Blessed by our First Visit to a Gmz Church

We decided to spend our Christmas holiday out in the Gmz area hoping to get to know one particular area a little better, and although the time there was very short, we had several important opportunities. First, we rode the public bus out to the area. We had done this once last May and were the subject of conversation for much of the ride. This time, however, we boarded the bus, greeted people in Amharic, had a few simple conversations and then overheard people saying to each other “these foreigners know Amharic,” and we were left alone the rest of the way. It was good for us to get familiar with the bus system in case the right vehicle for purchase doesn’t come along until after we plan to move out there. The picture above is from the bus tire change. The spare tire was hilarious since the only rubber on it was on the sides and the actual driving surface was bare threads. Somehow, we made it to our destination on that tire.

Once arriving the area we may move to, we met with some Canadian friends and got to stay on the SIM compound on which there sits an empty house that we could possibly rent. On Christmas Day (which is just like any other day here since Ethiopian Christmas is Jan 7), we also got to see the nearby town where we could possibly rent a mud-walled, tin-roofed house. Probably the best experience we had was the opportunity to join one particular Gmz village’s Wednesday night prayer service. Thankfully, the Canadians had a strong Land Cruiser to navigate a VERY rough road out to the village. Upon our arrival, we were greeted by a whole crowd of dark Gmz faces of all ages. We were introduced to two men, one Gmz and the other a lighter-skinned highlander, who are the evangelists stationed in this particular village. Before too long we were ushered into a classroom (which is used for the primary school) and the Gmz evangelist opened the service in prayer. From this opening prayer and throughout the service, we were excited that we understood 0% of it! Why would be excited about that? Because, that means this Gmz church is not using ANY Amharic in their worship or teaching, only Gmz. Oh, I take that back, there was one part that was in Amharic – the two Scripture readings. Our hearts resonated with the scene as Gmz believers were using their mother-tongue in worshipping the same Trinitarian God that we worship in English. And yet, God’s words through Scripture came back in a foreign tongue. We can’t wait until the day when Gmz Scriptures are read and preached in this very same place, that is, unless they have outgrown this small classroom by then.

The Holy Spirit is REALLY at work in this particular village, as just the Sunday before, it had its first baptism service, which we had heard was a moving time for those who were baptized and those who are still wrestling with the decision to follow Christ 100%. It seems the Gmz take baptism VERY seriously, as it should be. They seem to understand it as the public declaration of breaking from a non-Christian past and whole-heartedly being sold out to Christ. What a privilege we have to contribute to what the Holy Spirit is already doing among these precious people.

Ps. I have tried to attach an audio file as well (I hope it works). It has an English song that had been translated into Gmz, then a bit of the sermon and then a closing song that is written in the Gumuz call-response style.

"Are Those People.or Dolls?"

On Tuesday, the leader of the mother tongue literacy project took all of the workshop participants out for an appreciation dinner. We went to a fancy cultural restaurant and ate traditional food. Then afterward, we were taken to the place foreigners go to escape culture stress – the Sheraton Hotel. Now we had heard stories of the Sheraton and how it was over-the-top luxury whereas outside its doors lie heart-breaking poverty-stricken people of Addis Ababa. We’ve been told that one night at the Sheraton will run anywhere between $300-$1200 – making the cheapest room at least 6 months salary for most Ethiopians.

 

So, in we drove, past the HUGE gates that block out the real world and into a world so foreign to us, yet strangely familiar. Several times as we walked around the hotel, I mentioned to Andrea, “this feels so much like Chicago” as most Moody students enjoyed dropping in on the fancy hotel lobbies occasionally. The main reason for our visit was to enjoy the dancing fountains in the gardens behind the main building. Apparently they were designed by the same guy who made the dancing fountains in Las Vegas so this was no cheap imitation job. For probably 30-40 minutes we stood, watching the various types of fountains dance to the music that resonated through the courtyard.

 

It was fun to see the reactions of these 7 rural guys as they experienced the Sheraton. As we were walking in, they commented about the lawn ornaments, especially like the Santa Clauses playing the saxophone. In the lobby, we found a model of the grounds which was interesting for them to see since its hard for them to picture what a building and grounds look like from the air. During the fountain show, it was hilarious to see 5 or 6 of them lined up with their cell phones out taking pictures and/or videos, no doubt to show friends back home (cell phones are cheaper over here than in the States so most employed people have them). The outdoor pool area was huge and luxurious, something we could enjoy for a day if we dropped $18 a piece. When I asked them about a particular lawn ornament, the snowman, they agreed that it was an “ashangolit” which is the basic word for “doll.” This word “ashangolit” came up again when we poked out head into the restaurant/bar area that had live music on stage. This American band was very interesting, even for us, I can’t quite explain it. All of them were wearing REALLY flashy sequins from head to toe and the “diva” singer had the biggest Afro I’ve ever seen, with a body shape that followed suit. As we were walking away from this area, one of the Shenasha guys asked “are those real people or are they dolls (ashangolit)?” We could definitely sympathize with their confusion.

 

"Learning Gmz.One Small Furry Animal at a Time"

Although it has made for long tiring days, this past week, Travis has enjoyed being a part of a literacy workshop involving the Gmz, Shenasha and Berta languages. The workshop is one in which our Canadian colleague (pictured above) is working with the mother tongue teachers of these three languages to produce a mother tongue literacy primer for those who already have some experience reading English. In developing this primer, she needs a lot of data from these languages and a lot of time checking over the drafts with them. Because of our interest in Gmz, and the fact that Gmz people are usually the ones needing the most help in workshops like this, we were asked if we wanted to come and help with the Gmz guys. It’s a good thing too, the Shenasha and Bertha projects were able to send three teachers each whereas only one Gmz man was able to come to Addis for this conference (Komander, pictured above). So armed with a Gmz word list and the old primer, I was able to help find words that demonstrated the letters needed for the primer. After being in language school every morning, I often wanted to go home and rest in the afternoons, but each day I was able to pull up a chair next to Komander (the Gmz teacher), I really enjoyed the work. And each day served as a reminder of the importance of learning Amharic. You see, each of these teachers supposedly knows English since they are college graduates and all schooling after 5^th grade is in English. However, just because they can get through an English school doesn’t mean that they are proficient or confident in English. So 90% of the time, Komander and the other teachers would speak to me in Amharic and I was often surprised by the success they had in getting their point across to me. It does serve as a motivation to keep learning Amharic, realizing that 90% of my future work could be dependent on a language I knew nothing about 7 months ago!

 

People ask me if I am picking up any Gmz language along the way, to which I reply, “yea, “uhnga” is the word for chipmunk.” There were several of these small furry animals that Komander wanted to use in the primer but it was always fun to try to make sure we knew what kind of animal it was. Does it climb trees? Does it have a tail? What kind? What does it eat? Finally, we used a picture database to discover chipmunk if the best rendering for “uhnga.” Now, are there any chipmunks mentioned in Scripture? If so, we’re well on our way to translating the Bible!

 

"1 Skirt, 2 Skirt, Purple Skirt, Blue Skirt"

Synthetic materials seem to be the most prevalent and popular type of cloth used to make skirts and dresses here in the capital city. I bought a skirt, made of some blend of synthetics, a month or two after moving here and have worn it quite frequently since then. However, I had been thinking that the synthetic sort of cloth isn’t as cool and breathable as 100% cotton (which I’m pretty sure I’ll want when we live out in the Gmz area where average temps are 80-110) so when we had friends coming to adopt/visit we asked Travis’ mom to send along some light cotton material for making some skirts. Mind you, I can sew a button back in place but my sewing skills haven’t excelled much past that regardless of various attempts on my part. With that in mind, we knew within our first few weeks here that a number of Ethiopians make their living sewing new clothes or repairing old ones and having a skirt or two made shouldn’t be too difficult.

 

So, after tea break on a Friday morning we headed off the school campus with our language teacher for a “shared experience” to a local tailor just across the street. I brought along a friend’s skirt that I liked as well as the material to be used and we began our hunt for a good tailor. We stopped outside of the first shop to examine the clothes on display…a key to knowing the quality of the tailor you’re about to encounter. We were all satisfied by what we saw and stepped in to the shop that couldn’t have been bigger than 10’ X 5’. Inside there was a lady at the far wall behind a counter ironing clothes while on the left side of the room were two sewing machines and tables with a young lady behind one and a man behind the other.

 

Mesfin, the gentleman, was the first to ask us what we would like after everyone exchanged greetings. I proceeded to try to explain (in Amharic) what I would like, showing him my friend’s skirt and the material I intended to use. Then we asked him how much he thought it would cost and we were slightly surprised by his price since it was noticeably higher than what we had been told to expect. We started to bargain with him but he came back with “very convincing” arguments. For example, we mentioned that we could have it made in an area of town that is notorious for having the lowest prices but he came back arguing that we would spend more getting transportation there and back and we would certainly want to stop for a soda or macchiato after making the trip. So it would be more reasonable to have him make it at a slightly higher price he reasoned convincingly. Somehow we still managed to get him to lower his price a bit.

 

After taking my measurements he asked us to come back in two weeks to pick up the final product. Before heading out the door he snipped off a tiny bit of the fabric and pinned it to a business card with the price written on the back to ensure that I would get the right skirt for the price we had agreed upon. We felt quite accomplished as we went out the door but the whole thing had taken such little time and we hadn’t gotten to do any price or product comparison so we decided to continue looking around and talking with other tailors to see what sort of deal we had gotten.

 

Much to our surprise tailor #2 quoted us ½ the price of the first guy and even said we could negotiate further when we brought material in and actually arranged for him to make the skirt. With such a low price we wondered what sort of quality he would produce in comparison, especially as his display items didn’t seem as fashionable or nice as the previous store. But that afternoon we came back with material for him to make a skirt in the same style as the first one. He took his own measurements and we agreed on his original offer price before heading out the door with another business card and plan to come back in one week, when he said he’s have the skirt finished.

 

Pictured above are the final products…and I’ll have to say that I actually like the skirt made by the second tailor better…but for out in the Gmz area I think both will be nice!

 

Santa Clause Came to Town…Drawn by Ginger

Just because December 25^th is a normal work day here in Ethiopia (they celebrate Christmas on Jan 7^th), doesn’t mean that we foreigners can’t import our own holiday traditions during this special time. Case in point, yesterday, we were invited to our co-worker’s house for their annual Gingerbread House Competition. The party was small because it was by special invitation only, allowing the hosts to really go all out in providing building materials. If it was by invitation only, how did we get on the list? Well, each year the host family gets a new judge for the competition. Plus, they own a cello and they were looking for someone to play Christmas Carols during the building time. So I (Travis) agreed to do both, while Andrea joined a building team.

Beginning at 1:30pm, each of the four teams was given their initial building materials: two zip lock bags of home-made icing and about 20-30 pieces of gingerbread baked in different shapes and sizes (rectangles, triangles, circles, hearts, etc.). After a short time of brainstorming, blueprints were drawn up and the teams dove into their gingerbread projects. In order to make a long story shorter, I’ll give the basic schedule of what followed and then cut to finished products and judging. Teams had the next 2 hours or so to construct the skeleton of their building, after which we let the frosting harden during an excellent backyard barbeque. At 6pm, we returned to the projects, this time armed with a great variety of candies and colored icings for decoration. Like I said, our hosts did not spare expense in providing a plethora of building materials (and an occasional piece slipped in one’s mouth).

At approximately 8:00pm, I put the cello away, slipped out the back door, changed into a full-fledged Santa Clause outfit and knocked on the front door as the party’s surprise judge. It was fun playing Santa Clause (not something I am asked to do often since I lack the girth for such a privilege), but the judging itself was really hard. So instead of telling you which one I chose, I will post pictures of each one and let you comment with your votes (rank them 1-4). The criteria I was given were as follows: Structurally Sound; Originality; Good Use of Materials; Must have a Chimney (or Chimney-like means of entry) and any other criteria the judge decides upon.

THE BEAST - The first house I saw was a mosque, complete with the tall tower bearing a crescent moon and star. When I pointed out that the star was the Jewish, 6-pointed, Star or David, they wittingly said that their mosque was trying to draw together all peoples, which was represented in all the multicolored candies surrounding a flag-pole and heart flag in the front yard. Santa’s heart obviously resonated with the “unification of all people’s” description they gave. The mosque definitely had a heart theme as there were hearts all over the place, tying together all people’s in love. It had some structural issues late in the day, which were fixed last minute, but the evidence of shifting pieces was still evident in the final work (on the blue roof). This structure was the biggest, impressively using some neat angles and the frosting was done with precision. When I asked them for the title of their house, a guy from New Zealand said “we call it…the best.” Except when Kiwis/Aussies say “the best” it comes our as “the beast” so that is what I referred to it as the rest of the time.

TRAVIS TOWN - The second house was a very impressive rendering of a two story Ethiopian grass hut. Those of you at home may not appreciate how well this one was done because in the picture it looks like a mess. The house is learning a bit, the roof is crooked, the outhouse in the back is in serious disrepair. However, the team was going for authenticity, not the beauty of a sanitized Ethiopia. They have a sheep in the backyard, and a reindeer transformed into a donkey in the front. The road out front has pumpkins along the side (which is very common right now) and a small shack for a store (complete with well stocked shelves, a bag of carrots, potatoes, and pressed dried manure used for cooking fires. The black coil along the road is the underground wire that is being laid all over the country. A lot of thought went into this and although it looks like the worst craftsmanship of the bunch, one has to consider the real-life authenticity is portrays. The title given to this one was Travis Town – I think in an attempt to kiss up to the judge!

SANTA’S HOME AWAY FROM HOME - The third house was a 1950s mobile home. You know the kind that looks like a large sardine’s can turned on end - definitely earning points in the originality criteria. Complete with an awning and sun bathing chairs for myself and Mrs. Clause, this piece of work demonstrated a lot of careful planning and meticulous execution (to be expected considering the MK school art teacher was on the team!). They had one very powerful (red-nosed) reindeer pulling the mobile home and a small trailer in back for the luggage/presents. Instead of a traditional chimney (which would have conflicted with their mobile home theme, they ingeniously propped open the air vent to allow for my entry on Christmas Eve (maybe to leave presents for myself and the Mrs.). All in all, “Santa’s Home Away from Home” was an impressive piece of work – stable, clean, colorful, and highly creative.

SAVE THE CHILDREN - The last house was the log cabin in the woods theme. It was a very nicely constructed house, though what it lacked in originality, it made up for in the careful attention to detail. One can truly appreciate all the hard work on this house when they look inside. The blazing fireplace was done exceptionally well, as was the Christmas tree and presents underneath. If there was one team that nailed the minute details (even down to the candles in the windows, wreath on the door, and neatly stacked wood pile out back), this was the group. Contrast this with the Ethiopian grass hut from before and you have polar opposites, equally excellent in what they were trying to accomplish. The front of the house was nicely decorated for Christmas making it a warm and inviting cabin. The group was very quick to point out that the presents under the tree were for the children, knowing that children weighed heavily on Santa’s heart. So, when I asked for the title of the work, they confidently said “Save the Children,” which nearly moved Santa to tears while the rest of the onlookers sighed with approval.

And so, the ball was in my court to give out the grand prize trophy – the gingerbread sleigh filled with candy (see below). It was a terrible feeling to have to choose just one, knowing how hard each had worked on theirs (and knowing how seriously some participants would abuse the bragging rights that I dealt out). How would you have ranked them? Why did you choose the winner you did?