Back, safe and sound

Just in case you were all worried... I'm back in the land of blogspot and decently fast internet :)

My time in Ethiopia was amazing!  I love that place.  Good people, good fun, good adventures, good food, good weather... it was all around good.  And I liked it.

I came home last night, and this morning helped to facilitate a workshop all day on creating some HIV/AIDS materials for use in schools and churches.  Then, this afternoon, at 5pm, I began facilitating a Writer's Workshop for a language community here in town.  I had such a great time at both... but today was just the beginning of both!  The HIV/AIDS workshop will go on for two weeks, and the Writer's Workshop will just go for one week.  I have a feeling I'm going to need a day off somewhere along the way...!

I do want to post some picts from my time in Ethiopia... but at the moment, I'm a bit wiped out.  So, hopefully tomorrow?

The best laid plans...

... So I got all packed up, ready to go, and then I went out for a nice leisurely lunch with my buddies here.  The flight wasn't scheduled to leave until 5:15pm, so leaving the house at 3:15 would get me to the airport in plenty of time to check in around 3:25pm.  I got home from lunch, and was SO sweaty (because it's currently 38C and about 75% humidity), so I jumped in the shower before putting on my clean travelling clothes.

Just as I was getting out of the shower, and still in my towel, got a phone call from a colleague who was at the airport waiting for her flight to Nairobi.  She said, "the Ethiopian Airlines plane just landed, and it looks like they're getting ready to leave again!"  This was 2:45pm.  Anyway, needless to say, I don't think I've ever dressed so quickly in my life (and in fact, once I got in the car had to double check to make sure that I had remembered to put on the necessary undergarments!).  At least my bags were already completely packed, right down to the lock on the suitcase.  So I was at the airport by 3pm.

And I found a group of disgruntled people standing around a closed check-in desk.

Starting from today, they are closing the airport at 4pm for "maintenance", so all the planes have to be off the ground before then.  But did they bother to tell anyone about this?  Seems not.  Some of us had even checked with the airline office yesterday afternoon to confirm the time of the flight... and nothing was said about the change in schedule!

As we were standing there and waiting for something to happen, more and more people were showing up for the 3:30pm check-in time.  I felt a bit bad for this woman from Ethiopian Airlines, but she really wasn't doing a very good job in dealing with all of us.  At one point, she was blaming us for not showing up on time, and making it sound like we were going to have to buy new tickets!

In the end, she just looked at each of our tickets and told us to come back tomorrow to check in at 11am.  I will be at the airport by at least 10am, since there will now be two plane loads of people trying to get on one plane!

In the meantime, the plane took off, basically empty, as the poor woman on the ground admitted.

Thankfully, I can just come home to my house and no problem.  But there were others there who had come in from somewhere else, or who had already checked out of their hotels, and the airline didn't have any plan on what to do for those people.  It was starting to get ugly, so I grabbed my bags and left.  I hope that poor woman makes it out of that airport in one piece today!

And I hope that I get on a plane tomorrow morning!  I'm just feeling really bad because I'm meant to be helping with a workshop tomorrow morning, and now I'm not there... not to mention the fact that I haven't been able to get a hold of anyone there to let them know that I'm not coming!  I've tried phoning, texting and emailing, but I don't know if anything has been received on the other end!

Again, if you're the praying type, pray that I can get a seat on that plane tomorrow - it will be two plane loads of people trying to get on one plane.  And I know those flights have been fairly full lately, so we're not talking just a few people!

Fare thee well, blogosphere...

... and I shall see you in two weeks.  I'm going to Ethiopia tomorrow afternoon to help facilitate a workshop for the next two weeks.  I'm super excited about going, because, well, frankly, I just LOVE Ethiopia!  And it's super hot and humid here, and it's been super busy, and I'm ready for a bit of a change of scene!

But, Ethiopia is not exactly known for it's high speed and available internet, and it also blocks blogspot blogs.  Hence, you shall not see me for a few weeks (that is, if there are any people out there who still ready my sparse little blog anymore!)

For those of you who are praying types, you can pray for this next two weeks.  I'm helping someone else from our organization facilitate a workshop on how we can help curriculum writers and teachers transition from the mother tongue of the students into the language of higher education (in this case, English).  It's a fascinating area that I want to learn more about... but, well, frankly, I really need to learn more about it!  So it's a bit of a daunting task to be asked to go along and help out.  Although, that being said, the powers that be that asked me along also know that I'm still learning about this stuff, too, so I'm fairly certain they've asked me along as part of my own "professional development", so I can learn from someone who is much more experienced and much wiser than I!

I'll see you from the flip side, after I've waddled home with a belly fully of injera and a suitcase full of new scarves :)  (Although it seems we'll be working on Satrudays, too, so I really don't know if/when there will be any time for shopping :(  )

What it takes...

... to get the job done right:

A projector, a gizzilion cables, several laptops, a few bowls of peanuts, some cups of water (or Coke!), and some song books.  Throw in a few "Executive Committee" members, a few Directors of various departments, and you've got yourself a meeting!  A three day long marathon meeting, even! 

Yup, this is what being a "missionary" looks like this week.

I'm on the Executive Committee (which is basically like an internal board for our little organization here), which means that twice a year, I get to attend the meetings.  I'm also the Secretary, which means I actually have to pay attention to what we're talking about, so I can minute it and make sure I'm not projecting my facebook on the wall, instead of the latest Director's Report!

But in fact, these last few days of meetings have been quite good.  There are some pretty big changes going on in our organization.  Changes that are coming from the "powers that be", and those of us down here on the ground are figuring out how it all looks like for us normal worker bees.  It's been good to think about and discuss.  Unfortunately, change does not come easy.  And there have been some disappointing moments, when I hear how others are reacting to the changes.  I like the ideas behind the changes - I think they will help each of us who work for the organization (whether we're expatriate or local) to truly work together as colleagues.  And I like that.  There's no reason we should be treated any differently in our organization depending on where our salary comes from - whether we're supported by churches or friends and family or through project funding with a more "standard" salary.  And I think that's the ethos that's behind some of the proposed changes.  Which I like alot.  But not every one does.

Anyway, it all makes for some very interesting conversation!  And even though I've just spent the last 4 days sitting on my butt in meetings, I must admit, it's an exciting time to be a part of this organization, especially in this country, where things are set to change so drastically in the next few months, anyway!

 Here's a picture of me concentrating very hard on the meeting at hand.  Can you see how engaged I was in the conversation at hand!?

A little trip out

Last week, we had some visitors from the US who came to help us on the compound with some practical work things.  But we also needed them to see something of the town and its surroundings, so we went to visit one of our colleagues who lives across the river, slightly out of town.

What fun we had!

David had to check out the construction of this tukel before he went in.  It was a very, very nicely built tukel, in my very humble opinion!  This is their "guest" tukel - the place where they entertain guests, and where a visitor might sleep, if he decides to spend the night.  This little area is made up of this tukel, an old tukel and a mud block2-\room (not 2 bedrooms, but 2 rooms total) house with a tin roof, plus a little shelter for cooking.  All in all, Biajo (who is our favourite old man here - has been building and doing maintenance on our compound since it was built in the 1970s!), his two sons and their wives, and a couple of children all live on in this little area.

 

Um, I'm not sure why this picture won't turn the proper way around, but anyway, you can see Biajo inside his little tukel here.  I finally got him to smile for a photo!

It was a very nice visit, because we just sat in this nice tukel, drank some soda and some water, and then chatted with the wives and the sons and played a little with the children who were running around, gawking at the foreigners in their midst :)

I have a feeling these kids know what a digital camera is, because they all wanted their photo taken, and then they all LOVED seeing their photo on the screen afterwards.  My friend took a picture of me with a swarm of kids around, looking at their picture, but I haven't gotten the photo from him yet ... maybe it will show up in my next newsletter :)

I was also very encouraged by our little visit because it made me realize that though I'm not really spending any time learning more of the local language, I seem to be somehow improving.  I was doing some translating for the visitors, and was able to speak nicely to the mamas and to the children.  None of it was very complicated, but it's nice to know that I can at least communicate a bit!

A few posts...

... are already composed in my head. But I'm so tired once I get to my computer at night these days.

But I want to blog about the prayers/funeral I went to last weekend, my garden (about which I'm completely obsessed... I should just go and plant a chair in the garden and watch the leaves grow!), and the interesting folks I saw at the airport today.  There's still so much movement in this country, and it's just fascinating to watch who flies and who goes by boat or barge, and especially what kind of stuff they bring with them.

But I'm so tired.  One of my colleagues came pounding on my door this afternoon during "rest" time.  I tried to ignore him for a few minutes, but the way he was pounding... I thought a building was on fire or something.  Of course, he just wanted me to get him a stamp from my desk drawer :(  But by the time I did that, it was too late to even think about having a rest... and since it was in the upper 30s with about 85% humidity today, the heat sorta sucked the energy right out of me.  So, time for sleeping...  I will blog one of htese days, I will, really.

Getting Behind Again...

I've been meaning to blog almost every evening this week.  And obviously, something else keeps coming up!  Sorry.  I was going to get all my pictures sorted and posted tonight, because there have been a few adventures lately... but then I started chatting online with a friend.  So, while I had a good little chat with a friend... the rest of you must be feeling a bit neglected.

But, since tomorrow is another day at the office (though today was a holiday!), I shouldn't stay up until all hours, blogging.  Tomorrow.  I will write more tomorrow. 

And the world will be a different place by tomorrow, as well.  Today we woke up to the news of Osama, and tomorrow I will wake up the news of the results of the federal election in my home and native land!  I somehow don't think the rest of the world will really care whether we have the same prime minister tomorrow as we did today or not!