Journey Home

Wit had borrowed a neighbours car to take us to the airport, and we loaded the luggage into the back at 00:30. It was a cloud-free night and the stars were bright, however this meant that the condensation was thick on the windscreen, and we soon found out that the fan on the car wasn't working - this was to be the beginning of a long series of incidents on the way home.

We arrived at the airport in good time (3 hours before take-off ) and discovered that Airport security is the one job that is taken extremely seriously in Ethiopia - As a security checkpoint in the car park only allowed the airline passengers to get within 100 yards of the terminal. So we had to say our goodbye's to Wit and Dodi by the car.

We checked in fairly uneventfully, although the man behind the counter did look with surprise at the 7 large holdalls that we piled onto his conveyor belt, and his colleague picked up our guitar case and pretended to play guitar.....much to the amusement of the queue behind us.

We moved on to the departure security desks and after reaching the front of the queue (after 15 minutes) were asked for our "emigration cards".... when we looked puzzled, the man pointed us to a small unmarked desk in the corner of the hall. This proved frustrating as the card we needed to fill in was exactly the same as the one we filled in on arrival 3 weeks ago and had very little detail about where we were headed.

After this we headed up to the departure lounge, which was pleasantly empty, so Vanessa and Abi decided to use the washroom before moving on to the final baggage scan. Whilst they were in the washroom the door at the end of the hall opened and in came about 100 chattering, giggling African girls/ladies who all ran past us towards the door to the baggage scan.... the scene reminded me of the start of the London marathon, and given that Africans don't seem to understand the etiquette on queuing, there was one almighty scramble to filter through the door.

Vanessa and Abi returned quite serenely as if nothing had happened, so we joined the end of the queue. Given our track record with airport scanners on the way out, it was not a surprise to find that Vanessa set off the beeper as she passed through the archway - a quick search showed that Vanessa did not have anything suspicious (belt, money, jewellery etc), so she returned through the arch. Again the machine bleeped - so she was asked to submit herself to the personal search with the hand-held scanner which only went off when it went near her Bra - Abi, David and I started giggling and then chanted "take it off, take it off".....I don't think I have ever seen Vanessa so embarrassed.

After a few moments discussion we were allowed to continue and joined a queue to enter the seating area at the gate. This queue did not seem to be moving and we quickly discovered that a man was checking each persons boarding card and passport before letting them into the seating area .... and he was taking about 30 seconds for each person. It now became obvious why the African women had stampeded down the hall - they were trying to get to the seats first.....and we were now queued up behind them.

It took about 45 minutes of queuing before we finally reached the seats with about 20 minutes to spare before boarding......or so we thought!

The time for boarding came and went without any announcement. Eventually I asked the steward what was happening and he quite calmly replied that "we cant board, because the plane has not even landed yet"...... but he gave no indication of when the plane was even expected

Eventually the plane landed at 05:00 and we finally took off at 05:30. The plane was very new, but someone had obviously forgotten to specify the correct seats as they were very snug and had very little padding - they felt very similar to the old wooded church pews - not the most ideal seats to try to sleep on!

It was a relief to land at Bahrain and after an hours wait we boarded the plane for Heathrow, hoping that the dramas were complete.....not a chance

Firstly David's tray table was broken and the airline insisted on getting an engineer to fix it.....I was very aware of the people around looking suspiciously at us, and I was desperately hoping that this would not be the cause of any delays to take-off.Once they had fixed the table, the engineer left and they started handing out the earphones for the entertainment system - but the previous occupant of my seat had snapped off the earphone jack in the socket, so it was unusable. Again the stewardess was insistent that they get the engineer, but this time he couldn't fix it. so we only had 3 screens between the four of us.

The rest of the flight was fairly uneventful and we arrived at Heathrow, our baggage was some of the first off the plane - but there was no sign of the Guitar. After speaking to the desk we were directed to conveyor belt 1A (it sounded like something out of Harry Potter) where they offload any oddly shaped or abnormal items. We found this conveyor belt hidden in the corner of the hall containing an assortment of odd items, many of which looked as if they had been there for over a week.

We soon discovered that this belt would only move if the items already on it were unloaded onto the floor - and as there was no-one else around, we set about doing this ourselves. After 30 minutes the guitar finally arrive and it was with some relief that we pushed our trolleys through the "Nothing to Declare" channel - although with the night we had just experienced, I was half expecting someone to stop us to search our bags!

We were met by our good friend Vicky, who had driven our car up to pick us up and it was great to share stories of the last 3 weeks during the drive home.

Final day - Visit to Wit's farm

Today was our last day in Ethiopia....where have the last 3 weeks gone?!

Wit drove us to visit his farm which was about an hour away. David had the privilege of travelling in the boot....a challenge for any "back-side" when coping with Ethiopian roads!!

It was great to actually see the farm after having heard all about it. We arrived in the pouring rain and headed straight to the cow barn to shelter. We were greeted by a fairly large herd of "milkers" and then noticed a carcase of a bulloock hanging from the barn door being expertly skinned by one of the workmen.

Very soon we heard the noise of a truck approaching in the distance. This truck was carrying the first of 2 male calves to be slaughtered. This was farming at its most basic, and we quickly looked away when we realised what was about to unfold.

We are used to everything being done behind closed doors and away from public view, but here it is very different. Out here male calves have little value amd so they are slaughtered at a young age for meat (with foot on the head and a knife to the throat!)...that's just the way it is!

What was bizarre was that at one point the calf about to be slaughtered could see the dead calf on the ground, as well as one hung up by the ankles being skinned ready for the meat to be sold; all of this in the full view of the cows in the barn.

The farm also had chickens, bee-hives and a variety of fruit trees (Banana, Lime, Papaya and Mango) and there are plans for more cows. a pond for fish and maybe pigs.

The bird life out here is incredible. Some of the birds are huge, such as storks and kestrels, and the small birds are beautifully colourful.

When we arrived home we had a long evening ahead of us before our flight. Our plane wasn't due to leave until 4am, so we settled down to a game of cards and the most enormous home-made pizza I have ever seen!

It has been such a privilege to have travelled to such an amazing and beautiful place. It will be sad to leave, but we do so with many incredible stories and memories.

Monday 29th - A very early morning

Today started very early for myself (Vanessa) and Abi.....12.45am to be precise. That was when Abi came into our room saying that she felt very sick!! That was the start of a very long 6 hours...most of which was spent in the bathroom; Abi being very ill and myself being the support system. Andy accompanied us with his gentle snoring and the odd encouraging words....I guess he would say that he played a part during the long, dark hours!

We worked out that it was probably the fish we had eaten at lunchtime in the restaurant we had gone to after church. Abi had felt a bit funny after eating it but seemed alright during the afternoon. I had had the same thing but thankfully escaped the food poisoning...a real blessing as 2 of us being ill at the same time would have been awful (and Andy would have had to be on the front line!). What was ironic, was that we had only been saying at lunch how great it was that we had all stayed so healthy!!!

I managed to grab 2 hours sleep in the early morning and then we had a lazy morning. We had been planning to spend the morning at Little Ahope but those plans had to change...a real shame but it was the way it had to be.

In the afternoon, Wit and Azeb took myself, Andy and David to see the rest of Addis Ababa. It is quite a large city with both old and modern sections. There is also the largest outdoor market in the world...the Merkato. We had imagined something a bit like Covent Garden but it was far busier and open to both pedestrians and vehicles....absolute mayhem! It was actually fairly grid-locked in places, which meant a lot of “horn honking,” and Wit said that it was a real hot-spot for pick-pockets. We drove through the market and we were actually quite pleased not to be walking. Anything and everything is sold at this market and we were met with many interesting sights....one man carrying 3 mattresses on his head and another carrying a large amount of egg boxes on his head. There were also other modes of transport such as wheelbarrows and donkeys...anything goes in this fascinating and amazing country!

One thing that struck us was how one minute you are driving past nice clothes boutiques and the next minute you are faced with children begging by the car, trying to sell you a packet of chewing gum, or a woman with her baby, explaining to you that they are hungry. Whilst driving through the Merkato there were mothers with all their children sat on the road and crippled beggars trying to get whatever money they could get. Theses sights were very upsetting and it was so sad to see so much poverty and need.

It is hard to believe that tomorrow is our last day here before we fly home. We have been so blessed since being in Ethiopia and it has been far more than we ever expected. There are so many things about this wonderful place that we will miss and so many things that we will try and incorporate into our lives once we get back to England. One thing we have realised is how busy our lives can get and how we are always rushing and “clock watching!” Clocks and time-keeping don’t feature much here and I think that the people here are happier because of that....there is far less stress and worry! And for many, Jesus is also right at the centre of everything that they do...we have a lot to learn!

Sunday 28th - Church and Cookies

This morning we returned to the Eden Genet Church in Addis Ababa as I (Andy) had been invited to preach. We quickly realised that this would become another “Chigga Yellum” day when we arrived to find the Church in darkness – the electricity had failed. This did not deter the Ethiopians as they started the worship with no instruments, microphones and in semi-darkness ....the only light was that which seeped through the corrugated iron panels that clad the building.

The worship was the usual blend or enthusiastic praise and fervent prayer...although we could only work out the odd word.

After about half an hour we started to hear the gentle patter of rain on the roof and as I stood up to preach the rain became heavier....Vanessa suggested that I would have to shout so that everyone could hear. After 5 minutes of speaking the leader of the Church suggested that I stop...., and for a minute I thought that I must have said something offensive, but he explained that the rainfall had increased to the point where the translator couldn’t even hear me .... let alone anyone in the congregation. So I stood there for about 7 minutes trying to smile and look relaxed, but I think i must have looked like a Cheshire cat.

Once the rain had stopped, I decided that I should simplify what I was planning to say to ensure that I made the main points before the next rain arrived. This seemed to give me a greater liberty and I am sure that it sounded far better that what I had originally planned

After Church we discovered an English speaking family in the congregation from Canada, and enjoyed a good time of fellowship with them at a local coffee shop.....although in future we must remember not to put the teenagers on a table of their own as we adults ordered coffee and then saw pizzas being delivered to theirs!!

As the coffee shop was one of the better establishments we have visited Vanessa decided to use the toilet facilities, which was fine until she discovered that there was no handle on the inside of the toilet door and it had locked behind her. She shouted and banged on the door, but none of us heard her. Eventually a man arrived but seemed to misunderstand her “I’m stuck in the toilet, and the door is locked “ as “I’m using the toilet and have locked the door”. Finally she persuaded the man that she needed help and he kicked the door until it opened

On the way home from church we took the opportunity of stopping at a restaurant for lunch. Here we discovered an interesting anomaly. The Steak meals were cheaper than the Pizzas....apparantly this is because Pizza is considered as a foreign meal and therefore they can charge more for it. So I had the Fillet Mignon (sounds French to me and therefore surely foreign!!) for 55 Birr, whilst David had a Chicken Pizza for 57 Birr. As there are 27 Birr to the Pound both of these meals cost 2 pounds each....bargain!

The afternoon was spent watching football with Wit and  the boys, whilst Vanessa and Abi made their famous chocolate chip cookies. As with their earlier attempt at making Victoria Sandwich cake, these also did not quite turn out as expected. The cookie mixture obviously does not cook the same at altitude and the cookies came out looking like wafers with the chocolate chips looking like rabbit droppings

Oh well........Chigga Yellum again

Saturday 27th - relaxing Saturday

Today has been a fairly relaxing day...definitely what was needed after our climb yesterday! David, however, still got up ready for football at 7am with Wit. They were home though by 10am (2 hours earlier than last week) as not many had turned up and they had had to play every game....they were tired! Also...the losing team had to do 5 press-ups each time and David was regularly on the losing team! They were ready for the pancakes and maple syrup which were served for breakfast....and breakfasts are great over here.

Abi and I had to go the supermarket for a few things, and we were pleased that we managed to do the taxi-bus all on our own. We are getting good at the public transport and know all the names of the stops and pick-up points. This information along with the word “waraj” which means “get off” has made our life easier. It seems a long time ago now that we got lost!

In the afternoon we took Dodi out for chips and ice cream to say “thank you” for all her help translating for us during the holiday bible club. She has been brilliant and has done a fantastic job for someone who is only 13 years old. The ice creams were great although we didn’t all get what we ordered....another “chigga yellum” moment! We also found out that they had given David hazel nut ice cream instead of caramel and we had made every effort to explain about his nut allergy...even Dodi had explained in Amharic!! Not such a “chigga yellum” moment!

The evening was spent making homemade lasagne and garlic bread. Abi and I were a bit heavy handed with the garlic. We used 5 cloves instead of 1 or 2.....let’s hope we don’t stink too much at church tomorrow!

Friday 26th August-Wassells climb the mountain

Hi, David blogging today

Today started as usual with mum coming to wake me up and me being reluctant to get up. As I came down I was greeted with the smell of sweet bread or Ethiopian scones, another recipe to take back to England.

Our morning was spent at the church with a very humbling thanksgiving service in recognition of the bible weeks the church had put on. We listened to a probably very interesting preach by the pastor apart from the fact I could only understand a few words. After the preach we were all brought up on stage and given gifts to thanks us, Mum and Abi were given hand bags and scarf’s and Dad and I were given T-shirts with the Amharic alphabet on, It was really nice to see all the children so happy and dancing in the service, I just hope what we did made a difference. After the service we were given coffee and popcorn, it was a really nice and enjoyable morning.

Afterwards we headed back to the house for lunch before climbing the mountain, it seemed quite daunting but wasn’t so bad when I went up. I realised if I was at the front I would get a rest when we waited for the others to catch up. Mum, Abi and I made it up but Dad was unable to manage as he had a really bad headache due to the altitude, it was a shame as the view from the top was quite spectacular, you could see the whole of Addis and it gave a real sense of size and how big the world really is.

On the top of the mountain we were greeted with food and a man gave a preach whilst we all sat on the wet ground as the skies rumbled above. Once again it was a shame I didn’t understand what he was saying. It was really amazing to see people singing without a band and a preacher without a lecturn or warm church. It kind of took the song “I’m bringing it back the heart of worship” to a whole new level.

After this the rain was beginning to fall and as we were at the highest point under trees we decided to make our way down in case of lightning. Mum did suggest we hide under the trees if lightning struck and me and Abi just looked at each other. On the way down we slipped around a lot, many people ending up in the mud and one boy hiding behind a rock and pretending to be a hyena which are found on the mountain. On a particularly steep bit Mum decided to walk on a grassy bit to stop slipping and Abi had to shout at her to get off as it was someone’s crops.

As we arrived back it was a race for the showers and a relaxing evening before football at 7 tomorrow.

Thursday 25th August-Chigga yellum!

Today we awoke again to the strains of the chanting from  the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. I don’t know whether it is a one-off or whether Vanessa had put in a request for an “encore”.

It seems that the weather pattern has now stabilised to a mixture of glorious sunshine, thunderstorms and torrential rain, overcast afternoons and then another thunderstorm overnight....and I thought Ethiopia was a dry country !

This morning we arrived at the MKC Church to lead the Children’s session, only to find that there were no other adults and many of the 67 kids seemed to use this as an opportunity to misbehave. We have now discovered how difficult it is to control a crowd of Kids when you don’t speak their language. Dodi tried bravely to assist, but the sessions seemed to descend into confusion on more than one occasion.....Oh well as they say...Chigga Yellum!

Lunchtime was again interrupted by an incredible thunderstorm that prevented the teenage session from starting on time. (We have discovered that timekeeping in Ethiopia is not an exact science) and so we finally convened back at the Church at 14:30 with 50 teenagers.

Before we arrived in Ethiopia I had planned to teach 4 sessions using parts of the Letters of paul to the New Testament Churches

-          Galatians 3 & 4 - we are Sons of God, Called to live in grace, by the power of the Holy Spirit

-          Ephesians 2       - We are Gods workmanship and any works we do for him need to come from the overflow of his grace and love in our lives.

-          Philippians 2     - We are to imitate the humility of Jesus and align our attitudes with his

-          Colossians 3      - We need to set our hearts and minds on the things God wants us to and change our behaviours to be those the God wants us to have

When we arrived here, we discovered that they only required me to teach for 3 sessions, so today I merged session 3 and 4 into one session and although it lasted for 75 minutes (with a translator), most of the teens were attentive. However I later discovered that Vanessa and Abi were sat at the back drawing cartoon characters of various creatures... they obviously don’t have the attention span of the average Ethiopian teenager !!

This evening we were due to meet with the worship group from the Eden Genet church in another are of town and travelled the 25 minutes to get there. Just as we arrived we got a phone call to let us know that it was not going to be happening as many of the group could not make it.....Chigga Yellum again. We are learning that plans do not always happen as we expect.

This evening we have discovered that Abi and Dodi have been sharing their room with a Gecko. This only came to light when it scuttled down the wall from its hideout by the top of the curtain. This has led to much hilarity, squeals and attempts to catch it. Azi finally captured it and released it on the balcony....but I think it will find its way back in fairly easily.

Tomorrow we are meeting at the MKC Church for a thanksgiving service with all the Kids, Teenagers and Parents and then all of us are going to climb the mountain behind the Church..... Apparently the view is well worth the climb.