Red Light Special

In celebration of finishing the consultant check on Luke (and at the "strong urging" of colleagues), we took a week's vacation at a Negash Lodge about 2 hours outside of Addis Ababa. We had heard good things about the lodge – good food, beautiful grounds filled with playful monkeys, uniquely designed the houses, helpful staff, swimming pool…BOOM! That's all Micah needed to hear before he punched his ticket, but, honestly, I couldn’t share in his excitement. That is, until I heard that the swimming pool is fed a natural hot spring! I don't particularly enjoy being cold – ok, I hate it, and when it comes to swimming, I can't help but want to trade my scrawny seahorse frame in for that of a nice blubberous whale! But hot spring water? That changes the "refreshingly cool" swimming pool into a giant hot tub! Count me in!

 All in all, the week at Negash Lodge met and exceeded our expectations. The food was excellent, the grounds truly were beautiful and the monkeys were great fun to watch. The pool, however, though yes, filled with warm spring water, wasn't quite the steaming bathtub I had set my heart on. But Micah needed a swimming buddy and so Andrea and I both took turns. The best place I found, was under the warm spring-fed showers. I think Micah agreed, considering that he loved to sit under it for 10-15 minutes after getting out of the pool. And that for a boy who until that time would cry whenever water was poured over his head at bath time!

 I have to admit, warm showers truly are a moment in paradise! It reminds me of the discovery I made back in October. There's a saying in Amharic which goes, "In October, one bone." (it doesn't quite rhyme as nicely as it does in Amharic). What does it mean? We were told that October is recognized as one of the coldest months in the Ethiopian year (it comes right at the tail end of rainy season). Therefore, people should beat the chills by eating extra meat in October…or something like that. Anyway, for some time now, I have been travelling up to Gilgel Beles to work with the translation team, and the Catholic Fathers on whose compound we work have graciously offered that I stay in one of their guestrooms. 

That in itself is a priceless gift as they don't blare their music late into the night like every hotel in the city does. But one thing in the guestroom always taunted me, a hot water heated mounted on the wall in the bathroom. Despite my best tinkering in previous months, I could never get it to work…until one "cold" day in October (yes, it must have dipped down into the 70s!). And that is when I saw it for the first time – the red light special! 

Commuting 30 miles by motorbike is stressful, being away from my family is stressful, working in foreign languages is stressful, but I praise God for the blessing of a warm shower which has an amazing ability to wash away some of that stress at the end of the day! I remember my dad once saying, "If you aren't feeling well, take a shower." Good advice dad, and its been a long day, I think I'll do that right now.