ADDIS ABABA

This week has been busy getting back and getting ready for Christmas but I wanted to write more on our Ethiopia experience. I also want to note that we did not get to meet the girls' grandfather. We were told that he is a protestant pastor from a very rural Southern area and it took him 5-6 days of travel just to get to court. He had already left for his return trip when we arrived.

Ethiopia was an amazing and incredible experience for the entire family. We arrived late Saturday night and soon discovered it would take us 3 hours to get through the visa line, customs, baggage and out of the airport. David stood in the visa line while I watched the boys sleep, sitting up against a wall. There was no order to the flow of the line and I noticed that David did not move at all as people unobtrusively merged in front of the polite Americans in front of him! Twice the power and lights went off in the crowded airport. We thought that might delay things if computers went down but later discovered the officials using old fashioned desks, pens and paper to issue visas.

Our travel guide described Addis Ababa as “shambolic.” It is a city of 6 million people and very little urban planning. The majority of the residences are corrugated metal sheds with no modern conveniences. Eucalyptus firewood is used for cooking and the early morning air is filled with smoke from the fires. Many concrete structures stand unfinished. Some have flimsy wooden trestles against them for the workers to stand upon as they construct. A modern building may be haphazardly thrown in among all the other types of structures. Small individually owned shops line all the streets. The vendors come out to passing cars and try to sell their wares through the open car windows. Furniture shops consist of dusty old furniture placed alongside the road. 

 A touch of rural is also seen in the city as men drive their small donkeys down the street and through the traffic. One might find a cow foraging for a scrap of grass next to the road or goats being driven through the streets. People line the streets at all times of the night and day.

Orderly chaos describes the flow of traffic. We saw maybe one stop light during all of our outings. Intersections are not 4 way stops but every man for himself as each vehicle jostles their way through the intersection. There are few traffic lanes and the number of lanes of traffic vary depending on what is blocking any one of the lanes. Diesel fumes fill the air. Blue and white taxis pervade the streets. After watching the flow of traffic we better understood why it took us so long to get our visas at the airport! Both systems lack rules and consist of merging. I would not be bold enough to ever drive in Addis! I thought it interesting that Toyota vehicles dominated the streets. Clearly the people know what type of vehicle runs for a long time!

Traffic does not yield to pedestrians. People trying to cross the heavy lanes of traffic remind me of the game frogger. I was amazed that we did not see anyone hit during our week's visit although we saw many come quite close. I even saw small children crossing the street by themselves. At one point, a crippled man scooted out on his rear into traffic trying to approach our car for a handout. Traffic was often at a standstill and women with their babies would come asking for help for their babies. It is against the law to give them money and I spent many sleepless nights in tears as I thought of the verse from Matthew 25:45: “He will reply, “I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.” A few times I snuck a pack of crackers out the window and was met with grateful eyes.

Despite all the poverty we came across, we saw such beauty. Even though traffic was chaotic, the drivers were overly patient and calm and it seemed to work for the most part. They had a system in all the madness. The Ethiopian people are some of the most beautiful I have ever seen. Both the men and women have beautifully refined features and smooth light chocolaty brown skin. I did not see one over weight Ethiopian. The people seem accepting of their life circumstances and know no other way of life. They are incredibly friendly. Their beauty is reflected in their colorful baskets, clothes, scarves and other items. Our visit really opened my eyes and confirmed how much we take for granted in America and how self-absorbed, materialistic and wasteful a large majority of people are in America.

We visited an Ethiopian Baptist church with the director of Ethiopia Compassion. It was an amazing experience to watch the people joyfully worship with no time constraints. Tsehaywota took us back to the hotel after 2.5 hours and church was not even over. Tsehaywota translated parts of the sermon to us and the topic was on living a life of faith and service to God and not for ourselves. He spoke of not compromising our faith with what the world says is acceptable and redeeming our time by living for God such as the apostle Paul. These are all messages that God has impressed upon my heart the past few years.

The hotel food had a mixture of western style food (cooked differently from what we are used to) and national food. David, Michael and I enjoyed a few national dishes. Stephen went on a starvation diet that he made up for upon our return! After a few days of looking at the same menu, it was difficult to get an appetite up for any particular dish. We had to remind ourselves that we were lucky we had food to eat as many of the people outside the hotel were probably living on one scanty meal a day, or less. We also observed that the children at the care center ate the same lunch daily, injera bread with lentil sauce on top.  Injera is a flat sourdough type bread made from a super grain called Teff.  It is highly nutritious.

We were treated to an outing up nearby Entoto Mountain. It is the highest point in Addis. - above 10,000 ft. elevation. The former Emperor had his residence and Orthodox church at the top. As we drove up the mountain, we saw women slowly walking down the mountain with enormous bundles of eucalyptus firewood on their backs. They go up the mountain, cut the wood, fasten it together and carry it down. They are only able to make one trip a day. It looks like back breaking work and only for a meager amount of money that they are able acquire from selling the firewood. Eucalyptus trees are grown because they reach maturity within just a few years. As you can see from the photos there is a huge disparity between the Ethiopian church and castle compared to European cathedrals and castles.  The people pictured in front of the castle are two other families that traveled with us and our driver.

That pretty well summarizes what we experienced in Addis Ababa.  Of course, most of our time was spent at the care center and our hotel.  Next time I will tell you of our trip to Compassion and the rural countryside.