The Big Bad City

Ok mom and dad, I can now sympathize a little bit with what it must have felt like to drop me off at college. Leaving our medium-sized town, you drove me and all dorm room necessities (Ramen noodles, mac ‘n cheese, pizza cutter, Mt Dew and box full of number 2 pencils) straight into downtown Chicago. No doubt our campus’ neighbor, the notoriously rough housing projects of “Cabrini Green,” caused you some anxiety. Well, I now know somewhat how you felt. No, Micah has not flown the coup yet; I don’t think any of us are ready for that. We were ready, however, for our first experience in bringing two young Gmz men into Addis Ababa for a two-week workshop. Knowing the culture that Habtamu and Wohis come from and the contrasting world they would encounter in the city of 7 million people, we shared in both their excitement and their fear.

 

With very dark skin and some distinctive facial features, the Gmz stuck out like sore thumb within the mixture of other Ethiopians found in Addis. If they happened to open their mouths, their Gmz language would be yet another beacon to draw attention to their “otherness.”  And even if they did their best to blend-in by speaking Amharic, their limited abilities in Amharic are much like ours, unimpressive. All in all, there was no way around the fact that they were different.

 

Human nature defaults to fear what it doesn’t understand, and I believe this is most applicable with regard to people who are not like us. Even that first day after getting them settled in a guesthouse and heading out to explore their neighborhood, I couldn’t help but feel the stares from every direction (some accompanied by comments that I hoped went unnoticed). I’ve heard unfortunate stories of countryside people being easy targets for big city thieves, and a big part of me wanted to warn and protect my friends. Yet, at the same time, I didn’t want to totally burst their balloon of naivety and so lock them a cell of fear and mistrust. So, I just gave them a few streetwise pieces of advice and then prayed hard. With a few days before our workshop, I encouraged them to explore a bit, only to receive the quick response, “No way, we’ll get lost!” It is true, Addis Ababa is a VERY easy city to get lost in and without a mobile phone; that could be disastrous. 

 

Day two in Addis, I sat in Executive Council meetings all day, thinking and yes, worrying about them. When 5pm finally arrived, I jumped in our truck and fought the rush hour traffic in route to their guesthouse. I was somewhat pleased to find them out, probably grabbing some dinner. Instead of waiting around like an overly-protective parent, I left a short note with the guesthouse guard “I’ll come again on Saturday morning.”

 

Saturday came two days later and I had to smile when I pulled up. There they were waiting for me outside, each of them sporting a brand new shirt – a nice woven sweater for Habtamu and Wohis was all bundled up in new fleece sweatshirt. I had warned them that it would get cold in the high elevation of Addis Ababa, but I could see that now my words had sunk in. Their new threads also pleased me as it meant that they have gotten over their big city fear enough to go shopping, though they probably saw it as basic survival from turning into Gmz popsicles!

 

My Saturday agenda involved a whole mess of shopping which naturally took us all around the city: a great way for them to experience some big city life. We started by going to the bank, a concept they had only heard about. Next, I then forked over their equivalent of a full year’s salary to buy four new truck tires (all vehicle parts are heavily taxed upon entering the country). Next, they asked where the president of Ethiopia lived so we drove by his palace grounds (you can’t see much beyond the heavily guarded fence). Next, we stopped at a quite modern, multi-level mall. After exploring an electronics store, we found an exterior window where they very cautiously looked down to the street below. Then, Wohis looked up and surprisingly exclaimed “There’s still more building up there!” I thought to myself, “Yea, we’re only one floor up.” Nonetheless, they weren’t taking any chances by getting too close to the window.

 

After the mall, we ticked off their one major request in coming to Addis Ababa: they wanted to see a real airplane. Sure, they had seen planes WAY up in the air as they cast a white ribbon across the sky, but the concept of that “bird” being made out of metal and having more than 100 people inside, they just couldn’t picture it. We went to the airport and thankfully, from the parking lot, we could see a decent-sized jet parked just beyond the fence. They asked why we couldn’t get closer to look at it, so I took the opportunity to teach them about terrorism and specifically 9/11. Later that day, I downloaded some pictures of the twin tower attack, only to have the unexpected surprise of Osama’s death the next day! We loitered in the airport parking lot for about an hour and fortunately got to hear/see two planes take off – very cool for them. The location of their guesthouse allowed for them to see many planes flying low over the city as they made their final approach into landing. With the combination of these experiences, I think their plane curiosity was satisfied.

 

If you ask them what the highlight of their time in Addis was, they would most likely say “playing volleyball with the foreigners.” Sure, they play volleyball all the time in Gesas, but this was very different. First of all, they got to play in a really nice gymnasium, with really nice equipment. They got to play by the rules of rotation which means that they actually got to serve, bump, set and spike at different times. In Gesas, the best server serves all the time. The best setter sets all the time. The best spiker spikes all the time and the rest are just pushed to the corners of the court. It bothers the bageebers out of me when I play, but I need to pick and choose my battles and that certainly is not one of them.

 

All in all, Habtamu and Wohis did great in the big bad city. Sure, they never really explored on their own outside the general vicinity of their guesthouse, but they stayed out of danger and out of trouble and still returned home with hundreds of stories to tell those that eagerly awaited them. As a ‘thank you’ gift, we bought them each a large watermelon in Addis Ababa. It would have been fun to be there as Habtamu and Wohis sliced open these extra special treats with family and friends, no doubt talking non-stop late into the night.