Tomorrow it is the third anniversary of our departure from
New Zealand which means that in thirteen days, we will celebrate our third
anniversary of being here. Boy how time
has flown and so much has changed, including dynamics within our family…In our
relationships, in our daily lives and in our habits.
There are some things I never thought I would find myself
doing until I came here. Things I had
spent so much time instilling into my children have soon gone out the window-
like “don’t eat with your hands”- total waste of time. So I thought I would make a list- not just of
things that I have found myself doing, but also the members of my family. The list could have gone a lot longer but we
have limited it to these ten.
1. Ate a green
orange. So we came here from the land of
fresh fruit and vegetables, complaining about the lack thereof in our new found
home. One of the disappointing things
for us was the fact that we couldn’t find any orange oranges. They were all green- as if they had been
picked prematurely and that was okay. While
for the first year or so, this bothered us to the point where we would totally
abstain, now, we get excited if we find out that these green oranges are cheap
and we can buy a few kilos. Sour and pip
infested, we can consume a kilo in a split second.
2. Picked my nose in
public. Dust and dry environments call
for dried up mucus casing your nose.
It’s a known fact and can cause even black dry snots to form in your
nose, disallowing you to breathe. So the
fact is, when you gotta pick, you gotta pick!
Not only is this habit culturally acceptable it is quite common and very
contagious. Like a yawn. You see someone else do it, and your body
naturally responds by wanting to do the same thing. Asaua has even discovered that by picking his
nose in public, that he in fact gets less attention by onlookers than he would
if he did otherwise. It’s always good to
know what will make one fit in more.
3. Drove a
bajaj. Actually, we had never ridden in
a bajaj until we came to Ethiopia. It’s
now one of our four methods of transportation- other than the horse and cart,
the minibus taxi or catching a ride with our friends. So we have a trusted bajaj driver who has
become a family friend, who we can send to get our kids, pick up some materials
for our house, get visitors to their desired destinations and teach us how to
drive. On one clear road where most
bajaj drivers learn to drive, I have also done the same- this is what I do when
I need to get my driving fix.
4. Held hands with someone
of the same sex for an extended amount of time.
This one’s from Asaua. It’s true
though that most of us have found ourselves been caught in the clutch of
someone else’s hand for a longer length of time than we are comfortable with-
to the point where we are walking down the road holding that person’s hand in brotherly
affection. What can start off as a
shaking of hands can soon become a holding of hands. And we’ve come to accept it’s perfectly fine
for us (as long as the feeling of affection is mutual) but can still initiate a
chuckle when we see it with other people.
Yet at the same time it can also create a sigh of relief as we see our
brother’s and sister’s here defy consciousness to be so closely reunited with a
love one that they have to physically be in close proximity to them.
5. Cooked by
fire. Now I’m not talking about
Barbecues or gas stoves. I’m talking
about a small metal fire cooker that we originally bought so we could freshly
roast some coffee beans on it and look professional while doing it. Never did we think that we would need to use
this many times over for cooking our meals when power would cease to
supply. Personally I have only done this
once or twice. Asaua and the kids have
done it more frequently as they have greater patience for it and see it as a
novelty. But what I have also learnt
here is that what is a novelty to one person can be a nuisance to another. And also what is at one time a novelty to one
person, can soon also become a nuisance to that very same person. Bring in no.6.
6. Rode in a taxi
with 23 people. This is my personal
record and I was excited to get a record when a friend of mine told me her
record of 21 people. This is in a 12
seater van where four people fit on two seats, two people sit on the tire hub
and maybe a couple of kids are squeezed onto their parents laps. Of course it’s not only the kids who are on
people’s laps- everyone is basically on everyone else’s laps. My funniest moment in this situation was when
we had jumped in a van coming from a distant suburb and more and more people
had been added to the van. A visiting
friend of ours was squashed in the back and yelled out to me in the front- “BY
THE WAY, DID I MENTION I DON’T LIKE PEOPLE TOUCHING ME?!” No one in the van other than us could
understand what she was saying. It was hilarious.
7. Ate raw meat. It’s a delicacy here and originates in a
specific region of Ethiopia called the Gurage region. It is often mixed with butter and beriberi
but it basically looks like the packaged minced beef you would buy from the
supermarket. I found out about this
delicacy from the ladies at Women at Risk in Nazaret back in 2009 when we went
around and asked them what their favourite food was. This was top of the list. Eww! Was my first response. But after you live here for so long and see
other people eat it and have it offered to you, it becomes tempting. So on a couple of occasions now, I have eaten
it. One of those occasions was the
girls’ 13th birthday, after which I was sick for a few days. At least we can say we tried it!
8. Preached through a
translator. Actually I hadn’t preached
at all in a church setting before we came to Ethiopia I don’t recall. I had taught in Sunday School or in Youth
Group, had shared my testimony in church but had never actually PREACHED to the
Sunday morning service. Funny thing is
though, I had always wanted to. Not to
be on stage or to get recognition, but because I felt called to, gifted to and
inspired to. Here we often get
invitations to speak (not just Asaua, but ME too!) as having missionary status
means we are here to bring the gospel, so it is what we are expected to
do. Doing it through a translator
though, adds another dimension. It calls
for trust (because you don’t know if they will actually relay what you’ve said)
and patience (because there is a massive delay on both parts as each part is
shared.) We have had many translators
here and appreciate each and every one of them for their patience in trying to
understand our accents and often random terminologies!
9. Checked eggs and milk before we used it. We have made many purchases of milk (which we
have to buy in a 500ml non-transparent plastic bag) where the contents have sat
in unpowered refrigerators for a day or more and have often ended up on our
breakfast cereal. The same with eggs
which have sometimes turned out black or rotten when we have thrown it into our
already half prepared cake or omelette mix.
Maybe we should have thought about this earlier but the solutions to such
things that we normally take for granted, like fresh milk and eggs, don’t
automatically come to mind. So we have
learnt to pour the milk or crack the egg into a separate bowl BEFORE throwing
in with some other food. We hate to
waste food here.
10. Been into a
brothel. While brothel conjures up a
different image in different countries, here (in Debre Zeit) it is nothing
flash or secretive. It’s an open room
with a bar at the front and a bed either at the front or in the back room. It’s a place you can freely go into at any
given time of the day. While I never
thought this is where we would be, we have found ourselves in a brothel. The reason being is that our church neighbours a whole bunch of brothels. They are not just work places for prostituted women but they are also the homes of them and their gorgeous children. It's not beyond God to go into brothels. In fact, we can often find Him there- waiting for His children to come and rescue His beloved.
So we have changed in so many ways. Living overseas does that to you. So let us know what you think?!
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