SIM Ethiopia has 150 missionaries plus spouses and children. Lots and lots of children. (I almost feel guilty at only having had four). These folks, plus several hundred Ethiopian employees and their families, are my patients. How to get to know them? Go on a five day residential conference and all get into a swimming pool together, on New Year's Eve. We knew before we arrived here that there was pretty much a three line whip for attendance at the biennial "Spiritual Life Conference" (SLC) from 30th December to 3rd January at a "resort" 120 km (that's 2-3 hours drive) south east of Addis. The drive down there on Monday afternoon was the usual automotive mayhem and you'll get fed up with me going on about it soon, but one slightly different occurrence from the normal Addis chaos was getting held up briefly by a very big herd of camels. Check the photo - they appear to be going to a model village.

Giving you lots of details about the conference would not be at all interesting unless you're an SIM missionary. Suffice it to say we succeeded at our primary objective of beginning to get to know lots of people. We had some great meetings and a lot of food and a huge number of carbonated drinks. (More than we should have had but Chris and I kind of overdid the buying of drinks tokens when we arrived and ended the week with armfuls of bottles). However two things might interest you - the plumbing, and the monkeys.

Sodere ("soh-dare-ray") Resort Hotel is built next to a geothermal hot spring. It advertises an "Olympic sized swimming pool" (I think it is 50m long but there the resemblance stops) that is filled at the beginning of the week from the hot spring. Apparently there is no pumping or filtration or anything, so the water sits there all week gently cooling off (and you just have to hope everyone who gets in is fully continent...) The water is as hot as a bath. Swimming for exercise is pretty much impossible as you have to get out to cool off. However jumping in late in the evening is lovely. Although we are only 9 degrees north of the equator the mornings and evenings could be cool as Sodere is 1400 metres above sea level (1000 metres lower than Bingham). However the hot spring water wasn't only used for the pool - it was the water supply for the entire place. So in our rooms we had hot water from both taps, and a really very hot "shower" (a hand held shower spray with a single tap used whilst kneeling in a bath with a faulty plughole and no shower curtain). Not only that the toilet cistern filled with hot water -  so it's unwise to flush before you rise. One couple's toilet cistern wouldn't stop filling and running. They'd close the toilet door overnight (lucky them - our toilet door wouldn't close) and in the morning the floor was all wet and slippery from the condensation from hot toilet water.

We were warned about the monkeys. We haven't been in Africa long enough to think of Vervet monkeys as a pest - they are so cute and, well, a bit human sometimes. Our room (in a block of concrete rooms Erich Honecker would have been proud of) felt like it was in a monkey jungle, with them leaping about in the trees out the back and running around on the roof. there were bars on the windows to stop them getting in (increasing the East German feel...) and we had to keep the doors shut in case they ran off with my laptop or something. (More likely the tube of "Magic Time Yummy Tummy Pizza-Flavored pseudo-Pringles" though). We've paid good money in the past to see fewer monkeys than these. If you sit in the wrong place for breakfast they'll sneak up and nick the banana right out of your hand unless the guy with the long stick spots them first.

Go to the new "Galleries" page and check out the photos.

When you meet people who have given up everything to come and live with and help, treat, educate and above all share the Gospel with the poorest of the poor in remote parts of Ethiopia; when you mix with those who have been here for decades having left home, families and comfort to serve this needy country; when you dine with teenagers who want nothing more than to continue their parents work in the most difficult of circumstances, then you know you've discovered the meaning of "service". This was a humbling, uplifting, encouraging and motivating week. If between us Chris and I can achieve a fraction of what others here with SIM have done then our time will be well spent.

When we returned from the SLC to Bingham on Friday afternoon Chris took our washing down the compound to some free washing machines to find two cows tied up and happily munching on a pile of straw. Come back next week to find out why they were there and what happened to them. Here's a clue - its something to do with Christmas. Yes, really.

(Remember to click the thumbnail pictures in this post for the full visual experience!)