Day 92, Nov 11, Thu,
Today was a long day. I spoke to the primary school students in the morning about how unimportant money is compared to friendships, how money in reality is only paper that will one day turn to dirt, and yet it was each other that they despised, fighting and bickering with each other over trivial things.
As I was talking I tore up a one birr note for emphasis of what I was saying. I then continued to remind them that they were creations of God; we were all brothers and sisters, created by the same loving God who took us in his hands and sculpted us like clay, it was He who breathed life into us, and through him all things are possible. As I was saying these things I took the money scrapes and put them into my semi-closed right hand and worked it, as if I was modeling clay. When I got to the part about God breathing into us, I blew into my hand and withdrew the scraps of the Birr note and slowly unfolded it, to reveal an un-torn, perfect note, I wish you could have heard to cumulative gasp and hush that came from the kids, it was priceless.
I finished by saying that they are all special and that they shouldn’t fight, because they were worth much more than that. (I think the Holy Spirit must have been with me, because I have never done something of that scale and succeeded, and somehow it was flawless. Lol, I even had kids coming up to me throughout the day with Birr notes, asking me to do the trick again, to which I replied that I would only do the tricks at the morning talks {Thus cutting my failure rate and creating an air of mystique, [Should also give me enough time to practice sufficiently]})
After the trick, I headed off to teach my spoken English class that I have been teaching, today I taught them how to create outlines to use in preparing for a speech. It went rather well I thought. (Although I had to keep repeating everything a lot) At lunch I was able to talk to the delegates who were staying with us, the two women, Maria-Sarah & Gloria, were from Italy, and the man, Brook (pronounced Brock) was Ethiopian. The reason they were here was to check on the technical school to see how everything was going firsthand. I also found out that Maria-Sarah had been to the world youth day in Cologne, Germany, same as me, so we were able to talk about some of the experiences we each had. In the afternoon I focused on practicing different magic tricks, (Although I wish I hadn’t shown the money trick to some of the office employees, due to the close proximity it required a much more practiced magician, and unfortunately they saw how I was doing it, darn) I think I shall try to do a morning talk at least once a month, hopefully more. (Depends how many tricks I can teach myself) Adoration today was deeply spiritual and before I knew it, it was time to leave for dinner, time flies when you’re talkin’ to God.
Dinner was unusually delicious tonight, BECAUSE THERE WAS CHICKEN!! Anyhoo, after dinner I showed Ferris to Br. Endalkachew, (who had never really LOOKED at a praying mantis before) who became just as fascinated with him as I was. However, something was wrong with Ferris; he was acting very lethargic, usually he is very energetic, scampering up and down all over the place. I have had enough pets to recognize a dying one when I see it. From what it was dying from I have no idea, yesterday he had been acting fine, eating bugs with wild abandon. Maybe it was just old? Regardless, the question that remained was what I should do, and after a bit of thinking I decided to take him outside and leave him where I had found him, but when I tried to put him on the ground he didn’t want to get of my hand, and I kid you not he kept looking at me, as if asking why. I finally managed to get him off my hand, but as I was about to walk away, I noticed he was still looking at me, following me with his gaze, so I decided to pick him up and put him in his terrarium, where he could quietly pass away. It probably seems a bit crazy to become so attached to a bug, Lol, maybe I’ve been in Africa for too long?, but I have really come to enjoy Ferris’s presence, and it almost seem like Ferris understood that.
So after putting him back into his compound, I went about doing my usual evening routine, and sure enough a couple later I discovered that Ferris had died. I buried the little bugger in the dirt in the middle of the compound, with a soda bottle cap for a marker. Interesting enough, today I had read a paragraph in the book: Imitation of Christ, about graces being taken away, which included friends and pets, and how we should be thankful for the time we had them. So even though I was a bit bummed out at the moment, at the same time I was very thankful to God, not just for Ferris, but also for taking him away, I consider it training of sorts for when I will have to leave all my human friends that he has provided me, which I think is going to be much harder.
Day 93, Nov 12, Fri,
So, this morning I found out that I would be taking both of Abba Larcher’s classes this morning periods, because Br. Endalkachew was busy and would not be able to teach his. It wouldn’t have been too bad, if it weren’t for the fact that the students were a different batch from yesterdays. So I had to come up with something I could teach them that would last 2 hrs. Thankfully I recognized several of my English composition students, who I knew were very bright, so I decided to go along with my speech outline that I had been teaching the previous day. (I myself learned the outlining method in college and I have used it several times, so it was something I could teach from memory with relative ease) The class went well, they were eager to learn it and I enjoyed teaching it. In the evening we had the farewell party for a lay missioner from Kenya, who had been working in Lare for almost eight years! Amazing! In her going away speech, she informed us that the most important thing she had learned was patience, something to remember. (Also, the feast was pretty spiffy; I think I can say that I have been able to eat a little better lately.)
Day 94, Nov 13, Sat,
I’ve started reading an interesting book, called “A canticle for Leibowitz”. It’s about the self destructive aspect of humanity, but what makes it interesting, is that it is set in the future, and told from the viewpoint of a group of Catholic monks. At first, I expected it to turn in to a sort of catholic bash, which is what seems to happen when authors include Catholicism in works of fiction, but so far it seems to be dealing quite honestly with the subject matter. At the Oratory (youth center) I learned how to play dominoes, and I even managed to hold my own against the competition, but when I tried playing checkers, yep…I lost…again…every time.
Day 95, Nov 14, Sun,
Finished “A Canticle for Leibowitz”, Loved it, incredibly wonderful, thoroughly enjoyed it, and although the book was written in the fifties, I think the message is still incredibly relevant in our times, maybe even more so. And to think that if I had never come to Gambella, I never would have read it. I’ve started a new book entitled “The H.M.S. Saracen” it’s about a Monitor class gunships and the action it sees in the first and second world wars. I am also starting through “The Complete works of Edger Allen Poe”. In the oratory today, I played a Pictionary-like game with the kids, where we would take turns drawing pictures in the sand and then take turns guessing as to what had been drawn, which was then translated into English, Amharic, or Nuer so we could learn each other’s language, twas great fun. I think I’m finally starting to connect with the kids.
Day 96, Nov 15, Mon,
I took both of the morning periods this morning; it was with the spoken English group, so I continued with where I had left off, with speech outlines. This time I had them come up and practice on the chalkboard. They were a bit nervous and hesitant at first, but they eventually relaxed and we really got into it. They weren’t quite as competent as my other classes, and at times we got bogged down in intercultural language barriers (apparently, in Ethiopia, when one goes barking? It means they are going to market to buy some oxen? Go figure.) But we made some decent progress.
In the evening we had dinner at the prefecture (Bishops residence) again, this time to celebrate with our neighbors the Anglicans, who had just finished constructing and had just opened a new Library, a project they had been working on for a while. It was attended by several ambassadors from Ireland & England, as well as the Anglican Bishop. There was even an Anglican priest from America, Arizona to be exact, (Fr. Michael was his name) who was visiting to discern whether it was his calling to work in Ethiopia. I got a chance to talk at length with him, it was very nice to talk to another person who speaks English as a first language, I hadn’t realized how much I had simplified the way I spoke till now, lol.
Day 97, Nov 16, Tue,
Today was a holiday of sorts, not quite sure what was being celebrated, (I think it might have been the birth of Muhammad?) There was no school, so I spent the majority of the day cleaning my room, (dusting, de-webbing, sweeping, scrubbing, mopping, bug-spraying, rearranging) and reading. In the evening a massive storm front moved in, and thunder & lightning was seen and heard in abundance. The generator stopped working, so dinner was eaten by candle light. Power finally returned around 8:30-ish, but I didn’t really stay up for much longer.
P.S. I almost forgot, this Sunday I had forgotten to say that I had gone to the village of Bonga, to celebrate mass with the locals with Abba Thomas and a group of parishioners. It was a good experience, the church is situated a kilometer from the main road, and is nestled in between several government compounds that have become abandoned and are no longer used. The “church” is a small building, barely able to contain the 60 or so people nestled inside. The sound of drums echoed throughout the tiny enclosure as the parishioners sang praises to God. It was a wonderful service, and before long it was time to head back, but not before everyone crowded around for pictures, lol.
Day 98, Nov 17, Wed,
The morning class went well; we managed to cover everything that I intended to. As the day wore on I started to feel...erm, not so good. Lately I have become exhausted, and even if I get a good night’s sleep, I wake up just as tired the next day. On top of that, my joints have really started to ache, abnormally so. At the evening class with the seminarians I was going to teach them some tips on how to troubleshoot simple and common computer problems, but when I tried to use the seminarian’s computer, I found it very slow and unresponsive, so I spent the evening class cleaning up wasteful files and defragging it. As the evening progressed I gradually felt worse and worse, and when I finally made it back to the residential compound I decided to go to sleep early, so after taking some Ibuprofen and hit the sack.
Day 99, Nov 18, Thu,
I ended up sleeping in fits and starts. I finally awoke at around 10:30am, and I wasn’t exactly of feeling peachy. I was still exhausted, all my joints ached, (It basically felt as if I had been run over by a semi) I was getting the chills and was shivering while at the same time I was burning with fever and a headache. I was also experiencing much abdominal discomfort, which, in turn, led to much toilette. My stomach was also a bit upset, and for a good deal of time I felt like I was going to vomit (Although I never did) which did away with any desire to eat. I took some more advil, and after a few decades of a rosary I drifted off to sleep. I slept until 3:00pm, by then the advil had taken effect and I was feeling a little bit better, good enough to walk around and such, so I decided to get a ride to the local clinic to check if I had contracted malaria (which I was experiencing all the symptoms) After waiting for what seemed like forever for me. I was finally shown to the doctor, and after taking my vitals and jotting down my described symptoms, he sent me to the lab to do some blood test as well as a stool test (Yay) and after giving the necessary “materials”, I waited while the lab technician ran the tests. When he was finished (which also been a long wait) We went back to the waiting room…and waited some more. When the doctor called me in again, was informed that I had contracted Typhoid Fever, and he prescribed a medicine, which we picked up at the connected pharmacy.
The whole ordeal cost 233 birr, not quite sure what that works out to in U.S. dollars as I don’t know the current exchange rate. After picking up the meds, I head back home. I had to wait until after dinner to take the medicine and by this time I had started to feel like shiza as the advil wore off, so I took a nap until dinner. I awoke still feeling like kaka, but I trudged to dinner anyway. At dinner I informed everyone of my condition and the days events, they then counseled me to go get checked out at the Abobo clinic before I start taking my assigned meds, apparently the local clinic has a habit of diagnosing Malaria as Typhoid, hurray, blarg. Somewhat dejected from this news, I forced myself to eat something, as I had not eaten all day. I managed to get down some soup, a banana, and some bread, should tied me over for a bit at least. I then retired to my room, took some more advil, and then tried to go to sleep. I was unable to though, and as the advil kicked in I became aware of my growing appetite. I decided to feed my face while I was still hungry, and prepared my last package of Mash Po-tay-toez. When I had sufficiently stuffed my gut with food stuffs I went back to my room, and after a couple of video clips on my laptop, I was able to drift off to sleep. (I think I have spent the last 18 ½ hours of the 24 hours asleep! MADNESS)
Day 100, Nov 19, Fri,
Woke up around 8:30, feeling quite a bit better, at least compared to yesterday. I was still feeling weak and tired, with achy joint pain and headaches, but the fever had gone down (thanks to the Ibuprofen) as well as the chills. I went searching for a driver to take me to Abobo, but I was unable to find one until 10:45, we set off at the same time, hoping to get there in time to check in before the lunch break. On the way to Abobo, we passed (or ran over) a snake, the first live one I’ve seen. It was smooth scaled, with a grayish rust color to it. There was something about the snake that gave the impression that it was poisonous, and have learned that there are red cobra’s in the area, so it’s possible it could have been one of those, but there was no way to know without seeing it’s hood. We made to Abobo at around 11:50, too late to check in, so I went to the Abobo Salesian compound, to wait and hopefully catch the doctors on their break. Thankfully Maria-Theresa did stop by, along with Barbera and her little son, (Her husband, Mr. Frank, was away in Addis on business) during lunch (which was tuna mixed with mayo, with potatoes and some salad.) I described some of the symptoms I had been experiencing, as well as how I had been diagnosed with Typhoid, and that I was here to get double checked, so to speak.
After lunch they showed me to a room where I could rest while I wait for the clinic to open at 3:00, but I’m afraid I didn’t do much resting, as my abdominal discomfort had returned…with a vengeance. At 3:00 I headed back to the clinic, and after a bit of waiting I was ushered in for a check up, as well as to take down my symptoms officially, after which I was shown to the blood lab where they took several sample of blood, which they extracted from my finger tip by pricking it…several times…with a tack like implement. After giving my blood, I waited in the waiting area (duh, right, lol) for almost 2 hours. Thankfully time didn’t take too long to pass, I said three mysteries of the rosary, and then became engaged in conversation with some of the locals, (including some rambunctious kids who were running around like mad peoples, like little kids are known to do, lol. Some things don’t change, regardless of country) so after a while of face making at little kids, and conversations of various topics of the local, I was finally called in to discuss the results. They told me that was indeed not malaria, but they had also discovered that it wasn’t Typhoid, and they had become somewhat perplexed as to what was causing my illness.
By this time my fever had come back, and I had become very tired, and so when they had asked me if I had taken the typhoid vaccine, I replied that I was unsure, and couldn’t positively say that I had, but that I think I had, and that when I went back to the compound I could check my yellowcard (A card containing all the information of my various vac’s) to see if I had. They then explained that if I had taken it, that it might explain my symptoms, because it was still possible to get the beginning stages of Typhoid, it just keeps it from developing into something worse. They recommended that I start the med’s I had received from the local clinic. They then prescribed a painkiller that would ease the fever and joint paint, while being gentler on the stomach then advil. After picking up the painkiller, I headed back. We arrived back at 6:20-ish, just in time to take a short nap before dinner. After dinner, I checked my Yellowcard and called Maria-Theresa to let them know that I had received the Vac for Typhoid; I then took the first doses of the Med’s, and went to sleep.
Happy day 100 hundered, eh!
Day 101, Nov 20, Sat,
Woke up feeling significantly better today, the achy-ness was still there, and so was the tired-ness, but all the other symptoms had receded. Didn’t really do much of anything, took my pills, slept and read mostly, and I had decided to skip the oratory today, too much chaos for me. In the evening I retired early. (Shortest entry ever!)
Day 102, Nov 21, Sun,
Slept in late again today, and although most of the other symptoms are gone, the tiredness still prevails. I hope it docent last to much longer. Today I wrote up a letter for Abba Larcher, which was a welcoming speech for a dignitary who was coming later in the afternoon. The dignitary turned out to be Fr. Kanage Maria Arokiam, Who is the Councilor of the Southwestern Salesians. In the afternoon we had an official welcoming for him by the primary school children, who put on a dance of sorts for him. The dance itself was an interesting one, it looked part shuffle, part irish, and part tap, fascinating. As the children left, I hung out with some of the older kids and conversed for a bit about various topics, and I received many questions about life in America. (One particular question I found somewhat hilarious, apparently one of the students teachers was teaching that the American flag had 54 stars, the student had gone so far as to find a connection to the internet to find out the validity of this claim and printed out a picture of the flag. When he showed it to the teacher the teacher claimed that it was not he that was wrong, but that the students sources were wrong, lol. I wonder what he was thinking were the four extra states? This evening there was an interesting movie showing on T.V. called “The Freedom Writers Diary “ about the real story of a class of inner city school children who had come from many different past’s, most of which were violent, and their teacher who was trying her best to give them an education, it ended up being a very touching movie, I definitely recommend it.
Day 103, Nov 22, Mon,
Mostly sleeping, and dilly-dally-shilly-shally (that’s for all you FF7 fans out there, lol) I am very thankful that I can recover at ease, at my own pace so to speak, but at the same time it has left me feeling somewhat unneeded. The schools continue as always, and everything continues on as though I had never existed, which has left me feeling somewhat lonesome and miserable about my weakness. But as the day progressed, I came to realize just how much just my presence here means. Throughout the day I have had several students seek me out because they had heard I had fallen ill and wanted to see if I was doing okay. They had noticed my absence, even though I don’t really have that many classes, this filled me with a sense of peace about my work here, it appears that I am not as unimportant as I thought I was. Moreover, it has created in me a bit of frustration about how tired I feel, I really just want to get back into daily life. This evening I set up a chair and my telescope and sat for a long time admiring the moon and it’s pock marked surface. Pretty incredible thing the moon, without it life would not have been able to survive for very long on earth, yet it docent get the recognition it deserves for it. Next time you look at the moon, think about how many cosmic missiles it has intercepted and stopped from slamming into the earth, and thank God for the marvelous work He has wrought.
Day 104, Nov 23, Tue,
Another slow day, but in the evening we went to the prefecture for dinner with the Councilor of SW Asia, Fr. Maria. (As he likes to go by) They served a rather interesting dish for the meal, (well actually a few, but one in particular caught my interest) apparently a local had gone out in the forest/jungle and had caught a wild pig, a boar of you will, which had then somehow made its way to the dinner table of the Bishop. An interesting taste, I had imagined that it would have a “piggy” taste to it, but it turned out tasting more like a roast beef, albeit a bit chewy. There was also my particular favorite, a local fish, whose name I escapes me at the moment, which tastes like a cross between Cod, Halibut, and Catfish, a chewy but delicious fare. And there was the usual spread of various compulsory dishes, such as wot and cabbage salad.
Day 105, Nov 24, Wed,
Somehow I managed to drag my corpse-like shell of a body out of bed in time to teach the English composition class. Today we learned the differences between Adjectives and Adverbs, which I had some trouble explaining to them. The concept of a word changing from one type to another depending on what type of word they are modifying was somewhat difficult for them to grasp. In the evening computer class I focused on the things I had done last week to get the seminarians computer working (which it is now, thank you very much, lol) and then we had some fun learning a typing exercise by using the sentence: The quick red fox jumped over the lazy brown dog. The goal of the exercise, is to keep your hands in the approximate same position, and then to write out the sentence again and again until eventual through memorization you will begin to access the keys with your eyes closed, thus freeing up your gaze to look at documents or your screen.
Day 106, Nov 25, Thu, Happy Thanksgiving!
Today I thought I would go over some of the things that I am thankful for here in Gambella. I am thankful for a working fan in my bedroom, which helps a great deal during the hotter nights. I am thankful for a toilette, as well as toilette paper, I don’t think I shall ever take those two for granted ever again. I am thankful for a safe and plentiful drinking water source. I am thankful for a working shower to wash away the dust that accumulates so quickly here. I am thankful for working electricity, which allows us to light up the darkness of the night. I am thankful for the internet, even the limited connection that we have here, for it allows me to stay connected to those whom I love. I am thankful for the friendship of the salesians here, which helps make my stay here more bearable. I am thankful for the rec-room, which helps keep me entertained on the slow or sick days, as well as the evenings. I am thankful for the chapel and the church, which provided so much spiritual support that frighten to think what my stay here would have been like without them. I am thankful for the warm and friendly locals, who although they can seem so different, are actually quite similar. I thankful for all the new and exciting things I have shared, especially the different cultures and places, and also the myriad of life which exists here in the form of plants, insects, animals, and peoples. And most of all I am thankful to God for giving me the opportunity to experience these thing, both the good and the bad. I am confident I will come away from this trip a changed, and hopefully better, person.
Friday, November 26, 2010
Friday, November 12, 2010
In Africa, no one can hear you scream………..lol.
Day 82, Nov 1, Mon, All Saints Day,
Turns out I did the I.D. Cards wrong, I had written the second and last names in the wrong placese, (although it wasn’t really my fault, that’s how they were written on the files that I was getting information from, plain weird If ya ask me.) So I spent the entirety of the morning fixing the darned things. In the afternoon I was finally able to get around to checking my email. I think something has happened to the internet, It is really hard to get a good connection from my office, it takes forever to do things now, Blargh!!!
Day 83, Nov 2, Tue, All Souls Day,
Finally!!! I finished up the I.D’s, And this time they are correct (I discovered that I had also screwed up some of the ages, darned 7 yr difference between E.C. and G.C.) So I printed them out and started putting them together, however, only about 2/3 of the employees had their pictures taken, so now I have to wait for them to show up to finish everything 100%. In the afternoon half of the office day I worked on my composition class, tomorrow we will be covering verbs. Before I left the office for the day, I had been playing around with the scraps of leftover paper from the I.D.’s, making them into Helicopters and Airplanes. Surafle and Astere (the Accountant and the cleaning lady) noticed what I was doing and became fascinated, I ended up staying late and making some extra Helicopters for Astere and Her kids, as well as playing around with different paper airplane designs with Surafle.
(I should mention, Astere, Surafle, Bayu, William, and Legesse have become my four closest friends. I spend most of my free time with legesse, and when I’m in the office, Astere teaches me a bit of Amharic, and I am always having conversations with Bayu, Surafle & William.)
This evening, as I was walking to the chapel for evening prayers, I gazed up at the night sky, as is my habit, and to my surprise the night air was chock-a-bloc full of African fireflies, spectacular!
Day 84, Nov 3, Wed,
English went well, (Although I ended up waking up late, My Alarm clocks acting up again) And the homework count was up as well, it seems as time goes on, most of the people who were not really interested in learning strained away. After reviewing the homework though, I have observed that there are a couple people who are copying each other’s work, so I will have to have a word with them next time. After Lunch I found another praying mantis, and this time I was able to take some good pictures of him, (I’ve named him Ferris, Because the Amharic word for Praying Mantis sounds similar) and I even managed to construct a sort of terrarium of sorts, so I’m going to try and keep him as a pet of sorts, it depends on if I can successfully feed him, if I can’t I’m just going to release him. I hope I can though, I think Praying Mantis’s are the coolest insects ever! In the evening I taught the seminarian comp class, today’s subject was the hardware, the segment went over well, the students asked plenty of question, and we used up all the time allotted.
Day 85, Nov 4, Thu,
Gah! I’ve accidently slept in for the past two days; I think my body is telling me to get more sleep. It’s very difficult to get to sleep early though, I just end up lying awake, tossing and turning until forever it seems. What I usually end up doing is stay up reading a book or watching TV until I get sleepy, which is usually somewhere between 11:00-12:00pm. Blargh, stuck between a rock and a hard place. But I digress, the morning was same old’ same old, but in the afternoon we stopped by the sisters to pick up something they had prepared for Br. GianCarlo’s feast day (Which I’m still somewhat confused about, it’s not his birthday, and it’s not the celebration of his becoming a Brother, it has something to do with the Milan province of Italy, as well as the feast day of St. Charles Borromeo. I think it is just an excuse to have a feast day, which is perfectly fine by me, lol) the dish that the sisters gave us turned out to be pizza! (Well, more like a bisquick flatbread of sorts with topping, but I’m not complaining.) Not only that, but it was three different kinds, one was onion, one was tomato, and one was cheese. We also had a kind of curried rice of sorts, a dish of chicken, and salad, holly bloated bellies batman! A feast fit for a king. I also found out that Ferris (My praying mantis) likes to eat shield bugs, which can be found in abundance at night, so I think I will be able to keep him, sweet.
Day 86, Nov 5, Fri,
Tonight I lugged out my telescope and set it up in the middle of our residential compound. Jupiter was out again and this time I was able to see three of its moons, as well as the major and minor stripes. The night was so clear that I could see the Orion nebula with my naked eye, it was even more amazing through the telescope though.
Day 87, Nov 6, Sat,
Today I woke up early and rode with Abba Filipo, Abba Thomas, and several church members to the town of Lare. (There was a trio of elderly ladies in the car with us, who for the majority of the trip were either singing songs, or cracking jokes, it was pretty funny to see these old birds so full of life.) We were going there to celebrate the institution of a priest as pastor of the parish. The town is about an hour and a half to the north east of Gambella, a mere seventeen km from the border of Sudan. We arrived at around 7:20am, the town is an interesting place, very different from Gambella, a great deal of the town is under water during the rainy season, very swampy, so there are elevated walkways going to the houses and stores. Thankfully most of the water had dried, so all that was left was cracked dried mud. The people at the church were very welcoming, even the children, (from my experience so far, most of them are usually quite shy in this area of Ethiopia) and everyone crowded around to shake everyone’s hands, it was a bit over whelming.
There were a few people who were here for the celebration from other towns I recognized as well, there was Carlos and Maria, from Abobo, Abba Tulio from Itang, And several of the sisters of charity, from Gambella. Bishop Angelo proceeded over the service, which lasted close to two hours. (The mass itself included the confirmation of several candidates, as well as much musical presentations by the villagers. After mass there was much picture taking with the bishop, then everyone gathered for lunch, consisting of rice, Wot, Cabbage and carrots, and some kinda fish, not too bad. We left right after the meal and started back for Gambella. On the way, one could not help but notice all the people swimming in the plethora of streams and ponds which dotted the sides of the road, most of which were wearing nothing but their birthday suits, lol. Needless to say, I spent the majority of the time focusing on the landscape instead, which was stunning, some of the jungle was still flooded, and the light streamed through the branches and leaves and reflected of the water, magnificent. I wish I could have taken a picture, but my camera had run out of batteries half way through mass. We arrived home around 2:30pm-ish, and the rest of the afternoon was spent seeking relief from the heat. (The roads are so dusty now that I had to take a shower when we got back; the amount of dust is obcene.)
Day 88, Nov 7, Sun,
Today I finally made some progress in the oratory. I had crafted a checker set (consisting of a cardboard playing board and bottle caps for pieces) I convinced Br. Legesse to play a round with me, and sure enough a crowd of children gathered round to watch. After we had finished that round, several of the kids played me. I lost every game, so I guess it was also a lesson in humility for me as well, lol. (Anyone who knows me, knows that I really, REALLY, hate losing…at anything) I am going to make a habit of attending every Saturday and Sunday, no matter how busy I am.
Now for this week’s prayer:
Teach me, teach me dearest Jesus,
In thine own sweet, loving way,
All the lessons of perfection
I must practice day by day.
Teach me Meekness, dearest Jesus,
Of thy own the counterpart;
Not in words and actions only,
But the meekness of the heart.
Teach Humility, sweet Jesus,
To this poor, proud heart of mine,
Which yet wishes, O my Jesus,
To be modeled after Thine.
Teach me Fervor, dearest Jesus,
To comply with every grace,
So as never to look backwards,
Never slacken in the race.
Teach me Poverty, sweet Jesus,
That my heart may never cling,
To whate’er its love might sever,
From my savior, spouse, and king.
Teach me Chastity, sweet Jesus,
That my every day may see,
Something added to the likeness
That my soul should bear to Thee.
Teach Obedience, dearest Jesus,
Such as was Thy daily food
In Thy tiresome earthily journey
From the cradle to the grave.
Teach Thy Heart to me, dear Jesus,
Is my fervent, final prayer;
For all the beauties and perfections
Are in full perfection there.
Day 89, Nov 8, Mon,
Busy, busy. In the morning I went about doing my usual Monday routine, (preparing for Wednesday class, updating the chronicle, updating the I.D. whenever someone showed up to get their photo taken, etc.) and after lunch (which is usually semi-free) I walked to the Church to help Abba Thomas with the parish computers. First order of business was getting the internet to work again. Abba had recently obtained a broadband adapter from addis, but they had forgotten to include a simm card, so we headed out to the telecommunications in Gambella to see if it was possible to obtain one. As we were walking into the building I got a bit of a shock, I noticed a man out of the corner of my eye walking down the street, holding a pistol, not in a threatening way or anything like that, but it was like he was playing around with it. He was handling it with the proper amount of respect it deserved, which sooner or later will result in accident. I prayed that no-one would get hurt due to his carelessness. He disappeared around a corner and I continued inside with Abba, (who I think had missed the spectacle, or maybe he was just better than me at hiding his surprise) the incident was soon forgotten as we waited to be attended to. As we were waiting, I noticed that there was another individual who had a similar adapter, apparently these things are more popular then I first thought (or maybe they just had more problems and that is way he was there?) Eventually our turn came up, and we found out it would be possible to get a simm card there, but it would take a day, and Abba would have to come back with some I.D. and a photo. So we headed back to the church and I started to defrag and clean up Abba’s compy, but unfortunately the power went kaput, so I waited around a little to see if the power would come back on, but it didn’t, so I headed back to the residential compound and read. In the evening Abba Filipo came by, so dinner had a bit more variety. During dinner the power switched (the compound has a generator that they switch on in the evening for prayers and dinner, if power returns to the town, they have to turn off the generator first, and then they switch to town power and turn it back on, resulting in a about minute of darkness in between) and during the darkness Br. Legesse made rat scurrying sounds, which freaked us all out, twas quit funny. After dinner I decided to try and go to sleep early, so I could wake up semi refreshed for once, but I ended up reading until around 9:30, which is still earlier than usual though.
Day 90, Nov 9, Tue, Happy quarter anniversary!
For the next ten days, I will be taking over on of Abba Larchers class periods while he is away at a meeting in South Africa. I will be teaching spoken English as well as how to apply it to giving speeches, proper greetings and how to treat customers, and also how to record conversations effectively. So in today’s class I decided only to go over a general outline of the coming classes so that would totally be freaked out. After class, Peter (our driver) handed me a receipt for a package that was being held for me at the post office, lol, about freakin’ time, it has been nearly a month since I was told by my family that they had sent it. I had a few tasks to complete first, so I had to wait until after lunch to go and get it. At 3:00, I was finally free to go, so I asked William, (our other driver) to give me a ride, and soon I was standing outside of the post office, a rather diminutive building, and waited for them to locate my parcel. Once they found, I had to show them my passport, sign a waiver, and pay a 7birr handling fee, (which is the equivalent of about 50 cents) and finally it was mine, Mwahahaha! It was A LOT bigger then I had imagined it would be. Once I got back to our compound I unpacked everything, SO MANY THINGS!!! Japanese candies from Uwajimaya, (White rabbit creams, Pocky, and mango rice jubes (Uwajimaya is an Asian specialty store that I used to frequent frequently) Beef Jerky, (Huzzah!) Gummy bears, (I kid you not, I had actually dreamed about those little bugger more than once since I’ve been here.) A bag of chocolate chips (which had unfortunately had almost melted into a single slab of Gooey goodness) Halloween peeps, (lol, only 9 days late I guess, well, there is always thanksgiving, aye?) “Oat n’ Honey” “Natures valley” granola bars, (Good Lord, THE CRUNCHY GOODNESS!!!) A couple packs of instant potatoes, (Lol, nothing lets you know that your loved like a bowl full of mashed ‘taters.) Packets of green tea & hot coco, (Thank goodness, I was getting somewhat tired of drinking the same thing every morning) A jiffy popcorn stove popcorn unit, (what more could I possible need to watch MacGyver in style?) a few packages of water balloons, (which should come in handy during the coming dry season, Aye?) a snowglobe of seattle, Wa. (Oh crazy seattle, how I miss thee so!) And best of all, an armload of letters, as well as a birthday card with pictures of the whole family. (Which I wasted no time in showing to the peoples in the office, ^_^) I actually teared up as I was reading the letters, It was so nice to hear from them, (and I do mean hear, as I was reading, in my mind it was their voices that I heard.) it seems like forever since I have been part of their lives. I am incredibly grateful to God for giving me such a wonderful family, receiving this care package has made my stay here both easier and harder, easier because I know I have the support of my family, and harder because I can’t wait to see them again. Today is also my quarter anniversary; I’ve been here for ninety days! It seem like it has been so short, and yet the time remaining can seem so immense. Needless to say, tonights MacGyver episode is gonna be sweet!
Day 91, Nov 10, Wed,
English comp was a bit complicated this morning, we were learning about adjectives and the students had some difficulty understanding the concept. In the second half of the class they made some good progress though, I guess I’ll find out when they turn in their homework assignments next week. Speaking of homework, this week almost all of them have turned in theirs, not only that, but the majority of it was correct, in that regard at least I know were making some ground. Today we also had some visitors, a delegation from a from a group of NGO’s that are supporting the technical institute, In alphabetical order they are: Barrack, Gloria & Maria-sarah. I didn’t really get to talk to them much; I had the seminarian class this evening, (Which went well, we covered the various kinds of software programs, and their uses, as well as how to install/Uninstall them.) and when I had gotten back they had already retired for the night, so I stayed up a bit with legesse and played a quize game on the computer. (It was one of those Encarta dictionary programs; it had some pretty fun knowledge tests)
I am very excited about tomorrow, I have been granted an opportunity to talk in front of the morning gathering of primary students, and I have been practicing a magic trick that I will be using to enhance the message that I am trying to get across, gonna be great….hopefully.
Turns out I did the I.D. Cards wrong, I had written the second and last names in the wrong placese, (although it wasn’t really my fault, that’s how they were written on the files that I was getting information from, plain weird If ya ask me.) So I spent the entirety of the morning fixing the darned things. In the afternoon I was finally able to get around to checking my email. I think something has happened to the internet, It is really hard to get a good connection from my office, it takes forever to do things now, Blargh!!!
Day 83, Nov 2, Tue, All Souls Day,
Finally!!! I finished up the I.D’s, And this time they are correct (I discovered that I had also screwed up some of the ages, darned 7 yr difference between E.C. and G.C.) So I printed them out and started putting them together, however, only about 2/3 of the employees had their pictures taken, so now I have to wait for them to show up to finish everything 100%. In the afternoon half of the office day I worked on my composition class, tomorrow we will be covering verbs. Before I left the office for the day, I had been playing around with the scraps of leftover paper from the I.D.’s, making them into Helicopters and Airplanes. Surafle and Astere (the Accountant and the cleaning lady) noticed what I was doing and became fascinated, I ended up staying late and making some extra Helicopters for Astere and Her kids, as well as playing around with different paper airplane designs with Surafle.
(I should mention, Astere, Surafle, Bayu, William, and Legesse have become my four closest friends. I spend most of my free time with legesse, and when I’m in the office, Astere teaches me a bit of Amharic, and I am always having conversations with Bayu, Surafle & William.)
This evening, as I was walking to the chapel for evening prayers, I gazed up at the night sky, as is my habit, and to my surprise the night air was chock-a-bloc full of African fireflies, spectacular!
Day 84, Nov 3, Wed,
English went well, (Although I ended up waking up late, My Alarm clocks acting up again) And the homework count was up as well, it seems as time goes on, most of the people who were not really interested in learning strained away. After reviewing the homework though, I have observed that there are a couple people who are copying each other’s work, so I will have to have a word with them next time. After Lunch I found another praying mantis, and this time I was able to take some good pictures of him, (I’ve named him Ferris, Because the Amharic word for Praying Mantis sounds similar) and I even managed to construct a sort of terrarium of sorts, so I’m going to try and keep him as a pet of sorts, it depends on if I can successfully feed him, if I can’t I’m just going to release him. I hope I can though, I think Praying Mantis’s are the coolest insects ever! In the evening I taught the seminarian comp class, today’s subject was the hardware, the segment went over well, the students asked plenty of question, and we used up all the time allotted.
Day 85, Nov 4, Thu,
Gah! I’ve accidently slept in for the past two days; I think my body is telling me to get more sleep. It’s very difficult to get to sleep early though, I just end up lying awake, tossing and turning until forever it seems. What I usually end up doing is stay up reading a book or watching TV until I get sleepy, which is usually somewhere between 11:00-12:00pm. Blargh, stuck between a rock and a hard place. But I digress, the morning was same old’ same old, but in the afternoon we stopped by the sisters to pick up something they had prepared for Br. GianCarlo’s feast day (Which I’m still somewhat confused about, it’s not his birthday, and it’s not the celebration of his becoming a Brother, it has something to do with the Milan province of Italy, as well as the feast day of St. Charles Borromeo. I think it is just an excuse to have a feast day, which is perfectly fine by me, lol) the dish that the sisters gave us turned out to be pizza! (Well, more like a bisquick flatbread of sorts with topping, but I’m not complaining.) Not only that, but it was three different kinds, one was onion, one was tomato, and one was cheese. We also had a kind of curried rice of sorts, a dish of chicken, and salad, holly bloated bellies batman! A feast fit for a king. I also found out that Ferris (My praying mantis) likes to eat shield bugs, which can be found in abundance at night, so I think I will be able to keep him, sweet.
Day 86, Nov 5, Fri,
Tonight I lugged out my telescope and set it up in the middle of our residential compound. Jupiter was out again and this time I was able to see three of its moons, as well as the major and minor stripes. The night was so clear that I could see the Orion nebula with my naked eye, it was even more amazing through the telescope though.
Day 87, Nov 6, Sat,
Today I woke up early and rode with Abba Filipo, Abba Thomas, and several church members to the town of Lare. (There was a trio of elderly ladies in the car with us, who for the majority of the trip were either singing songs, or cracking jokes, it was pretty funny to see these old birds so full of life.) We were going there to celebrate the institution of a priest as pastor of the parish. The town is about an hour and a half to the north east of Gambella, a mere seventeen km from the border of Sudan. We arrived at around 7:20am, the town is an interesting place, very different from Gambella, a great deal of the town is under water during the rainy season, very swampy, so there are elevated walkways going to the houses and stores. Thankfully most of the water had dried, so all that was left was cracked dried mud. The people at the church were very welcoming, even the children, (from my experience so far, most of them are usually quite shy in this area of Ethiopia) and everyone crowded around to shake everyone’s hands, it was a bit over whelming.
There were a few people who were here for the celebration from other towns I recognized as well, there was Carlos and Maria, from Abobo, Abba Tulio from Itang, And several of the sisters of charity, from Gambella. Bishop Angelo proceeded over the service, which lasted close to two hours. (The mass itself included the confirmation of several candidates, as well as much musical presentations by the villagers. After mass there was much picture taking with the bishop, then everyone gathered for lunch, consisting of rice, Wot, Cabbage and carrots, and some kinda fish, not too bad. We left right after the meal and started back for Gambella. On the way, one could not help but notice all the people swimming in the plethora of streams and ponds which dotted the sides of the road, most of which were wearing nothing but their birthday suits, lol. Needless to say, I spent the majority of the time focusing on the landscape instead, which was stunning, some of the jungle was still flooded, and the light streamed through the branches and leaves and reflected of the water, magnificent. I wish I could have taken a picture, but my camera had run out of batteries half way through mass. We arrived home around 2:30pm-ish, and the rest of the afternoon was spent seeking relief from the heat. (The roads are so dusty now that I had to take a shower when we got back; the amount of dust is obcene.)
Day 88, Nov 7, Sun,
Today I finally made some progress in the oratory. I had crafted a checker set (consisting of a cardboard playing board and bottle caps for pieces) I convinced Br. Legesse to play a round with me, and sure enough a crowd of children gathered round to watch. After we had finished that round, several of the kids played me. I lost every game, so I guess it was also a lesson in humility for me as well, lol. (Anyone who knows me, knows that I really, REALLY, hate losing…at anything) I am going to make a habit of attending every Saturday and Sunday, no matter how busy I am.
Now for this week’s prayer:
Teach me, teach me dearest Jesus,
In thine own sweet, loving way,
All the lessons of perfection
I must practice day by day.
Teach me Meekness, dearest Jesus,
Of thy own the counterpart;
Not in words and actions only,
But the meekness of the heart.
Teach Humility, sweet Jesus,
To this poor, proud heart of mine,
Which yet wishes, O my Jesus,
To be modeled after Thine.
Teach me Fervor, dearest Jesus,
To comply with every grace,
So as never to look backwards,
Never slacken in the race.
Teach me Poverty, sweet Jesus,
That my heart may never cling,
To whate’er its love might sever,
From my savior, spouse, and king.
Teach me Chastity, sweet Jesus,
That my every day may see,
Something added to the likeness
That my soul should bear to Thee.
Teach Obedience, dearest Jesus,
Such as was Thy daily food
In Thy tiresome earthily journey
From the cradle to the grave.
Teach Thy Heart to me, dear Jesus,
Is my fervent, final prayer;
For all the beauties and perfections
Are in full perfection there.
Day 89, Nov 8, Mon,
Busy, busy. In the morning I went about doing my usual Monday routine, (preparing for Wednesday class, updating the chronicle, updating the I.D. whenever someone showed up to get their photo taken, etc.) and after lunch (which is usually semi-free) I walked to the Church to help Abba Thomas with the parish computers. First order of business was getting the internet to work again. Abba had recently obtained a broadband adapter from addis, but they had forgotten to include a simm card, so we headed out to the telecommunications in Gambella to see if it was possible to obtain one. As we were walking into the building I got a bit of a shock, I noticed a man out of the corner of my eye walking down the street, holding a pistol, not in a threatening way or anything like that, but it was like he was playing around with it. He was handling it with the proper amount of respect it deserved, which sooner or later will result in accident. I prayed that no-one would get hurt due to his carelessness. He disappeared around a corner and I continued inside with Abba, (who I think had missed the spectacle, or maybe he was just better than me at hiding his surprise) the incident was soon forgotten as we waited to be attended to. As we were waiting, I noticed that there was another individual who had a similar adapter, apparently these things are more popular then I first thought (or maybe they just had more problems and that is way he was there?) Eventually our turn came up, and we found out it would be possible to get a simm card there, but it would take a day, and Abba would have to come back with some I.D. and a photo. So we headed back to the church and I started to defrag and clean up Abba’s compy, but unfortunately the power went kaput, so I waited around a little to see if the power would come back on, but it didn’t, so I headed back to the residential compound and read. In the evening Abba Filipo came by, so dinner had a bit more variety. During dinner the power switched (the compound has a generator that they switch on in the evening for prayers and dinner, if power returns to the town, they have to turn off the generator first, and then they switch to town power and turn it back on, resulting in a about minute of darkness in between) and during the darkness Br. Legesse made rat scurrying sounds, which freaked us all out, twas quit funny. After dinner I decided to try and go to sleep early, so I could wake up semi refreshed for once, but I ended up reading until around 9:30, which is still earlier than usual though.
Day 90, Nov 9, Tue, Happy quarter anniversary!
For the next ten days, I will be taking over on of Abba Larchers class periods while he is away at a meeting in South Africa. I will be teaching spoken English as well as how to apply it to giving speeches, proper greetings and how to treat customers, and also how to record conversations effectively. So in today’s class I decided only to go over a general outline of the coming classes so that would totally be freaked out. After class, Peter (our driver) handed me a receipt for a package that was being held for me at the post office, lol, about freakin’ time, it has been nearly a month since I was told by my family that they had sent it. I had a few tasks to complete first, so I had to wait until after lunch to go and get it. At 3:00, I was finally free to go, so I asked William, (our other driver) to give me a ride, and soon I was standing outside of the post office, a rather diminutive building, and waited for them to locate my parcel. Once they found, I had to show them my passport, sign a waiver, and pay a 7birr handling fee, (which is the equivalent of about 50 cents) and finally it was mine, Mwahahaha! It was A LOT bigger then I had imagined it would be. Once I got back to our compound I unpacked everything, SO MANY THINGS!!! Japanese candies from Uwajimaya, (White rabbit creams, Pocky, and mango rice jubes (Uwajimaya is an Asian specialty store that I used to frequent frequently) Beef Jerky, (Huzzah!) Gummy bears, (I kid you not, I had actually dreamed about those little bugger more than once since I’ve been here.) A bag of chocolate chips (which had unfortunately had almost melted into a single slab of Gooey goodness) Halloween peeps, (lol, only 9 days late I guess, well, there is always thanksgiving, aye?) “Oat n’ Honey” “Natures valley” granola bars, (Good Lord, THE CRUNCHY GOODNESS!!!) A couple packs of instant potatoes, (Lol, nothing lets you know that your loved like a bowl full of mashed ‘taters.) Packets of green tea & hot coco, (Thank goodness, I was getting somewhat tired of drinking the same thing every morning) A jiffy popcorn stove popcorn unit, (what more could I possible need to watch MacGyver in style?) a few packages of water balloons, (which should come in handy during the coming dry season, Aye?) a snowglobe of seattle, Wa. (Oh crazy seattle, how I miss thee so!) And best of all, an armload of letters, as well as a birthday card with pictures of the whole family. (Which I wasted no time in showing to the peoples in the office, ^_^) I actually teared up as I was reading the letters, It was so nice to hear from them, (and I do mean hear, as I was reading, in my mind it was their voices that I heard.) it seems like forever since I have been part of their lives. I am incredibly grateful to God for giving me such a wonderful family, receiving this care package has made my stay here both easier and harder, easier because I know I have the support of my family, and harder because I can’t wait to see them again. Today is also my quarter anniversary; I’ve been here for ninety days! It seem like it has been so short, and yet the time remaining can seem so immense. Needless to say, tonights MacGyver episode is gonna be sweet!
Day 91, Nov 10, Wed,
English comp was a bit complicated this morning, we were learning about adjectives and the students had some difficulty understanding the concept. In the second half of the class they made some good progress though, I guess I’ll find out when they turn in their homework assignments next week. Speaking of homework, this week almost all of them have turned in theirs, not only that, but the majority of it was correct, in that regard at least I know were making some ground. Today we also had some visitors, a delegation from a from a group of NGO’s that are supporting the technical institute, In alphabetical order they are: Barrack, Gloria & Maria-sarah. I didn’t really get to talk to them much; I had the seminarian class this evening, (Which went well, we covered the various kinds of software programs, and their uses, as well as how to install/Uninstall them.) and when I had gotten back they had already retired for the night, so I stayed up a bit with legesse and played a quize game on the computer. (It was one of those Encarta dictionary programs; it had some pretty fun knowledge tests)
I am very excited about tomorrow, I have been granted an opportunity to talk in front of the morning gathering of primary students, and I have been practicing a magic trick that I will be using to enhance the message that I am trying to get across, gonna be great….hopefully.
Monday, November 1, 2010
"Such as I have, I will give thee, we will go to Africa, and I will give myself for your son." ~St. Paulinus of Nola
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Day 71, Oct 21, Thu,
Today we had a meeting with the teaching staff of the technical institute, which was held by a government sponsored group who was promoting a new teaching standard. Apparently, the government, with the help of some European countries, is trying to standardize the schooling curriculum throughout the country, which is both positive and negative for us here. Positive, because it will allow students to start College in, say, Abobo, and be able to finish it in Addis ababa. Negative because it has been somewhat poorly planned and implemented, and is very inconvenient for institutions that are already doing well, such as ours. It also feels as though they are treating the couple batches students who will be using this new system as guinea pigs, so at the moment we are working together with the group to come to a beneficial compromise.
Day 72, Oct 22, Fri,
Today, at 11:30am, Br. Endalkachew drove me to the nearby town of Itang, about an hour’s journey northeast from Gambella and we made it there in good time. I was met by Abba Tulio, (he is the one who invited me out here, he’s been the pastor here for 8 yrs.) and I was taken on a tour as he explained the mission projects, which are a lot different from those in Gambella. For one, it’s much smaller, the entire mission is run solely by Abba Tulio, occasionally he’s had help, but for the vast majority it been just him. The amount of people he administers to is quite small as well, only around a few dozen. The kinds of things he had to deal with are a lot different as well, at the start of his ministry here, I guess the town was basically the Gaza strip of Ethiopia, with the Annuak and the Nuer peoples constantly clashing (the town itself used to be the capital of the region, which helps explain why all the violence.) So his main program was promoting peace between the two tribes. After awhile, things finally settled down to a point where he could really start integrating outreach projects, mass service was held more regularly, Bible studies were formed, programs that aimed to help those who had difficulty getting by started. I will be staying here for two moons, learning and experiencing what the mission projects are all about. After the tour I was shown to my room, and after a late lunch, had a short siesta. In the evening I attended service at the church, after which I helped Abba with cooking dinner, apparently, since he is the only one here, he has preferred to cook his own meals, it’s become somewhat of a hobby for him, and it was with much joy that I helped him; it seems like forever since I’ve cooked. There’s no electricity in the evenings, so after a quick shower I retired for the night.
Day 73, Oct 23, Sat,
Started the morning with an omelet (Hallelujah!) and some American style peanut butter (Halleluiah!), chased by a rosary with Abba Tulio and his catechists. After the rosary, they had a short Catechism class, which was followed by assignments to the kids to complete various cleaning tasks, some to clean the inside of the church, some to clean the outside of the church and some to tidy up the grounds, Etc. As the kids went about with their assigned duties, I followed Abba Tulio has he continued his Saturday routine, taking pictures and experiencing what he normally does. His next task was elderly outreach. On the property is a storage shed full of various grains, legumes, and flours, and waiting outside of it were a group of elderly ladies, most of them either blind or toothless with age. Every Saturday Abba hands out a little bit of food to help them get by, I am guessing they don’t have many family members who can care for them. They were really sweet as well, when they saw (heard) me they all shuffled their way to me and shook my hand, saying Melle, Melle, Melle, the whole time, lol, later I found out Melle means peace. After the food stuffs, Abba handed out some medicines as well, to help them stay healthy. After the elderly outreach, and after the kids had finished their chores, they were allowed to use the church grounds to play some futball, and as the kids played, I talked with Abba about the difficulties that currently face the mission. There’s been some difficulty with the local administrators, one day Abba came back from a nearby town to discover that the fence that surrounded the church had been ripped out. Since then there have been many infringements on the property, with people dumping trash and junk on it, discarding broken vehicles, even digging in the kid’s soccer field to erect a flag pole, lol. After the kids had finished playing, it was time for tea with the kids. It was really neat to get a chance to connect with them. Afterwards I convinced Abba to let me teach the kids how to sing the “Immaculate Mary”, and for the next thirty minutes I went about teaching them the song. (To the best of my Abilities) They really enjoyed it, especially the Ave part, so much that after I had finished and as we were going out from the classroom, they were singing: Ave, Ave, AVE! lol. I managed to coral them all together once more to sing for Abba, lol, it’s quite a site to see a bunch of little Ethiopian kids belt out the Immaculate Mary at various out of tune tones. After our performance, it was time for lunch, so Abba and I made up some food, potatoes and a warm salad, tasty. After lunch I conversed with Abba Tulio about vocations, especially how he came about to understand that his was the priesthood.
Then it was siesta time for a bit, it’s nice to find out that another person needs nap to function here in the gambella region, I believe a saint once said: Thirty minutes asleep is better than half a day wasted from fatigue. After the nap, I joined Abba for the last task that he does on Saturdays, He basically runs a first aid clinic for the kids of the town, they come to him in the couple hours of daylight remaining he’ll patch up the scrapes and bruises that kids seem to accumulate, as well as taking care of the various sniffles. Once all the kids were fixed up, we sat around, conversing with the youths, watching the sun go down. Then it was time to start the evening meal, we sauted up some polenta & potatoes with garlic, onion, lentil sauce of sorts, with a cold cabbage, tomato and carrot salad. After dinner, I watched a movie with Abba called: Judas. It was an interesting movie which showed the life of Jesus from a “possible” viewpoint of judas.
I wasn’t really used to seeing Jesus portrayed in such a human light, it was a very fascinating view. The people talked in the movie very modernly as well, lol, it’s bizarre to see Jesus talk like someone from the suburbs of Tacoma or something. There were both ups and downs to the movie, did I like it? Well, If I was in charge of directing the movie I definitely would have changed some things, but I also would have definitely kept some things as well. Afterwards, I grabbed a quick shower before the generator turned off, and retired to my room for the night. (I learned today that there is a major bat problem, and apparently there is so much guano in the attic that it is starting to fall through various cracks in the ceiling, and so Abba has had to go around and caulk up the ceiling until he can clear out the buggers when the dry season comes. And to make matters worse, there worms that fall down with the poop, Blargh!! Definitely makes getting to sleep difficult because I keep thinking about it. Lol)
Day 74, Oct 24, Sun,
More omelets for breakfast, as well as that creameh creameh peanut buttuh!
Mass today was said in equal parts Annuak, Nuer, Amharic, and English, so that made for an interesting combination. Thankfully there was a pamphlet that I could use to follow along with, so it was actually a very spiritual service. After mass I started a lunch for Br. Endalkachew and William, who had come to take me back home. I prepared a red Thai curry (lol, found the curry spice pack in one of the cupboards, sweetness!) with toasted garlic, softened scallions, stir fried beef strips, as well as some carrots & cabbage that I tossed in at the last minute. I served the curry over some boiled potatoes, topped with some toasted peanuts and raisins. Twas delish, and I have to say that I REALLY miss cooking, I think when I get back state side I’m gonna go into a cooking frenzy. My compatriots enjoyed the meal, and after bidding my goodbyes to Abba, we were on the road at quarter past one. I will be back. (Hopefully after the bat problem is fixed. Lol.)
Prayer of the day: (Also to be said after communion)
Soul of Christ, Sanctify me,
Body of Christ, save me,
Blood of Christ, Inebriate me,
Water from the side of Christ, wash me,
Passion of Christ, strengthen me,
Within your wounds hide me,
Never permit me to be separated from you,
From the malignant enemy defend me,
In the hour of my death call me, and bid me to come to you,
That with the saint I may praise you,
Forever and aver, amen.
Day 75, Oct 25, Mon,
Woke up in a bit of a funk today, I had had an incredibly vivid dream where I was back in college, but I was failing everything because I couldn’t cook squat. (This is probably due to the amount of cooking I had done in Itang) So when I woke up I was profoundly home sick, (which is only slightly more home sick then I usually am, lol.) and the rest of the day kinda just dragged by, not really accomplishing much. The mood persisted until evening mass, nothing like the Bread of Life for a pick me up, eh?
Day 76, Oct 26, Tue,
I finished updating the chronicle today, finished preparing for English composition, and continued some letters I had been writing. I had become so engrossed in my writing that at 5:00pm, I didn’t notice everyone leaving. Eventually I noticed that it was starting to get dark, so I started packing up my things, all the time wondering why it was so quiet, I had a sneaking suspicion that they had already left, and I hoped that they hadn’t locked me….However my suspicions were confirmed when I tried to open the door to get out of the complex, locked up tight. Lol, at this point I was mentally preparing myself to spend the night in my office, when I thought of trying to get in touch with one of the guards, so I opened the window that was in my office, and thanks be to God there was a guard sitting right outside, so I motioned for him to come near so I could tell him I was locked inside, unfortunately I discovered that this particular guard didn’t speak or understand English very well, so after much motioning with my arms at an attempted sign language as well as badly butchered Amharic on my part, I managed to get him to go searching for Br. Legesse, so now it was only a matter of time. Eventually Legessee came around with like a dozen keys, none of which worked, so he went of looking for some that would. Then Abba Thomas came and tried his keys, which also didn’t work, lol. Eventually someone managed to get in touch with Br. Endalkachew, who stopped by (He was at a meeting in town.) and let me out of my makeshift prison, lol.
Day 77, Oct 27, Wed,
English class went well again. We focused on pronouns, and although it took a bit of time for them to start using all the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd person forms, they eventually got it. Only a handful of them turned in their homework from last week though, so we will see how next week class goes. In the evening, Abba Marcus came around looking for me, apparently there was some miscommunication concerning the basic computer class, I guess I meant to say that he wanted my to do a year-long comprehensive computer course, lol. When I asked him what kinds of things I should be teaching them, he kept saying “Basic computer things” which is very frustrating when you are trying to plan a yearlong course. So I held a conference with the seminarians I would be teaching, and by cross examining them with Abba Marcus, as well as picking their brains until they were sore, I managed to accumulate enough information, so now I can begin planning.
Day 78, Oct 28, Thu,
I have been crazy busy today…Or at least I would have been if this confounded electricity could stay on for more than 15 minutes, grrr. I am trying to finish the I.D. cards, which is proving to be very difficult without power, and to make matters worse, another huge storefront moved in, and by lunch time it had started to rain, which basically guaranteed that would be no more power for the rest of the day. When it started raining after lunch, I flipped out. After slipping into my swimming trunks and a tank top, I marched around in the increasingly torrentuos rainfall, saying a rosary, lol. It was actually incredibly soothing, and I highly recommend it to everyone. After I had sufficiently regained my senses, and since there really wasn’t anything else I could do, I took a short siesta. I woke up feeling much refreshed, and was pleasantly surprised to see that it had stopped raining. So I headed back to the office to do as much as I could without power. 5:00 rolled around, and seeing as how I had no intention of being locked in the office (by the way, everyone had a good laugh at what had happened, lol, I even thought a few people would start rolling on the ground in laughter.) I made sure I was out on time. We had adoration at 6:30, and after words I was invited to dinner with the religious peoples (who had spent the last few days in meeting concerning the condition of the mission in the gambella region.) So I enjoyed lovely meal with pleasant company. (Also, the priests here have a healthy sense of humor; Hey Father, were out of wine, so here’s some water, I’ll let you do the honors today, lol)
Day 79, Oct 29, Fri,
More power outages all day today, so I was only able to work on the I.D.’s periodically. Look like I’m going to be working during the weekends to finish them. I was able to finish the schedule for the computer class that I am teaching the seminarians, and this evening I was able to start a database for the employees that needed I.D. cards, which should speed up things hopefully.
Day 80, Oct 30, Sat,
Slept in this morning and read a couple books while I was waiting for the power to come on so I could start working on the I.D.’s. I didn’t end up working on them until after lunch, and before I had made much progress, Abba Larcher asked me to print out the new curriculum, which was more than 500 pages worth of stuff. So the first thing I had to do was locate some paper, and since it was Saturday, there was no one at the office so I couldn’t get in. So after a bit of searching, I managed to find Abba Larcher again, (with the help of one of his students) and had him unlock Br. Endalkachews office, where I was able to gather what I hoped was enough paper to print everything. Once I started printing, it went rather smoothly, until I got about quarter way through, then the printer started frixing out. I figured it was over heating, because it was a lot more printing then should be done on such a small device, so after waiting for it to cool down; I tried again, only to have it mess up again. At this point I was starting to become very frustrated, as it was taking way too long to do this. After locating Abba again, and getting him to let me into Br.s office, I found another toner cartridge (I figured if it wasn’t overheating, it was probably the cartridge, even though it wasn’t telling me it was out) and after swapping the cartridges, I tried again, but it was a no go. So I had to walk to my office, praying the whole time that someone had left on of the doors open, to find a brand new cartridge. This time luck was with me, and I found a brand new one that was even still in its packaging. So after marching back, I exchanged cartridges yet again, and this time it started printing correctly. By this time the evening advanced into night, and by the time I had printed all the documents, it was time for dinner, so it looks like I will have to wait until tomorrow again to finish the I.D.’s.
Day 81, Oct 31, Sun, Happy All Hallows Eve.
My alarm had been acting up recently, and this morning it didn’t go off, so I woke up late. Thank fully I was able to make it to mass in time. (I had to rush like a bat out o’ hades though.) Today they celebrated all souls day, so after mass, everyone walked in a procession to the Cemetery, where we prayed for all those who had departed from this life. The Cemetery itself was not in a very good condition, with tall grass growing everywhere, so I don’t think it is visited often. (There were also animal bones scattered about everywhere, so either an animal got trapped in the gated grave yard somehow, or perhaps it was some kind of offering?) After words we headed back to the compound. I again had to wait for the power to come on, and I didn’t end up working on the I.D. project until around two-ish. Once I did start working on it, I worked like a mad man, and was able to finish just before dinner, so in the evening I was able to relax for once. I read some more book and watched a movie that was on T.V. (It was about a killer croc in the African country of Burundi, I think it was called “Primeval”)
On the way back to my room, I happened to spot a giant praying mantis in one of the corners of the compound; it was almost as big length wise as my hand. I took a bunch of pictures, but none of them really turned out (I have discovered that although my camera takes good daylight pictures, nighttime pictures don’t really turn out so well.) so I caught the thing and put it in a bucket, hoping to take a picture of it during the daylight, but it escaped during the night, darn!
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