Avocado, Avocado, Avocado! (Tom)

 I would say that today was the most incredible, amazing, uplifting, memorable, and overwhelming day that I've ever spent in Ethiopia. There are not enough adjectives to describe what we experienced as we visited the village where Tamenech was born and spent the first threeish years of her life.

First, a little about where we're staying. Everyone has seen photos of the traditional Ethiopian hut; circular structures made of wood with straw roofs. The lodge at which we're staying is meant to represent those, but definitely much more comfortable inside, with beds, bathroom, and electricity. No wifi, though! It is in the middle of the woods, so we can hear the wildlife around us and can even see some of it. Velvet monkeys jump through the trees, yelling at each other and watching us from above. Hyenas are outside the compound and are coaxed out of hiding when one of the staff drops a pile of meat on the ground. Vultures circle the skies above and help themselves to the meat when the hyenas are too timid to come get it. Birds are chirping and far off we can hear the call to prayers in the nearby town.

We ate breakfast outside, taking in all of our beautiful surroundings. It was a really good meal, including an assortment of pineapple, banana, and papaya jellies. I've never had any of these and wow were they tasty. 

 

The van ride to the village took about thirty minutes, climbing into the hills on roads that became increasingly bumpier, steeper, and narrower as we progressed. At times, the driver had to come to a near stop as he navigated ravines in the road. Along the way, we passed house after house, some the traditional round structure and others newer and slightly bigger, but still made out of mud, wood, straw, or other locally available materials. Coffee and humongous enset trees lined the road. (Enset trees look like banana trees, and are actually called "false banana trees" except you don't eat the fruit but use other parts, mainly the leaves.) There are tons of kids playing, watching, and waving to us. People are walking everywhere, some carrying loads on their backs. 

Along the way, Firew, our translator and a really good friend of the family who we had met yesterday, told me that he had conferred with his father, and in order to keep us in Ethiopia, they had pooled their money to buy us a hectare of land, money to build a house and to start a farm. I thought he was serious, so looked at Yonas for help. Yonas got a big grin on his face and assured me he was joking. 

We arrive at the home of Tamenech's grandmother, welcomed by a large poster with our photos and a greeting. (The photos had been downloaded from Facebook. Daniel was a little annoyed at the picture they had used of him. I responded by saying that from now on, he should realize that any photo his mother takes of him could very well end up on a 4x6 poster half way around the world...!)

 

This entire day will be a homecoming for Tamenech, and the stop at her grandmother's is the first indication of how big a deal it is. While we were expecting to be greeted by the grandmother a few other family members, dozens of people welcomed us as we entered the compound. Each of us were given a scarf with colors and designs representing the Sidama region, placed carefully around our necks by the grandmother.

 

 

Next, we were off to church. We got back into the van and continued driving up the hills. We were going slow enough that the van seemed like a magnet, attracting more and more people as we went along so that by the time we got to the church, the dozens at the grandmother had doubled, maybe even tripled by the time we were there.

I've been to traditional Ethiopian church services several times during previous visits, and they are amazingly intense. As we entered the church (we were late; the service had started a couple of hours earlier) the choir was singing. And when I say singing, this isn't your typical Sunday morning church that many of us are used to. They were singing loud, while swaying and moving, and worshiping. (We would describe their movements as dancing, but we were quickly corrected that they weren't dancing, but rather they were worshiping God).

The church itself was a simple structure, with cement floor, painted concrete block walls, and a corrugated metal roof supported by thin tree trunks. At the front of the room was a small raised stage with a simple lectern and a keyboard. There were a few hundred people sitting in plastic lawn chairs either purple, red, green, blue, or pink. The room was unlit but there was enough sunlight coming in through open doorways that we could easily see everyone. We were escorted to the front of the sanctuary to sit in the front, where Tamenech's sister and grandmother were also seated. Tamenech quickly got caught up in the "dancing" as the choir belted out their songs, accompanied by an organ. 

 

 

This part of the service was also a celebration of Tamenech's homecoming. Her parents had been active in the church, so many remembered her (some even not happy that she didn't remember them...as if a three year old is going to remember anyone...). We were each asked to stand up and talk a bit (Firew, the jokester from earlier, had told me that I could preach if I wanted to. I didn't know if he was joking (he looked really serious) but I assumed he was not serious (hopefully I didn't offend him!). After more singing, the service was over it was time for Daniel's baptism.

Daniel's baptism was such a unique and amazing experience, I am going to save that for another post. 

After the baptism, we were taken to the graves of Tamenech's parents, at which there were some very touching moments. Then, off to visit the home of the brother of Tamenech's father. Along the way we learned that Tamenech and her sister each own a small plot of land that had belonged to her mother and father. Who knew that Tamenech owned land!

The next stop was back to the church for a meeting with the church elders. They spoke about the great needs in their church and although they had plans to grow and build, they were limited because of the extreme poverty in the village. Their church has over 1000 members, but they only have room for a fraction of that, so need a bigger building. Because of the poverty, they were struggling to find the funds to grow. They asked for prayers to help them meet their needs.

After a quick visit to the home of Tamenech's sister and husband, we returned to the grandmother's house. 

The walk between the visits was surreal. We walked on narrow, muddy and rocky paths through groves of coffee trees and vegetation, up and down hills. The path twisted and turned every which way, making some of the steps not so steady. I slipped a couple of times, but someone was always there to grab my elbow to help. However, each time I was steadied, there would be a few people behind me laughing (I assume they were laughing at me. Remember these folks traverse the paths every day so the sight of someone walking as slowly and gingerly as me was surely amusing. The other surreal part of the walk was the number of people walking with us. As far as I could see in front of me, and as far as I could see behind me were people. Lots and lots of people. It was Tamenech's homecoming and it was a village celebration.

 

 

It was shortly after we arrived at the grandmother's house that we began to be overwhelmed.

Short aside: as we were preparing for this trip, we told them that there was going to be a lot going on, that at times could be too much. There may be times that they wanted to step away and recharge and refocus. We were okay with that, as this was their trip and we wanted to make sure they were in a good place. 

We came up with a code word (that had been used by another family). The secret word was avocado. Whenever it got to be too much, we would say something like "I'd really like some avocado juice" or "I saw some really nice avocados today." That would be our sign that it was time for a break.

Now picture a small yard of grass with a stand of trees on one side of the lot with a slight slope up to other side. On the end of the lot is a traditional Ethiopian hut with another newer structure next to it. Several chairs had been placed under the trees and we were invited to sit. The yard was full of people, which seemed to get fuller by the minute. Person after person walked by to greet us, really loving on Tamenech, but giving each of us hugs and tons of kisses. I don't know where the translator was, but of course we didn't understand a word they were saying. Many of them remembered Tamenech and made hand gestures indicating how small she used to be and holding her face in their hands. Again, some made comments that they didn't understand why she didn't remember them.

This went on for a very long time until finally there were no more. We sat down in our chairs, and I looked out into the yard. I believe every square inch of that sloped yard was covered with people, standing, and just staring at us. There were at least two hundred people of all ages in the yard. I felt as if I was on display. We don't speak Sidagami, so we couldn't talk to anyone, and they couldn't talk to us. We sat there for what seemed an eternity, just staring at each other.

Finally, someone suggested we go inside the grandmother's hut and perhaps people would leave so we could get some photos of the compound with family. The hut was dark and musty, and more and more people kept entering until it was crowded as well, with all of us staring at each other. 

Suddenly some heated conversations ensued and things got a little intense. It got to be too much and just as I was starting to think it was time for the secret word, Lori was quicker, saying "Avacado, avacado, avacado! Let's get out of here." We quickly jumped up and left, regrouped a bit on the lawn (btw, there were still several hundred people there), and got in the van to go back to the lodge. We spent the ride back trying to unpack what had happened as well as the implications of leaving so quickly without saying good-bye. Yonas, our rock solid guide, made some suggestions that he could take to smooth things over with the family. 

Back at the lodge, we continued to decompress with dinner, another hyena sighting, and quite time back in our hut.

It was an amazing day, one that I will never, ever forget. I was inspired, exhilarated, excited, grateful, and in the end overwhelmed with what I had witnessed (I guess there were more adjectives!). I am so glad we came on this trip and have had a chance to not only reconnect Tamenech with her family, but make new friends and learn more about her background, history, and culture.