Day 128, Dec 17, Fri, 2:10pm - 96.0°F,
The event that stood out most today was my visit with Abba Thomas to a prayer meeting. Abba had invited me this morning to come with him and take pictures of the parishioners for I.D’s, as well as a chance for me to experience something of the local’s way of life. We left at three (with several members from the church) and drove to the outskirts of the Baro-mado district; the ramshackle buildings and green fauna seen at the heart of Gambella soon gave way to mud huts and dried vegetation.
(I learned that the prayer meeting takes place at various places throughout the city, depending on which particular parishioner is hosting, with every week being hosted by a different member) On we drove down the dusty road until we reached the particular grouping of hut Abba had been looking for. After parking, we proceeded on foot for a couple hundred feet until we arrived at the hut of this week’s hosting family. The hut in question was indeed a humble one, settled on a small patch of relatively level ground, the cracked mud walls rose from the ground maybe 15-13ish ft, and was topped by a slanting corrugated metal roof, the doors and windows were also made out of old metal as well, but these and were painted an aqua green that had been worn by age and use. (The structure of the house made by creating a “skeleton” out of various branches, and then layering layer after layer of mud onto it, which dries into a surprisingly sturdy foundation)
The inside of the hut was split into three compartments, there was the main room, which was maybe somewhere between 3 and 4 square yards of space, and two separate rooms which I didn’t see the inside of. (But judging by how the hut looks on the outside I would guess them to be around 2 yards2, probably just big enough to sleep in?) The main room was furnished with a mosquito net in one corner, along with a bedroll folded neatly besides the wall. There was also a small table in the center of the space, with a couple stools gathered around it, and three benches along the same number of walls. The décor of the room was sparse; the main wall was adorned with various pictures of family members and religious paraphernalia, (pictures and Icons of Jesus, Mary, the Holy Family, Etc.) which were embedded into the surprisingly smooth mud, and there was some writing near the entrance in several languages saying “Welcome”.
We were quickly ushered in and greeted warmly by a group of parishioners who had been waiting for us; I think altogether we were about 14ish people. (I am not sure how many people were actually family members, but judgeing by the pictures and the mannerisms of several of the people, a few of whom I recognized from church and Wednesday’s catechism meeting, I think the family was made up of Father, Mother, a Son, {possibly two, the other is in school?} and may be an aunt and/or uncle who also live with them.) The first order of business was for me to take some pictures, which was accomplished with little difficulty. (As I was taking pictures I couldn’t’ help but notice that the was little puppy that was tied to a post, and was obviously the pet of the little boy, and I couldn’t help but take a couple snapshots after I had finished my I.D pictures, lol)
After the photo’s we all gathered together in the main room (well, most of us, two of the gentleman who had joined us later pulled up stools just outside the door) and prayed the rosary, offering up as we did so, the intentions of the hosting family. After that organized divine entreaty, Abba conversed with the family for a bit, and although most of it was in either Amharic or Annuak, there was enough English interjections, for me to gather that he was inquiring into the wellbeing of said kin, including asking the little boy whether he had been practicing his prayers, to which the boy started reciting the Lord’s Prayer and the Hail Mary. Abba became so delighted at the boys progress that Abba gave him his rosary. (I learned later that apparently the boy used to be a bit of a trouble maker, a real urchin, and had recently started to become quite civil) After that, Abba blessed the family, and then we started back for our compound. (Stopping several times to drop off people whom we had been giving a ride back into town) This was a very interesting excursion, one I shall be repeating with Abba hopefully every week. (I learned from Abba that the house of the family we had visited today was actually a very nice one, and that we will be visiting some very poor dwellings in the future, which will definitely set in perspective just how lucky I have been)
Day 129, Dec 18, Sat, 3:00pm – 95.8°F
I wasn’t able to wake up soon enough to climb Mt. Jejebe, so I guess I’ll have to try next week. (Since mass starts at 6:45, I’d have to wake up early enough to walk to the mountain, climb the mountain, spend some time at the top of the mountain, and the descend and walk to church in time to attend the service, which is just too darn early, so I have been thinking, maybe I should try on Sundays, since mass doesn't begin until 8:30.) At the oratory today I had brought with me a deck of cards and managed to initiate a game of hearts with a group of 4-5 youths (lol, I think I’ll have to start calling it jumping hearts, because the kids kept exchanging places with onlookers) We all had a lot of fun, (especially when one of us made a mistake and ended up taking most of the hearts in that round, there was a good deal of friendly jesting and jibbing) We will definitely have do that again some week. After the oratory had come to a close, a student gave me another list of Christmas carols that the sisters wanted copied, so for the rest of the evening I engaged in that project. (This ended up needing the help of Br. Legesse, since several of the carols that they wanted had a few Amharic lines in them.)
Day 130, Dec 19, Sun, 1:30pm - 96.1°F,
Whew, another scorcher today. After mass I consulted Sister Maris concerning the format of the Christmas carols, and after receiving some feedback, (and a request to attend and help out with the play practice today at 4:00pm, to which I assented) I headed back to our compound to restructure the songs. (After eating lunch of course) I finished the carols with an hour and a half to spare, (I was also waiting for Okello to drop of the Anuuak version of the play which I still haven’t received from him) so I ended up continuing Uncle Tom’s cabin. (I ‘m almost done with it, it seems like It’s taken forever to get through it though, especially with most of my free time being used for various tasks for the sisters) 4:00 rolled round, so I set off for the nuns compound, (Okello still hadn’t shown up) but instead of starting right away, I ended up waiting around for a bit in the compound before the play practice actually started…at 5:00…well, we are on Ethiopian time after all, (Which means everybody is late for everything…except when there’s the possibility of receiving food, lol) so during the waiting I discussed scenery setup and prop stuff with Sister Maris.
Once everybody had finally showed up for practice we started reading the script to them to get them familiar with it contents, and to figure out who would be cast in which role. However part way through the scrip, we found out that Abba Berhane, who had translated it into Amharic, had mixed up some parts, and so there was much confusion for a while there. As a result, I was asked if I would splice together the English and Amharic script so that it would be easier to follow, which will require obtaining the Amharic file from Abba, and the use of Br. Legesse’s Amharic skillz. For the moment, we managed to suppress the confusion and assign a few of the more important roles, including mine…other than helping set up scenes and making props, I was asked if I might carry out a Christmas ditty upon my tin whistle.
This last request required much coaxing on their part, as I was and still am rather hesitant to do something that I have not much skill in. I haven’t really practice to much since I’ve been here, the only time I really have to practice is either after lunch, which is usually spent reading, or napping if I’m tired. I would normally practice in the evening, but the whistle is rather loud and several of the Abba’s go to sleep early. Despite my reservations, they managed to get my consent, so now I have to figure out which particular melody I will be able to adequately learn in time.
Day 131, Dec 20, Mon, 1:45pm - 94°F,
Gah, I was so frustrated with this morning’s English composition class! It seems like every chance that they get, the students try to cheat, I mean, come on, this isn’t a group of elementary or high school students for crying out loud, this is a technical college! Most of them are adults! How do they expect to learn anything? I had thought that my new system would minimize their ability to cheat, but I’m afraid my vision had been rather shortsighted. Several of the less proficient students had started to fall behind, so while I am explaining for the umpteenth time how to do it, several of the other students are passing papers back and for and copying answers. I didn’t quite realize the scope of the problem until the class had ended and I was going over their exercises, (I started having them turn in their pages after class, regardless if they are done or not, to minimize the chance for cheating) At least ½ of them had cheated in some way or other. By the time had finished and headed back to the residence for lunch, I was furious, and since I had a few minutes of free time before lunch started, I decided to listen to my ipod and play mah whistle, which calmed me down a lot. Once I had been sufficiently cooled and had ingested the afternoons repast, I started thinking about how I could confront this most “stiff-necked” people…(To quote a bible word) I didn’t have much time to think about it though, as had to get to the sisters and and obtain from Abba Berhane the Amharic Christmas script file. After watching the play practice that the sisters were holding, (Today there were teaching a couple of the Christmas carols) I managed to locate Abba Berhane, (Not without much walking hither and thither) and obtain a copy. Unfortunately, I also obtained a virus from Abba’s computer as well…Argh, T.I.A!
Day 132, Dec 21, Tue, 2:30pm – 93.8°F,
This morning at 8:00am I walked to the sisters to begin my K-1 through K -3 classes with the children. Yesterday I had managed to prepare a binder containing the English ABC’s, (in capitals and lowercase, and in large bold print) which I intended to use as a teaching implement. The classes start at 8:30, and last until 12:00, and are broken into three periods which consist of 30 minutes of class time, and then 30-45 minutes of play time in between. My first class of the day was with the K-1 students. (Consisting of ages between -6 through 8) After taking a bit of time introducing myself and explaining where I was from and why I was here, (Thankfully one of the regular teachers stayed with me during class to help by translating) I brought out the binder which I had prepared and started going through the abc’s with them. After I had gone straight through it once, I went back and went through it again, but this time I did it randomly, to make sure it was the actual letters they were remembering and not just the order that they are supposed to go in. (While I was going straight through it the first time, many of them were calling out the next letter before I even flipped the page) After they had demonstrated that they did know most of the letters, I started again at the beginning, but this time I had them repeat the sounds that each letter makes. They had never done this particular exercise before, but they picked up on it rather quickly. Once I had become satisfied with their progress, I wrote my name out on the chalkboard, one letter at a time, and had them say the name of the letter, then the sound that it makes, then I had them repeat the sound of each letter in sequence faster and faster until they combined into the word, I’m hoping this approach will make it easy for them to see how the letters spell words. They seemed to enjoy all the exercises, although at a few points I noticed that their attentions were starting to wane, so I made sure to “Ham” out the exercises whenever I saw that happening, it also helped to have them do some clapping sequences, which manages to refocus them for a few minutes, lol.
After we were all done with our exercises we still had a few minutes left, so I decided to try and teach them “Rock, Paper, Scissors” which was easier said than done. At first they had absolutely no idea what the heck I was doing, but after a bit of explaining by the Amharic teacher and a bunch of examples, they finally started getting it. It was then time for the first break, which I spent the first half of just observing them.
The sisters & teachers passed out biscuits to the children, who had started forming a line to receive said acquisitions, which basically consisted of a whole lot of pushing, shoving, cutting, (as in cutting in line) hitting, and even a few instances of fighting. During the latter half of the break, I noticed how much scrapes of paper littered the ground of the yard, and thinking that I would make some use of it, I gathered up some pieces and started folding, crimping, and tearing the pieces into paper helicopters. Now when the kids saw that was doing something with a piece of paper, they naturally became quite curious and grouped around me, and when I threw my finished paper Helicopter into the air and they saw how it twirled to the ground, the rather peaceable group practically turned into a freaking mob! As I continued to make more they pushed and shoved each other to get closer and kept shaking pieces of paper at me, yelling what I imagine was a plea to make one for them. I made as many as I could as fast as I could, but it wasn’t fast enough and they started getting impatient and started jostling and even fighting to be the one to get the next one I made. Some of the bigger kids even started stealing from the smaller kids whom I had already given a helicopter to. I tried to stop the injustices when I saw it, but I’m afraid that It didn’t really have much of an impact on them. Thankfully one of the sisters rang the gong for the next class, (is that what you do to a gong? Does one ring or beat a gong? Hmm…) so I was saved by the bell, so to speak.
The next class was with the K-2 students, (ages 7-9) which proceeded in much the same manner as the first group, however this group was a bit quicker in understanding the concepts, which meant we could cover more of the exercises, and this particular group really enjoyed “Rock, Paper, Scissors”. The second break was a little less chaotic, (just barely)I tried to get the kids who wanted paper helicopters to sit down, (which I tried to encourage by only giving the helicopters to the kids who were patiently sitting and waiting) but most of them just popped right up after a few seconds and continued begging, yelling, pushing, and generally partaking of all the previous havoc that they had been engaged in.
During the second break I managed to find time to talk to Sister Maris about the situation that many faced. Most of them came from broken homes, (many of them having lost at least one parent) and almost none of them have been taught any form of manners, what’s more, the adults here (the Sisters & Salesians being the exception to the rule) generally treat these kids rather roughly, whipping them with switches when they are slow to perform some task, hitting them none to gently if they get out of line, etc...So it’s no wonder that they are so violent to each other.
Also, apparently there are only two kindergartens in the entire city, (both run by Nuns I might add) the vast majority of children who are too young for the government run or salesian run primary schools basicly just run freely about the streets causing the normal amounts of wanton mischief that children who are left to fend for themselves can come up with. There are only so many urchins that the sisters can take care of, especially without the help of any other organizations.
Before I knew it, it was time for the last class of the day with the K-3 students, (Ages 8-10+) which, like the previous classes, consisted of going over the abc exercises that I had created, and like the previous groups, performed well, although with this particular group they had some difficulty pronouncing some of the sounds that the letters make, so I made sure to make a mental note to create plenty of exercises to address this in the future. The last break led right into lunch for the kids, so after staying around for a bit to watch how they conducted it, I headed back to my compound for lunch.
After lunch I would have loved to take a nap, as the little dickenses had taken quite a bit out of me, but I had to print out a Christmas carol for Abba Larcher, (who was being frustratingly particular about it) and I had I had yet to finish the Amharic/English Christmas script, as well finish planning for tomorrows English composition class. Yeah, I’m definitely going to fall asleep quickly tonight.
Day 133, Dec 22, Wed, 3:30pm – 94.4°F
So, the challenge of the day, English composition class, En guard! Yesterday I had crafted an exercise that they couldn’t possibly cheat at, an exercise where they had to name a place, choose 12 nouns that are found or are associated with that place, and then write a paragraph describing the place, which includes each of those nouns at least once. I had to spend a little extra time this morning restructuring and adding an example to the exercise so that it would be easier for them to fill out, so I ended up being five minutes late for class, and when I arrived at my classroom, there was not a soul in sight. After inquiring around, I was informed by Bayu that my students, having noticed my absence, decided that there must not be any class today, and had headed to their respective fields of study. (Makes me wonder how late they actually waited) So I had to go a ‘searching for them and inform them that, yes, there was indeed class today, and that the only day we wouldn’t have class is if there is a holiday, or if I was terribly sick, which would be informed to them before hand, and if I was late it was because I had to use some extra time to prepare a special exercise.
Once everybody had assembled, I passed out today’s assignment and explained how it was to be filled out. (And how anybody who tried cheating would fail the course) Once they had started, I went amongst them and answered any question they had, kept a sharp eye out for any underhanded behavior, and offered encouragement and critical analysis to those who needed it. By the end of the class, almost everyone had finished their exercise and had been critiqued by myself, (without any instances of cheating) so I think we will be repeating this exercise several times in the future.
In the afternoon, I had to take a rain check on Abba Thomas’s catechism class as I had a prior engagement with the Sisters and students to help with the Christmas play practice, but when I arrived at the compound where practice was to be held, I found out that the practice had been postponed for Saturday morning, so I spent the evening reading (still haven’t finished Uncle Tom) and planning for the seminarian class. (Which went well, I covered how to edit the page layout, how to use charts, and how to insert special symbals.)
Day 134, Dec 23, Thu, 2:30pm – 90.7°F,
I’ve been having a weird desire of late. One day, hmm, about 2-3 weeks ago, a thought and desire to fly popped into my head. Now, this isn’t to strange because one of things that I wanted to do when I was a kid was to fly airplanes, but as I grew older, (and became aware of my hearing problems and how much it costs to get a pilot’s license.) I kind of gave up on that dream. However, recently this desire has been really strong, (and has been accompanied by very vivid dreams) and what’s really odd about it is it came out of nowhere, usually these kinds of things are introduced by a medium, like a TV program, or a book, but it just came to me out of the blue. As I dwelt on it, I started thinking maybe it isn’t such an impossible dream after all. I remembered that there had recently been introduced something called a sports pilots license, which allows you to fly ultra lights and small two seater airplanes, and if I remember correctly it is only a third of the cost of getting a regular pilots license. It’s something that I’m definitely going to keep in mind when I get back stateside.
So, anyhoo, during these past two days I have really felt like it was the Christmas season, which I find rather odd, because at the same time it feels absolutely nothing like the Christmas season…I think it’s the weather, it’s been really hot lately, which is probably throwing me off because at the same time I’m really into the Christmas spirit. (Although I guess it would be kinda hard not to be when one is on a volunteer trip with a Catholic organization, lol) Unfortunately the feeling of nostalgia that is accompanying the Christmas spirit is rather disheartening, I am really feeling rather lonely of late, I really miss my family, and I think that feeling is going to pinnacle tomorrow, as Christmas eve midnight mass with my folks was one of my favorite times of the whole entire year. And to make things worse, my bowels have been acting up lately, which means I’m probably going to be spending some time in the ol’ levorotary sometime soon…Yay…
Day 135, Dec 24, Fri, Christmas Eve, 92.4°F,
Well, I was right about spending time in the lavatory, last night I slept fitfully, until I finally woke up at some ungodly hour and basically spent the next hour and ½ puking my guts out, as well as sitting on the porcelain throne, so, yeah. Thankfully once I had literally emptied my system of EVERYTHING, I was able to get back to sleep, (although I didn’t sleep very soundly) and when I woke up at 6:20am, the only ill effects that I was suffering from was my stomach, which felt like someone had pumped the thing, a headache, and general feeling of exhaustion. I decided to skip mass this morning and get as much sleep as the day would allow, and so I was able to sleep, (in fits and starts) until around 10am, when I had to get up and start preparing this blog for posting.
I think last night was one of the few times where I have actually regretted being here; I think it’s the combination of frequent bowel sickness, as well as the acute homesickness during this Christmas season. Once I started moving about and doing my normal Friday routine though, I started feeling a little bit better, (I actually started feeling very happy when I was able to check my email and read some letters from back home) and I guess I should count my blessings, at least the food poisoning (or whatever the heck it was) only lasted for so long, and that I am surrounded by a group of very holy and caring people. To help alleviate my feeling of dejectedness, I am going to make sure I do something special in the chapel tonight, maybe a kind of vigil watch, which will help get my mind back into the season, lol.
Well, I hope all you peoples are counting your blessings during Christmas, and that the day itself is filled with happiness and joy. (And hopefully no ill wanted bowel movements, lol)
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