Bitam Enaznalen (We are very sorry!)

Life’s schedule is never what we think it will be. We were delayed with our departure to Chencha, in order to stay in Addis one extra week while the foringies from Washington came to the Drop-In Center. We aren’t complaining. The folks from Washington were great and we really enjoyed their fellowship.

We got a reminder as to why sometimes it is good not to have a computer over the last two weeks. If you don’t have something then you can never miss it. But, when your computer, your connection to friends and family back home, malfunctions it creates a major problem.

Our Windows wouldn’t start; it was searching for the mystery problem to correct. This started the day before we were supposed to leave for Chencha. If we were at home or going to be in Addis, chigger yelham- (no problem), but we were heading to the rural countryside of Ethiopia. That is not exactly the best location to find someone to help you with your IT troubles. We were using Nega’s Mac, but it didn’t like wordpress.com and the internet connection in Chencha is iffy at best. Fortunately there was a young German man who is serving his military service time in Ethiopia in Arba Minch, just down the mountain from Chencha. We arrived in Chencha on a Sunday evening. We took our computer to Matthew on Friday. Friday evening we picked our computer back up from Matthew, repaired and improved.

Now we have been in Chencha for a week and a half. It is absolutely beautiful. Grass covered rolling hills, plowed fields, meandering livestock and welcoming people. Chencha is small and we are the only foringies here right now, so everyone knows we are here. It is kind of hard to miss us. We are also driving one of the few cars that pass through on the rough roads. Often it is hard for Jon to drive because the road is used more for people, sheep, goats and cattle. We have had several folks almost walk straight into the car because they aren’t expecting one to be there.

Jon has been busy working on the agriculture project proposal. We have already met with the local government and they are eager to have us. They just need to see our proposal and then we can start the process of land selection. We were assured that we would be given priority, since we have traveled so far. That probably translates to; you’ll be bringing lots of money. Jess has started teaching English for about 25 5th-7th graders. So far the progress is good. Many of the children do well with the basics, but their applications make it apparent that they haven’t had a lot of practice speaking English. From what we have been told, they really had to regulate who could be in the class so that Jess wouldn’t be overwhelmed. The church limited the students to one per family. People are still asking to be in the class. They are so eager to learn.

There really aren’t words to describe Chencha, so please look at the pictures for the post. We will be in Chencha for another week and a half before heading back to Addis. It will be difficult to leave the beauty of Chencha and the love of Nega’s family.