Extended Time

Dear Friends and Family!

Selam, denah nacho? Selamno? Egzabier Imskin (Hello, how are you all? Peace to you? Praise the Lord). This is the greeting that everyone does when you see each other. There are different ways of greeting someone…usually it is with three kisses on the cheek, sometimes it’s a shoulder bump, sometimes it’s a hug and then a hand shake….you always ask them how they are…usually multiple times in different forms…and the response is always along the lines of I’m good, or fine, or praise the Lord. So in the states, if you get tired of the casual, “hello, how are you? I’m fine” greeting….believe me, it’s nothing compared to here!! Ha ha I have grown to love it though. Although sometimes I get nervous because I’m not sure how many times we should kiss on the cheek, or if they are gonna do the one shoulder bump, or go in for the hug…sometimes it’s awkward, but usually I sense what they are doing and end up pulling it off. : ) It seems that most people have their favorite way of greeting people, so with my friends I try to remember when I see them to do it their way…for instance my boss is a one shoulder bump/hug kind of guy…my best friend Hirut is a hug, kiss on the cheek, handshake kind of girl. Usually when you meet someone new it’s a three kiss greeting. : ) It’s hard to explain it in writing, but I hope you can get somewhat of a picture!

News: Ishi, (ok) I have to tell you all some very important news. I have prayed, talked with people, and thought about this a lot….and I have decided to extend my time here for one more month. My original plane ticket home was for November 5th, but I have extended my time until December 2nd. Because I struggled so much with things at the beginning I lost some time and have fallen a bit behind in my work, thus I really need the extra month. I also started my internship late, and still have a lot of work to do for language and my research project. So that is the main reason why I have extended. Some more news- Amber’s family that she was living with have been going through some really hard times…thus Amber had to leave. So my family opened their loving arms to her and we are now living together! So yes, we work together and live together. It’s not the “ideal” GLT- where you are out there roughing it on your own. Butttt, it’s what we both need right now. God has really brought us together. Life isn’t always roses here…there are many confusions, miscommunications, and difficult times. So it has been such a blessing to have someone to debrief with and experience things with. All of our friends are habisha (Ethiopian) and we are still very much involved in the life…so it’s all good. ; )

Ethiopian New Years a.k.a. sheep/goat genocide: It was Ethiopian New Year on September 1st, (actually for our calendar it was Sept. 11th…they have a different calendar and time schedule then we do). New Years is a BIG deal here in Ethiopia. Everyone buys new clothes, gets their hair done, and spends hours preparing food! Basically everyone in Ethiopia…rich or poor buys a goat or a sheep. It was hilarious, a day or two before New Year there were goats and sheep everywhere…cars would have to stop to let the herds go across the road, people would be buying them, dragging them around, strapping them to the top of their cars, and bringing them on the mini buses! There were a couple times when I almost tripped over the goat while getting off the mini bus. They were everywhere!! Then, New Years came...and the next day…the city was quiet….there were no more sheep or goats left. I was talking with some of my friends and we decided that probably THOUSANDS of sheep and goats where slaughtered in one day. There’s also an area that I travel through everyday on the mini bus to get to work…it’s a butcher house…and it’s known for it’s MOUND of bones…the mound got a LOT bigger after New Years…and the smell got A LOT worse!! That area it known for its smell…but now it’s terrible!

Health- So my body seems to be really sensitive to everything here. I ended up going to the doctor to get it all checked out. After doing some tests, the doctor told me that I have Typhoid and Typhus!! When he told me that, I causally said, ok…got the medicine…and went home. Then it hit me…. “oh dear! I have Typhoid AND Typhus!!” I started to freak out a little. When I told my friends, a lot of them were like WHAT? Amber told one of our good friends and he was like… “oh no, I think I need to visit her”…like I was on my death bed or something. After freaking out for a bit…I finally was like “koi, koi, koi (wait, wait, wait)….I feel fine.” Haha Honestly I had none of the symptoms that I should have for the two Ts. So I went back to the doctor to talk with him. Luckily it was a different doctor…so I explained to him everything and he told me that I was definitely misdiagnosed. PHEW! So I don’t have Typhoid and Typhus…they did give me some meds to take for it and I was told to continue taking them…hoping that it will cure whatever I DO have. : ) So pray for my health.

Awakening: So…as I mentioned in my previous e-mail…I’ve sort of had an awakening. When I first got to Addis, I was SO overwhelmed by everything I saw. I was almost paralyzed…I didn’t feel like I could do anything, or comprehend what I was seeing. But now that I’ve been here for three months, I realized that my coping mechanism was to just shove it all aside. I was tired of having my heart hurt every time I saw a street child, or a disabled person…etc. So that, along with the body and minds natural adjustment to things…I all of a sudden realized that I was very self consumed and numb to what’s around me. I feel like I don’t know how to truly love….in fact, I really just haven’t been myself lately. I’ve been extremely self consumed….extremely overwhelmed with work and all of the frustrations that come with that…and extremely overwhelmed by all of the demands and people here in the city. Amber felt the same way, so we decided to get away and re-asses our lives. So Friday evening, after work…we reserved a hotel room… went to the bus station…got on a bus and traveled about an hour and a half outside of Addis Ababa. We turned off our phones…and spent the weekend reading, praying, and journaling. The area we went is known for its crater lakes. So we got a cheapo hotel to sleep in (I have some funny stories about that) and in the day time we went to the more high class hotel with a GORGEOUS view over the lake…there we sat and read and journaled and ate bomb food. It was very relaxing, and a good time to reflect. I’m really praying for God to open my heart and show me how to love him by loving others. It’s hard to explain in words what I am feeling right now…even though I still don’t feel completely myself, and I still don’t know really what to do or how to take care of “the least of these” and follow after Jesus’ example….I am feeling more refreshed and I’m ready to wake up every morning and surrender my day to God…praying that He will guide me each step of the way….thank you for your prayers and e-mails. It all means so so much to me. Life isn’t always easy here in Addis….but I’m living and learning….learning how to love and be loved.
Thank you again for your prayers. I love you guys. Oh! One more thing….IF anyone wants to use Skype and give me a call (I know it cost money so honestly don’t feel pressured!!)…here is my cell phone number- 0913325765. It’d be fun to hear from you! Ishi, ciao! (ok, bye!) -

dana, dayna, donna, dionna, diana, dina, da….whatever my name is…. ?

Reflection on the poor

"In the words of our Holy Father, each one of us must be able 'to cleanse what is dirty, to warm what is lukewarm, to strengthen what is weak, to enlighten what is dark.' We must not be afraid to proclaim Christ's love and to love as He loved. Where God is, there is love; and where there is love, there always is an openness to serve. The world is hungry for God. When we all see God in each other, we will love one another as He loves us all. That is the fulfillment of the law, to love one another. This is all Jesus came to teach us: that God loves us, and that He wants us to love one another as He loves us. We must know that we have been created for greater things, not just to be a number in the world, not just to go for diplomas and degrees, this work and that work. We have been created in order to love and to be loved." Mother Teresa -"No Greater Love" p. 29 I have been convicted. I have been here for three months now and have found myself very self-consumed and disconnected with the marginalized and the suffering here in Ethiopia. I have become desensitized. Everyday I walk the streets and constantly have little hands reaching out to me, tugging on my hands, looking at me with sad eyes. Every day I walk by literally tons of crippled, suffering people. Young poor mothers with their infants curled up on the side of the road. People with no eyes, half their face burned, or abnormal sized body parts. People without legs or arms, people who walk on all fours like dogs....intense suffering. And what do I do? I walk on by it all. I look through them and not actually at them. I say no. Yesterday I was eating lunch with some friends and a little girl came up to our table, wanting money or food. We all ignored her until she went away. I thought nothing of it. It's a daily experience. When I first came here I kept on asking people what they do about all of the beggars...how they choose, when to give and when not to give...many people have different opinions. Most of them say never to give to children. There are SO MANY street children in Addis. Many of them are forced on the streets, some of them choose it, most of them learn to live that life and thus don't even try to work. It's a hard balance, but most Ethiopians say not to encourage the children to beg. Most Ethiopians do give small coins to the crippled and the old, because it's obvious that they can't work. Why are there so many crippled? People give different reasons...the diseases here, the lack of medicine and treatment....they don't have anywhere else to go but the streets. I still don't know what to do though...so I walk on by. I feel like I've lost the personal touch of God's love. At work I know we are helping the poor and suffering to come out of poverty...the work is amazing and it is transforming lives...but I usually am in the office writing papers, editing...etc. and when I do get to go and actually interview the people, it's very professional. It's so different then at home. At home I was able to pour my heart and soul into the Pomona community. Everyday I prayed for Gods love to pour out through me to those kids, and through that I felt God's love radiating back to me. It's hard to feel that here. It's easy to get disconnected and self-consumed. Pray that I will find a way to let God love through me. "God is within me with a more intimate presence than that whereby I am in myself: 'In Him we live and move and have our being' (Acts 17:28 NAB). It is He who gives life to all, who gives power and being to all that exists. But for His sustaining presence, all things would cease to be and fall back into nothingness. Consider that you are in God, surrounded and encompassed by God, swimming in God. God's love is infinite. With God, nothing is impossible."