The diary of an ASTONISHING visit to ETHIOPIA.

FRIDAY
On a cold January morning we were re-acquainted with the meaning of the phrase ‘LONG HAUL’. We were to experience 30 hours with no sleep – a total of 7 hours driving – some of it over unforgiving, unmade, and frankly awful roads (and that was just getting out of Woodbridge)- must be seen to be believed – No this wasn’t set up!! We would break the first 4X4 within 4 hours of getting into it and arrive at our destination tired and rather anxious.
As we sat in the minibus travelling the mountain road between Addis and Debre Birhan, I chanced the question “so what do you think of Ethiopia? – give me one word to describe what you have seen so far” the word the intrepid travellers settled on was ASTONISHING

SATURDAY
Saturday afternoon/evening saw us safely to our new base for the week – the Eva Hotel – and a chance to grab a Pepsi before our church friends had invited us to a “well Come” Coffee ceremony. The Ethiopian Coffee ceremony should be on everyones ‘101 things to do before you die' (along with the Timkat Festival – more later). Melaku’s wife, Mequannt acted as host and we were treated like royalty. The floor of the room was decked with long green grass, as a mark of respect, Mequannt was in traditional dress and sitting on a low stool with flowers surrounding her. In front of her was a tray with 15 small coffee cups, to her right was a little tub full of hot charcoal, on top of which she would place a shallow bowl and roast the coffee beans – the smell of roasting coffee and charcoal is very seductive and one which we have grown to love. Mysteriously there is also a bowl of popcorn which is very welcome as it counterpoints the taste of the coffee. The little coffee cups receive 3 spoonfuls of sugar before they receive the freshly ground and brewed coffee.

SUNDAY
Sunday dawned a fresh day with all its potential – our schedule was hectic and some of us were affected by the altitude – 10,000 ft above sea level does funny things to us. Dean and Mark are out of puff just climbing the stairs and Janet is complaining of ‘Jelly for Brains’ syndrome. The hotel is one of the best within 50 miles, but the menu still takes a little getting used to. I set of for the day with a belly full of lemon pancakes, which didn’t stay down long TMI. The schedule says we are taking the Sunday School meeting, preaching in the service, and taking part/speaking at the Christmas Party in the afternoon. Keith Palmer demonstrates his misspent childhood on the North Bank at SUFC – see youtube vid and we all enjoy being with another branch of God’s family 4,000 miles from home.

MONDAY
I will spend a little time explaining Monday because it was the most astonishing day. In the space of 45 minutes the following happened to our group:

• A hand is kissed by a leper grateful to receive a small donation of money • We meet the 30 children supported by Woodbridge Quay Church • We give out presents to some of the poorest families in the poorest area of Debre Birhan • We give out football shirts donated by the Ipswich town academy • I kneel in the dirt and look into the face of a little boy whose eyes don’t work properly • I shake the hand of a little girl who doesn’t have most of her fingers • I meet Demos a little girl who has no blood relatives – her parents died of HIV aids • I sit in the home of the lady who has taken Demos in – household income is £12.50 p.c.m. • I hug the oldest man in the church who is dignified but emotional at our visit

Monday is also the day when I discover that Dereje spent 2 months 15 days in prison for “Believing in Jesus” – under the Communist regime – and when he shared his faith he was beaten in front of the other prisoners – the other girl we will meet in his household is his niece (his sister-in-law died in labour).

I have heard others say that it is humbling to meet with the truly poor of the world and just spend time with them – but until it happens you cannot really understand. The strange thing for me, was that it did not make me cry but rather feel a sense of dignity – I hope that makes sense – It is much more a question of sharing our lives than meeting the needs of the people. As I said to the 75 year old man, we will spend all of eternity, sitting by the river of life, chatting about the things that made us laugh and cry while we lived on God’s earth.

Dean has had a brilliant idea and brought a polaroid camera with him. This is a huge hit because we are able to give a photo to the kids there and then as they receive their 'goody bag' - it is like watching a sprint race - as soon as the shutter goes the kids are rushing up to Dean to see their photo

Monday afternoon was set aside for the TIMKAT FESTIVAL. This is celebrated by the Orthodox church on Ethiopia and celebrates the Baptism of Jesus – As a ‘Baptist’ I am very much in favour of Celebration, festival, food and baptism – so this should be good. It seems to be a big parade. Each Orthodox church has its own “Ark of the covenant” containing the “Tabot” and on this one occasion in the year the Tabots are brought out from each of the churches accompanied by singing, chanting, and the strange guttural wail of the women signifying respect and worship. Each church then slowly parades with their Tabot and Crucifix sheltered under umberellas – as each church joins the parade the crowd and noise swells and they eventually congregate at the football ground – we reckon there are about 15,000 at the ground (there are only 20,000 in Debre Birhan) and the main Tabot (from Trinity orthodox church) stays at the ground overnight. The following morning there is more celebration followed by baptisms.

Romance is also in the air – If you are approached by someone bearing a lemon this is used as a symbol of romance and an intention to be romantically linked. Needless to say, we kept a close eye on the kids, who regularly drew attention from the other kids of the town. In the evening we return to base for evening meal, 66/365 and bed. The beds are Ok, the electricity is intermittent, but we still haven’t worked out the food (burgers seem to be out of stock) :(

TUESDAY
Tuesday is a continuation of Timkat in the morning, and a Coffee ceremony in the afternoon, at Dereje’s house. Seba is sent to be our guide for the Timkat festival and he takes us up to Trinity Orthodox Church – we have other company too – Dereje’s children, Shalom and Jocy join us and Mika from the church along with one of Seba’s brothers. They are acting as Guardian angels. It turns out that Seba is Dereje’s brother in law (wife’s brother) – are you following me so far? – anyway . . . outside St George’s church Seba lets slip that his brother organises the choir in the Orthodox church. Under close questioning from our lawyer (Keith) Seba confesses all – His dad (who has subsequently died) was a bishop in the orthodox church, but Mimi (Dereje’s wife/seba’s sister) got hold of the bible and read it – she discovered that just being a part of church is not sufficient for eternal life. She realised that she needed to put her faith in Jesus to save her and made this decision for herself. When Seba was old enough to understand, Mimi explained the good news (Melkumzima) to Seba and he realised that he needed to trust Jesus too. Fortunately for family relationships, the orthodox church is now less aggressive to ‘protestants’.
BAD NEWS for the orthodox church!!!! – the Chinese road builders have cut through the water supply in the town. This means that the fountain/statue of Jesus being baptised by John the Baptist is DRY!. Eager attendants are ferrying buckets of water, which can be blessed and then sprinkled – Only in Ethiopia.

In the evening the team get the first real chance to kick off their shoes and Chillax, in The home of Dereje and Mimi. Again, we are treated to the sights and smells of the Coffee ceremony and this time Dereje shows us the beans being crushed. The famous Mick and Jules of Woodbridge are once again mentioned, as we give gifts to this good man, and the children play together with presents that Ellen brought. Dean teaches Shalom, “the wheels on the Bus” – to her great credit, Shalom is not deterred by this experience and impresses us with her English, singing “Twinkle Twinkle, littlestar”.

In the evening there is great delight because Burgers are finally on the menu!! This is counterbalanced by the fact that the coffee machine now refuses to give us the steamed milk which has been drunk by the bucketload up till now. . . . . anyway the kids seem content.

WEDNESDAY

This will again prove to be a very moving day. The main event is GRAIN DISTRIBUTION. Arriving at the church compound we discover enough grain to be divided between 50 families. The money for this venture has come from 3 sources. Mick and Jules running a book exchange/lending library. The children have collected their loose change and Keith Carter has made a contribution as a generous memorial to his wife Carolyn who sadly passed away about 13-14 months ago. There is an air of anticipation around the place and a number of women speak on behalf of the local people to say thank you. I fel a little embarassed - we never have any problem finding food to eat and these people, just have so little - yet they are kind generous and thoughtful of others. to watch >

When we ask what they will do with the wheat and how long it will last, there are some huge smiles. The grain will last about 2 months for each household and will supplement their existing resources. Within 10 minutes a plate arrives from one of the homes with food on it. It looks like a pancake and we are invited to try it with some of the spice that is sprinkled accross the middle of it. The spice turns out to be the much talked about 'Burberry' which has a reputation for being hot. The next day 3 more dishes are presented to us - Kolo - which tastes just like Shredded Wheat - Tefflan - which is like a boiled mixture of lentils and grain and the third dish is like a cheesy mash with a spice butter in the middle. All made by the generous hands of two ladies who have very little stuff in their lives.

Some of the grain is carried away on a garry - (see picture to right)

At last we have worked out the Hotel restaurant - my daily intake is Breakfast; Continental (sometimes with eggs or porridge) - Lunch; Tuna sandwich and evening main course Tibs - on a personal cooking stove - The reason we can't have Burgers today is because it is a fast day.

THURSDAY

Thursday is our chance to visit some local schools and go looking for the famous Gelada baboons which are only found in this area. We split up for the day - Three are going into the rural areas - "Chimberi" while the rest of us follow the road to Desse and "Broken Mountain" - (where apparently the Italians rounded up a load of locals and pushed them off the edge).

Thursday can only be described as THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY

THE GOOD - visiting schools was great fun. We could have stayed all day!!! There is a lovely video clip of Dean in the middle of all the kids - every time we move to a new classroom faces appear at the windows. My own children recognise the teaching material - Oxford press - teaching books. The school has an area where they grow some crops and beans - they even have their own well - 57metres deep. The head master is warm and friendly and asks if we could supply desks and a new photocopier (no promises made).

THE BAD - Unfortunately the cloud was low and the diggers were noisy - this meant that when we did finally find Broken Mountain, the baboons were nowhere to be seen. The clouds did break just enough to see the spectacular view of the cleft in the mountain and the sheer drop. The bonus was that when we stopped for lunch we happened accross some kids out looking after their sheep/goats/donkeys and they took great delight in cracking their whips - the sound echoed down the valley

THE UGLY - Thursday also brought the worst moment of the whole trip. The group who went to Chimberi had a great time at the school and even saw the Gelada Baboons, but on the way back driver error meant they had an accident on a steep, unmade, mountain road. Apparently the driver stalled the 4X4; couldn't restart it and in the panic rolled backwards - whatever happened next - the party found themselves with the 4X4 on its side and the eerie quiet that accompanies these moments. Providentially no-one was seriously hurt and the driver forfeited his tip, making his way back to Addis at night, for fear of being stopped by the police.

THURSDAY EVENING - The church put on a "campfire" which meant freshly butchered goat cooked over the campfire. I am so proud of Kt - Dean (who has been a butcher) took her over to see the freshly dispatched goat and then we sat round the fire (Coke in hand) and enjoyed the company and the spectacle as we waited for supper. Keith, who had just a couple of hours earlier been in the accident, arrived from the hotel and we really appreciated the hospitality shown to us all. After the campfire our new friends started to disperse when Dean pulled a trump card out of his bag - Marshmallows and skewers - this proved an irresistable lure to adults and children alike.

FRIDAY - Our final day is no less eventful than any other - the electricity in Debre Birhan has mysteriously disappeared. This means the fuel pumps don't work and we haven't got enough fuel to get back to Addis for our return flight. After 3 hours searching our hosts return with a minibus full of fuel. When I ask where it has been sourced, I get the intriguing answer "the black market" - ask no further questions!

We meet with the leadership team of the church - who are inspiring company - they face the challenge of Holistic Ministry, where they minister to the poor and teach them of a saviour. They also face the financial challenges of staffing the church and building on a new site, where the authorities have given them permission to build.