Phil and Chris in Ethiopia

What is it with fifteen days? Almost every time I ask an Ethiopian patient how long they’ve had a particular symptom it is “fifteen days”. Never two weeks. This happened to me recently when Sister Ankatse was interpreting for me, and after we’d dealt with the fifteen day tummy ache problem and the patient had left, I mentioned this to her. She didn’t know why either. She brought in the next patient. They had a cough. “How long?” “Fifteen days”. Ankatse and I share a brief sidelong glance. Being a pair of consummate professionals, neither of us smiles.

It's very common for people coming into a "mission" setting to find themselves doing things way out of their "comfort zones". No way was that going to happen to me!

Before we came to Ethiopia I emailed anyone at the school who I thought would listen and requested that I wanted to teach the youngest children and certainly no higher than grade 2. Why? Having spent the past eight years with Reception ("Kindergarten" or "KG1" here) that was my "comfort zone" and I wanted to stay well within it.

The Bad

We have both worked continuously since arriving here and having spent the Christmas break adjusting to a new culture we were ready for a change of scenery.

CARS

Shortly before we left the UK to come here our pastor at Spicer Street Church said publically that we were "bonkers" to leave leafy St Albans to live in Ethiopia. His tongue was in his cheek, but when you hear what I am about to tell you maybe you'll think he was right.

Hilton hotels are a five star international chain, so surely the hairdressing salons that they contain should be indistinguishable right?

I wonder if anything in the salon reveals its Ethiopian location.

Maybe the missing handle on the drawer in front of me, or the two light bulbs that need replacing around the mirror gave it away.

The hairdresser glanced at my hair. “Same colour!” he announced as he departed. He reappeared a couple of minutes later, vigorously stirring a generous amount of dark grey gloop in a plastic container.

This week has been a bit dull (from a  blogging point of view) so I thought I might leave it to Chris who's been to Lemma's again and nearly squashed a chicken (on a separate occasion). Until today. Today was International Sunday at the International Evangelical  Church (IEC) that we have joined. Normally there are two services on a Sunday morning but today we all joined together and the place was bursting with over seven hundred people. Flags of the nations represented were hung from the balcony and all sorts of types and styles of singing lifted the congregation in praise and worship.

We first met Lemma’s family back in 2007. They remain the most hospitable and generous family that I have ever met. Lemma created a school within his property for children local to his neighbourhood. This has stood the test of time. My friend Clare has been visiting Lemma’s school every Saturday to teach two English language classes. I had the privilege of going with her this weekend. We chose a vehicle with good clearance from the ground to cope with a particularly bad pothole that we knew must be crossed, and travelled out of Addis into Oromo country.

During our regular Thursday 'Y’tesfye Birhan' local girls meeting this week we talked in groups about good things and difficulties that we had experienced during day. One girl shared that her friend had cut herself badly and had been sent home from school; another that her parents fight and that worries her. The youngest one (who not so long ago was on the street begging with her mum) had not been to school. The oldest girl in the group (aged 11 - we’ll call her M) was thankful that she had done well on a school test. She is in a grade well below her age.