I blog, therefore, I am! ~ Joshristotle & Joshcrates.
Day 143, Jan 1st, 2011, Sat, New Years day, 93.1°F @ 4:00pm,
So, first of all, yesterday evening transpired as follows: at around 5:00pm I attended a teachers meeting, where the presiding orator discussed appropriate ways to structure classes, as well as how to efficiently plan and use written segment plans and assignment tasks…The majority of it was in Amharic, but from what little English I did hear as well as the included charts, I gather that it was a very informative meeting. After evening prayers us salesians drove around and visited the residences of the diocesan abbba’s, the missionaries of charity, and the sisters of St. Ann, and wished them all a happy New Year, we even engaged in some caroling with them as well. (To tell you the truth, it felt kinda odd to still keep a mental expectation for Christmas now that the 25th has come and gone.) After our little exposition of yuletide charity to our fellow man, we returned to our own compound and scarfed down the by now semi cold dinner. (Nothing a little microwavin’ couldn’t fix.) After the evening repast, I departed with Abba Thomas and br. Legesse to the St. Joseph churches meeting hall, where we decorated the main backboard with paper “Christmas flowers”. (I forget whether they are call chrysanthemums or poinsettia.) Once we were done, we headed back to our compound, where I intended to wait up for the New Year; unfortunately the power went out, which left me in the dark, so to speak. I tried reading via lamplight to keep me awake, but alas, I soon drew drowsy (A result of an illness I think I’m coming down with) and eventually slipped into slumber around 10:30, oh well.
One thing I realized when I woke up this morning, I was right about coming down with something, and it definitely wasn’t allergies. I had a mild fever, a dry cough, and overall a general feeling of lethargy. I’m pretty sure that I’ve caught some kind of cold/flu, lol, probably from those germy kids I’ve been hangin’ around with lately. As a result of this, I basically ended up spending the day either sleeping, reading a book, or drinking water, (more than 4 liters to be exact, which also meant that I spent some time near the ol’ urinal) Not exactly the ideal way to be spending the first day of the new year, but what can ya do? (I hope to God that this isn’t a foreshadowing of what is to come, lol) On a lighter note, I was blessed, in that several people came to wish me a happy New Year though.
Day 144, Jan 2nd, Sun, 94.3°F @ 3:52pm,
I would have liked to take it easy again today, but with all the planning I still have to do for both the Technical schools Christmas party and the Sisters Christmas play, that was just a no can do. For me it was up for mass bright n’ early, eat brekkers, plan for tomorrows English exercise, print out scripts, and before ya know it, it was time for lunch, a quick break, then it was off to the church for play practice, which would be our last before the actual event, which docent exactly fill me with cheer, for reasons that I shall soon explain. At least a quarter of the kids didn’t even show up for the performance, which meant we had to do a lot of switch-a-rounds to make sure all the roles were covered. We still don’t have any proper props or scenery for the stage, and now it’s going to be rush to get everything in time. Lastly, the music is totally whack, to use the technical term, lol. The Keyboardist is quite a good musician, but he was adding a reggae-like to EVERYTHING, lol. (I will actually be meeting with him Monday, I am going to bring my comp and review several different music styles, and discuss the best way to convey, musically, the scenes of the play) As a product of all this chaos, we had to stay extra late, in fact, I wasn’t able to start walking back until night had already started to fall and I had to venture most of the way in the semi darkness of dusk, which was a bit freaky. I ended up making it back to my compound with just enough time left to eat dinner. (My fellow salesians were actually already halfway through the the meal when I arrived) With things shaping up the way they are, this is going to be an incredibly hectic week.
Today’s prayer is a prayer by St. Ignatius Loyola, and goes as follows:
Susicipe
Take, O Lord, and receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding, and whole will.
You have given me all that I am, and all that I posses.
I Surrender it all to You, that You may dispose of it it according to Your will.
Give me only Your Love and Your Grace; with these I shall be rich enough, and will have no more to desire.
Day 145, Jan 3rd, Mon, mid 80°’s,
Yesterday evening featured a deluge of torrential water that came down like the fist of an angry god! Consequently, this morning started at cool temperature in the high 60°’s/low 70°’s, which was quite the refreshing change from the constant mid 90°’s. For English composition today, I decided to keep it simple, So we did another paragraph writing exercise, but this time I picked the topic/place they were to describe. (I tried to pick places that I thought they would know about, but I was not entirely successful in that regard, as some of them had no idea what post office was, lol) The exercise progressed much better than I had imagined it would, with all of them finishing the assignment within the allotted time limit. In the afternoon I finished planning the dances for Thursdays Christmas party, I’m going to have the limbo, as well as the Macarena (well, the Macarena depends on whether or not I can find a song to replace the original, as I do not have that one) Now I just have to figure out tomorrows kindergarten classes, as well as the props scenery that will be putting together during my meeting with the keyboardist tomorrow.
On another note, the sickness I have acquired as developed further, the lethargy is no longer there, but the dry cough was replace by a wet, phlegmy one. By now I’m pretty sure it’s some kind o’ flu, blarg.
Day 146, Jan 4th, Tue, 96.6°F @ 3:30pm,
Kindergarten was a profoundly more productive pastime this morning then it was last week, I was actually able to teach a thing or two. The reason for the positive educational ambiance would be, I think, the festive atmosphere that the sisters had created, which has fostered an almost sanguine attitude with the kids. The sisters have accomplished this task by administrating a more than the usual number of biscuits, as well as putting on several enjoyable activities, (songs, dances, Etc) It was nice to see everyone in such good spirits. During the children’s break time, I was able to find time to start work on some props and decorations for the Christmas play, and I made a decent amount of progress, which is going to make this afternoons work much easier.
After lunch I meet with Chirabim (The keyboardist) and for the next 4 and a half hours I went over various styles of music, (Particularly classical music) and practiced (when the power finally came on) several ways to convey the proper emotions we needed for the play via musical strains. By the end of the meeting I was confident that we had made excellent progress, but I’ll have to wait for tomorrow to find out for certain. (It appears that Sister shares the same doubts I have about her “troupe’s” ability to perform adequately, and has decided to hold one more practice session, to be held tomorrow) This evening, Abba Larcher invited all the primary & technical school teachers out to dinner at a Hotel, in honor of the New Year and all the work they had done the past year. I also had been invited to the meal, and dined on a palatable fish somethin’rather, which was actually a pleasant change of pace.
Day 147, Jan 5th, Wed, 94.6°F @3:28PM,
I didn’t have any English class today, so I spent the entirety of the day preparing for the coming two events. I met with the volunteers who would be reading the scripts tomorrow, I finished up the final prop for the Christmas play (A shiny gold and silver sided David’s Star with a flowing comets tail) and I went to the post office to pick up a parcel that had arrived for me. To my delight I discovered that the package had been sent my folks, and was chock-a-block full o’ delightfully delectable munchies that would envy even a dejected and decadent delicatessen, let alone a deliriously doleful but delighted do-gooder such as myself. (My family had vacuum packed the food items, which had allowed them to pack an amazing amount of palatable food items, when I first picked up the package, I was surprised just how heavy it was) The box contained two Christmas cards (one from my folks and one from our families soon to be in-laws), two packages of beef jerky (I don’t think it is actually possible to ever get tired of beef jerky), a pack of peanut brittle (Oooh yeah!), a large packet of dried fruit (Well, there goes the scurvy I guess, lol, just kiddin’), a container of Spanish almonds (Bene’…So that’s Italian, sue me, hehe), 2 cans of pickled/brined herring (Mmmmmm, Herring!), 3 packages o’ mashed potatoes (Yeees, mwahaha), 2 candy canes (Could have possibly been three, they were obliterated so I couldn’t tell, lol), two books (from my family: “Fire on the mountain” which is an Ethiopian folktale, and from my Bro’s fiancé: “The missionary call” whose title is a clear explanation as to the books contents. Both book are greatly appreciated) and last, bet definitely not least, a hairbrush (Hallelujah! My hair was starting to resemble that of a troglodyte). I am very grateful for this veritable shmorkishborg (How the heck to you actually spell that word?), I gonna be hard pressed not to eat everything at once, (Although I did have to start on one of the packs of jerky tonight, as it been punctured by something {I am assuming it was one of the candy cane shards, lol} but thankfully it tasted alright and I was able to put it in a zip lock, so it should last a couple of days). While I was at the post office I was able to send of a letter to my family, I wish I could have sent them earlier but I had only just recently been able to actually acquire a Christmas card, better to be late than never. I returned from the post office just in time to catch the end of the primary schools Christmas party, which, judging from the pictures that br. Legesse had taken, was quite the lively one, and I was a bit disappointed that I hadn’t been able to attend, but I was consoled by the fact that I would get to attend, (Or rather help host) tomorrows shindig.
After the gathering ended it was time for lunch, and after lunch it was time for the final play practice, (queue dramatic music) dum dum dum! Sister was nearly 45 minutes late, so I spent that time making sure the manger was set up properly and that all the scenery n’ props were in their proper places. Sister did finally arrive, and as soon as order was restored out of the chaos that is the “Actors” we jumped right in and practiced as much as we could. There was only so much time we had to practice though, so in the end it is up to our mini thespians, I just hope they can get their act together. (Hehe)
Day 148, Jan 6th, Thu, Ethiopian Christmas Eve, lower 90°’s @ 3:00pm,
The Technical schools Christmas party turned out better then I hoped it would. The first party “event” was Abba Larcher’s Christmas speech, which was followed by a reading of the Christmas script (In Amharic) that I had helping the sisters with. The reading took a lot longer than I thought it would, but thankfully the students didn’t get to restless about it, regardless though, I decided not to tempt fate by having the Anuak and Nuer readers orate theirs, so we skipped that and went right into the dancin’, first up, operation limbo, which was accepted incredibly well, the entire student body was on their feet for that one, it was great! (Towards the end of the dance, we even had a group of students who had challenged each other to see who could venture beneath the horizontally oriented broom handle) Next, I gave the reigns over to Br. Endalkachew for a couple games, first up was a contest to see who could blow up balloons (until it popped) the fastest. Second up was a dancing game, where partners would dance, with one of them holding a newspaper under their arm, and when the music stopped, they had to unfold the newspaper and step on it, which, as the dance progressed, would become more difficult because the newspaper would be folded smaller and smaller, it was a fun game. For the last activity I was going to break out the Macarena but unfortunately we ran out of time, and after dispensing soft drinks and biscuits to the students, the event ended. In retrospect, I can’t believe that I stressed out so much about it, lol.
Next event of the day was lunch with all the staff of Don Bosco, from priests to cleaners. The lunch was held in our residential compound, and for the most part it was enjoyable. (Abba Larcher spent a good deal of time complaining how long the script reading took, lol) After lunch I was basically free until 5:30pm, so I decided to relax a bit and read the rest of Microbe hunters.
I really enjoyed the book, I thought the author did a pretty good job describing the individual personalities of the various scientist featured in the book, and what a varied bunch of characters they were; A Dutch man, Leeuwenhoek, the owner of a dry goods store who was the first human being to ever spy upon those tiny microscopic “beasties” {as he used to call them}.
A Catholic priest turned scientists, Pasteur, who discovered and proved that these wee microbes could cause disease {And who later developed the first vaccine for rabies}.
Koch, whose simple, precise, and thorough methods set the bar for future scientists!
Not to mention the countless other pioneers, some of whom traveled the globe seeking out the answers that they sought, even going so far as to risk their own lives to prove. The early history of microbe “Hunters” is indeed a truly amazing one.
Having finished that book, the next book on the menu was: “The man who knew too much”. 5:30pm finally rolled around and I was almost giddy with anticipation for “midnight” (Actual time was 7:00pm, lol) Mass. The building anticipation has brought about a rather nostalgic sense of emotion, and it really does feel like Christmas Eve to me! At 6:00pm, adoration and confessions started, which was followed an hour later by Mass (Which I made sure to record with my camcorder, it was kinda difficult finding a spot to put it where people wouldn’t mess with it lil). The Mass itself was quite nice, the music was a bit strident, but there were decorations everywhere, including a large manger, (Complete with Christ-Child) artificial and real flowers, and even some Christmas lights, and everything really added to the moment. The only thing I could really complain about was the lack of any English whatsoever; even the homily was in three other languages besides English, lol. After mass, We ate dinner at our compound, and since there was no electricity, it was off to bed early…Well, kinda, I stayed up and watched some videos on my computer, lol.
Day 149, Jan 7th, Fri, Ethiopian Christmas day, mid 90°’s @ 3:00pm,
Morning mass was at 8:30am, but I arrived half an hour early to help put the finishing touches on the set. Mass was almost exactly like last night, the only difference was the amount of people who attended, the church could barely hold them all. After the service, all of the youngsters went with the sister to their compound (where they received soap, biscuits, and “carmello” {which is what the locals called candy}) while the rest of the parishioners filtered into the hall. After some costuming havoc with the “actors” , we finally started the play and aside from a couple instances where the kids either forgot there lines or forgot what to do next, they play went well (I had given my camcorder to okoth so he could film the play, but a mere 3 minutes into it he came and told me that the batteries had gone dead, so I gave him my other camera, which lasted almost to the very end of the skit…Blarg!). Although I had fun helping the sisters to put on the play, I am thankful that it is finally over and done now.
The rest of the afternoon and evening did’t feel all that Christmassy; the only occasion that stood out was the Oratory’s Christmas event for the kids, which featured (supposedly) more than 1000 of the little urchins! The resulting mayhem from the stated masses of noisy adolescents was on a truly epic scale, and even more amazing then were the Salesians ability to channel the chaos into less destructive venues such as sackcloth races, football target practice, etc (Similar to the “Summer together” event that I experienced earlier in my tenure here). The Oratory ended with the salesians distributing biscuits, (I think in total they went through more than 1100, that’s 17 boxes!) and all that was left to do was wait for dinner. I was hoping that our evening repast would be a joint event between the various Catholic groups in Gambella, (The bishop, the priests n’ seminarians, and the sisters) but alas, it was but a small affair, with only Abba Thomas, Abba Larcher, Br. Legesse and myself attending. (Br. Endalkachew is in Addis visiting his mother again) There was still no power tonight, (Apparently the power company has cut all power to the U.N., St. Josephs church and the Salesian compound, (And possibly other building that I don’t know about) for reason I am unsure of, which has become very troublesome. Oh well, I still had some batteries left in my computer, lol.
Day 150, Jan 8th, Sat, 93°F @ 3:30pm,
I can’t believe just how quite it seems now that there are now plays or parties to plan for, I actually had an entire day to myself! (Well, the real reason I was free was that there is still no electricity, so I can’t do my usual projects, lol) I was able to use my mid-morning time to get caught up on all my writing as well as a little reading. (While I was reading in the Rec-room when I noticed that our resident lizard had lost its tail, it had probably been caught by the chicken I’ve seen wandering around our compound, if that was the case, the lizard had the last laugh, because I’m pretty sure we ate that chicken for lunch yesterday, mwhahaha!) After today’s lunch, I decided to take a short nap, which, as you should know by now, turned into a long one, lol. It was really nice to be able to get a chance to rest and recharge myself, although I am still assaulted by this tepid ailment and the lack of power still vexes me.
Day 151, Jan 9th, Sun, 92.1°F @ 4:32pm,
Today I was able to experience a very special occasion, an Ethiopian wedding. The service itself was to start at the usual Sunday time, but Mass was delayed by almost 30 minutes while we waited for the bride and groom to arrive. They eventually did show up, adorned in splendid wedding finery, particularly the bride and her maids in waiting (That might actually explain why it took so long, and I was definitely surprised by the “western-ness” of everything, I guess I had expected it to look more… Ethiopian-ish?). With the guests of honor present, the ceremony then proceeded without a hitch (No pun intended, heh).
After the service was over (which I made sure to take plenty pictures of), and after a quick lunch/snack, Abba Thomas, br. Legesse and myself accompanied the Bishop and his delegation to the newly married couples reception. First we dropped off half of the group at the hotel where the function was to take place, then a smaller group (which I was apart) drove to the couples residence, where we picked up the recently linked duo and their guests and drove them (Honking and swerving in a most terrifying manner), to the party. The Hotel itself was located right next to the Baro River, and would have held a most commanding view overlooking said river, if it weren’t for the throng of clamoring nude or semi nude children/bathers, (Awkward) lol. When I had finally managed to thread my way into the hotels compound, I noticed Sam Moody, (at first I wasn’t entirely sure it was him, as he had cut his hair and it wasn’t until he said hello that I was sure, lol) as well as a young woman accompanying him (also a westerner), the reception was officially started by the wedded couple, Sam and the woman (Whom I later learned was Rebecca, who worked with the {wsf?} (I can’t seem to recall the proper name of the organization that she worked with; although I do remember that the group is highly independent {they choose not to be connected with the UN} and deals primarily with distributing medicines) joined us at our table. The reception itself consisted of speeches (which I couldn’t understand, lol), and Food (Which I highly enjoyed) and dancing (which was entertaining, especially the cultural dances.). I left with the bishop a few hours into the party, but I quite enjoyed the event (Ethiopians really know how to enjoy weddings), and I especially enjoyed having other westerners that I could talk to (Although I wish I as a better articulator, lol).
Once we had returned to the compound, it was the usual Oratory activities with the kids until 5:00pm, followed by some reading, evening prayers, dinner and an episode of MacGyver, lol.
And now for the weekly prayer, I think this one is great for after communion, particularly during advent (or post advent leading up to epiphany) and lent.
An act of faith and adoration:
Jesus, my lord and my God, I give tribute to You, because You have come to visit me.
I bow down before You, now really present within me, now all mine, truly mine – with Your body and blood, soul and divinity.
You are the same Jesus, who was born in Bethlehem and dwelt in Nazareth; Who suffered and died for my salvation; Who ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of the Father.
I believe in You, and with all the powers of my soul I adore You, in union with the angels and saints. You are my King; may You and You alone reign over my heart and my whole being.
Let me never be separated from You by sin.
I wish to serve you faithfully on earth that I may love and adore you, praise and glorify you forever in heaven.
Day 152, Jan 10th, Mon, 94.2°F @ 3:05pm,
For English today I decided to do something a little different, partially because only four of the students showed up, but that’s besides the point, lol. I took the students to the library and picked out a book for each of them, and then informed them that they had one week to read it from cover to back, and at the end of a week I will be showing them how to do a book “Report”, but I think it will probably turn out be more like a book “Summery”, that’s okay though, because the purpose is not to teach them reports, per say, but rather, to expand their vocabulary. I have informed them that as they read, whenever they come across a word that they don’t know they are to look it up in a dictionary (even though I made sure the books were simple, trust me, they’ll still be coming across MANY, by the end of today’s class they practically had a sheet-load of new words already). I’ll have to wait until next week to see whether it turns out to be an effective exercise, but I’m hopeful. This evening I got my Christmas day wish, we went to newland (a district of gambela, a compound run by the Sisters of St. Anne is located there) and had a Christmas dinner with the Bishop, all the priests and seminarians, and both groups of sisters, it was great! (For dinner, we had Lasagna, among other things, lol, never would have thought that I’d have that here in Ethiopia.)
Day 153, Jan 11th, Tue, 96.8°F @ 3:42pm,
This morning I woke up at 3:00am with a thoroughly plugged nose and sore throat, along with the cough that seems to be sticking with me, a bugger of a combination. No matter how much I blew my nose I couldn’t clear my nasal passages, so I finally resorted to medicine, but I still had to wait for the stuff to take effect sufficiently enough for me to fall asleep, so I ended wide awake until around 5:30am, blarg (I spent the time waiting drinking a nice cup of hot tea and watching a program about tourist locations in Japan, so it wasn’t all bad I guess, lol). Needless to say, when I woke up this morning for the second time and headed off for kindergarten I was more than a little bit tired, it’s kind of odd, it’s like the worst of the symptoms were put off until all of the Christmas events were over, for which I am grateful. In the kindergarten classes I went over writing/spelling exercises, and I think that so far the k-2 class is my favorite, they are actually eager to learn, the k-1 group is always a fine walk between learning and barely contained chaos, and the k-3 class act like they wish to be anywhere but there, lol. Didn’t really do much for the rest of the afternoon/evening, I’m still waiting for Br. Legesse to finish translation of the Amharic ordination play so that I can finish it, so the rest of today was spent in leisure, for which I am also thankful.
Day 154, Jan 12th, Wed, 96.2°F @ 4:20pm,
The English students forgot their books today, so I implemented another writing exercise. When I compare all the writing exercises you can definitely see an improvement, so I think I must be doing something right. After my class, I lingered at the office and conversed with Surafle about various things, today I think we covered botany (what kind of vegetation grew in Washington state and the comparison Ethiopian fauna), The civil war (and all {or at least some of} the reasons why it was started, as well as the several human rights issues that emerged), and even a discourse about the disturbing trend of human history repeating itself (Particularly focusing on the apparent predisposition of mankind to violent upheavals and fear). It was a most cerebrally stimulating conversation, one that I haven’t had in a while, and it was really fascinating and appreciated to hear someone else’s opinion, particularly on the last subject.
Anyhow, after our delightful dialogue, retired to our compound and worked on trying to get caught up on all my blog writing, since I wasn’t able to post last week (Actually I wasn’t even able to type anything up) I have become inundated under the quantity of updates copy into the computer (Which you all are now reading the tail end of). I finally did get caught up…mostly; I’ll have to include Thursday and Friday in next week’s blog. Health wise I have been steadily recovering, I thing yesterday morning was the pinnacle of the proverbial “Sick” mountain, so it should be steady sailing from here. If you haven’t noticed by now, I’ve been including the daily temperature at its peak in the day, which has steadily been in the mid-low 90°F lately. While at times it can be somewhat oppressively hot (tends to happen whenever the humidity rises, for the most part it’s fairly low) I really don’t mind it, and perhaps even prefer it to the environment that my first few months featured, because as a side effect of the heat, most of the mosquitoes have died, bwahaha! (Although they have been replaced by this “flying ant thing of doom” which although it is less dangerous than the possible malaria carrying gnat, it is by no means less annoying, as it likes to land on our arms and necks and bite quite ferociously for such a small bugger)
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