One Man's Trash...

Every Saturday night when living down-country (that is, among the Gmz), we have a family tradition of "fire night." The typical routine is cooking and eating our dinner, roasting and eating S'mores and then the burning of that week's trash. Whereas, for the most part, we are left pretty well alone during this time, I remember one particular evening when a Gmz man walked by as I was beginning to burn some trash. At first he was a casual observer, but as soon as I threw the first piece of trash in, he began his protest "Hey, what are you doing burning all of those (used) match sticks? Those are still good!" Good for what? I have no idea, but it dawned on me very quickly that the white man's trash has the potential of being a Gmz treasure. Please hear me correctly when I say that, I mean that not in a disrespectful way toward Gmz. If anything I mean it as a put down to our home culture. Gmz people, and actually, many other Ethiopians have incredible creativity and ingenuity when it comes to reusing and recycling just about everything. Torn mosquito nets become very strong ropes, oil jugs are used for carrying water (or beer), torn clothes become patches for other torn clothes, nails become arrow heads, scraps of rebar are pounded into knives, old plastic pieces become straps for sandals, hard plastic is melted down for blunting the tip of bird-shooting arrows, just about every piece of "garbage" has value to someone. When an old grain sack has too many holes for fixing, its threads are unwound, then twisted together into multi-strand cords then used for hauling firewood and water.

First the grain sack need to be unwound

 Littering is common practice in this country, and yet we aren't walking around in a trash heap. Why not? Because the next guy who comes along may wonder why in the world anybody would throw away such a treasure. In addition, in many parts of the country, the fields are burned once a year between harvest and planting. And the fire has a way of cleaning up whatever real trash was rejected by all. Bones go to the dogs, husks are gobbled up by goats, and any scraps of food-like-substances are pecked out of the dirt by the scavenging chickens. Even in Addis Ababa, just this morning I saw a dog gnawing at a cow skull which had been thrown outside into the street. One man's scraps meant prime rib for the canine outside his gate.

Yum...yum...

 I remember a movie (a movie about "oil") in which the US was accused of something like "having 5% of the world's population and producing 95% of the world's trash." Which sounded to me like an exaggeration until I stopped to think about it. In the States, how many huge trash bags does a family of 4 put out every week? Compare that to how we could easily fit our typical week's trash, uncompressed, into a 5-gallon pail. 

Fire night in the rain...you can see one of our two garbage baskets next to me. That is the extent of our week's garbage.

And yet, every Saturday night's trash burn reveals out wastefulness in light of that of our Gmz neighbors. It's not a problem that anyone can really solve. Our food comes in packages within packages within packages, Gmz food comes on plants. Back in the States, our clothes may come with tags, pins, cardboard, tissue paper, receipts and bags required in order to carry merchandise out of a store. Gmz buy from street venders or small stores where there are no receipts and asking for a bag will cost you extra. Sadly, our consumer-driven culture has created an economy where things depreciate in value so quickly that it becomes cheaper to replace something old with something brand new, than it is to fix that which was broken. Back in 2006, I sold my 11-year-old car for something ridiculous like $750 because it had a short list of fixable problems. Yet the cost of fixing it was more than double what the car was worth! This past week, while doing the annual safety inspection with my truck, the guys at the inspection place were salivating over my "beautiful" and "strong" truck – that is a 15-year-old Toyota Hilux. When I took it to the mechanic last March, I overheard him saying that trucks like mine were selling for 800,000 birr, that's more than what I paid for it 5 years ago! Things don't necessarily depreciate over here, some things appreciate! Why, because the Ethiopian culture hasn't yet come to value the "single use only" mentality that we've swallowed hook, line, and sinker. In due time, I suspect, consumerism is coming this direction, but for now, it is somewhat refreshing to see resources used and reused in very creative ways.

Multiplied Blessing

There's always at least two sides to every story, more accurately, there are a million different spins I, as the writer of any story, can put onto the actual events with you as the readers at the mercy of my decision-making. Last week, Andrea, the kids and I travelled down to a place called Kamaashi for a Gmz song-writing workshop and as I consider what and how to write about it, I am stumped by the many options. I could talk about our clanking and squeaking truck and the mental/emotional stress that added to my week as we clattered our way well off the main roads. At the same time, I could write about the beautiful scenery of Western Ethiopia and how it surpasses what we see in our usual travels North. I could tell you about the delight it was to stay in the same hotel with Dr. Julie, the well-rounded and incredibly-experienced ethnomusicologist who led the workshop. 

Or I could focus on the misery of that hotel, the stench of the toilet, and the sickness and fevers that Andrea, Micah, Grace and Julie fought throughout the week. I could tell you about the transportation problems our team of 11 guys had when coming from the North, or the communication problems that created some strife within the ranks. I could highlight the sad times of seeing Christ's body fractured into denominations, or I could share the glimpses of that body coming together again in writing and singing Gmz worship songs. All that to say, every negative story I write, has a light in the darkness. At the same time, every glowing positive story has its own bumps in the road which try very hard to dampen our joy.

As I had the privilege of sitting in and even at times teaching during the workshop, I can't help but marvel at the great effort put into writing good, Biblically-based songs in the Gmz language and style. One of our big prayer requests was to find ways that we could help the various denominations in contextualizing their worship so as to speak to the Gmz hearts not only in their language, but in the Gmz musical style that effortlessly engages their hearts. The guys from Gesas, as expected, shined like stars, after all, they've been writing such songs for more than two years now. Dewaan, Worku and a new person from the "Full Gospel" church wrote an excellent song on Jesus' response to Satan's first temptation attempt – man does not live by bread alone! The tag line at the end of the song really brought smiles to the Gmz faces, "Let's eat God's Word like bread! It’s the food of life!" WoHiis and Wene worked with a person from the "New Testament" church denomination to write an excellent song from one of my favorite passages – Habakkuk 3:17-18 – "When the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, when the olive trees do not produce and the fields yield no crops, when the sheep disappear from the pen and there are no cattle in the stalls, I will rejoice because of the Lord; I will be happy because of the God who delivers me!" The Gmz people face many, many similar hardships, and so I repeatedly had to fight the tears in my eyes whenever I heard them singing that they will rejoice in God their Savior even when everything around them bears only discouragement. Finally, Habtamu and his new friend from the "Christ is the Foundation" church knocked the ball out of the park with their song taken directly from Ephesians 4:28, encouraging those who steal to instead work hard with their own hands, that they might produce extra and honor God by sharing with those in need. Each of these songs speak directly into issues that Gmz people wrestle with. The Gmz work hard all year in the unrelenting cycle of subsistence farming, yet there is more to life than this hand to mouth cycle! The Gmz are weighed down with hardship, yet there is reason to hope in God their Savior! Many Gmz in need quickly resort to stealing, rather that abiding by their own tightly-held cultural value of working hard! And to put these powerful messages together with powerful song, the initial result was immensely encouraging to see. I can't wait to see what happens when the CD of the workshop is released to the greater Gmz population!

 While the Gesas guys really impressed me, it wasn't their outputs that most kindled my joy. Rather, it was another denomination which I will leave unnamed. We invited and welcomed this denomination into the song-writing workshop knowing that their tradition does not typically approve of worship songs in the local musical genre. Just as American churches initially feared and rejected the instruments of sin-filled rock-and-roll culture such as guitar and drums, so also this church has tightly restricted the musical style allowed in church worship to only a few – all of which are very foreign to the Gmz culture. We understand that, and it isn't all bad. Yet, we prayed that this workshop could present some fresh ideas that would challenge some of those views and get the Gmz believers thinking about how they can worship God from within their Gmz culture. From day 1, it was encouraging to see how the 5 workshop participants from this church interacted with the topics. Later in the week, they too were asked to try writing a song in the Gmz style and they did! Not only did they give it a try, they jumped in with both feet and wrote what sounded like a very nice song relating the story of Jesus' feeding of the 5000. It’s a great start, communicating God as the abundant provider as he takes our human efforts and multiplies them exponentially. The multiplication of food resources is a huge miracle in the eyes of subsistence farmers. In addition to that, it provides a very reasonable justification for why we bless our food BEFORE we eat (can you imagine just a single bite of mashed potatoes multiplying times 1000 inside your stomach?!?! On second thought, better not try to imagine it in great detail.)

 

In a sense, the multiplication of five loaves and two fish is an inspiring parable for what we hope to see happen as a result of this song-writing workshop. Seven denominations attended, thirteen songs were recorded and are now being polished for publishing on a CD. We pray that these songs might be heard far and wide within Gmz communities; that they might multiply themselves in encouraging the production of more and more songs. And dare I pray that these songs and their offspring be effective in bridging the divisions of denominations imposed from the outside upon the Gmz Church. The Gmz traditional music is sung in a circle, it is sung by clansmen. Might Gmz Christians sing past man-made divisions in unified worship of their common Savior, that all might eat and be satisfied.