I Have Ebola!

Ok, ok, settle down all you who are looking forward to our arrival in the States next weekend. My ebola will not delay our entry into the US as it is not THE ebola that is running wild on the other side of the continent. In fact, we praise God that there have been NO known cases of ebola in Ethiopia so we shouldn't even need to be screened upon entrance into the States.

 

So you aren't about the see my name all over the ebola news, but I still maintain that "I have ebola" in one particular context. You see, words are arbitrary sounds strung together and separated by spaces. Their meaning is given by the community in which they are used. In the current world, yourselves included, ebola refers to a deadly virus. When I'm talking to the Gmz translators, however, ebola means something a little less dramatic.

 

About three weeks ago, the Gmz translators and I were checking our way through 1 and 2 Timothy, but we were frequently interrupted by Thomas' runny nose and horribly obnoxious coughing. At one point he squeezed his nostrils to empty the contents of his nose onto his fingers in route to his pants (a typical form of Gmz hygiene, much preferred over the "farmer's blow" acceptable when used outside the office). But in this particular nostril pinch, something went terribly wrong as snot shot out of his nose, spraying both my hands and the computer keyboard on which we were working. Yuck! Moments later, in the midst of a huge lung-wrenching hack attack, Janey voiced what we were all thinking, "Take your ebola elsewhere!" And so a new inside joke was born. Just minutes ago, I called the translation team to confirm that they arrived in Addis for our work to start tomorrow, I broke the news, "Thomas' ebola has grabbed me." "Oooo, be strong, be strong." they responded in unison unable to mask their smiles in their voices.

 

Anybody who knows me well knows that after any prolonged episode of high stress, working toward major goals (such as the finishing of a semester in school), I always get sick. This latest bout has been a pretty constant push beginning in early September the day after arriving home from our vacation. 2 weeks of Executive Council retreat and meetings, 3 weeks of consultant checking, 4 weeks of team checking with the translators, one week of song writing workshop, three weeks of spelling rule decisions and primer development with government officials, oh and we can't forget the theft of our backpack and run around to replace important documents in the midst of these scheduled activities. The one week that was supposed to be a break in there ended up being a major push on the final spell check and layout of Luke's Gospel. But, now, we've returned to Addis, where beginning tomorrow I will join another week of Gmz literacy primer development, but my immune system giving into the post-stress sickness already this weekend tells me that the high stress is over. I'll take it to mean that I can coast through this week, getting the worst of this cold over before we hit frozen American soil. God forbid I share Thomas' ebola with friends and family who are eagerly counting down the days…if not hours.