Day 107, Nov 26, Fri,

Day 107, Nov 26, Fri,

I have made an interesting discovery while on my break; our T.V receives a Japanese broadcasting channel! Is this coincidence or fate? Regardless of the providential aspect of the discovery, I am now able to continue one of my other favorite hobbies, the pursuit of learning about various cultural, historical, and economical facts and traditions about the Nipponese people. The programs that run on this channel are as varied as my interest in the subject, from the latest sumo scores, the current economical situation, the various cultural trends that have existed throughout the ages, information about historical landmarks and peoples, to various tips about visiting the island, as well as some helpful Japanese words and phrases.

Of particular interest to me is the culinary industry, Nihon no ryori ga suki-desu (not sure if I spelled that correctly, lol) In fact, today I learned how to make Udon noodles, as well as pickled black soy beans with various sorted veggies, though I am afraid I will have to wait till I get back state side to try out any of my newly acquired recipe’s, all I can do for the moment is copy down the ingredients and instructions. Just thinking about the Udon noodles, with their spicy & umami sauce make me think: Onaka ga suita. (I think I spelled this one correct, lol.)

What are the odds that I would find aspects of the Japanese culture all the way out here in Ethiopia? Actually, I learned that there is quite a strong connection between the Japanese and Ethiopian people. In the 1920’s and up through the early 1930”s, there was a great deal of ambassadorial action back and forth between the two nations. Ethiopia was interested in Japan because of their quickly advancing modernization, and Japan was romantically fascinated with Ethiopia due to its long and long and rich history, similar to their own, as well as the fact that both of them were one of the few countries that were able to resist the colonization of the English empire.(Although there was also a “military” interest as well)

The bond was so strong that there was almost a marriage between an Ethiopian prince and a Japanese princess, but due to the political situation at the time, (the impending war with Italy was a large dark cloud in Ethiopia’s horizon) the marriage never happened. Nowadays the connection might not seem readily apparent; however, Japan is one of the largest importers of Ethiopian flowers, which is Ethiopia’s largest international export, and there have been several delegations from Ethiopia to Japan, and from Japan to Ethiopia in recent years. I can’t help but think about what Ethiopia might have been like now if the war had not happened and its relationship had been fostered with the developing worlds. It’s an interesting thought.



Day 108, Nov 27, Sat,

Today I ended up helping Okoth, an animator (which basically means a volunteer youth group leader) at the oratory, to print out a pamphlet that he would be studying, sounds simple enough, right? That’s where you’re wrong! Because of course T.I.A (This Is Africa) so it is never as easy as it seems. It ended taking close to two hours. There were a few reasons for this; one was that “pamphlet” was OVER 300+ PAGES LONG! Although that in its self should take much longer than twenty or so minutes, what delayed it the most was a severe paper shortage, Okoth had brought with him what he had thought was enough paper, but it turned out to be over forty pages short of completing the massive task, so the printer was out of paper with less than 1/4th of the project remaining. Okoth went off to look for more paper at the primary school, which seemed to take forever, and when he finally came back he was empty-handed, apparently there was not a single page to be seen there. So, despite my reservations about the possibility of there being paper in my office, I headed to the Tech. Institute, and proceeded to search my office from top to bottom, only to confirm my fears about the lack of paper in the vicinity as correct. Despite this, I was able to make use of some lined paper that I use in my English Comp. class. It wasn’t perfect, but in these conditions it would have to do. So after trekking back to the residential compound, I managed to complete the printing process.

As I finished printing the document, I discovered to my delight that the subject of the pamphlet was of interest to me, it was a copy of “The Republic”, written by either Plato or Socrates, (I have forgotten which Greek wrote it, the document states that the author is Plato, but Socrates is the protagonist, so I am unsure if it is a typo, lol) I is basically a dialogue between Socrates and a student about various aspects that a political system should have. What is even more surprising is that this is apparently a fairly common resource that colleges and institutes in Ethiopia use to teach political philosophy.



Day 109, Nov 28, Sun,

Sometime in the coming week I will be typing into a computer and printing out a play that the Sisters of Charity have been writing, and will be eventually be teaching, to their residence for Christmas, (Something to look forward to, which will help a little bit to ease the feeling of loss at not being able to celebrate with my family.) but until then I am going to have to do some typing. I’m not entirely sure what it is exactly that I’m going to be typing, because at the moment I have heard that it is being translated into Amharic, so am I going to be typing up that? I think I’m just going to be typing up the English version and correcting an typing or grammatical errors, but what they are going to do with that is beyond me, because to my knowledge none of their residence speak English, lol.



Since I missed last Sunday’s “Weekly Prayer” I have something special today, the “Our Father” in Amharic!



Besemay yemitenor
Abatachen hoy
semeh yimesgen
mengisteh yimta
fekadeh
besemay endehone
endihum bemider yihun.
yeeletet
injerachinen zare siten
egnam ybedelunen yiker endeminel
bedelachinen yiker belen
kekifu hulum seweren enji
wede fetena atagban.



Day 110, Nov 29, Mon,

For the past week I have been trying to come up with a different way of making basketball nets, (the net I had previously made the past week has already been torn asunder by the fierceness of the playing youths, Also I think it might have something to do with them hanging on it, Lol.) And today I finally came up with an Idea that I put into motion. In the last net I had crafted, I had used a technique that would have worked if I had been using the normal rope that is used to make basketball nets, but the only thing I had at my disposal was the plastic rope stuff, which is very stiff and hard to keep tied, (although if used properly I think it will “weather” the elements better, namely that most terrifying of elements “Children”) however because of the stiffness it is very hard to tie knots, as they have a habit of just popping lose in a couple of days, which I find incredibly vexing.
So this time I repaired it using a series of more complex knots, which are somewhat more difficult to do, which in the end makes the darned thing take longer to make. However in the end I was very happy with the finished product. Now all that is left is to test the net by leaving it out for the “Elements” to abuse. If it is still there in a couple of days I will make another one using the same method.



Day 111, Nov 30, Tue,

Having completed my first basketball net project, (while I wait to see if the net gets obliterated, so far it looks good, but I’m going to give it another day) I have now turned my attention to the futball nets, (or rather the lack thereof) which like most of the basketball nets, are none existent. This project is going to be quite a bit more challenging. Again the biggest problem that I face that I have to use that stupid plastic rope stuff, which means I’m going to have to tie A LOT of complex knots to keep the thing from shaking itself loose after a couple of games. I’m basically going to have to weave it, starting from one corner and progress until the thing is done. The only thing I did today is take some measurements and play around with a couple of designs; I’m trying to figure out which would be the simplest and most economical.

I guess I should explain why exactly I’m doing these projects myself when it would probably be much easier to have someone in Addis ship us some nets. One reason is that it is keeping me busy, as well as a sense of purpose, because honestly I don’t really feel that I am accomplishing very much in the office. (Except for the days where I actually teach classes.) Another reason is that it is something I can do and leave for the kids. I also think that it is helping to build my relationship with the kids; I am out and about, actively building something for them instead of hidden away in my office, lol. (Hopefully they might also learn a thing or two about being resourceful, as they are always standing around and watching as I mend or make the nets, perhaps in the future one of them will be the one mending the net.



Day 112, Dec 1, Wed,

Today I started another Basketball net. The previous net has passed through the darkness and into the light unscathed, it seems to be holding up quite well indeed, so I thought I would make another one. This time I used a single length of rope instead of several separate ropes like I had used in the previous one, thinking it would make simpler and easier as I wouldn’t have to tie as many nights…BUT I WAS DELUSIONAL, because it became exponentially more difficult as it went along. It started out fine, but the further I went, the more the rope would become unraveled and difficult to work with. And in the end, the finished net was of a sub-par quality compared to my previous creation, the net has a habit of catching the basketball in “pockets”, holding it there for a couple seconds before gravity finally does its job and it drops thru. It only happens occasionally though, and over time I think the net will loosen, allowing the Basketball to drop through the net unobstructed.



Day 113, Dec 2, Thu,

Today was another somewhat long day. The day started at 6:20am, (Awhile back I decided that it was un-human to wake up by 5:50, so I extended my sleeping time by half an hour. Instead of catching a ride with the rest of the Salesians I have been walking to church, but I think the extra 30 minutes is worth it. During the last bout I had with sickness though, I basically slept in until I naturally woke up, and it has been somewhat difficult breaking this habit.) As I walk to church, I like to say a rosary; I have to say that I have really started become somewhat fond of, (maybe even to enjoy) my morning walks. (Although I’ll be honest, half the time I don’t even remember them because I’m still asleep, lol) They really help me to wake up and clear my mind before getting to church and starting the day properly. It was really nice to be able to go to mass this morning. During my most recent illness, (as I have already mentioned, I ended up sleeping in a lot) I missed most of the morning masses. And during this past week it has been a somewhat hit or miss situation. For some people, doing meditations, or tai-chi, or maybe simply a cup of coffee, helps center their mind for the coming day. For me, Mass has become the same thing, so when I am unable to attend (whether it is due to my tardiness or an act of nature) they docent quite feel the same.

After Mass & breakfast tarried around the rec-room and explained to Abba Thomas the physical make-up of the solar system and the universe. Fr. as of late has showed some interest in my mild hobby of astronomy and has even voiced his desire to join me in star gazing one night, when he is not feeling so tired. After my short informational blurb (yes that is a word, I say so) I began to feel very fatigued, so I decided to take what I thought would be a short nap, but it ended up being 6 HOURS long, which meant I had missed adoration, so to make up a little for this fact I spent some time in our chapel reading my bible. (Here’s a tip for those of you who are trying to read it in its entirety, it is very easy to get stuck in some of the books, *cough* Leviticus *cough* so to help you get through the whole thing, start reading in three different parts of the bible, two in the Old Testament, and one in the New Testament. When you get bogged down in one section of the Old Testament, just jump to the other part, and every now and then mix it up with books from the New Testament.)

After dinner, Br. Legesse gave to me the project that the Sisters had asked me to type up and told me that if it was possible they wanted it typed up by TOMMORROW! Lol, Thankfully all I had to do is just type it into the computer, correcting the grammatical and spelling errors (which is made easier by the use of Microsoft Word) but it still took me a while, because there were several parts that I had to basically rewrite, which meant I had to think about how best to illustrate the meaning of what had been written. For this reason I think the super long nap was actually a gift of Divine origin, as I didn’t end up getting to bed until around 1:40-2:00am. The Lord will provide lol.



Day 114, Dec 3, Fri,

Made it to mass and was able to give the sisters a printed copy of the Christmas play, they were very thankful that I was able to do it such short notice, and commented that they would try and give me more time the next time, so I don’t have to rush so much. The next part is to copy a few Christmas carols into the computer so they could teach those as well. Thankfully this is a much simpler task since I won’t have to do any grammar or spelling checks, in fact I was able to finish it in about 45 min. This evening something very special happened as we were saying evening prayers. Half way through our prayers the power went, and thus the lights went out with it, revealing dozens of fireflies all over the ceiling and walls of the little chapel, lighting up like so many sets of flashing Christmas lights, it really was spectacular!



Day 115, Dec 4, Sat, National Ethiopian Nationality day,

I dropped off the Christmas carol sheet to Sister Maris after mass. Yesterday evening I had learned that today was National holiday that celebrates the various peoples that call Ethiopia their home. Br. Legesse had invited me to go with him to the stadium to see what they were presenting, but he forgot to tell me what time he was going, so after breakfast this morning I pulled up a chair outside of my room and grabbed a book while I waited for him. (I was still reading “The H.M.S. Saracen”) And I waited…and waited…and waited. I eventually ended up finishing my book and starting another one: “The Carolina way” by Dean Smith. It’s about the management and coaching style that he used to coach his many college teams.
Now, I’m not a big fan of watching professional sports, (Mostly due to the way the media & society practically worships specific players as gods, who get absurd amounts of money to play a form of recreational entertainment, which is accompanied by a way to much boastful attitudes and poor sportsmanship, {with a few exceptions}) However, how coach Dean describes his teaching method (A very unselfish and team oriented form of playing) and how the players positively responded to it (which lead to many record setting teams) has filled me with a desire to watch some of their games in action. I really think that professional sports could benefit a great deal if the organizations pay their players according to how they play (like in golf, in that sport if you perform poorly, you get less money, etc) and encouraged team based recognition more than individual achievements. If those things happened I think sports like Basketball, Football and Soccer could be raised to a whole new level.

Anyhoo, enough about my thoughts concerning the professional sports industry. Br. Legesse ended up strolling in after lunch, apparently he had left right after mass after noticing that I had gone back with Abba to the compound, he had decided to walk to the stadium, lol oh well. There wasn’t really anything else to do for the rest of the day, so I continued to read for the majority of the day.



Day 116, Dec 5, Sun, Feast of Christ the King,

The liturgical calendar officially ends today; I can’t believe that advent is just around the corner. At the oratory a student who had been translating the play I had given to the sisters gave me his annuak version in a notebook, my job now is to type it into the computer. I was able to do a little bit tonight, not as much as I thought I would be able to though as I am constantly having to try and divulge just what letter is written in the notebook before I can copy it. (The annuak script can be written using the English alphabet.) Today’s special prayer, is the our father in Annuak!



Wääwa ni en maal,
nyengngï wøør, buyï öe.
Beera man tïm
mana manynyï
ni di tïïö bäät piny,
keda man bëëde
ni di tïïö maal enø.
-Mëëk wa caapwa wangcängi,
ni weyï moa bacwa,
bëët ka man wø wecwa
mo wø bac jø møøki dëëtwa.
Kär wa kith kany
mo wa di päänynyø yie
‘ba piem wa yïth raay.
Enøgønø



Day 117, Dec 6, Mon,

This morning I periodically worked on the annuak version of the Christmas play while I continued to read the “Carolina way”. Br. Endalkachew had returned from his trip to Addis yesterday evening and I wanted to return the books I had borrowed from him. Reading the book while interjecting fierce periods of arduous typing of the annuak script makes it a bit more enjoyable. I ended up finishing the book at around 3:00pm, so after gathering up all the books I have borrowed and checked out from Br. Endalkachew and the school library, I returned them to their respective parties and decided to check out some more from the library. The selection of the school’s library is quite interesting, most of the books are educational textbooks (as expected from a technical institute) but there is a case dedicated to various forms of English literature. They’ve got classic fiction like Huckleberry Finn and Frankenstein, as well as books from renowned authors such as Stephen King and Dean Koontz. They have older books written by G.K. Chesterton, Books containing translations of ancient Chinese poems, philosophical and sociological treatises by Plato, Aristotle and St. Augustine. They even have one of the Harry Potter books, lol a little bit of everything.
As I was browsing through the collection I noticed Harriet Beecher Stowe’s “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” and to my disbelief and chagrin I realized that I had never read it! I vowed to rectify this travesty and added the book to the ones I would check out. In the end I settled on two other books, “Microbe Hunters” by Paul de Kruit, and “The Man who Knew to Much and Other Stories” by G.K. Chesterton. So, Along with these three newly acquired tomes, I am also still reading several “plays by Chekhov”, “A fundamental introduction to chemistry”, daily “lives of the saints”, the “Imitation of Christ” by Thomas A’ Kempis, and of course the Bible, never a dull moment lol. After I had checked myself and my book out of the library I hunkered down and went about typing up the play with wild abandon, I didn’t end up finishing it till around 11:00pm though. (This may or may not have something to do with the program that was on the TV at the time, about the island of Isso just off the southern coast of Japan. sugoi!)



Day 118, Dec 7, Tue,

I have obtained another project; I am now the church chronicler as well as the institute chronicler. With all these different projects going on here and there, I think I might be a good idea to come up with some kind of a schedule to help me keep track of everything that’s going on. Speaking of things going on, I have noticed that during these past few weeks the average ambient temperature has risen from 87° F to around 93° F, that’s in the shade mind you. When your walkin’ about in direct sunlight it feels like your trekking through the world’s largest convection oven! And of course T.I.A. so it’s always a bit worse, the power has been going out more than usual t recently, (which normally is quite a bit anyways lol) and while that might make for an awesome experience with fireflies, it also means that there are no working fans. To counter this I have begun taking my showers right before bed, which helps a great deal. I’ve been told that the worst of the heat comes around April & March, so I guess I better get used to it, eh?

I was able to read a few chapters of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”, and I’m quite impressed with the Authors ability to get the reader to connect with the characters, I’m looking forward to continuing the book. I guess I should take the time to explain why it is that I have so much books goin’ on at once. When I first got here I hadn’t expected to see a TV, let alone one that gets a couple American channels, and it can be very tempting, especially when you’re tired and have nothing particularly important to do, to veg out, which I have recently decided is rather counterproductive for my presence here, because even if I have nothing important going on, it is still a chance to learn something new. When I was younger, my nose was almost always buried in a book of some kind, but as I became older the time I put aside for reading became less and less as the habit became replaced with TV shows, movies, video games, etc, which, as I reflect about it, was quite the waste. Don’t get me wrong, on certain days and evenings I watch TV programs, (like yesterdays program about Japan) because it gives me something to look forward to during the week when I know such and such programs air at such and such times during such and such days. But I want to try and make sure that I’m using my time here wisely, after all, I came here to change my life, not to continue the way it was. So I’ve decided to do that by trying to read at least one book a week, and to have at least one educational book amongst my reading itinerary at all times. (Right now that’s the “Fundamental Introduction to Chemistry” book that I mentioned yesterday) Hopefully I will develop this as a good habit and be able to easily continue when I get back stateside.



Day 119, Dec 8, Wed, Feast of the Immaculate Conception.

So, last week, I had my students turn in their quarterly assignments and I have had a chance to look it over and all but two of them tried to cheat by copying out of the text book I was teaching out of. (Lol, when multiple students started writing sentences about Harry, Juliet, Freddy, Lillian, and various other western names I knew something was up.) I had told them that they could use the book to refresh their memory, so maybe they misunderstood? (Although at least two didn’t and did the assignment properly)
Regardless if it was purposeful or not, I had to think of a different way to give them a quarterly assignment and in a moment that I suspect was filled with the Holy Spirit I remembered an exercise book that I had in my office, so after copying out enough pages for each student we spent the morning going through it. The exercise was a simple one, whose subject concerned simple noun usage, which also contained all the information on how to properly fill out the exercise on the page, so in theory they should have easily been able to fill it out themselves. That, however, was not the case and it has become immediately clear to me that they will have to be told step by step how to proceed until they become confident enough to do them on their own. The biggest challenge is the amount of vocabulary that they understand, some of them only grasp enough to have only the most rudimentary of conversations, so giving this exercise to some of them is like giving a Chinese kid a small Lego set and telling him to make a 1/8 scale model of the Space Needle, sure he might eventually figure it out, but it’s going to take him a long time.

So I think exercises like this one might be a good idea to have constantly, it will help improve their vocabulary as well as how to use them properly. I am probably going to have to guide most of them by the hand through it, but I think they might learn more efficiently than my previous method of teaching. Sure we might not get to the more advanced things like reports and essays, but I think that without a good foundation in the basics they would be hard pressed in their ability to understand it. Plus, with this form I am more able to teach them individually, so those of them who are doing well I can give more advanced or a larger quantities of exercises while those who find it more difficult will be able to go at their own pace…Hopefully. Today’s exercise was greeted with much confusion at first (it took them several minutes just to realize that we would be doing this exercise instead of the normal lesion, lol) but after I got everyone situated I started going around and answering any questions that they had about this particular task, and as the morning went on they started to make some progress (although I did notice some of them copying from each other, so I made sure to squash it when I saw it.) and by the end I think some of them even began to enjoy it. I made sure to make them understand that they were only to do these exercises in the classroom, that way I could be there to answer any question and to correct them as they went.

After lunch I learned that today is Abba Larcher’s 70th birthday, as well as the 10th year anniversary of his presence in Gambella, and Br. Endalkachew asked me to print out some words to caption some pictures of Abba that we were going to hang up on the wall in the dining room. Abba’s not one who like direct praise, being the humble man that he is, so I decided I would look up several psalms and proverbs from the bible that would match what he was doing in the pictures, the end result turned out quite well I think. For dinner, two of the sister from the convent joined us, carrying with them an interesting looking cake. We all sang happy birthday and an atmosphere of mirth permeated the entirety of the meal. The cake that the sisters brought was truly interesting. The actual dough seemed to be a mix of cornmeal and cake flour, while in the middle was a streak of molasses/chocolate stuff? (not quite sure what the middle stuff was, it was sweet, but not overly sweet) The “frosting” on top was the most interesting thing to me, it seemed to be some kind of gelatin based frosting, it would jiggle like Jell-O, but wasn’t as sweet, and right on top was some fruit preserves. Combined together in one bite it made for a very delicious confection that I imagine pioneers of America might have eaten at one time, lol.



Day 120, Dec 9, Thu,

I’ve noticed that I have become somewhat skinny. Not malnourishedly skinny, but little sugar and no junk food in my diet skinny, lol. Really the only sugar I have had recently is the 1 ½ tsp. that put in my coffee or tea in the morning and however much sugar is in a tbs. of fruit preserve that I have with my bread for breakfast, with the occasional soft drink during dinner. Fats are much the same, there’s the meat that they serve for lunch and dinner, (which I still don’t take much of as the majority of the time its beef, which is very grisly. Occasionally they put some fairly lean stuff out which is OK.) And there’s the bit of cheese which usually frequents the dinner table. (Those are just the usual days, about twice a month there’s usually some sort of “special” meal with which will contain deviations from the norm.) I think I have become rather used to the food here, although I put a lot of vinegar, salt & olive oil on almost everything, lol. In fact, I think that by the time it comes for me to leave in July, I figure I will have become so used to the food that it will take me some time to adjust to the food served in the U.S. of A. (Today is the 1/3rd mark of my stay here, pretty crazy to think I’ve already been here for this long.)

Today I gained yet two more projects, one is another play for the sisters, (this one is for the ordination of a priest, which I have never attended before, so that will be exciting to see.) and the other is to plan a Christmas part for the students and staff of the technical institute! Since when have I become a playwright and a party planner? Lol (I’m definitely going to have to come up with a schedule to help get everything done on time.)