Black boogers, mystery meat, and redemption

Hi friends!

Our team just headed back to Addis today, after spending nearly a week in a town called Nazaret. We’ve officially been in Ethiopia a week, we can’t even believe it! Our team has already bonded, it’s really been great…cause you know if we didn’t get along it would be a miserable month. Our youngest on the team is sweet Emma who’s 16. I come in a close second to being the youngest ;-)

Anytime you travel with people, you get to know each other pretty quick. We are together nearly 24/7 and because of the size of our group, our eating adventures take over an hour every meal. Experiencing that 3 times a day along with our travel time on the bus and ministry time together, well let’s just say we’re getting to know a lot about each other. It’s been a lot of fun though, thank goodness there’s a lot of people on the team who like to laugh. We also have 3 amazing translators on the journey with us. Sarafel heads up the team and he is one of the funniest people I have ever met. No matter who is near him, you can bet they are laughing. He’s a little off the cuff, so him and I get along great. Nata (I call him Nati, pronounced Knotie) is super sweet and relatively reserved, and he’s a fitness freak so we get along quite well J. Thadius (I call him Tadie, pronounced Tottie) is the youngest of the 3, he loves to dance and does a great Michael Jackson impersonation. We have been blessed to be around them and couldn’t ask for better guys to be in ministry with while we are here.

I’ve adjusted already to our living situation…which is basically living out of our suitcases. We spent a few days in Addis before traveling to Nazaret, spent 5 days there, came back to Addis for one night and then are heading out to Ambo for the week. We will come back to Addis every weekend, but will stay in Ambo during the week. I’m tired just typing all that.

Culture shock hasn’t really been a factor (for me at least). I’ve been on other trips and have seen extreme poverty, heartbreaking situations and desperate people. It doesn’t mean I am not affected by it…quite the contrary. It still is a battle inside me to witness life in such horrible circumstances and think on all the things I have in America and wonder why I was born there and not here. May God move in all of our hearts, though, to be a light to all people, especially those less fortunate than us.

On a lighter note, traveling through the towns is kind of like looking at a “Where’s Waldo” book. There are a ton of different things going on, it’s fascinating to witness, especially for a people watcher like myself. Window seats on the bus are my preference. People are everywhere and are doing somewhat strange things. And I'm not talking about the public urination, nose picking or food throwing at our bus. And the goats... I won't even tell you what I've seen on that end, but ask me sometime and I'll share.

This last week we went to Nazaret to spend time at a center called Women-At-Risk. This is a ministry that rescues women out of prostitution and gives them training (mostly in baking skills) so they can support themselves and their children without having to go back to prostitution. In Ethiopia, women are considered second class citizens, and if they have no husband, there is often little work they can do, so many turn to prostitution. This ministry gives them hope, a second chance, and completely exemplifies Christ’s love. The center provides counseling for the women as well, but the center can only take 11 women at a time because of the lack of counselors. We were told that there are about 5,000 prostitutes in this one town. 5,000. And they can only help 11 at a time.

We began our week by taking a tour of the compound and meeting the women and their children. The women come during the day and bring their kids, and then they leave before dinner and go back to their homes. The typical stay at the compound is 9 months. The center owns a café in town and many of the graduates of the program work in the café. There were about 10 children there, ranging in age from 2 years to about 12 years old. They stay at the compound during the day, so we were able to spend a lot of time with them along with the women.

Every morning we would meet there and have a devotion with the women, a time of worship (Amharic worship songs are amazing) and then share testimonies. Two women each day would give their testimony and then a few of the Americans would. (I gave my testimony the first day along with another girl from our team) I loved the mornings there, it was a beautiful time to hear stories of what God has done and how he has changed lives. Our American testimonies didn’t even come close to the trauma that these women have experienced, but the wonder of it all is that regardless of who was sharing about their life, He is the main character, always at work and weaving experiences together to show His glory. His redeeming power was apparent…for both Ethiopians and Americans.

It was a blessing for these women get up in front of us, and share of their past…and there was often not a dry eye among us (or them). We heard the women tell stories of being abused daily by their husbands, or being raped by their employers, or becoming pregnant and being kicked out of their home. We heard stories of their ‘previous’ life, where they were angry, evil (one woman said she had a knife that she used to threaten people with, claiming there were evil spirits inside of her), afraid, alone, and doing things they never thought they would.

But we also heard stories of grace, unconditional love, of meeting their Savior…and freedom from bondage. It was bittersweet. Such pain, trauma and abuse that they experienced…but such wonderful love that was victorious in their life. Every one of the women ended their story proclaiming the goodness of God, of His love for them, and how powerfully He has worked in their life. And to watch them worship? Unbelievable. Such joy on their face singing to the Lord, their love for Him so apparent. They often cried in their worship, no doubt thankful for the One who redeemed them from the life they once lived apart from Him.

Our week consisted of learning about these women and just loving on them. I got to wash their feet and paint their nails...they loved when we did this! We took pictures of them and made frames that they could take home and printed out their pictures right there. We did crafts with the kids, played a lot of games, and I even learned how to cook injere. We baked a lot with them and even played ping pong...they are really good at it!

It was an amazing week and I am so thankful that I met them, hearing their stories made me fall in love with the Lord even deeper...who doesn't want that? Please continue to pray for our team, we need them and feel them. And please pray for the people we are ministering to, the Lord is at work!!

To end this blog, I'll fill you in on some fun stories so far...

Highlights of the week:

- After lunch one day we were walking outside and a little beggar boy attached himself to me, promising that whatever he gave me he would share with the other little boy that appeared out of nowhere and was now walking next to me. They were incredibly persistent but we had been told by our team leader not to give anything to beggars. So as I walked onto our bus the first little boy continued to stay outside of it, calling out to me. I went to sit down and looked out the window at him…and he was standing there, with a sweet look on his face…giving me the middle finger.

- Internet access is not always available, and when it is, the word ‘slow’ doesn’t begin to describe it. A few of us, along with a translator, walked to an Internet café to try to get online (our efforts were fruitless and frustrating), and as we were making the walk back a little beggar girl came up to me going “You, you…Yes, You!” I was impressed she knew English so I looked down at her (somewhat of a no-no because if you give them any attention they don’t leave you alone). She looked up at me with her big eyes and said, in broken English, “You, give..me…money!” I looked back and said, “Uhh, no.” She tugged on my sleeve, so I looked down at her and she said, in the greatest Italian accent, “But I luv-a you.” I patted her head and said, “I luv-a you too…but I’m not giving you any money.”

- The food here is, umm, interesting. Yeah, let’s stick with that…interesting. We’ve eaten at our hotel’s restaurant for almost every meal, and let’s just say the majority of the team has now defaulted to ordering a side of rice and soup. We like to call some of the meat ‘mystery’, because we legitimately don’t know what its made of. Very often, if someone asks another team member what they ordered/what they are eating, the response is often “I dunno, some kind of meat”. The sweet Ethiopian people seem to try to be like America, but they often miss the mark just a bit…we’ve passed a Burger Qeen (trying to do the opposite of Burger King, but spelling Queen wrong), an Olives Garden, on a menu for breakfast they call Cornflakes, Cornflex, on a salad you can get dressing and ‘crutones’, and for dinner one night Jeremiah got the “Chicken Gordon Blu”, but after much digging and cutting, it was discovered there was not a single trace of chicken in his meal....and he still doesn’t know what the meat was that he ate.

- The air pollution here is incredible. I accidentally opened my mouth one time while riding a very tiny car (see picture provided….it was super small, like a clown car) and inhaled something that sent me coughing for a long time. Also, a few days ago, I discovered the joy of black boogers. Everything we (I’m saying this happens as a team, seems less embarrassing) blow out of our nose is black because of what we breathe in. Pray for my lungs ;-)

- Our translators went out at night while we were in Nazaret. I begged them to take me with, I wanted to see the night life of the city, you can't blame me, right?! However, white Americans stick out like a sore thumb, and we are constantly stared at. So as I asked them to take me with, our translator Nati looked at me and said, "No, we can't take you with us...because you will cause a crowd because you are strange." I gave him a hurt look and he goes, "I mean strange looking." That didn't make me feel any better.