Ethiopia files
Our work here in Ethiopia has been much the same as Uganda and Tanzania—except that we started with more! We had been told there was a shipping container of files which was the reason we planned on three weeks here. There were actually 48 boxes and very well organized. We were able to go through the material quicker than we expected. We ended up with only 4 boxes to be sent to Akron archives.
We lived with the country reps. They had a lovely garden with a resident tortoise and two friendly dogs. We very much enjoyed learning to know them and the local office staff. We laughed together and learned from each other. Every day we had morning tea together. We also had lunch together at noon and went to a nearby small café for coffee afterwards. Ethiopian coffee is excellent! At the café we saw the various spices being dried that are used to make berbere which is used in Ethiopian cooking. We were also invited to one of the staff’s home for a meal. We ate injera every Tuesday at the office and had several other opportunities to eat traditional Ethiopian food when we were out and about. Excellent!
We were able to visit two MCC projects. We visited a nursery/kindergarten school in Nazaret. It was fun to be in a school again; however, we would have liked to correct some of the English which was painted on the walls. We visited a tutoring project with students affected by HIV Aids. They provide tutoring on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons and Saturdays for 200 children ranging from 4-20 years of age.
Most evenings we relaxed and played games with our hosts and others who happened to be staying at their house.
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- some of the 48 boxes stored in the “container”
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- carrying boxes
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- MCC office
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- courtyard of the office
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- morning tea with staff
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- lunch with staff
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- injera with sauces
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- ingera for four people
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- coffee
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- coffee and social time
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- spices for berbere
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- working
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- going through files
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- rest time
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- nursery class singing for us
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- Amharic for arithmetic symbols
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- nursery class
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- “posters” painted on the wall
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- shoes outside the classroom
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- HIV aids activities
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- Saturday tutoring
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- library at “tutoring” school
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- dinner hosts – MCC staff
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- injera with sauces
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- gate to reps’ house
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- garden of reps’ home
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- MCC Ethiopia reps
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- Peanut
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- resident tortoise
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- Koka
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- playing games
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- eating out – chicken kabobs
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- boxes to retain
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- boxes to shred
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- boxes to archive
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- sunrise from verandah