Love Does

Today started out not knowing what was going on other than having to wake up and be ready to go by 7. We were told “take a fresh pair of underwear and your toothbrush because we might have to stay overnight”.  We were then told we were going to an Ethiopian prison, and we would be able to see the Ethiopian country side. Aki (owner of the guest home) was in charge, and we found out we were going to visit his brother. He explained that in Ethiopia there are different prisons for the length of time you need to spend in prison. This particular prison was for people serving a 6 month term. Aki explained that in Ethiopia you can go to prison for 6 months for fighting. (guess I wont be doing any of that here) He also explained that his brother was in prison because he was with a friend that had stolen something. Yikes, in prison for 6 months due to association. Let me rewind this a bit for you, and tell you what we really did MOST of the day. After driving for about 3 hours the Ethiopians said 20 kilometers more. A few HOURS later we were again told we had 20 kilometers more. We are now a 6 hour drive from home when we arrived at the prison. All I could think to myself was, what was this ‘might’ have to stay overnight thing. We had driven through A LOT more countryside than I had anticipated we would. (It was interesting and glad we got the opportunity, but a van with 14 people some sitting on wheel wells for 10 hours today???) I’m just glad we have some good singers in our group, because that’s what we ended up doing most of the day. Ok now for the 30-45 min of what we drove all this way for… the prison. We walked around the walls to the visitation area. The walk was my favorite part because there were monkeys in the trees. We were patted down before ‘entering’/aka walking up to barb wire fence where the prisoners were held. I found it interesting that we just had to tell one of the prisoners who we were here to see and they would go find them.  Aki’s brother and one of his brother’s friends came out to talk with us/Aki. We sat on a bench and he came out and stood by a wooden fence (maybe 4 feet hight) and not behind glass like american prisoners.  Actually family and friends are able to bring food, money, clothes, or whatever to the prisoners. It seemed funny to hand a few bags through a fence like it was no big deal. We stayed for maybe a half hour and it was back on the road again. Yipee I could hardly wait. In all honestly it was great to see why Ethiopia has the most diverse landscape in Africa. We went through mountains and even through a few tunnels. The driver literally was weaving through goats, cows, sheep, and people walking on the road.  So we ended up staying in a hotel. The hotel cost the equivalent to $3.50 per night, so it didn’t break the bank.  I was  just happy that we were able to get out to the van, and thankful that no one got sick or had bad gas in that very long van ride. It was a bonding experience for ALL of us whether we wanted it to be or not. In all seriousness though, today AGAIN made me think about how fortunate we are and how many ‘things’ we have. By things I mean material things, friendships, opportunities etc. For example a young boy washed my shoes for me today and I couldn’t help but think about his childhood and how it was very different from mine. Here he is washing people’s shoes for money to live off, while I at that age was playing basketball with friends in my driveway after school. I can’t help but feel like his childhood is being robbed from him. I wonder how different his lifestyle will be by the time he’s my age. (he is working for a reason at a very young age) Does he have family problems? Is he saving money for school? Why is this young child taking his own initiative? He is forced into being a responsible person at an extremely young age. I respect this little guy for working for what he needs rather than maybe begging for it.  I probably wouldn’t have chose to sit in a  packed in a van for 10 hours, but feel like the relationships built is more important than going to see hippos for example.  Our group continues to enjoy the “black gold” or as we know it as coffee. Tibs (almost like lamb fajitas) is almost a daily meal, but I really like it.  Over all today was a good day of rest for us. I think by the end of the day everyone is feeling healthy and rested.

Troy

oh, how i missed hauling rocks on my back in a potato sack.  seriously.  today, as far as manual labor goes, that we all we did… rocks.  back and forth.  we would walk the trail from the pile where our ethiopian friends would ask, “sint? (or “how many?”) and we’d tell them 2, 3, 4, or 5 scoops from the shovel (as you can probably imagine by my physique, i routinely asked for 5).
one time on our way to fill up our sacks my friend (and team member), trecie told me the life motto she had developed.  she said she could either choose to look to the left and make her life about that, or she could look to the right and make her life (or day) about that.
as we hiked the path back to the pile that was slowly (very, very slowly) depleting you could look to your left and find a 100 yard hedge of thorn bush lined with trash, dead roots, and even a bone or two.  or you could look to your right and take in Bright Hope’s garden brimming with green vegetables shooting up through the dirt, neat rows, and freshly watered soil.  trecie said it’s her goal to look right.  i like that.
maybe this whole comparison is a tired cliche or maybe all of us are traveling our own path with the option to look right or look left (or maybe we get to choose our own cliche).  sometimes my american self has a tendency to focus on the trash, all the death and decay.  and it’d be easy to fall into such perceiving here in ethiopia because you can always find signs of death and decay.
but personally, i’m going to start looking at the garden, because in the garden i see life and growth and opportunity and beauty.  when we look to the garden we see what God intended and we see that there is always hope.  hope for growth.  hope for something beautiful.  hope for new life that’s vibrant and captivating.
joe dirt (from the movie, joe dirt) says, “life’s a garden.  dig it!”
i’d say the ethiopian people (at the least those i’ve met) spend the majority of their time in the garden, living the growth and beauty and life of something hope-filled.
i want to follow that example and choose life, not the death and decay of a trash heap where all we see are the remnants of life that’s been thrown away.  images of what could have been.  this choice is mine and it is yours.  the garden or the garbage?  and remember, God intended the garden from the beginning and Jesus came so that we might “have life and have it to the full.”
join me in choosing the garden, whatever path you might find yourself on, and let’s start digging…
-chris townley

There is an energy here like no other. Let me take you on a walk with me down a dirt road filled with music, hope and heartfelt greetings. In the distance there is a smokey shadow that hovers over the hillside. Shepherds herd their sheep on the same streets and children light up when they see our China faces. Bananas hang from the shopkeeper’s window with perfectly lined avocados, onions and lemons below. Inscents and dust fill the air.
We are safe. We have everything we need because God is here. We have all learned the best lesson of all: that WE is better than I but nothing is better than the laughter of an Ethiopian child…
May 12, 2011
Trecie Wheat