Story end

It’s 10:15pm and after 15 hours away from the house I’m just settling onto my bed for a dinner of Teddy Bear cookies and a banana (and I teach nutrition??).  Perhaps going to the gym at 8:45 wasn’t the greatest idea for sleeping, but I needed to run.  Just now, I came home through the dark, rough, florescent-lit streets of Addis.  The last few mini-buses full of people bumped along beside my taxi as I listened to a peppy, squeaky cassette of 80s pop.  Ghana was winning the Africa Cup game last I checked, the price of fuel and taxi prices went up this weekend, I’m going to finish my grad school applications this week, 12 year old Beniam should get his cast off tomorrow, work is busy with numerous different projects going on, I wish Skype worked, I wish the phone line in my house worked, I don’t know where I’m going to live when I go back to the US, tonight I met a new friend I wish I’d met 6 months ago, I need to call 5 people tomorrow to catch up . . . and my mind won’t slow down.  I don’t want it to, really, because then reality will hit me hard.
We lost another beneficiary this weekend.  I’m not surprised, but I am distressed, sad, frustrated, angry.  I know that we accomplish a lot in the project, and I’m grateful for all the wonderful changes I see in people’s lives.  But we still lose people.  I’m tired of death—here in Ethiopia, back in the US, in hundreds of other places around the world right now.
The mellow strains of Over the Rhine fill my head,

And it’s strange to see your story end
How I hate to see your story end
It’s so sad to see your story end.

Awake

I wake.  To the morning sunshine flooding my room.  The incessant honk of frustrated drivers at the nearby roundabout.  The rumble of Isuzu trucks going too fast.  The crowing rooster next door, just beyond my window.  The cry of a baby somewhere nearby.  The clank of metal gates opening and closing.  The loud gawking cry of the bird that woke me many times in the night.  The angry howls of two cats.  The sound of the coffee grinder my housemate just turned on.  The early-morning greetings on the road: “Selamneh?!  Selamnesh?!”

“Are you peaceful?”

My Sunday in Addis

Is today the day?  I wonder . . .
I’m tired after a full-on (as my Aussie friend puts it) two weeks.  The team from Chattanooga came and went, I’ve spent pretty much every spare minute working on grad school applications, and now I’ve acquired a cold accompanied by laryngitis.  I’ve spent most of today in fleece, with many cups of lemon tea.  I keep having to remind myself that I’m supposed to be polishing my essays, when what I really want to do is just finish one of the five books I’m reading.
So, it’s no surprise that I wonder if today should be the day I twist the cap off of my very last Diet Coke.  It’s been residing at the back of my fridge for awhile now, waiting for a very bad, no-good, horrible day when I really, really need that familiar burning sweetness.  But, I decided today is not the day.  I’m feeling more rested and not quite so desperate, and besides, with my impaired taste buds I wouldn’t fully appreciate those 12 oz of goodness!  Instead, I settle on indulging in one of my three bags of microwave popcorn, made possible by my housemate’s microwave.
Time to cook half the bag of popcorn (the other half apparently disappeared into Orville’s mouth): 6 minutes.  Six loooooong minutes!

True That

Slogans I read within a minute of each other on my walk through the crowds to the office this morning:

God is Love

My Toyota is Fantastic

The Devil is Bad

Pretty much sums it all up, doesn’t it??

My morning

It’s a strangely quiet morning in the office; I’m all alone here, which is a rare event.  I have a stack of papers to work through, and I don’t mind the solitude right now.  I woke up exhausted, and so glad that today is Friday.  But I just thought it was going to be peaceful . . . a few minutes ago I heard the call of “Sah-ra!” from downstairs, and when I went outside there were 5 women (plus kids!) waiting on me.  They all decided to talk at once, and well, when I’m tired my Amharic comprehension and speaking ability plummets.  So I blankly stared in their faces, wishing so much that I could understand them, or that I wasn’t alone, or that I could think clearly, or that they didn’t really need anything . . . One by one I think we managed to sort out their problems–Belaynesh was miserably sick, but the earliest doctor appointment she could get was for Monday; Sojat needed her son’s ART meds refilled (and then she had a headache . . .); Aragawi was confused about medication she had been given 2 days ago (“Can I take it with milk?  What about salt?  Or beriberi (a common spice here)??”); Gebayanesh wanted to see one of the team members who she met last year; and Sintayehu just brought her daughter to say hi (and get some candy!).

Now I’m back at my desk staring at med lists to be added to the inventory, TB information to be entered in the database, research articles to be read, papers to be sorted through . . . I think I need some more sleep!

photos

This is why I love this country and continent–it’s so starkly beautiful.  This week was an SIM (the big mission we are affiliated with) conference at a hotel compound a couple hours south of Addis.  It was good to be there–good teaching, good worship, good fellowship  . . . and very bad monkeys.  They like to steal your food (took my bread right out of my hand the first night I was eating dinner!!) and anything else that appeals to them!

My friend Dorinda and I went on a jaunt through the bush to find some river rapids we had heard about.  I think they would have been more fun to see via a raft:-)  Anyway, the walk was fun!

The rapids we went in search of are behind me:)  The Nile Rift Valley has some awesome terrain!

Th

Warthogs–ugly and mean.  What a great combination!

A representative of the mischievous species:-)

With Dorinda (who works with a clinic/outreach project in SW Ethiopia, “10 km from the edge of the earth”; and Allison, who teaches English in a town about 4 hours from Addis).

Back to the project!  Rowdy boys gathering for Friday afternoon boy’s group!

We have a team from TN who just arrived this morning, so the next two weeks will be busy.  The sun is out in Addis and as of last Sunday, it’s officially warm.  In one day the wind changed from cool to toasty, so it finally feels like summer.  It still drops to the 30s at night, but that’s just good running weather, right?!