From the outside looking in...

A note from Lisa:  I was lucky enough to get a visit from one of my close friends Jenn this past week.  Jenn and I met at JMU, our freshman year and then got to work together in DC for six years as well.  It was so much fun having her here.  I thought I'd let her share some of her impressions from her time here in Addis.
__
Selam!  For those of you that don’t know me, I’m Jenn, a friend of Lisa’s from JMU and DC.  I just returned from a week visiting Addis Ababa and Lisa asked if I’d write a “guest blog” about my personal experience.  First and foremost, I’d like to thank Lisa, our friend Brian and all of their friends in Addis for hosting me.  While this was my first time in Africa, everyone there made me feel welcomed and at home.   
My first impression of Addis was similar to my first impression of the local Amharic alphabet.  After helping with some homework at Change House, one of the boys, Ermias“DJ”, tried to teach me how to write and pronounce the characters. When he opened the dictionary, the alphabet first appeared as a confusing grid of ancient script laid out over a faded, wrinkled page.

Ermias schools Jenn in Amharic.

With a closer look and under the tutelage of Ermias, a pattern to the characters emerged…and I thought to myself how boring the letters in our alphabet seemed in comparison.  While I was frustrated at my inability to pronounce many of the syllables correctly, I loved how much Ermias seemed to enjoy laughing at my mistakes as well as the process of trying to teach me.

You spend a lot of time in taxis as you move about Addis so transportation was really my first real taste of day to day life in Ethiopia. As Lisa shepherded me through the bustling city on chaotic roads I felt transported to another time. I noticed only one major intersection with traffic lights. In the post-Krempt dry season, a veil of dust covers many of the sidewalks and all of the taxis are circa 1975. To get from Lisa’s house to most of our destinations required using two or three different taxi routes typically including a stop at an intersection called, for reasons unknown to me, “Mexico.”  Street signs are almost non-existent: on one un-named road you can ask a taxi to stop at “Arat Kilo” (4 Kilometers down the road) or “Sidiste Kilo” (6 Kilometers). I was impressed with how comfortably Lisa could navigate this complex city.  I was also thankful that I could simply enjoy looking out the window and absorb my new surroundings without having to figure out a new transportation system on my own.

The view near Lisa's apartment

Lisa and Jenn in Piazza

More time and attention helped me gain appreciation for the rhythm of moving around Addis.  Throughout the week as we rode from Lisa’s apartment to Entoto, Change House, museums, and even to the Hilton to go to the pool, I came to understand the system of taxis. I was excited when I was able to place a neighborhood as we drove by or help flag the right taxi line during rush hour.  Getting around the city became a part of my adventure that I truly enjoyed.

Now that I’ve dispensed my fascination with transportation, truly the best part of my Addis experience was the people.  I’m sure you all know that Lisa loves hugs, and Addis felt like one big hug- from the Entoto and Change kids as well as from Lisa’s friends.  On my second day when we walked through the gates of Entoto, the kids outside rushed up to us, many of them enthusiastically shouting Lisa’s name.  I was surprised that as a stranger I instantly had a swarm of little girls holding my hands and hugging my waist.  After Lisa gave me a tour of their classrooms, office, and jewelry display room, she went off to work on lesson plans and tend to a group of tourists that had heard about Entoto via word of mouth. I stayed outside and hung out with the kids. Some were eager to play, others content to simply sit in my lap. A few of the older boys who have grown up in the Entoto project helped lead the younger kids in exercises. One of the older girls, Ganet, helped coach me along when I slacked off on my stretches! 

Ganet pushing Jenn to stretch further

I jumped rope and played volleyball with the girls, while the boys played soccer (errr...football). For awhile I just sat on a ledge with three girls crawling over me as they played with my hair. Later in the afternoon, laughter echoed throughout the bus as we drove up Entoto mountain to take the kids home.

Two of the girls from Entoto

At the Change House, I enjoyed my cross-cultural tutoring experience with Ermias DJ.  I was in awe as I looked through his notebooks and found that he was learning all of his subjects in non-native English and learning French on top of that!  Outside of the house, I loved watching the boys laugh and shout while playing foosball.  Lisa’s friend Muluken and Brian showed off their strength on a makeshift pull up bar nailed to  tree branches in the yard and Alex, one of the Change Boys, had a good laugh taking pictures of me as I failed to pull my head above the bar even once.  One night we were able to take three of the boys to a collaborative dance performance by Balletboyz, a dance group from London and Adugna, an Ethiopian modern dance company that includes some dancers with physical disabilities.

Lisa, Jenn, Brian and Ermias at BalletBoyz

The final number featured both groups depicting the story of a couple meeting, falling in love and eventually getting married. In the last scenes of that number, they showcased a variety of traditional Ethiopian dances and I enjoyed watching one of the boy's face light up with excitement just as much as I enjoyed the performance itself.  After seeing both the Entoto and Change ministries, it was easy to see how the children have captured Lisa's heart and how she, in turn, has built such trusting and loving relationships with the kids.

My other hugs in Addis came from the fantastic network of friends that Lisa has established.  In a culture that is very open to touch, I was most often greeted with a handshake and a hug. Walking along the street arm in arm, squished into the back of a cab singing songs and laughing, or dancing in the living room at a birthday party, Lisa’s friends made me feel welcomed and at home.

Brian, Muluken and Lisa sharing laughs over macchiatos

Further enriching my hugs were of course the conversations, often over delicious macchiatos, where I also learned more about everyone’s day to day work, successes, and challenges- networking to find a volunteer computer teacher, potential collaboration with a restaurant, finding a new security guard, working through Ethiopian bureaucracy, interviews with the Wall Street Journal, developing new activities and lesson plans, excitement over getting a good deal on beads in Kenya, and much more.  I felt lucky to have had the opportunity to meet this community of people who are doing such inspiring work and also grateful that Lisa has amazing friends to support her.

Eden, Lisa, Jenn and Birukti debriefing the day at a local coffee shop

 
I once ended an essay in college by saying “In conclusion, I hate conclusions” and I still do, just about as much as I hate saying good-bye.  I certainly was not ready to say good-bye to Ethiopia after just one week, but I appreciate having had the opportunity at all.  I can't thank Lisa, Brian and all of their friends enough for welcoming me into their homes and their lives last week.  Five days later as I sit here on my couch in the US I am still in awe of their work and my soul smiles thinking that people like them is why there is hope in this world!
Much love, and “betam amasaganalo!” (thank you very much),
Jenn