“The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all it’s parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ.”
1 Corinthians 12:12
We decided to take a trip this weekend and JT suggested Lake Wonchi so we called up Girum, our Ethiopian friend, and asked if he wanted to come with us and then this morning we packed up our backpacks and caught a mini-bus to Abenet. From there we found another bus to Ambo, where our Ambo driver said he could take us all the way up to Lake Wonchi. We’re staying in these little huts - 2 with 2 beds and 1 with 1 bed. The beds are pretty small and we will be sleeping 2 to a bed. Let the cuddling begin.
LakeWonchi is a big crater lake and our huts are at the top. We hiked down to the bottom and then some of us rode horses back up. Apparently a good tip here is 33% (or at least that is what our horse guides tried to make us believe) but I only had a few small bills so that’s what I gave him. He had insulted me earlier anyways, so I didn’t feel bad about not giving him an enormous amount of money. The lake area was very beautiful and it’s nice to get out of the city and breathe clean air and see something other than buildings and road destruction (!) and to just enjoy nature and relax.
The evening at Lake Wonchi was an experience! First when we got back from our hike/horse ride, we got some sodas and then went into one of our huts .We played a game called Fish Bowl (in the dark, mind you, because there was no electricity) which is a combination of catch phrase & charades, with one word answers and making noises as hints. It was hi-larious!! Definitely a game worth repeating. Then there was a campfire made for us, so we sat around that (because it was cold here!) and talked and played Never Have I Ever. There were like a gazillion stars out and it was just so amazing to look at them! When bedtime came, Allison and I were in one bed and Blair and Kate in the other in our hut.The beds were real little and scratchy, so Allison and I started out on top of the cover with her hammock under us, but part way through the night we were freezing so we got under the covers. The funniest thing that happened though, was as we were getting ready for bed, we were trying to figure out our door handle (because it was broken on the inside), so we had Allison go outside to see if she could open the door form that side when we unlocked it. But as we were trying , the inside handle came all the way off and Blair, Kate and I were stuck inside while Allison was stuck outside and we couldn’t get the door open! We started thinking we would have to crawl through the window to get out, but eventually Kate was able to reattach the handle on our side and Mark and Girum came and helped Allison on her side and we got it open. We ended up sleeping with the door slightly a-jar with a small table in front of it, in case someone tried to open the door while we were sleeping.
“Nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others.”
1 Corinthians 10:24
“So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”
1 Corinthians 10:31
Friday is only a half day of school at Kechene, so my 3 classes for the day were all very close together and then after lunch we went home. I taught Ethics twice today and that is by far my favorite class. I tell Bible stories to the kids and talk about how obeying God and His laws are the best way. The kids love it . They always have many questions after each story and they always ask me to tell more stories. So far I’ve told the stories of Rack, Shack and Benny, Daniel and the Lion’s Den, Easter, and Jonah.
Since today was only a half day, I got back to the Cherokee House a lot earlier than everyone else so I got on the internet for a while and then went and read. I’m reading "The Lucky One" by Nicholas Sparks right now because I finished one of the books I brought and this one was in the house. For dinner, the boys went over to Aaron’s, so us girls had a girls dinner and talked about emotions and feelings and all sorts of "girly stuff".
“Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible.”
1 Corinthians 9:19
“Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.”
1 Corinthians 9:24
What a fun day!
Kechene this morning was good. I taught KG2 English again and we went over consonants and vowels, and then I helped with Grade 1 math. After lunch I had free time so I went into the teacher’s room and read for a little while before helping with KG1 sport.
This evening all of us at Cherokee House got all dolled up and went salsa dancing (that’s right…salsa dancing in Ethiopia) at a place that JT goes to over in Bole. [JT is the other Program Manager who lives at Cherokee House along with Briana] It was soooo much fun! There were 6 of us girls and only 2 guys (JT and Mark) , so we girls didn’t get to dance all that much, but it was fun just to watch some of the amazing Ethiopian dancers. And they were amazing! Who knew Ethiopians could salsa? JT had taken salsa lessons here so he was teaching all of us. I ended up dancing the merengue with him, which was pretty fun.
It was funny though because on the way there, we went to Tor Highluch bus stop to get a private mini-bus to take all 8 of us and a bidding war broke out. JT was negotiating the price with various drivers while the rest of us stood in a circle waiting. We were quite the spectacle, 8 ferengi (the Amarhic word for foreigner which I probably spelled wrong) standing around, going out late at night (which apparently women in Ethiopia do not do). Blair commented that she felt like we were on display while all the drivers argues with JT over price. Then on the way back we got 2 private taxis (which are smaller and only fit 4 people max) and Mark, Rachel, Brittany, and I had a dance party in ours because the driver turned on some really fun music and we just went to town. When we got back to the house (no power again) we were all still so hyped up that I turned on The Cupid Shuffle on my ipod (we had a battery powered ipod player) and we all danced. Then Blair put on some hip-hop that we all danced to, and then Mark put on some shag music that we danced to. It was just a fun night of dancing.
“The man who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know. But the man who loves God is known by God.”
1 Corinthians 8:2-3
It was a pretty uneventful day. Getting a mini-bus to Piazza was so much easier from the other spot I walked to. School today was pretty boring and uneventful. I had Sport at 9:15am (which is recess) and then nothing until 2:00pm when I had Sport again and then Ethics right after that. In Ethics I talked about the first five of the 10 Commandments and then also told the story of Daniel in the Lion’s Den. Lunch today at Kechene was injera and doro wat (chicken stew). I said I would like a little so that I could try it but they gave me a WHOLE LOT. I couldn’t finish it all and the teachers were making fun of me, telling me if I did not clean my plate that I would be punished (like the children are if they don’t eat all their food). I still couldn’t eat it all and I felt really bad for wasting their food.
No power today so we had dinner by candle light again at Cherokee House, and Asni had made this incredible meal of tacos with homemade chips with all the fixings and it was amazing. It was definitely my favorite meal thus far.
“What I mean, brothers, is that the time is short. From nowon those who have wives should live as if they had none; those who mourn, as if they did not; those who are happy, as if they were not; those who buy something, as if it were not theirs to keep; those who use the things of the world, as if not engrossed in them. For this world in its present form is passing away.”
1 Corinthians 7:29-31
Today was an experience. First off, I went to and from Kechene all by myself. Going there was…interesting. I walked to Tor Highluch and waited for a mini-bus. And waited. And waited. Finally a cab pulled up and I pushed my way on (which is what you have to do if you ever want to actually get onto a mini-bus during rush hour), just to find out it was going to Mexico and not Piazza. So I had to get back off. Then it happened again. Bus pulls up, I get on, and then have to get right back off again. Finally a guy took pity on me and pushed onto a bus to save me a seat. After I thanked him, the bus pulled away from Tor Highluch and I realized this bus wasn’t going to Piazza either. So I got off and walked back to the road I knew the Piazza buses traveled down and caught a mini-bus there. At Piazza I got on a bus to Kechene and waited for it to fill up, but as soon as it pulled out, the bus died. So I had to get out and find another bus to Kechene. Finally I got to Kechene two and a half hours later. It was a trip -literally! I almost came to tears but kept it in.
The second experience of the day was at Kechene and a man in a suit came out of the office, so I went over to him and introduced myself. His name was Jacob and he is an Ethiopian pastor. He was very talkative and like the fist thing he asked me was
“Are you Christian?”
“Yes”
“Are you Catholic?”
“No.”
“Are you Protestant?”
“Yes.”
This made him very happy and even more talkative. He then asked me,
“Are you married?”
“No.”
“Why not?” (said as an accusation)
“I’m 21 and still in University.”
“But you want to get married?”
“Well yes, someday.”
“Well Ok, I’ll pray for you then that you find a husband.”
And then he actually stopped and prayed for me out loud that I would find a husband. I was laughing so hard, especially because my quiet time this morning was on 1 Corinthians 7 and marrying instead of burning.
