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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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