Fast-forward to April

Hello friends!
Today I am heading home. Our project is winding down nicely here in Canada, Leana and I have imported all the drawings into Auto CAD and we are waiting on some structural questions before the final set goes out to SIM. We will hear how the initial meeting of the SIM Ethiopia board goes in May and know what the time line is to start construction then.

This weekend our host parents took us out on a sweet hike around Bragg Creek. It was a really great way to spend my last free Canada day. Saturday was spent cooking, baking and playing cards all day and on Easter morning Leana and I were woken up by racing around our host house looking for Easter eggs (Celeste hides them hard!) and then a delicious Easter breakfast. The Campbell’s have been wonderful host parents, Leana and I have truly been blessed. I will miss my little host family.

And now the answer you have all been waiting for: What is the first thing I will do when I get home (besides giving B lots of hugs and kisses, and visiting the Yaya’s and my parents)? Get a really big In & Out cheese burger and strawberry shake! I miss California food :)

10Then you will live a life that honors the Lord, and you will always please him by doing good deeds. You will come to know God even better. 11His glorious power will make you patient and strong enough to endure anything, and you will be truly happy.

Colossians 1:10-11

With love,
Cindy

Trip Video 01

This video highlights some of the amazing times we had on our little adventure. Enjoy.
(For a full screen version click here.)

Love,
Cindy

Trip Log - Last Days

We are back in Addis tonight at the SIM guest house. Tomorrow is our big meeting with SIM to show them the presentation and get initial approval. The trip today from Durame was overwhelmingly long. We stared out in the early morning and had quite a few stops so a 5 hour trip took about 10 hours. But the little places where we stopped were nice and we passed a lot of interesting things on the way.

On the trip down we took the Western route, this time we took the Eastern one past Langano, Shala, Ziway and Abijata Lake with a detour down to Lake Awasa [click here for a map]. Awasa was the only lake we visited on our journey, the rest were just glanced at from the road. Our guide book noted that Hippos lived in this lake, and I was very excited about the prospect of seeing them. We stopped in to a little café by the lake with rows of blue and red chairs and cappuccinos served in tiny cups. The trees were alive with many different species of birds and we even saw a monkey! Hippos are best seen in the morning or evening times from a boat, though, and we were there in the afternoon and the boat did not look extremely sea worthy, so I didn’t get to see any hippos. Maybe next trip.

Whenever we see another white person or an Asian person on this trip there is always a head nod or a “hello”. A bit of ‘Oh, you are different as well’ comradely. I have a pretty active imagination and like to hypnotize about why they are in this land. One reason I did not imagine is on roughing-it vacation. Apparently there are little high-end pretending tent villages where travelers can explore the country and then retire safely tucked away. We heard complaints of drunken tourists stumbling back to these villages late at night, disturbing their missionary and village neighbors. I suppose that is one way to see the country, but I can not imagine being here, seeing all this and not helping (or worse hurting by giving a bad impression of rich foreigners).

One of these villages is just down the road from House of Hope, an SIM project that Brian’s church in Canada has been helping sponsor. H of H cares for Ethiopian babies who have been orphaned during the first few months of life. They take in about 10 babies at a time for a few crucial developmental months and then re-assimilate the child with their father and a female relative who is willing to help. We were given a tour of the facilities and held the children for a while. The babies were all so tiny and looked like newborns, because of low birth weight, but they were all several months old. They were just so precious.

We also stopped into a fairly fancy Western-looking place for lunch. After so many meals of traditional Ethiopian food we were all ready for a little variety. The menu was fairly extensive and included pasta, a raw beef delicacy and something called a “hum burger with cheese”. I thought that was close enough to hamburger but cheese can be a little tricky here, so I ordered one without. Fairly safe, right? Well, this one was different than what I had pictured in my head. I got a fried chicken sandwich with a surprise of boloney. Huh… It was good though (I picked out the boloney). Some times in this country you think you’re getting one thing, and you end up with something completely different. And as we learned in training some things are “not bad, just different”.

When we got back to Addis tonight Tammy, her husband, adorable child and her brother, Techie (well that’s his nickname) meet us. Tammy had taken the bus back to Addis earlier in the week (I can’t imagine doing this, by the way, the buses here are CRAZY) because she and her brothers (her other brother is called Mercy) own a small engineering/architectural company and she missed her family. So we all went out to dinner at this very fancy traditional Ethiopian food restaurant with a live band and professional dancers. The performers perform a song from each region of Ethiopia and then come into the audience and pull us up to dance with them! We had a lot of fun.

Tomorrow, after our big meeting, we are going to do some souvenir shopping with Tammy, Techie and Jonathan’s wife, Sara Margaret. Should be a pretty fun day, then off to the airport and over to Germany for a little break, just me and Leana.

With love,
Cindy

Trip Log Day 11

This morning was Sunday, so we all went to Desta’s church, only he wasn’t there. He preaches every Sunday so to get a break he convinced all of us white people to give a message. He asked for 10 minutes each, with translation that is only about 5 but it is still a very long time to stand in front of people you have never met and speak. We walked in the church looked like it was about to burst from the number of people in there. Steve did some math and estimated there were 1,200 in a space that in North America would have held half that. When it became time for us to speak I was so nervous I don’t quite remember what I said but I do know I read from 1 Corinthians 3

10By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds. 11For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.

Meaning that eMi is only here in Durame for a little while and we can only start the plans, the people have to bring them to life; and if Jesus hadn’t been here even before us, then we could not even be here. Then I just prayed that what I said made even a little bit of sense to someone in that massive crowd or that at least they would know that we were there to help them build not to build for them.

Tonight was the big presentation! I can’t believe we finished it all in time. We have seven building plans, a large master plan, and a few elevations. I have no idea how that all got done in essentially a week. It’s kind of a miracle, well a miracle with a lot of work involved. All the elders of the church, some students and other concerned citizens came to the meeting and I believe the presentation went fairly well. We had time for a few questions at the end of the presentation. The way questions are phrased in this culture is really interesting. They first start out by praising God, then thanking the team, and then they ask their question finishing off with another thank you. Nothing is direct, thanking is extremely important and time is relative. I think we could learn a few things about how to be grateful and patient. The presentation was opened and closed in prayer. And these people know how to pray. It is all in Amharic and it is almost rhythmic in flow. It is beautiful to listen to.

In Him,
Cindy

P.S. Click to see images or the presentation, both on flickr.

Trip Log Day 10

Steve bought a sheep today from town. Jonathan suggested that to honor our hosts we buy them a sheep. One sheep costs approximately $30 Can. and is a very special occasion meal. Leana and I got away with out having to actually watch the sheep get slandered, or see it at all before it got killed (lest we name him/her and get attached) so I can’t say how big of a sheep it was but I can tell you it fed more people then I thought it would. Teddy, who grew up in Ethiopia, claims that the mark of a good sheep is the size of its tail, so he went around grabbing all the sheep’s tails in the market. This one had a good fat tail.

Our hosts and their families all came for the meal. It is a beautiful night so the meat was roasted over a fire in the courtyard. The children all sang to entertain us until everyone arrived and the food was ready. Some of the songs sounded very familiar, just in a different tongue. Their songs remind me that we all serve the same Maker, no matter what the language. Every bit of the lamb was served, Leana and I accidentally came down too early and saw a sliver of jaw bone with teeth go into the pot. The barbecue was very delicious although a bit slippery because it is cooked in the sheep’s fat. One piece I was trying to eat went flying over to Desta, family. I was a bit embarrassed to say the least, but everyone laughed. We had a great time. The best part was watching Leana try to suck the bone marrow out of a piece of leg. She eventually had to poke it out; apparently it has the consistency of cottage cheese with a barbecue flavor. Yum. By the end of the night Leana and I were both on the ground letting about ten little girls and a few boys pet our heads and take turns making pony-tails and placing barrettes. Since we haven’t taken a shower in quite some time (still no running water) it was nice and greasy for them but they loved it!

And now because the presentation is tomorrow are staying up late to continue making the final adjustments to our PowerPoint and renderings.

Love,
Cindy

P.S. Still more images here.

Trip Log Day 09

I thought I would take a minute to describe the food here. In Addis there is so much variety, we had Mexican (yeah, good Mexican, too) on the day we left town. But out here in the country side food has become a daily remembrance to be thankful for what the Lord has provided for us and the hands that prepared our meals. In short, we have three meals a day of virtually the same thing. I have come to call the dishes Red, Green and Yellow; I think we were told the correct name but I can’t remember. We eat separately from everyone else so there isn’t really a way to tell if we are eating fancy or more frequently than the others but we all suspect that we are. We have to remember that the staff here is truly blessing us.

Injera: This is the sour bread I was writing about earlier. It’s rolled fermented sour bread (almost pancake-like) that is used as a utensil to scoop up food. I ate this the first few days but towards the end here I haven’t touched it. The sour starts to get to you.

Red: Red bean spicy chili with lots of oil and sometimes tiny (we’re talking flakes) of meat. This is served at every meal.

Green: This one is spinach that has been chopped up finely and has the same flakes of beef (or some meat…) in it once and a while. This one also is served at every meal.

Yellow: Cabbage is marinated in curry (making it yellow) and about twice this also has potatoes in it.

Loafs of white bread: Praise the Lord for white bread loafs! They taste completely western and freshly baked. I love them. The loaves served at every meal along side the injera and are getting to be the only thing I am willing to stomach for at least two of the three meals a day.

Also making select appearances:

Purple: I don’t touch this one. It’s beets in some sort of water soup.

Red CHICKEN!: This made one appearance on a very happy afternoon. There was one less chicken in the yard. According to Jonathan (or local expert) this dish is only served at special holiday celebrations. It was so yummy!

Spaghetti: This is kinda an odd one. Twice it has been breakfast. Be we are not in a position to complain so it gets eaten pretty fast because it resembles Western food. The sauce is Red.

Potatoes: Plain fried potatoes, oh how I love thee! This dish was served once at dinner. Two small thinly sliced potatoes around a team of 8 people is eaten really quickly. I think that French fries might be the anti-Ethiopian food. Leana and I are totally craving them lately.

Steve keeps threatening to fake illness or fast. He was done with all this food days before any of the rest of us were. Makes you wonder how he has survived years of team leading. Fasting here means eating only vegetarian, though and illness means that you are going to be prayed over and get people all worried, so he has to eat. And so do the rest of us. Again, praise the Lord God in heaven for white loaves of bread!

Lastly, the coffee here is amazing. It’s so dark that you can’t see the spoon if you scoop some up and it is so rich that it tastes like the earth (it seems as if you could describe the coffee like I would wine: earthy with a strong aroma). Leana hates coffee under normal circumstances but here – coffee is amazing! It is freshly pounded then roasted then brewed every day, three times a day for us. There is even a whole elaborate coffee ceremony that we were treated to three times here. The whole process takes about two hours and I can’t believe they are willing to make it so often for us, but again, we are very blessed by our hosts.

The women put out a grass mat and grass clippings on the floor to sit on and the ceremony begins. It starts out with roasting the green beans over a small fire pot. You have to move the around continually to keep them from burning, we were each allowed a turn, it was very stressful. Then the women pound the beans into a fine powder in a hollowed stump with a large trunk like staff. After that the beans get brewed with hot water in a clay pot over the small fire. Another job we got to try was fanning the flame with a piece of cardboard. The coffee is portioned out into small cups and passed around and re-filled till you can’t drink any more. So yummy.

Pictures of the coffee ceremony, food and more of the adventure can be found here.

Bon Appetit,
Cindy

Trip Log Day 07

We haven’t had running water in a few days. The flushing and showers from the day Leana got sick depleted our reserve. Let’s just say it is a good thing we have two toilets because one is now for one and the other for sickness and well, the other. We didn’t realize it but the water tank that feeds the house is doesn’t run along the water line be fed directly from the spring, so it has to be filled manually. Manually means 8 men with two or three bright yellow water cans each climbing a lashed together ladder to pour in water they carried up the hill.

The spring empties at the church lot (where all the locals wait for water every morning) and starts way up in the hills, a two hour walk from our site. The ESKM application for EMI services mentions that repair is needed to bring the flow to maximum capacity. Johnny and Teddy (as they now fondly refer to one another) walked up to the source a few days ago. There is a lot of repair that needs to be done over hilly pasture land. Perhaps on another trip.


Bugs

I am so thankful for Leana and Tammy, they are really not afraid of the gigantic bugs that keep sneaking under the door and they smash them for me. Here is a detailed list of the ones we have encountered:

- The June Bug: We used to see these all the time on Mexico missions trips and they are here too! These huge 2.5 inches (or 65mm) beetle-like bugs fly around with a loud buzz noise and wouldn’t stay still enough for me to take a picture.

- The Fly: Almost the same as its North American cousin but these ones are less afraid of you. They just decide to hang out on your arm no matter how many times you swat them (maybe it doesn’t help that with out running water it has been a few days since we showered). The kids here have just stopped swatting at them all together; so on the warmer days the flies are just basking in the sun on the kid’s shoulders.

One new trick I have learned from Brian (who lives out in the Canadian country side on a farm) is how to catch them. The flies fly up before out so if you sweep your hand directly above them you get ‘um just as they try to escape. Brian is our resident catch and release or smoosh-er.

-Bed Bugs: I haven’t actually seen these but they are leaving their mark on me. I’ve got little red itchy bumps all on my ankles. I tried shaking out the bedding but that didn’t seem to help so my guess is these guys have hooks and sharp fangs, but I really have no idea. Leana has them way worse than I do, she has bites on her stomach from staying in bed all day when she was sick.

- Spiders: Also the same as in North America but just more frequent now. We’ve seen daddy long legs and little black ones but nothing too dangerous or scary, thankfully.

- Crickets: These ones are smaller and darker than any I have seen before and like to frequent the guest bedroom where I am sleeping. One totally freaked me out the other day by jumping just out of the corner of my eye. Leana smashed it for me.

- Heebie-Jeebie Bugs: These guys are especially prevalent here. You think you feel them on you, or see a movement out of the corner of your eye and yell, but then suddenly there is nothing there. This goes on till you become so desensitized that when an actual bug is on you, you don’t notice.

- Big crunchy tail bug: This one keeps sneaking in at night when we host the whole team for devotional. They love the light so when the guys open the door they jump from the porch one to our living room light. We have gotten in the habit of making answering our door with the lights off, but they still sneak in! This bug has a long segmented yellow tail and four orange-brown wings and it makes the most disgusting crunch when it is smashed with a shoe. Ewwie.

That’s all for now, be careful of those heebie-jeebie bugs!

As usual, images are here on my flicker account (don’t worry, no bug ones!).

Lots of love,
Cindy

Trip Log Day 04

Today was rough. Leana got sick last night and she has been sick in bed all day. Tammy made her some oatmeal-like stuff but other than that she really hasn’t eaten. One of the big fears in Africa is to getting so dehydrated you have to go to the hospital. The first they do at a hospital is stick a needle in you. So I went up the hill to the girl’s guest house about ten times to remind her to drink water and check in. She feels better tonight. It was weird being separated from her for so long, though. I mean I was worried, but also we haven’t been away from each other for long awake periods of time for over a month now. Leana and I live, work and now travel together 24/7. I missed her.

Robert has most of the master plan laid out now. He easily delegates and is really easy to work for and with. So far we have down a few classroom blocks, the administration and have started on the residences. The hardest part is the kitchens.

We got a small peek at the working facilities for the 5 women who are feeding us and a few of the staff and students here, which is maybe a total of 20 people. Behind the dinning hall is one small room with counters for prep work, there is no stove or sink or fridge in this room, it is just for preparation and a little storage. Across the hallway from this room is another small room with three bunk beds where we assume the cook staff is sleeping. All the cooking happens behind the main building in a smaller cinder block building with two rooms, one for wood storage and other with 3 single pipe hearth stoves. These stoves have been specially designed to reduce smoke in wood fire kitchens. They have a front loading fire pit and a stove top with a hole for the heat rise up and cook the food. A pipe chimney is supposed to draw the additional smoke upwards out the roof of the building. We have no idea if this stove works. The women are cooking on the stone floor in the corner beside it. The room was entirely black with smoke when we were back there, an hour after we had eaten breakfast.

It is at times like this that the language barrier is almost insurmountable. “Why?!” is one phrase I felt like screaming. Thankfully Tammy does speak the language and was able to ask the women a few questions about the seemingly unusual set up. The stove top is too high. It is at a normal 54 inches, though… right, that’s normal… Oh wait, this is Africa. The “normal” here is cooking outside over a three stone fire. This stove is way too high to be cooking for hours over. Women need to cook for hours to get 20 people (let alone the 70 our clients would like them to be serving) fed and they are not going to be doing standing over an uncomfortably high stove. They are going to do it squatting communally around an open fire the way their mothers cooked for them and their mother’s mother on for generations. All this is done in a closed room that protects them from the elements and in cases the women (and often times, in home settings, the young girls eager to help and the babies strapped to the backs of their sisters). Bio-mass smoke (like that from wood) is responsible for 2 million deaths annually. So maybe we can find a way to give them something a little better.

Again, images are here. I found a few interesting articles on developing world smoke inhalation: developments.org.uk and darfurstoves.org are two. Ideas are always welcome.

With hope,
Cindy

Trip Log Day 03

Today was a really productive day. It started drizzling in the morning on the walk from our guest houses to the dinning hall on the church grounds. The church where we were hosted last night for dinner and the school property which our guest houses are on are really one site that has been divided. The rain was a blessing really, because it forced us to sit down with the clients and get a program worked out before anything else. The clients are Dr. Desta, the school director, and Solomon, an instructor at the school who will be taking over soon. The programming for this site is very long to say the least; one of the team members likened it to getting 10 pounds of rice into a 5 pound bag. We will see what we can do.

After the meeting the rain had died down and we all went for a walk along the site. There is something about a fresh rain that makes anything seem possible; I think the whole team felt that 5 pound bag looked larger. In the application paperwork that EKSM had submitted the site was described as “not flat but not too steepy” and it was exactly that: fresh, feral farm land with a gentle slope.

The survey team headed out to get their measurements and the architects (Robert, Leana and I) all eagerly headed up to the guy’s guest house to get started sketching out a plan. We drew all day. I really have missed hand sketching in these past weeks. Robert delegated the administration building to me which was a bit of type casting but I am so happy to be helpful. The great challenge for many of these buildings is how do they grow? For the admin building the best solution I came up with was the dreaded dead end hallway. For you non-architects: in the “real world” you would never have a hallway end with a blank wall, no closet, no room door, nothing. But in this cause, with the virtual absences of any building code, dead end hallways mean you can demolish just that bit of wall at the end and keep growing (I have included my sketch in the flicker slides for reference). While I was working on that tiny building and Leana was sketching away at her classroom block, Robert started his first overall sketch of the site layout and master plan. This guy is good, it was amazing to watch how quickly and beautifully he worked. I am so happy with our progress today. We might actually get this done in a week. Crazy!

The other great thing about today was that we got a chance to sit and talk with Tammy, our electrical engineer and Ethiopian native. She is so great, really easy to talk to and totally adorable. We all shared pictures of our family and home. Tammy has the cutest little girl, Yaditya, a very handsome husband. The cultural divide isn’t as big as you would think. We are all living and loving on this little green and blue that God holds in his hand. How blessed are we?!

As usual, images are here on my flicker account. I have included descriptions which can be turned on using the 'options' menu which appears on the top right when your mouse is over the image.

Lots of love,
Cindy

Trip Log Day 02

Day 02 in country:
In the Morning:
Today we ride into Dureme, a short 5 hours away in a Land Cruiser with two benches facing each along the side windows. There are 10 of us heading out from the SIM camp including the team, Desta, the KHSM ministry leader, and our driver. Its gunna be a little squishy.

I feel so well rested and clean this morning, L and I got left behind at SIM while the men of the team went to get the survey equipment at the airport. We took hot showers and slept in till fairly late (did I mention SIM is wonderful??).

In the Evening:
I’m a bit more tired now. The country side was beautiful and sad at the same time. The hills remind me of home, the trees different though. The local ones are these large canopied trees that are synonymous with Africa, but only the really large ones are still here because some many get torn down for firewood, leaving the country deforested with large cracks running through the earth every few thousand yards. This brings us to our second type of tree, the eucalyptus tree. Now you should be saying, “But those are not indigenous to Africa!”, and you would be correct. They have been transplanted here by well meaning people because they grow quickly, providing wood and the oil from the tree is a natural insecticide. However, these tall trees also suck large amounts of water out of the surrounding area and sour the soil for other crops meaning once you plant them that is all you can plant there for quite some time. So you see, beautiful and sad at the same time.

The people along the road are also captivating. They are very colorful in their clothes, so you get bright pops of pink and orange and green along a brown stretch of road. As soon as we stopped for a break in one of the little towns all the children rush the van windows, tapping on them for money and to buy gum or CDs or whatever else they are promoting. Of course you are not supposed to give them any money straight out, which is an odd thing to remember. Handing out money perpetuates a culture of begging for the children and there are so many children there you would run out of bills before hands. Also you have to remember that we are not the only white faces traveling though this country and one hand out can lead to a stream of continued tapping for organizations that are trying to establish a better income source for the countries poor. A short-term hand out will not solve the long-term problem. Hand outs are not why EMI has come, so I resisted. It is very hard to turn away from a sad 5-year-old with her hand out.

The round mud huts along the road are right out of National Geographic. It’s so crazy to actually be seeing them. They are constructed with a circle of wood dowel rods (really eucalyptus branches and trunks) that has been mudded over, first on the inside then out. Many times the outside is not fully finished or just finished along the sides of the door. They paint large stripes all the way around the hut in white and orange-brown, some times the stripes have zigzagged accents of colors on top. The roofs are thatched with an upside-down clay pot shoved over the middle post to keep the rain from dripping through the center. Some times there is a door, most times there isn’t. The entire families (with an average of five children) live in this one circular room with the live stock as well. It doesn’t look that large, at least from the outside.

The livestock rule the road. Some times there are troops of young children tending them. The van got ‘stuck’ for a minute in one herd of cattle with children yelling at them. Mules are the same, deciding in their stubbornness when it is best to move off the road. The mules can carry comically large loads, and less comically their tenders (women) can as well, right along side them. Mostly they carry the wheat used to make injera, which is cheap and quick to grow. Injera is the much soured sponge-y pancake-like bread everyone eats with every meal. It lines your plate, is used as a utensil and it is eaten plain. It’s not bad.

Most of the 5 hour drive was paved. The last 1 hour wasn’t. We had been told that there was a “bad” stretch of road so we assumed that this was it. It wasn’t. The last fifteen minutes were. This dirt road leading up to the church property had pot holes the size of cows every three feet. The craziest part was that our well equipped Land Cruiser was not the only thing on the pitch black road (no streetlights here). Ethiopians were walking along in the dark miles away from any town. Now how in the world do you suppose they walk along without losing an ankle?

We had a traditional Ethiopian dinner at the church when we arrived. Leana and Tammie and I silly-ly went to use the toilet right when we got out of the van. Desta took us around behind the main building to a little room off the back with a nice little squatty potty. L and I both thought “oh no, this means SP’s for the rest of the week… that should be interesting…” Of course, I missed and finished out one pair of pants for the week. So you can imagine our joy when we got to our logging house and discovering real western-style toilets, and two, at that, for just us three women!

And now I am exhausted. Good Night!

Lots of love,
Cindy

P.S. Check out more images here.

Back to Canada/ Trip Log Day 01

Hello OR Endemen Aderachoo (well as long as it is morning when you read this and there are more than one of you out there…my Amharic is very limited…)

We just returned from our voyage to Ethiopia (and Germany a little bit). The amazing-ness of such a journey will be hard to sum up here but I’m going to try. If you have questions or want to know specific details about the trip that I may miss, please feel free to leave them in the comments below.

First Days:

I have been worrying about every little thing (and big things, too) for the week before we left, i.e. car crashes, illnesses only contracted in Africa, baggage transfers to be lost in Africa, etc. then on Friday I remembered Matt 6:25-34 (and especially 33).

25"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life[a]?
28"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' 32For the pagans run after all these things and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

So I feel much better about the whole thing, and really started to get excited instead of just worried.

We got some great advice from my good friend Jon to switch our plane seats to the left side of the plane (North side) to get a glimpse of the Northern Lights. We got more than a glimpse, we spent about 20 minutes with our faces pressed against the tiny glass windows and our mouths open. You gotta see it. It’s amazing.

Our stop over on the way to Ethiopia was in London. We got about 8 hours to tour around with eMi UK people, grab some pub food and head back to the plane. I need to go back and visit longer (B, come with me!), the city fascinates me.

Today (02-14) we landed in Addis Ababa and spent about 4 hours trying to get through customs. We did receive all of our baggage, the one highlight. Our survey equipment, however, was confiscated and held for a ransom of “bring money tomorrow”. The local officials claimed it was not survey equipment but instead professional camera equipment we had hauled here to film their country in a negative light, thus hindering their image to the world as a friendly tourist destination. They were very un-friendly. (Prayerfully we did get our equipment the next day with help from our host ministry, SIM.)

SIM has a wonderful set up in Addis. They picked us up from the airport and drove us through the town to their compound (most everything is behind a gate in Addis) of three buildings: a large guest house/hotel, two office buildings. We were very blessed to stay at the compound for one night before heading off to our project site in Dureme. The compound has running water, western-style bathrooms and very comfortable beds (even though sleeping almost anywhere would have been great after two nights of plane-“sleep”).

The Team:
Steve – Fearless Leader, Architect and eMiC director
Leana – Intern, graduate Architect and inseparable from me
Brian – Canadian Structural Engineer
Robert – American (CO) Architect
Jonathan – American living in Ethiopia with adorable wife (Sara Margaret), Civil Engineer
Ted – Ethiopian living in Canada, Survey Man
Tammy (Tameranesh) – Ethiopian Electrical Engineer

That’s all for now. Check out the images that go with the story here and here.

Lots of love,
Cindy

Flying South (...and East)

Today is the day. We leave for the airport at 3PM today and were off! Our layover tomorrow will be in London for about 8 hours, so were going to do a quick tour, and then it’s on to Addis Ababa. A short 4-5 hour van ride later and were at our site in Durame, Ethiopia. The team of 8, including me, will then start surveying and designing a master plan for the Kale Heywet School of Missions. In addition to a classroom building we are also making room for an administration building, library, dormitories, and dining hall. We have 7 days to create sketches and present a plan to the client that we will go home and refine, create drawings from and send back. We most likely won’t have a large bandwidth internet connection while I am in Ethiopia. I am taking a page from my fellow Canada intern, Elliot’s, book and will be journaling while I am away. When I get back to Calgary I will upload these notes here, one day at a time with pictures. So be looking for that.




Prayer Requests
- to meet the needs God would have us fill in the time allotted to us.
- for all our bags to arrive on time and in full
- for everyone on the team’s health and well being while we are away
- team cohesion (we are meeting the volunteer design professionals at the airports and we will only have this trip time with them, so it needs to count)
- that God would impact our lives through this trip, and our hearts would always be open to those in need because of our experiences here.

Side Note
A few new pictures are up on the Flicker of a little walk Leana and I did along the river.

That’s it for now!

Lots of love,
Cindy

Camps in Calgary

I got a really great treat this weekend! Audrey and Jonathan Camp came on a little Canada trip to see me. Don’t I have the best friends in the world? We headed up to Banff Nat’l Park on Saturday for a little hiking (see flickr for photos) shopping and dinner. Then today we got to just hang out, talk and be together, which was perfect and a wonderful remedy for my homesickness. I love them so much.

On Friday Leana and I head out with our team to Durame, Ethiopia, Africa. Please be praying for safe and quick travels, that we are able to work efficiently and develop good relations with the locals.

Hope all is going well at home, yall! I miss you.

-Cindy

Photostream Update

Be sure to head on over to my photostream on flicker to see my new uploads!

Images & Life Here

I know may of you have been patiently waiting for this: I have uploaded images to Flickr! Please peruse away. They are mainly from training, and some of the interesting things we saw in Colorado but don’t worry I have rediscovered my camera in Canada (it went AWAL for a bit) and will be getting you some living/working/people images soon.

General Update:
This weekend Leana and I popped into Banff for a bit with Sharon and Sara Van Middlesworths (a very generous family we have made friends with). We got to take a dip in the hot springs up there, go shopping for a bit, and get treated to lunch! A very nice weekend, indeed.

Tonight Leana and I will be baby-sitting for one of the EMI families. Kevin is in Africa and Michele has an appointment this evening and next Monday, so we get to watch their little girls. Those of you who know me well, know I am thrilled to help out with all this. It should be quite an adventure.

Love.
Cindy

My Milk is in French – And other minor Culture Shocks

So, I’m standing at the fridge on my first morning in Canada thinking “Huh, the ‘lait’ is ‘sans gras’, good to know…” Yeah, things are slightly ‘different’ here, and, as we learned in cultural class during training last week, this does not necessarily mean things are ‘wrong’. I added the ‘lait’ to my cereal, and for the record, it’s the same as milk. Canada has two official languages so everything is written twice by law on products, once in English and once in French. Okay, so it’s not the culture shock my fellow interns are getting in, say, India, but it’s still making me miss home quite a bit.

Celeste and Cam are my new host parents here. They have been so sweet to give me and my fellow intern, Leana, run of the top floor with two bedrooms, a bath and a living room. Cam runs his own Architecture firm out of the bottom floor and Celeste runs a children’s hair saloon that’s about to go global, it’s called ‘Beaners’. You know the little hat with the pinwheel on it… No? Huh, I think we have another cultural difference here… No, worries they’ve already lined up another name for the States.

Work is going well. Leana and I have been lucky enough to have had Steve (the boss man at EMI) come get us every morning last week. Next week starts the one hour, two bus ride trip into work in the snow. I’m excited. So far work has just been research on Ethiopia and getting little things done. But really it’s just nice to know that all the little things we are doing at work is contributing to greater global cause of helping EMI fight poverty and harsh treatment though out the globe.

Oh my goodness the snow! It’s been snowing lightly all day turning the whole scene outside the window white and soft. The tree branches are trying their best to hold up as much snow as they can creating a little narrow pile all down them. Being a California girl, all this makes me happy, and want to curl up with a good book. Which is what I think I will go do now.

Love and Hugs,

Cindy

Good Morning

I am currently writing you from a very cozy seat. One of my most favorite Christmas presents is keeping me warm. No, not the overwhelmingly large parka my parents got me for Christmas (although, that is one of my favorites, and will soon be keeping me very warm) but instead my bright pink Snuggie. I have taken the week off to get all the last bits of errands done, there are only 5 days left in California! I am off to training in Colorado Springs on Sunday.

A few months ago, the missions’ team at church suggested I speak on a Sunday about what I will be doing. I did that last Sunday and, oh man, let me tell you, a LOT of people who go to our church! There must be more praying then I was doing involved in walking up in front of them and talking every Sunday, it was scary. I think it went alright, people came up and wished me a good journey after, but to me it was all a blur. I (think I) told them we have raised all our funding (check out the meter!), and where I was going (Ethiopia), and what eMi is (emiworld.org), and they prayed for me. All in all, a humbling experience.

I started emailing with my new roomie, Leana, last month. We will both be living with the Campbells, a couple from one of the churches that supports eMi up in Calgary. Leana seems really great. She’s from Virginia and this is her first job out of school, but her second round as an intern in Calgary. She has already promised to help me church hunt and to shop for really cute Canada-winter clothes. I have included her blog in my blog roll on the left.

This week I have just been feeling overwhelmed and nervous. My ToDo list is long and color coordinated by day. Actually, I think the list helps. It keeps me from really focusing on the ‘missing everyone and everything’ part of this trip. It keeps me in the moment. Please be praying that I can remain calm and focused on the task at hand throughout my training and into the Canada portion of the trip. I feel very blessed to be sent on this journey, and I am so thankful that you are watching me as I travel.

Love and Hugs,

Cindy