Thursday, August 28, 2008

I love Ethiopia!

Internship: So I am constantly kept busy. On Tuesdays and Thursdays I have worked as a computer teacher. I also helped out with the library and other paper work. The other days I helped out with accounting work (you should be proud dad!!). I still LOVE the community at the school. My best friend here, Hirut, is the principle of the school. We connected right away and I spend a lot of my time with her. Summer school just ended, so I am no longer a teacher. It was fun while it lasted! I love those kids. Also after a lot of prayer and advice, I decided to stay with the first organization that I was connected with. I also brought Amber one day to see if they needed another person, and they did, so we are working together there. We work there on Monday, Wednesdays, Fridays, and some weekends. The organization is called Integrated Urban Development Department (IUDD). This organization works with the poorest of poor in Addis and in the surrounding cities. They help form groups of 15-20 members, teaching them job skills, how to save and manage money....etc. They don't give ANY MONEY. They have each group member give what they can weekly. Most groups start giving 50 cents each per week. Then with that money they are able to save and then give loans to the members. So lets say there are 20 members, and they each give 50 cents a week, after saving for around three months they would have enough money in savings to give a member a loan of 100 birr. Then the member takes that money and uses it to start or expand their business. Some of their businesses include: a clothes shop, selling corn, making injera or local bread...etc. Usually the members have to pay back the loan within four months with a certain amount of interest...like 5% or 8%. So the group makes some money. Many of the groups have grown in their capital, which allows the loans to be bigger, which allows their businesses to expand. And the best thing is, they feel empowered because they are doing it all on their own!! It's an amazing program, I have never seen anything like it. IUDD really is fighting and actually solving the issue of poverty. Amber and I meet with the self-help groups (SHG) and interview them. We also get to meet individually with members to hear their personal stories. Then Amber and I write case studies about the members. It's an absolutely amazing opportunity and I am so grateful for it. I also am really enjoying spending more time with Amber. Two weeks ago our work took us to a small city 5 hours outside of Addis Ababa called Awassa. Amber and I found ourselves squished in one car with 7 guys! It was hilarious. We felt like sardines. We had a great time, hanging out, seeing Awassa, and meeting with/interviewing the SHGs there. I am so encouraged and excited to continue to learn more about how IUDD helps the poor. We recently just wrote a paper explaining more about the organization and what they do. If you are interested in reading it, email me and I'll try and send it to you! Friends: So I feel like everywhere I go I am making new friends. It makes me laugh because when I first got here I would pray everyday for a friend and I felt really lonely. But now...I actually am starting to feel overwhelmed by the amount of friends I am making. I'm thankful for it...but I feel like I haven't really gotten true alone time in over two weeks! I'm either working, with my family, with my close friends, or having coffee with random people...then I come home and I'm exhausted. Wow, I love Ethiopian culture though. Seriously, everyone is soooo nice. I think I said this last time, but honestly, most people genuinely just want to hang out and get to know you. : ) You literally can just be walking down the street and have someone come up and invite you to coffee, or to their house for a coffee ceremony. For the most part Ethiopian's have a culture of respect towards foreigners. It still cracks me up though, because everywhere I walk I have people shouting, "ferenji!" or "Kiyu" (which means white)...I usually laugh and joke around with people... "Oh I'm white?! Wow, I'm glad they told me." Also, in their language when they talk to someone they say, "ange" for a girl and "anta" for a boy...directly translated it means "you." So many times I'll get people saying "you, you, you...comehere" Or "you, you, you, you, wheredoyougo?" Or just plain, "youyouyouyou." Religion: The three main religions here are Orthodox, Protestant, and Muslim. One of my really, really good guy friends, Ahmedin, is a Muslim, although he's not really a practicing Muslim. He doesn't pray...he's thinking about participating in Ramadan, but he's not sure. The Islamic culture is everywhere. Woman wearing hijabs...some just cover their heads, some are completely covered from head to toe. We hear the call to prayer all the time, I can hear it from my room. But surprisingly, Ahmedin is my only friend who is Muslim. I feel like for the most part, they keep to themselves. Ethiopian Orthodox is the main religion in Ethiopia. Most of my friends are either Protestant or Orthodox. It's just like the states....there are the more conservative and the less conservative. Some of my Orthodox friends aren't practicing Orthodox and some are more committed. When Orthodox convert to Protestantism, everyone says "they found Jesus," which means they didn't know Jesus before. I'm still not sure what I think about that...I need to continue to talk with my Orthodox friends to learn more about their faith. I do feel like some of them really are genuine about it. I have noticed that many of the Protestants here are VERY conservative and VERY judgmental. They seem to have many many rules of what to do and what not to do....One time one of Amber and my friends pointed to Amber's nose ring and told us that in the Protestant faith, facial piercings are forbidden. I asked him why and he said he didn't know....I feel like many of the conservative protestants don't truly know why they believe what they believe...they just do it because they were told. That's been hard for me. BUT God has brought me to an AMAZING church that I really connect with. My best friend Hirut goes there. I feel like for those of you who know Brian McLaren's work, this church would make him proud. They are all about asking questions and truly being open to the truth. They reject "religion" and all of the baggage that comes with that word. Their main focus is on Jesus and becoming more and more like him....allowing Jesus to truly manifest himself in our entire lives. They aren't all about rules...they are about love...loving God and loving others...once we do that, the rest will fall into place. It's a small church, and I'm starting to make friends with the people there. I've met with the pastor once, and am going to continue to meet with him every once in a while. The whole service is in Amharic, but Hirut translates the sermons. I like praying and worshiping in Amharic, even though I don't understand, I still feel the connection with the church community and with God. Amharic is a beautiful language. I brought Amber one day and she fell in love with the church too. We are growing closer and closer with the members and feel so welcomed by everyone. Anyways, I'm excited to get more involved and connected with this church. Hair: Sooooo, hair is a BIG deal here. Actually...public appearance is a really big deal here. Amber and I constantly feel...frumpy. Haha Anyways, hair salons are everywhere. Woman are constantly getting their hair changed. Amber and I decided to get our hair braided!! We were gonna get our hair braided down...but with some miscommunication...we ended up each getting multi-colored cornrows!! (with added hair) We decided that Amber looked like Little Bow-wow, and I looked like the elf man from Lord of the Rings!! : ) Here, cornrows looks GOOD on the Ethiopian woman...but I felt a little ridiculous. It was a good experience. I covered mine most of the time, but Amber was free with hers! I'll definitely show you all pictures. We left it in for a week. I suppose we could have left it in for maybe a week and a half, but it was KILLING my head...very itchy and painful. It took us 4 hours to take it out! After taking it out, we went back to the salon and got our hair straightened...and curled. It felt nice and my hair was clean for 5 days! Now it's back to natural, but I think we'll make going to the tsagore bait (hair house) a bi-weekly event. : ) I'm glad I got to experience the cornrows...now I know how the woman feel when they cringe and hit their heads (it's better to hit the head then to scratch)...or when they always have to wrap their hair at night....I feel a bit more connected with the culture. Amber and I want to get our hair braided down next time. I'll make a hair portfolio to show you guys when I get back! Life: So I love it here. Seriously, sometimes I have my bad days, sometimes I feel really sick, sometimes I feel really confused and lost, sometimes I feel taken advantage of, sometimes I feel exhausted, many times I miss home....BUT I'm constantly filled with an overwhelming feeling of love for this place. I'm drawn to it. I feel like this is my second home. I love the people here, I am constantly impressed and amazed with the culture....I'm still enjoying learning Amharic, I'm overjoyed with the org. I work with....I love my family and friends....I feel independent and love exploring, meeting new people, getting around by myself, I see God guiding me all the time....I really have fallen in love with Ethiopia. Amber and I are actually starting to talk about when we can come back!! Sometimes I think about how I was the first three weeks here and I can't believe how much things have changed! Seriously...I can't even truly express how I feel. Prayer Requests: Pray that I stay on top of my work. I feel like I've fallen behind because I am CONSTANTLY doing things, as I mentioned before. But I am here as a student...I have to remember that. Pray for my health....I'm sort of getting used to feeling icky...for the past couple of days I have felt fine, but it comes and goes quite often. I LOVE the food sooo much, but my body doesn't love it very much. There are still communication issues that need to be worked out at IUDD, where Amber and I work. Our time there is very up in the air...our boss never really tells us what he wants us to do until the day of...even if we try and ask him....pray that we will be able to communicate well and actually get a "set" schedule. Pray for time management....I'm having a hard time trying to figure out how to balance my life....work, friends, family, school....also continue to pray for my language learning...I'm TRYING and I can understand a lot, but I still have work to do on that!