran around the entire wall and there were men sitting around the room.  Carter's 'friend' was so excited and was trying to pull him into the building further to show him off to all the men.  I could tell that Carter was (way) beyond his comfort zone so I spoke up, said 'no' and pulled him close to me.  It was kind of sensory overload for us all though.  Before we fully realized what was happening though, we had injera in our hands and Joel had a tin cup with some murky looking homebrew.  To be honest, I was way out of my comfort zone too!  I wanted to get out of there, but here we were, in the middle of Ethiopia, in a dark hut, surrounded by 'clergy'.  What else could we do, really, except eat the injera we'd been offered and drink the homebrew?  So.  We did.  (Joel only on the beer!)  Boy, the room thought it was HILARIOUS when Joel sipped that beer.  He liked it though and drank more than half a cup full.  I loved that he was making the most of the experience, but I was sure praying that all our probiotics and GSE we'd been taking would work!

 

 

The next thing I knew, Carter's 'friend' tried to give Carter some of the drink!  I intercepted that one, and again the room burst into peals of laughter.  Finally Gech decided it was time to go, but not before they tried to refill Joel's tin cup, and we walked back to the church.  (On the way, our tour guide and entourage chased off a rabid dog.  Fun times!)

Shoes off in the churches.  Always.

The church was amazing.  Incredible.  It was covered in original paintings that told bible stories.  There was no electricity inside the church, except for a few fluorescent bulbs, powered by extension cords.  Gech showed us the musical instruments and the significance and symbolism of each thing- down to the very last detail of how each instrument is formed and designed.  It was fascinating.

When we left there, it was time for a well earned lunch.  Gech took us to the Quara Hotel in downtown Gondar and we ordered pizza.  Plus, we each had a coke from a glass bottle.  The kids don't generally (ever) drink soda at home, but here we've had soda every time we eat out!  The pizza was hot, cheesy, and perfect.

To be continued .  .  . and can you believe we're only at lunch??  Honestly, the most loaded day of my life!

Gondar, Part 1: Early Morning and School

I've never told you all about Gondar.  We passed court on Friday, December 3 (2010), and early Sunday morning we left for our trip to see Gondar and Lalibela.  When we returned from Addis we went to pick up Rebeka, without skipping a beat, and from then until now we've been too busy being in love with being a family of 6 to share with you how incredible experiences we had in Gondar.
So, here goes.  And while I can close my eyes and imagine that I am in Gondar right now, it was, in fact a year ago.  Thankfully, I kept a journal while there.

My Facebook post from Gondar, the evening of December 5th read, "So overwhelmed by today- besides marrying Joel, the birth of my children, and meeting R, I can tell you that this has been the most amazing day of my whole life. I can't wait to process it and share it with you!"

 We were picked up at Ethiopian Guest Home very early- about 4am, I think, maybe earlier.  We booked through Feres Medes Tours and they picked us up and drove us to Bole Airport.  We made our way through 'security' and a very crowded waiting room, and boarded our plane to Gondar.  The scenery was really interesting.  We flew over huge mountains and canyons (the headwaters of the Nile River), and then flat farmground.  The patchwork reminded me of Pendleton, Oregon, but the plots were so much smaller- everything is farmed by beast or by hand.

 We landed in Gondar (bumpy, yikes!), and Gech, our tour guide was waiting for us along with a driver.  He (Gech) was a college student at the University in Gondar.  The airport was several miles from the city, and the scenery was very different that what we'd experienced in Addis!

 Very rural and very beautiful.  In my journal I wrote, As we left the airport and drove to the city we saw tukuls (huts), oxen, men carrying brush on their heads, and a derelect tank.  We drove through a military compound and a village.  There were many people on the roads and many horse drawn carts.

We went straight to our hotel, Goha, which sits on top of the hill overlooking the city.  It's apparently the 'nicest' hotel in the city.  After we dropped our luggage, back into town we went to a coffee shop.

 We hadn't really had breakfast yet, so we ordered a couple of pieces of cake and a coffee for me.  As we were sitting there, Gech pointed out the next door school.  He said we could visit it after coffee.

It was an elementary school and 'U' shaped.  The open area in the middle was the play yard, but was all dirt and rocks.  Gech showed us an empty classroom and it was exactly what you would see on a PBS documentary.  The rooms were very dark- lit only by the door and the single window that faces the inside of the compound.  (No glass or actual doors, just openings.)

 It was a Sunday, and Gech explained to us that school was Monday through Friday, but kids could come for extra studies on Saturday and Sunday.  As we walked around kids gathered and followed us.  A couple of them let me take their picture.

 As we continued our walk around the compound, we met the English teacher.  He was dressed in threadbare pants and a long lab type coat.  He was animated and jovial and reminded me a little bit of a mad professor.  He invited us into his classroom.  Maddy and I sat on the thin, hard bench and the boys stood against the wall with Joel.  The teacher called the students to the front and they showed us their English skills by reciting their name, age, hobbies, favorite school subject, etc.  They were very good!  Very formal though. 

 There was one darling girl, round faced, head covered in a soft pink Muslim wrap, that just stood out.  She was delightful.  She postively sparkled and said she wanted to be a scientist.  I have no doubt that will happen for her, although it is hard to imagine the jump from a dirt floor school room with no electricity to being a scientist.

Next, the teacher had pairs of students come up and have conversations.  And at the end, he asked Maddy and the girl with the pink head covering come up and have a conversation.  It was amazing.  Maddy was so uncomfortable, but it was very cool and I'm so glad she did it.
The materials they were using were inadequate, to say the least.  Students shared 'textbooks' that were about the size and make up of a Readers Digest.  But they were worn and flimsy and I saw a copyright on one- 1976.  Can you believe that?  Do you know how many warehouses, across Oregon and across the United States are filled with textbooks that are 'outdated' and only 5-10 years old?  Yet, here these teachers and students are, ON SUNDAY, with these old beat up, formal ridiculous workbook things.  Oh you guys.  Things are just so upside down.

It was truly surreal to get to spend time at that school.  I still feel so fortunate that we were able to go there and that my kids were able to see the similarities and differences between themselves and kids in Ethiopia.  There are so many things we all have in common, but I hope it is developing a sense of empathy and compassion in my kids when they see that not all kids have ipods.  Or textbooks.  Or shoes.

When we left the school we headed toward the famous castle complex.  (To be continued.)