Settling Down in Addis Ababa

December 26 - 29, 2011 (Day 1 to Day 4)

The flight was 7½ hours long and Taryn was the only one who was able to sleep solidly throughout the flight. After we got past all of the visa applications and more security checks, we grabbed our bags and met Girum, the YWAM Ethiopia base leader. Although we’re not staying at the base, he came to make sure that we were all sorted and he’s giving us a cultural orientation on Wednesday. We all packed in to a mini bus and drove off into the city of Addis Ababa. When we got to Ethiopia Arise (the children’s centre that we’re working with), we met with our contacts; a German/Ethiopian couple Klaus and Ruth.

They showed us to where five of the single girls are sleeping… a container. It sounds bad but it was actually really nice. Ashley, Sarah, Rebecca, Franzi, and Bianca are sleeping there at the base with Immaculee and Richard next door. Laura, Kaitlin, Peter, and Taryn are staying with Klaus and Ruth at their house a 5 minute drive or 30 minute walk away. As we were getting ready to leave for lunch, some of the kids from the centre came out of the classroom and most of them came running over to us to either shake our hands or give us a hug. For around 10 minutes we were able to play with the kids, spinning them around or taking pictures with them. Afterwards, we went out for lunch where most people ordered spaghetti or rice. They didn’t recommend trying anything of the traditional Ethiopian dishes just yet. Aaaaand after that everyone went for a solid nap.

Because the group staying at Klaus and Ruth’s house were farther away, they went out for dinner by themselves at a little café. A cheap meal of six British pounds paid for 3 hugely massive burgers, coffee and a zillion fries. When they got back to the house, the key wasn’t opening the door. It was incredibly dark outside and they didn’t know when the couple would be back.They were left outside to pray for the door to be opened. A while later, a man came up and asked what they were doing. He also was living with the couple and was able to open the door for them. Ruth’s nephew has become our knight in shining armour.

On Tuesday (Day 2), we all met back at Ethiopia Arise for breakfast. It was a fairly standard but really good breakfast; huge buns with jam, unsweetened peanut butter, coffee, tea, and some bean type dish that was really good. Unfortunately, Peter was too sick to come out that day and still felt sick when the day was done so please be praying for him. After clean-up, we had worship and intercession and at 1pm – 3pm we had ‘naptime’. It was called resting time but most people had naps in the container. At 3, we left for lunch/dinner at the same restaurant we had food at last time. When we got back to the base, people either took showers or stayed outside while Rebecca or Taryn played guitar. We made a song for Peter, wishing him well and telling him to come back.

On Wednesday (Day 3), we had a team meeting/building where we assigned all of the roles for the Ethiopia Arise portion. Our ministry is divided between investing in the staff and investing in the children. Although all of us will be doing parts of both, we have joined two different teams; Freedom Prayer/Staff and Children’s Ministry. Richard, Immaculee, Peter, Taryn, and Kaitlin are focusing on investing in the staff and sharing testimonies. On Friday they will be praying for the staff’s original design and using their testimonies as teachings for them. Laura, Bianca, Franzi, Ashley, Sarah, and Rebecca are involved with the children and will be working out what type of dramas to do and when and what kind of art projects to do. After lunch, Girum from YWAM Ethiopia came to the base and gave some cultural orientation involving the language and how body language is important. For example, when shaking hands with someone we haven’t met before, one hand must be attached to the elbow while the other is shaking their hand. Also, when receiving something, it’s polite to hold both hands out like a cup. And usually slightly nodding the head is seen as respecting and honouring that person. That day, Peter and Kaitlin were sick and stayed back at the house to sleep.

On Thursday (Day 4), the girls that were staying at the container were able to play with the kids until the people from the house came. The kids are really sweet and are able to speak some English. Most of the kids are from Orthodox backgrounds and there are around 3 kids who are Muslim. After breakfast, we spent a lot of time talking to Klaus and Ruth about what Ethiopia used to look like and how it’s different than Ruth remembered. Later, we had worship, prayer and devotionals until Klaus came to talk to us about the history of Ethiopia. When we finished our lunch that we had been going to since we got here, a lady who worked there brought out for us (as a gift) a traditional Ethiopian meal. It looked sort of like a pancake and we dipped it into some really spicysidedish (Rebecca: 6/10, Kaitlin: 11/10 for spiciness). It was really sweet to see how the staff were so generous and excited to see us taste their traditional dish. After lunch, Girum came by again and gave us more phrases in Amharic (the most popular Ethiopian language… there are 26). Everyone was super excited about learning more ways to communicate with the people. After, Girum said that he had done this cultural talk a lot and appreciated how excited and interested our team was in the culture, the language and the general attitude of how can we be a blessing to the people here. Later in the night, Peter, Kaitlin and Laura went out to find Peter some food (as the girls don’t feel hungry enough for dinner so we only have two big meals a day) and to find Kaitlin and Laura an internet café. So since we’ve found an internet source… hopefully blog posts will be able to be updated more often. And possibly if someone on our team hasn’t been able to contact someone at home, everyone is well and safe and the journey was tiring but everyone is settling in well. There is internet at the base but it’s very slow. Some people tried to send emails on Thursday but they wouldn’t send.

Some prayer requests are that all of the people who are sick (Immaculee, Peter, and Kaitlin) would continue to get well, that we would continue to build relationships with the staff as well as the children (as they are the ones who will continually invest in the children day after day, even after we have left for Rwanda), and that our team would continue to be united and close-knit throughout this outreach.

Ciao (the Ethiopian way of saying goodbye), Immaculee’s Babies