13 This is going to be long. And good. (11032009)

Today (first full day) has been long. And good. So I imagine this post will reflect that a bit. (Also, a side note: some of these will be posted later than when I write them. I will at least post them in order... but internet access is rare, so thank you for understanding!)

First, we'll start with what I did. Then, we'll talk about what I've learned.

The experiences:
• This morning, I woke up and got ready at 8:30. I ate an African banana, eggs and oatmeal before heading out. I packed a bag with my 40 dollars to exchange at the bank, my passport to exchange the money and my camera. I didn't want to take pictures all the time, but knew I would want to take them some of the time. Wait. Let me back up. Before coming here, one of my goals was to BE here, not be an American tourist, but be someone HERE, who is genuinely trying to learn about the people and the culture and not be some photographing, loud, white American flying in to look at the people as if I can't have contact with them and get to know and love them. I didn't want there to be bars of a cage between them and me, nor did I want them to feel like we are different. There are enough things, skin color to start, that show that we are different. I didn't want to add to the separation. I want them to feel closer to me than farther away. Really, we are the same in the thing that matters most: we need Christ.
• Well, one of the girls in the house (my Addis guide :) for the day) and I left to go out and walked down the street to the bank to get money exchanged. The whole way out, I was concerned because I felt like I shouldn't have my camera. As so many of you know, I have been looking forward so much to taking pictures. However, now in Africa, I walked around and felt guilt. I was guilty of being the tourist, the photographer. So, without taking any pictures, I had begun to resolve to take my camera back home. The day's plans involved my new friend taking me all over the city and introducing me to the country... and to minibus culture. I would have loved to have my camera, but at the door to the bank, security stopped us and told us if we had a camera that we had to check it at the front of the bank. That was enough for me. We turned around and went back to the house and I left my camera in the house. Much better.
• Take 2. Our second start to the day. Wait... backing up again. On our way back to the compound, a black car started while we passed by it and then it started to follow us. It crept behind us at walking speed and we moved to the side of the road so it could pass us... but it never did. It followed us as we turned down our street and then stopped on the side of the road, the man in the car turning the engine off as we knocked on the door of our compound for our security guard to let us in. After putting my camera back, we left again and right as we walked outside of our courtyard area in the compound, the man in
the car (still there) started the engine, most likely to begin following us another time. We walked about 10 yards and then made an about-face turn back to the compound, pretty sketched out by what was happening with our stalker. He turned his car off again and we called for a contracted taxi. We determined that he wasn't going to do anything to us, but was probably just fascinated by who we are. Our taxi driver arrived. My friends from the house know a few reputable cab drivers who they always call on their cell phones when they need a ride. This driver's name was Samti. He picked us up and took care of us, getting us to our first stop, The Hilton.
• At The Hilton, we exchanged my money. A funny story about us driving up, though. Huge culture shock moment, at least. As we pulled up, my friend said to be ready because they would check our cars for security purposes before we could pull in. I looked ahead of us in line and sure enough, the security guards were checking the other cars. I asked my friend: "So, what are they checking for?" Candidly, she answered: "Bombs." Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore.
• After The Hilton, we walked/minibused around to all sorts of places, the first of which being Kaldi's, their Starbucks equivalent. And, I hate to say it but I got a caramel macchiato and... it is better. Sorry to all of my Starbucks partner friends :). It really was good.
• Next was my first local-food meal. We ate at Takamino, a restaurant that served... you guessed it... takamino. (Description in the next blog.) I ate with my right hand only because culturally, it is disgusting to eat with your left. (They consider it your "bathroom hand.") It was a great experience... and the first time I said "Amaseganalu!" in Amharic. (That means "thank you.") It worked. :) The waitress heard me and grinned.
• After lunch, we traveled around to a post office, supermarket, clothes shops, a bakery, internet card shops, etc. Today was pretty much my day to see how life is around here.
• We got back around 3:30 and then I was picked up by friends from home. I knew them before the trip and they arranged my whole itinerary while in the horn of Africa. I had dinner with them and they made lentils in soup with macaroni noodles and carrots... very good. Also, we ate fresh homemade rolls that were made completely from scratch... also, very good. Then, we sat around and talked for a couple hours before they took me back to the house with all of the girls.
• At night, all of the house girls hung out with me and talked like the night before. A great first full day.

The education from the experiences:
• Roads are for people. Cars sometimes drive on them, too. They are full of bumps and holes. I saw a car get stuck in a hole. The whole front end of the car... in a hole. People acted like it happened all the time. Everyone just drove around it and the people in the car could then push it out.
• Dogs are everywhere. They aren't for petting. They eat trash and sometimes dead things on the road if they find them. Sometimes, you'll see several dogs in one place, just sleeping and lazing around. I guess that's because they are tired from barking all night long. The dogs aren't any specific breed either. They are just medium-sized, tan or brown and with medium-length, thicker and coarser-looking hair. Usually their nose is kind of pointy.
• Sometimes you'll see cats. They are skinny and very small and aren't for petting either.
• When people are begging, they really probably need it. Today when I got coffee at Kaldi's, I looked out the window and spent several minutes watching a beggar who had stopped to dig through a bag of trash he found in a huge pile of trash outside. He was looking for food. This is not uncommon.
• EVERYTHING is a process. When you get money exchanged, it takes 4 people. You talk to one, get a receipt and take it to another window for someone who gives you the cash. Two other people also work in the office. I don't know what they do. When you get a visa, you have to talk to multiple people, one whose job is to take money, one who writes on a sticker and puts it in your passport and then another who says you are finished and can go on to passport control, another step, of course. When you buy bread in a bakery, you pay one person and another one asks you what you got and gives you your bread. Everyone has a specialized task and no one can do anyone else's task.
• Northern Africa welcomed me to my first LOGIC-FREE ZONE. You don't try to figure things out, because often... there really is no explanation. So my advice to anyone who visits: don't ask the question, "Why?"
• Sheep and goats and donkeys and cows are all downtown, wandering the streets in herds, being guided by their leader. They are either on their way to the market to be bought and sold or on the way to find some grass somewhere, an uncommon find, but a necessity for the animals. The sheep and goats both look like goats, small and brown and white. The only difference is their tails: sheep tails are big and go down and goat tails are little and go up. African sheep aren't big and white and fluffy.
• The average income across the country is around $150 US dollars... a year.
• No one says much. It is a very soft-spoken society. HOWEVER, everyone communicates. Whether by body language or hushed comments, people communicate with many others around them.
• Africans like American music and Michael Jackson.
• I am in a shame-based culture. People here are proud of themselves and their country and don't want to be publicly shamed. For this reason, some adults have called child beggars (more about this later) off of me on the streets. If you are robbed, you can yell "Leba!" ("Thief!") and nearby locals will beat and try to stop the thief. Even though locals know that robbery is a common way of life, they don't like that characterizing their people. The shame-based culture has many other implications... but these were just a few I have learned.
• Kids here can go to school if they can do just one thing: buy a uniform and pair of shoes. If a child shows up to school, he or she can go in if dressed in uniform and wearing shoes. A lot of kids can't go to school because they can't fulfill these two requirements. There are public government-funded schools and there are private schools, which are sometimes better... but you have to pay for them. Kids go to school from preschool (age 3-4) through 10th grade. All sorts of ages are in the upper grades, though, because if a kid finds work that helps their family, then they will take a couple years off of school to earn money. After a couple of years, some of them come back and start where they left off. That means that you can have 18-year olds in 7th grade, etc. After 10th grade, all kids take a test. If they pass the test, they can go on to 11th and 12th grade, which is a prep-for-college time. After 12th grade, they take another test. This test determines if they go to college. The main, in-town college is the most prestigious one. If a student gets into this school, they are more likely to get a job. Upon passing this second test before college, the government looks at the students' scores and then chooses a major for the student. If engineering is desperately needed in the country, for example, the smarter students will be assigned engineering. Everything is designed to be for the common good of the whole, in this case, the country.
• This is a wandering, roaming society. I am telling you no lie when I say I could walk out on the street now, even at night, and very quickly come across dozens of people, some in groups, but mostly on their own, walking. Many of them are not walking anywhere specific, they are just walking. I am learning that this is not a very direction and purpose-driven people. I began to think about just one person. Think with me, about any of them... just take one. And then think: all day, they walk around. Then, they go somewhere at night to sleep, sometimes in their home if they have one, or somewhere else if not. Then, they wake up the next day and do it again. And again. And again. That is their life. It is very hard for me to process that happening in one person even for a year... much less for 10 or 20 or 30 years. Then, it is hard for me to process that happening in thousands of people... always. I am already learning more, though, about how to think culturally from their perspective, to think how they think. In the States, we are a very task-oriented people. Here, people are more relationship-focused and not as concerned with hurrying and to do lists. And that’s just the beginning of how the two country’s thought processes differ.
• It is year 2002 here. I am not lying. I am in the only un-colonized country in Africa. When a country is un-colonized, the government can make their own rules. So, the country has remained un-colonized and now lacks regulation in many things. The un-colonization also allows for their own calendar, which goes back to the 2002 deal. Seriously, there are still signs/billboards/mementos that celebrate year 2000... their beginning of a new millennium. They also have 13 months in a year, the first 12 with 30 days and the last being only 5 days. And, holidays are different. Christmas is December 29, which is our calendar’s January 7. And, our September 11 is their New Year’s Day. There are many rumors out as to why the calendar started 7 years later. One rumor I heard (which Justin told me is definitely not true) is that their calendar began when news of Jesus' birth reached their country. Hm. I don't know the real reason why.
• Sticks are toothbrushes. They sell them on the side of the road and you can get them whittled for your own use.
• The people here are very proud of their country. A couple things that they are most proud of, other than their un-colonized independence, are their coffee and their family. (As you know, I have already said that their coffee is amazing and definitely worth being proud of.) The family unit is something that exemplifies loyalty here. You are part of your family, living with them, until you get married. As part of your family, you go out and work to make money... all of which goes into a family pot. Everything is for the common good... everything is for the family pot.
• Stealing sometimes happens when someone needs something. It's kind of like Robin Hood... steal from the rich and give to the poor. Some people here have no qualms about it while others look down on it because of the impression it gives of their country.
• Gate workers and house workers and childcare workers are all over. If you have money, you should spend it on these workers or else you will be looked at as selfish by the local community. Having the money to pay someone and give them a job and then not doing it is considered selfish. It's hard for me to grasp the concept of having these workers because the only exposure I have heard of to this type of concept is butlers in the home of a very wealthy family. However, I am beginning to understand.
• The unemployment rate is about 65% in the country. On the flip side, there are many jobs here. (The problem is that there are more people.) My friend was talking about this and theorized that possibly these extra jobs that we don’t have in the States were created while the country was under communism. To make sure everyone had a job, some people were assigned positions that may not have been necessary and then after communism ended here, people just assumed that the positions were still important. I wonder if that is why so often things are a process and it takes several people to accomplish one task.
• Chot is the local drug. It is a leaf. You chew it and it makes you high. It tastes like regular leaves. I didn't try it yet :), but I know someone who did.
• Lines don't matter. I found this out in the visa line. One lady cut me in line, got out of line, cut me again, got out again, and cut again! I remember this happening in Europe, too. Maybe I am invisible.

Like my dad said before I left: "Laura, do you know what is important for you to remember about everything you are about to see? --- It is nothing new. God has seen it already." It is good for me to think about that. It is interesting because we sing songs and pray prayers like:

"Give me your eyes for just one second; give me your eyes so I can see everything that I keep missing, give me your love for humanity."

I don't see anything wrong for that prayer and I have even prayed it a lot. It's just that sometimes... answered prayers hurt.

Although, as I have had more conversations and been connected with the local people here, I am beginning to understand them more. Understanding helps me not hurt so much about things here that aren’t really bad, just different. I think that one of the best things that I can come away from this with is a clear perspective that hasn’t been tainted by my American life. And really, I think it is happening: I respect these people and love them already. That didn't take too long. :)

Love you all. Thank you for reading!

Laura