Ethiopian New Year

Thursday, Sept.11


We were unable to start our classes on Thursday because it was a national holiday in Ethiopia. We celebrated the Ethiopian New Year with our teachers by having a lovely lunch at the CH guest house where all of our teachers are staying. The menu included Ethiopian dishes like Doro Wat, another spicy stew, injera, goat, lamb, rice, and a salad of tomatoes, oranges, and lettuce and of course lots of soda ( Coke, Sprite, etc)

Sisay and Mulu-- our cook and housekeeper-- preparing the traditional Ethiopian coffee ceremony

After lunch we were treated to a "concert" of young Ethiopian dancers dressed in traditional costume. Eight girls and eight boys wowed us with their movements, rhythm and passion. We also lit a huge fire in the courtyard--everyone dances and sings around the fire and then they go to various people to ask for blessings or money. Traditionally the fire is lit on New Year's Eve but we were so tired that CH decided to do the fire on the next day. Our South Sudanese teachers loved the festivities. Their Ethiopian hosts are treating them like royalty:)

The dancers were so awesome-- the boys even did some Michael Jackson "moves"-- didn't know that one could move so many body parts at once:)

Over half of the dancers live at CH Global in their orphanage.

The traditional New Year's fire--accompanied by lots of singing and dancing afterwards with requests for money and good wishes for the New Year.

Excited to start our course tomorrow at 8:45 sharp!

Joyous Reunion

We arrived in Addis after a long but good flight. We met many interesting fellow travellers  on board and were surprised at how many people were flying to Africa on all sorts of aid and development work. Thankfully the Ebola virus hasn't stopped everyone from coming here.

In Addis at last!

Wednesday, Sept.10


We immediately met our teachers at the CH Global Guest House. They were waiting for us to arrive and what a joyous reunion we had! Lots of African hugs ( 3 times each person:) and greetings. We wondered how they would look after all the war and hardship in South Sudan, but each and everyone was healthy and well-- thank God! Of course the stories of the war that followed were very sad especially for the people in the parts of the country that suffered the most fighting.

A TV crew from the Gideon organization interviewed and filmed the teachers about the war, and the tremendous need for Bibles in SS. The Gideons plan to bring 100,000 Bibles to the Sudanese people. Our teachers were so happy to hear that news.

Our teachers being interviewed-- they took it so seriously!

The TV crew and the Gideon's representative doing the interview.

Went to bed very very early :) to try to catch up on our lost night of sleep.

Ready to Go!

The suitcases are almost packed and have been weighed and re- weighed to make sure we're not over our baggage limit. We're so excited to see everyone again and start our course work with our teachers.
We had so much fun yesterday purchasing beautiful laminated world maps and reading glasses for our teachers thanks to a generous donation from my dental hygienist and hairdresser who wanted to help out our project. We were so thankful for the gift!

Hope the colours suit!:)

Lord willing, our next post will be from Asella!

Friday's Closing Ceremony

Even though classes officially end on Oct.8th, we decided to do a "graduation" on Friday morning just before Jake and I had to leave for Addis for our evening flight home. It was wonderful-- we had a class speaker, music by the teachers, handing out of certificates, congratulatory speeches by our Ethiopian hosts, and a farewell gift to each teacher-- a beautiful Ethiopian scarf with a wooden Orthodox cross.
We had to miss the traditional Ethiopian coffee ceremony which the teachers had after the formal proceedings were over.

Our only Ethiopian "graduate"-- we're in front of the coffee ceremony materials.

Mawa, our class speaker-- he did a marvellous job!

After pictures were taken, Jake and I were driven to Nazaret-- to pick up another traveller. From there we drove into the bustling, sprawling, noisy city of Addis Ababa-- you would not believe the traffic congestion! Somehow our expert driver, Katama, manoeuvred his way through and we waited at the CH guest house till it was time to go to the airport.
Our flight home went very smoothly-- no delays and we even had an extra seat between us so we could sleep a bit. A young Muslim mother in front of us was travelling with 3 children and the baby and the 2 year old cried most of the way. I felt so sorry for her so I helped her as much as I could which she so appreciated. In her broken English she told me she would never travel solo again with 3 children-- I understood:)
We will miss our Ethiopian friends and of course our wonderful South Sudanese teachers! The training went so well and our accommodations and food were so appreciated. The only thing left is to get rid of all my bites--:)-- thankfully Jake and Ike had none!

The class "choir"--Rose is one of our Ugandan teachers ( in the red)

Our SS teachers were so excited to go back home and "train" their colleagues with all the resources and teaching they've received. We pray for much fruit in their work, with their students and ultimately with their nation! May God continue to bless them and their country!

The proud "graduates" with their Ethiopian scarves--

Last Day of Teaching

We packed in a full day today trying to cover as much as we could since tomorrow morning we will have our "graduation" ceremony and then Jake and I will be driven to Addis Abba to catch our flight home.
Several of our teachers asked for any extra copies of the True Story of the Whole World text by Goheen and Bartholmew. They loved Jake's teaching of the Bible -- even asked him for all the quiz questions he gave one day as a fun thing to do with teams.
Had a great discussion on teaching the fine arts and how the SS curriculum is so Math, Science and Language oriented. Even the SS Teacher training only offers 5 subject areas and Music, Art, and PE are not among them. The tour of the Ethiopian teachers' college really inspired them as far as thinking about the arts and organizing their own resource centre.

The Canadian flag!

The Max Lucado books were a big hit!

After tea break in the afternoon we put all the teachers' names in a hat and laid out 14 different articles for them to choose from when their name was called. We had things like: markers, 5 different story books that we took from home, a large world map, batteries, a large Canada flag, extra exercise books etc. It was fun to watch which item each teacher chose!
We have been so blessed to have our colleagues, Ike and Jennie, with us! Each of us has his/her own area of "expertise" and we certainly benefitted from each other's strengths. We loved the sense of camaraderie and friendship too.

This teacher's school had absolutely no maps in the entire school, so he was thrilled to get this!

Our team--Jake and me and Ike and Jennie.

Tour of the Asella Teachers' College

Ready for our teachers' college tour.

Today ( Wed) we dismissed class at 1pm and had a late lunch. A tour of the Asella Teacher's College was scheduled so we met with the Dean of the College who escorted us around the campus. We saw their IT room, the library building, the fine arts rooms, and the teacher resource and teaching aids room. I think the SS teachers got some ideas or inspiration from the tour. The Dean stressed that his teachers were encouraged to make all kinds of teaching aids using local materials--for example there was a huge map of Africa made of all sorts of scrap material. Or a large vowel chart made of seeds glued onto each letter to make it a tactile learning experience.

The bottled snake-- I didn't take this photo!!!

The teachers all know my phobia of snakes! So of course in the teacher resource room they see a bottled snake and proceed to tell me that a snake is in the room! I immediately hightailed it to the opposite side of the room shaking with fear-- while they just howled in laughter:)
On our walk home today we stopped and bought two Ethiopian cross necklaces from two lovely teenagers who were sitting on the grass doing typical schoolgirl things--we exchanged names and smiles and a bit of broken English:)

Relaxing after school-- eating, talking, making things.

My beautiful new necklace-- Jake's cross was bigger:)

Visitors from Canada

We had visitors at our house today. Bob Beasley and his son Mark arrived from the Bible League of Canada en route to other stops. We had a lovely conversation with him over supper--he recounted several interesting travel glitches--he and his son literally had 2 overnight flights without sleep due to plane malfunctions:)
The God-moment came for us when he shared that he and Mark had lots of pictures to show our teachers of an amazing Christian school called Daystar in Uganda. Our 2 Ugandan teachers in the class both teach in that school so they were so delighted to see Bob's pictures!
Another coincidence was that Bob and his family come from Chatham ( Jake's hometown) and of course he knew many of our friends there. Small world indeed!

Bob visiting our class.

Wood splitting right at the end of our street.

Trimming the hedge at Michael's house-- notice the "ladder".