The Smooth Ride

Well, we’re still alive. It’s been a while since this blog was last put into use, but now that we have a whopping 1/2 megabyte per second unlimited wifi connection at our house, the only thing standing between us and blogging is pure laziness. 

It has been a month since we returned to Mekele, and it’s more or less been a smooth ride. Settling in wasn’t nearly as difficult as it was back in August and September, and wow, we’re already talking about potential dates for returning to the United States.

But that’s still five months away. Right now, we are just enjoying our time here while keeping our return on the horizon, with some of us seeing it as sort of a light at the end of the tunnel, and others seeing it as a cause of dread. I will not say any names. We are well into our routine here, with schoolwork, Tigrinya lessons, and volunteering at Operation Rescue Ethiopia consuming the lion’s share of our time. The longest power outage has only lasted three hours or so (no match for those 48 hours from September 16th to 18th), our water situation has largely remained under control, and as for those stares and yells I wrote about back in October: meh. See the first paragraph if you’re wondering about our internet situation.

Some notable scenes we’ve witnessed:

Dad, my Grandfather, and I went to the local Orthodox Church on the night before Ethiopian Christmas (January 7th), and it was surreal. Seeing incense burning, the whole congregation wearing prayer shawls while singing in unison, just wow. What an ancient way to worship, one that probably hasn’t changed since the fourth century. Just imagine: people do this all night long here!

We celebrated Epiphany, or Timkat (January 19th) by going downtown with a British friend of ours, where we were among a sea of people waiting for a service, or for a dispensing of holy water- it wasn’t clear what we were waiting for, exactly. But, at least we talked to some other kids who were interested in hearing our Tigrinya skills. Just when we were about to leave, sprinklers came on, and the masses pushed and shoved to get their share of holy water. Being reminded of running down a mountain at nighttime surrounded by fire (Meskel, back in September), we decided not to join the madness this time around. And, naturally, the people who were emerging from the crowd all wet were young men willing to, well, push and shove. Afterwards, there were several processions of priests and singers on the streets of Mekele. Religious holidays are no joke here, man. 

However, I sometimes can’t help but let myself be taken over by frustration. This month, the language barrier has been what has caused me the most anger. It can also be difficult to feel at home at Operation Rescue, where kids are constantly running around, seemingly without a point in mind. I am reminded of the slogan from Chuck E. Cheese’s: “Where a kid can be a kid.” That’s exactly what Operation Rescue feels like, and man, when we get home afterwards, I feel exhausted. But I need to remember that all of these kids are from extremely disadvantaged backgrounds. For example, in our English class the other day, this one kid was being a troublemaker, and when Dad tried to include him in our game, some other kids said in Tigrinya, “He has nothing. [This kid] has nothing,” as in he’s one of the poorest kids in Mekele. These are the things that we must keep in mind whenever we feel that we are having a tough time here. There are other people who have it about a thousand times worse than we do.  

Meanwhile, I was just thinking about how now that we have wifi, given that it’s working (which it sometimes isn’t), I could just sit down and look up whatever I want. Just like in the U.S.! In fact, Eli and I are planning on waking up at 2:30 AM on Monday morning to hopefully see the Patriots lose the Super Bowl. I don’t know if it’s a bad thing because we were supposed to “unplug” this year, or if it’s a good thing because I don’t have to face internet withdrawal. I just hope that I’ll continue to fulfill our purpose here: experience a new culture and give back to the less fortunate.

When should we return to the U.S.? Before July 4th? After July 10th? It’s all complicated right now, but as I said before, it’s dawning on us. Between our arrival date (August 14th) and the first week of July, when we’ll probably leave Ethiopia, we are currently more than halfway there. We’re over halfway through our year in Ethiopia! Even closer is when our cousins from Kenya visit, and when we go to Italy and Austria for two weeks. As a certain movie character put it, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” That will probably summarize the next five months here.

P.S.: As I write this, Mom’s soap opera is on TV. One character literally just said “Hazal is cut out of the side of Satan. She looks like Satan.”

P.P.S.: Apologies for the lack of pictures (meaning none). We tried for hours to upload just three of them, at the smallest size, but were once again smacked in the face by our almost routine realization: in Mekelle, nothing is ever guaranteed.