July 10, 2010

9:04 AM

It’s a quiet morning here in “our” house – Jeremiah is resting on the couch next to Josie who is sick now too (with what Jeremiah has and maybe an eye infection? Caught from a little friend at VBS – germ sharing, another universal language) and snuggled in a big chair watching a Looney Toons DVD in the dark living rom. All shutters (heavy duty – like hurricane shutters on a beach house) are drawn and it is dark, mellow and cozy.

Set on routine, Lucy woke at 7:30 (have I made them this way or did God?), which answered the question I had at midnight last night – “will I get to sleep in???” – but she is back in bed for a nap now, so I’m here in my pajamas (there’s something very rewarding about still being in my pajamas at 9AM!) at the table listening to some Phil Whickham and sipping some Ethiopian coffee.

Sigh.

It was a crazy week of VBS and the final week of Jeremiah’s class. Praise the Lord that I was able to hire the head nursery worker from IEC to help me this week. Rahel, a single Mama to Samela (2 yrs old) runs the nursery on Sunday mornings, and works during the week for two missionary families watching their children. I have seen her in the nursery loving on the kids when I’ve been in there nursing Lucy on Sundays. She is amazing with the kids, speaks English incredibly well, and I found out that the two families she works for are out of town for a few weeks! So she met us every morning and took care of Lucy during VBS, enabling me to be free to do the bazillion motions to the songs all day long. She would bring Lucy in for the opening and closing ceremonies, so Lucy was able to enjoy the music as well :)

Rahel would help me with the girls and walk to lunch with us then help me get taxis home, and then she made us some tortillas that rival the best you’ve ever tasted in Texas! We made lasagna and banana bread together – one for us, one for her – she was thrilled. I was too.

Having Rahel around this week was such a blessing for me. It was a hectic week with the combination of VBS all morning, crazy taxi rides, long walks between places, late lunches out, late naps and Jeremiah getting home after baths all but one night (that’s Mama talk for, “we barely saw him”), but with her help I didn’t go crazy. :) I don’t think. Our girls LOVED her – she read Josie lots of books and Lucy was always showing off her dimples and big grin when she would talk to her…and she doesn’t do that for just anybody!

She is such a hard working woman, caring for her mother, two brothers and her own child, while loving and caring for other’s children all day long. She has a bright smile on her face and joy in her heart. She became a Christian through IEC when a neighbor invited her to church when she was 10. Immediately afterwards she began helping in the Sunday school classes and eventually became the head nursery worker. Her husband comes from a wealthy Ethiopian family, and they were never happy with him marrying Rahel, from a much lower class. So they put affairs in order and made a way for him to leave her and live in Sweeden. So when she was 7 months pregnant with their child, he said he was going to visit his family, and instead left and never returned. She was left in her last trimester, with no money and now no house, as she had to move out. From what I can gather, this is when she started to nanny. She has also found time at night to go to school (I think an American family sponsored her education for awhile), where she has learned administrative skills. She now rents a room on a compound where her mother and brothers live as well…they all live together, but there isn’t room for Rahel and Samela, so she has to rent herself. Apparently her brothers are drunks and do not contribute to the family. I think she is considering applying to ETC next semester to take a night class…I so hope she does. It costs $150 US for one whole semester of college at ETC, a private Bible college. But when you put that cost into context, it is quite a sacrifice here to pay for Bible school, or any school, instead of, say, buying a stove/oven. (which she does not have) I think my favorite thing about Rahel, was her attitude about her situation. I had to DRAG information from her…she was never trying to sell me a sob story and ask for a hand-out. She is a Godly, single Mama who is working hard to provide the best life possible for her family (extended included). She quickly became my friend, and I so appreciated her company and help this week. I had to beg her to sit and have coffee with me at the table, she was always wanting more things to help me with. Having been a nanny though, I have experienced the difference between a family who includes you and a family that simply employs you. Besides that, I really did enjoy her.

If I could, I would pack Rahel and Samela (her 2 year old daughter) in a bag and carry them on. Since I cannot, we will at least leave her a few mix CDs (nothing says love like a mix tape, er, CD…sorry Hudson!), attend Samela’s 2nd birthday party this Saturday before we board our plane home, and leave as many of Josie’s clothes and shoes (some of which are Lily Baker’s actually – the gift that keeps on giving :)) for her.

I want to give her everything we have.

Jeremiah has reminded me though, that we live month to month and he works at Starbucks and I work too and he is in school as well. Oh yes. How quickly I forget. :) We are so rich in so many things though, a nice apartment and family and opportunity and true freedom and friends and TIME with our children and convenience and access to so much…not to mention a microwave, dishwasher and oven. Ugh, I wish I could give her all of these things.

Anyway, today begins our last week in Ethiopia! :( None of us can believe our time here is coming to a close…

We are overwhelmed with gratitude – without the prayers and generosity of so many of our friends and family, we would have never been able to experience Ethiopia these past 5 weeks. And even though half our family is sick right now, for the bulk of our trip, we have been healthy and able to function at (close to ;) ) 100%! It has been hard, adventurous, exciting, stretching, tiresome, educational, sad, and all at the same time full of fun and joy. We have really loved being here.

All that said, I am on the verge of being very ready to be home.

It is sad to know we only have one week left – sad to know we have to say goodbye to so many sweet people who we have grown to love in such a short time. But it has been a pretty exhausting 5 weeks for me, personally – physically and emotionally – so it will be nice to be home.

But wow, what a great taste, if even a small one, of what life could possibly look like for us one day. Obviously if we were in a more developed country there would be lots of differences, but evenso, a really great taste. We will be chewing on it for a long time, I’m sure. Wow, that was just cheesy. Sorry.

We will head to the Dr. at SIM Headquarters on Monday as we will be over on that side of town anyway having dinner with Tom and Romanda Lunsford and Ernie and Anne Frey. Hopefully we can kick these illnesses soon and have a great last week here – our team will be down in Langano this week, which we have decided to forgo.

Malaria is very prevalent in Langano, and although we’d love to go enjoy more of Ethiopia, and get to see Emily!, we have received plenty of advice, from locals and missionaries both, that have advised us not to take a baby. Thinking about Lucy getting Malaria, maybe even spiking super high fever on our flight home, unable to take any malaria meds (in the air or on the ground, as she is too little), it seemed way too irresponsible to go. Bringing her to Addis was all the risk/faith combo we could handle right now, we decided.

So instead we will have the house to ourselves and a somewhat “free” schedule. Which we are looking forward to both.

We plan to do a little souvenir shopping at Merkato (largest open air market in Africa), Jeremiah will road trip for the day Tuesday with Tom and Erinie to do some very informal theological training in Sodo (outside of Addis), visit A-Hope (HIV-AIDS children's home), Hope Enterprises (NGO reaching those living in great poverty), learn how to cook injera and doro wat at an Ethiopian’s home with Ramond and Anne, have all of the students over this week (half Tues night and half Wed night), and attend Samela’s party on Saturday before we get picked up at 4:30PM to head to the airport.

Okay, I better go…there are snotty noses to be wiped. Haha…I wish I was kidding.