Jan 20th happenings Satu & Erik

Hi David!

It’s Tuesday….and we got a chance to see Sitota today. I sat on the floor with her reading a book and getting the girls (the caregivers) to tell me how to say each picture in Amharic. That was fun! Sitota became impatient and we decided to take her out to the yard for a walk. Erik carried her and she was quiet and eventually fell asleep.

There is a new woman here at our guesthouse, Regula, from Switzerland. She has musical abilities. I told her about the choir practices at the International Church. I was encouraging her to come to the practice with Erik and myself. So, we went there last night. While we waited for the practice to begin we had an opportunity to talk with other ‘Motley’ members (that’s what they call their choir, ‘Motley Choir’). Anyway, one of the people I happened to meet was Silva Lahti from Finland. She is here (I believe with the Lutheran Church) to work in a Mission helping Aids victims. She is really outside of Addis but comes to Addis on and off. She is a trained singer as well as a pianist. We decided to go out for lunch when she is back in Addis again (which is the Sunday when you and Seppo are here). She also told us there are some old pianos that need tuning (in Lutheran Seminary, in Mekanisa area) I told about Erik’s abilities….she would love to have Erik do something about those pianos. Also there we met this very amazing elderly gentleman (very, very tall) from UK. I told him about Regula being a concert violinist and Silva a singer and pianist. He himself is a piano and cello teacher. He started planning right away practices for some chamber music.

We are going out tomorrow morning to see the work being done with this mission for women who have previously been prostitutes but now have a new life in Christ. They are learning new skills to support themselves (as well as lifeskills)….Hopefully we can be some encouragement to them.

By the way I taught Kidist to knit…wow! Did she ever take off with that. She finished a poncho and a scarf and is asking me to teach her to do something else now. I showed Mesi how to knit and she took her yarn and needles with her with projects in mind.

God is good and merciful…He is guiding us every day in every way….Erik and I just want to be open for His leading…really be ‘in touch’ with the Holy Spirit day to day. It’s too easy to lose your focus.

Love you so much, Satusi

Ps. Could you bring some creative toy for Sitota to keep her busy.

Pictures of Ahope Orphanage

AHope Caretakers

Erik at the entrance of AHope

The Ahope Compound

Notes and Pictures from Satu and Erik

Hi David!

It’s Sunday and we are just getting ready to go to the International Church.

Everyone outside the International Church

Hi Again!….just got back from the church. Actually Erik and I walked back home. It’s not too far from the guest home, it’s just a very dusty and hot trail. Erik and I stopped at ‘’a bigger supermarket ‘’ and even found some pancake mix there (very expensive). Which reminds me, you’d better bring some pancake mix with you, burrito wraps (the smaller ones, maybe 20 of them) and few bags taco mix. Foreigners here talk about the Bambi store…we might go and check them out. Anyway, Erik and I also stopped on our way at a Family Restaurant (Mexican style restaurant for the ferenzies (foreigners)…you here kids often calling you that.

The church service was very nice. We sang all the same songs we sing at our church…Erik said we can’t ‘get away’ from those songs even here. IEC (International Evangelical Church) has a new pastor from North Carolina, Dr. Gary Threatt (he said from ‘jug town’, that means lots of moonshine made there) close to Charlotte. We met him and his wife Becky. Becky teaches nursing course in one of the institutions associated with Fistula Hospital (one started by Dr Hamlin). We went to church with Alayu, Kidist and a new ‘member’ in our guesthouse, her name is "Regular", a Swiss lady. She has been here before (and in other African countries)and decided to sell everything she has, leave everything behind and come here and teach children arts and music. Her occupation is a music teacher. She is also a concert violinist (but I think her major is piano). She brought her violin with her but I have not heard her play it yet. I told Marsha about Regular since Marsha is one of the people involved in the music ministry at the IEC. If I lived in Addis I would try to get an ensemble going.

I must tell you about our visit to the Fistula hospital. Erik and I just walked there. It’s not very far from here. It’s in a beautiful setting by the river. Their ministry has helped so many women who have been shunned by their family and friends and set apart ‘good for nothing’. The Fistula hospital ministry is more than just give the women a new beginning what comes to their physical being they have also been given a message of Good News, Hope in Christ. It was very interesting to see these facilities since I have been reading the authobio of the 2 Dr. Hamlins’, ‘’The Hospital by The River’’. So our tour was on Friday.

We went out to a very nice Mediterranean Restaurant called Alladin that evening. Actually Joe took us all there; Erik, Mesi, Doug, and Satu. I have not eaten that well since I got here… That was our farewell dinner together. Joe and Doug were so funny, telling their stories with their Louisiana accent and Mesi such gentle, sensitive girl. Very beautiful girl, inside out.

We really miss the devotional times we had with Doug, Mesi and Joe together. They challenged us to keep on going with the devotionals in the evenings at the guesthouse and keep them open to anyone that is here. Last night Erik read from Spurgeons (Morning and Evening) daily devotional book just like we have been doing for over 2 weeks. It was only Erik and I but God is there and blesses our devotion to Him. It’s wonderful to see the love Erik has for God, may he grow in it.

Roberta called this morning and wanted to find out if Erik and I would like to join her tomorrow for observing the Timke (epiphany of Ethiopia), I guess ending of the Christmas season. Orthodox church has some ‘big-to-do’ in the center of the city. Ketema will come pick us up in the morning. I think we’ll be able to see Maija on Tuesday. Roberta says again it should not take long for Maija-Sitota’s visa to arrive. She might get it before you guys get here.

I had a talk with Alayu yesterday he thinks if someone wants to donate something would be a good idea to give about 2000birr per family ($200USD) (outside of Addis where conditions can be even more needy) so they can buy couple of sheep, breed them, eventually get more sheep, sell them, get meat of them (and even milk)

With some profits get some chickens, which also means eggs and so on. Then eventually get a cow or two. He has tried something like that up in northern region. Some of those people have even paid back their ‘loan’ so that their neighbor could get some sheep and get started ‘producing’….It just works so much better if people have some accountability…it’s also good for their dignity. The government here doesn’t think they have much of problems here while people are dying of hunger and aids and people don’t know how to read and so on….

Kisses and Hugs to my lovely boys at home. Tell them I love them and miss them

Love, Satusi

Pictures and Comments From Erik

Mom Playing with Sitota earlier in the week.

Our last evening with Mesi, Joe & Doug (left to right) Erik. We will really miss them. They have been a great encouragement. Looks like a really nice dinner.

A Lady with Her Monkey

Erik (not too happy looking) has to catch up on his church history course on Saturday. Hey you can't have your cake and eat it to.

Donkey with hay walking down the same mountain

A hard working woman with a heavy load walking down the mountain

Mom on Menelik's front step, this is from our trip to the Entoto Mountain's the other Day

Pics from Erik and Comments

Some of the Pictures below our from our trip up Entoto mountains. One is of us looking over the right side of Addis, in the background you can see the moutain bowl.

The other pics of the emperor's palace. Pics of mom and I on emperor meniliks front deck, it was awesome up on that mountain, the air was so fresh.

Finally the sun is set.

Erik

The Adventures Continue

I told you how we were supposed to be going to Entoto mountain with the other parents but that plan did not materialize. Fortunately we got chance to go to the Entoto mountains yesterday with the Addis Kidan truck. I just gave the driver some money. That was so beautiful….the air was clear and clean. The air is very polluted down in the city and it sort of makes you feel tired at the end of the day . We had a great view of the city. We visited the first palace of the Emperor Menelik (that’s the emperor before Halase Lassie) which was built on the top of the mountain (quite simple buildings). Then we took a little side road back down the mountain. I thought surely the truck will flip over or a tire will blow up. On a way down we saw group of people separating grain from the shaft by the old method that is cows trampling all over the shafts in a circle over and over again. Also we saw many older women going up and down the mountain backs loaded sky high by straw and firewood and what ever. Donkeys are a very common sight in the city as well as in the country side. They are lovely workers. Some times you spot one of them just standing head down in the middle of the road catching a little siesta.

Today we had a new experience….we went visiting 3 families in the tin city close to Mekanissa church. We went there with this missionary we met at the International Church and 3 people from the Mekanissa church; 2 young women and David the HIV Positive ministries program coordinator. That was an eye opener…I have to tell you we tried sitting without touching anything…They had dirt floors which were covered to best of their abilities with worn out linoleum. Each ‘home’ had only room for a bed, little makeshift coffee table and a low bench against a wall. Bathrooms….I don’t even want to think about that. Food preparation areas…here and there coal fires. Everyone seemed to possess an injera pan hanging somewhere on the wall. That’s their kitchen. You can cook everything on it as well as eat out of it. I think they carry the drinking water from some community tap.

First home we visited the woman had had 3 husbands and they all had passed away. Now she is sharing ‘a house’ with an other woman and 3 children. All the people we visited today had aids except (and very fortunately) their kids. In the second home we met a young couple and their 2 year old daughter. This was the mother's second husband. Her first husband had made her work in a bar and then left her for an other woman when she got pregnant. Her husband works as a guard (lots of those needed in Addis by more well to do since all the homes are surrounded by big walls and gates which have to be guarded and opened and closed by the guards). Guards make 300 birr a month and the rent of these homes in the tin city is around 120-150birr a month. In the third home we met a young mother, her husband, 6 month old baby and toddler daughter. The husband was sitting by the sewing machine, assembling pieces together for a cultural shirts I have seen sold at the markets. ( I even bought some of them not really knowing where they have been produced). I am sure this man is not making very much profit off those shirts.

We brought food to these families as well as few pretty things to the women (I and an other lady at the guesthouse made couple of necklaces with the beads we had brought here)….We were trying to tell them to remember when they wear these pretty little things that’s how it is with God’s gift of salvation….It’s a sitota….it’s free, you don’t work for it you just need to receive it.

Satu and Erik

Buying Groceries - Beware

Today Erik and I will have to try an other supermarket to buy some food. The little supermarket we have been using this far has quite high prices since they have many foreign customers. (As you know foreigners seem to pay a different price here). Plus Erik and Doug got kicked out of that super market for wanting to return a sour yogurt. The man that runs that store is greedy. Satu and Erik

King's Kids at the Mekanisa Church

A missionary lady, Marsha, we befriended asked us to come with her to visit this group of women that are part of the women in crisis program. They are ex-prostitutes that have come to Christ and are changing their life-style. They are trying to learn new life skills and some of them are arts and crafts, sewing….Marsha goes there every Wednesday to help out. We are going there together next Wednesday. Erik is going to show how to do the hemp/beading and I’ll bring knitting needles, yarn and just ideas of what could be made easily here. We have to find out if hemp is easily found here. You have to always think what materials are readily available here. Marsha is planning to take us to a place where they weave the traditional Ethiopian fabric one of these days. That would be interesting. I’ll be talking with Marsha on Sunday at the church about finding a keyboard for Erik. She might know something since she is the piano player for the worship team in the International Church. God is so amazingly put different people on our path. He knows what we need and when….

It’s a new morning. Today’s program is Erik’s school, Ahope orphanage visit in the afternoon and evening out in a cultural restaurant with Doug, Mesi and Joe (they are all flying early tomorrow morning to Mekele, way up north of Addis). We’ll miss them for sure. Today we are planning to make bead bracelets with the kids at the orphanage.

Mesi and Doug

We had Doug and Mesi with us for 2 weeks. We had great fellowship and fun together. They taught us a lot about living here, from both perspectives; Ethiopian and foreigners. We had wonderful times at our evening devotion/prayer time. I think we were encouragement to one another. And when Joe arrived (Doug’s mentor around in his 50’s) it was a wonderful addition to the mix. We have also gotten insight from Joe into the mission/spiritual life and growth in Ethiopia. He is very down-to-earth and a great supporter of indigenous work in Ethiopia. Now that they all are leaving we have our new friend, Marsha, introducing us ‘hands-on’ to the Ethiopian culture and different ministries here. Isn’t God so wise, how He has been guiding us so lovingly. - Satu

ps. this is completely off topic but when you come can you bring some peanut butter, the good stuff like the kraft smooth peanut butter - Erik

Kidist

Please Pray that Kidist's health would improve.

Erik and Alayu in St. Georges Cathedral Orthodox Church. We are standing on the stairs leading up to where only the high priest can go.

Simon's B-day

Hi Satu and Erik:

We celebrated Simon's B-day on Tuesday. We had Ben and Joseph with us at the movies and macd's. Then tonight we had a visit with Gramma and Grampa and supper. Dad cooked an awesome roast beef that was great. We are having lot's of snow storms and extreme cold weather. You picked a good time to be in a warm and moderate climate.

I went ahead and started the boys in their ski lessons. They are doing great. Simon's teacher was so impressed by his confidence and used him to demonstrate everything to the other students. Uncle Gary is going to make sure the boys get to their lessons when Seppo and I leave.

Simon is working on his short vowels and his Math is awesome. Risto is well rounded in everything. Seppo is finishing up all his subjects getting ready for exams. His english, an extra scene for MacBeth, was received very well and it is on video. You will be able to see it when you all return.

Keep us posted

Love David and the boys

Hi David!

It Wednesday evening….We had an other lovely day in Addis. Yesterday was interesting as well even that it did not go as planned. I told you how we were planning to go to the Entoto Mountains yesterday with all the other parents…but did not happen. This is what happened.

We were supposed to meet them all at their guesthouse. We had one of our riders ordered to come and pick us up in the morning (Kirma) but he called early in the morning to tell us his ‘car not working’…(the one we have been pushing around). Then I decided we’ll take a line taxi to meet the rest of the guys there in a certain spot. We got there on time and waited and waited for an hour. No one showed up. We found a phone but no one answered either. Erik and I decided to take an other line taxi and go a little further to our favorite (this far) market place (Postbet). First we had some makiato coffee (like a cappuchino) in a little café.

We did some bargaining for a while (Erik is getting really good in that). I told you how they try get 3 times more money out the ferenzies…so in one store that sold scarves I went beside an older Ethiopian man shopper who was bargaining for the scarves. I asked him what he was offering …together we ended up bargaining the price down to very comfortable figure for everyone. He asked Erik if I have been in other African countries a lot since I am acting like them in the market.

We had missed our breakfast that morning so we were starving…and it was lunch hour already. We decided to find a restaurant. We were walking by a tall building and Erik pointed out something that looked like a restaurant on the bottom floor of the building. So, across the crazy busy street we run…had to go through a security, metal detectors and all…(we thought nothing of that since they did that once before when we went for dinner with the CAFAC families). We were pointing out to the ‘restaurant’ and doing some crazy sign language, pointing our empty tummies. (by the way we both have lost weight while here…our pants are falling) The security people were smiling at us ‘kindly’. Once we got to our ‘restaurant’ there did not seem to be any tables free ‘til one man pointed us to come and sit at the table he was just leaving. One woman remained at it.

We sat down and wondered what to order (no menus)…we stroke up conversation with the woman and she told us what would be good to order. ( Her name was Rahel and her sister lives in Canada (Toronto) and goes to school there. At the end of our lunch we even exchanged phone numbers in case we’ll have a chance to go shopping or something.) The meal came. It was Ethiopian cultural food and looked a little iffy (there was even some raw meat on it)….once our food arrived 3 more ladies arrived to the table with their lunch buckets (they all had brought their own food). My friend, Rahel, was trying to get me to eat all my food but I kept on insisting I am full (I did not have appetite for that food although I tried eating some). Then I ended up sharing my plate with the other ladies (none of us had forks…just fingers all over the food). I think we all had a really nice time together talking and laughing. I am sure they were thinking we were 2 crazy ferenzies eating at their office lunch cafeteria.

It’s a day after that lunch now and neither one of us is sick to our stomachs. We got to go to our Entoto mountain today! I asked Alayu if we could take the Addis Kidan truck there this morning (and a driver)….so that’s what we did. I will write more on that tomorrow.

Love Satu and Erik

Jan 12, 2009 Update

Hi David!

It’s Maija-Sitota’s Birthday today. We’ll be visiting her today from 3 to 4 p.m. How are things going at home? How are the boys?

We are doing great stretching our funds. Erik is becoming quite a bargainer? He has been looking for a longsleeve button-up shirt but doesn’t want to pay what they are asking for them. Maybe he’ll find one today. I want us to buy an Ethiopian cultural harp here but thus far I have only found the ones just for decorations. Maybe when you come here we’ll try to get one. I would like Jenny to take a look at it and maybe help us to learn to play it. Belachew is going to be driving us today. He has a van. I think he will make a good driver for us when you guys get here since we all can fit into his van. We can negotiate a price with him if indeed we’ll be going around with him most of the days. It will be harder to take line taxes with Maija. Doesn’t look like people are using carseats or even seatbelts.

On our way to the fosterhome we’ll stop at some market as well to see if we could find more art work to take home. I thought I might as well use his services since I am already out and about with him and paying for it. We’ll try taking more line taxes with Erik.

Yesterday we went to the International Church….just Erik and I….on a line taxi. That was first time on our own on it. It went well. (It’s quite exhausting to be so ‘aware’ of your surroundings). We got to the church way too early (so against my nature)….kind of wandered around. I told Erik to pray guidance for us while we were there. We sat down on a bench outside, beside couple of white ladies. We found out one of the ladies was working in Ethiopia with an overseas mission and other one was teaching at the school for deaf . Every Thursay the other lady, Marsha, goes to couple of homes of HIV positive women to visit them, bring them some groceries and some pretty little thing to cheer them up. (These are the people that Mekanisa Baptist Church is working with as well)…. These homes are in the Mekanisa area, which is supposed to be a real slum…also around there in that area is the library compound. Marsha asked if Erik and I would like to join her. So, we are meeting with her on Thursday to go and visit these women. I made a couple of necklaces with an other woman in our compound to take over to them with me as a gift. Also the other lady we met at the church, Rebeccah, wants us to come and see the deaf school and perhaps help her with the kids she is teaching. They are grades 5-8 I think. We’ll plan to go there as well.

Tomorrow, we are planning to go out with the other adoptive parents to the Entoto mountains. That will be an all day affair. On Wednesday I am hoping to have the Addis Kidan Church truck to take us out an around the Addis for the day. While out and about today with our driver, Belachew, we had this really nice coffee called, Markiato (it’s become our favorite now) and tea-coffee mix called spris (we’ll still have to try that).

Today when we had a visit with Maija she slept again for a while in my arms. She seems to settle down if I sing to her. She is still making strangers with us and I find it’s kind of stiff to visit with her since all her caregivers where gathered all around us. She would rather be with them since she knows them.

There is a lady staying here who is going up north to teach at the deaf school. She is teaching Erik some signing right now so that Erik will have some knowledge of it for when we go and visit the deaf school here in Addis. That’s really cool.

God is good! He has given Sitota to us and He will give us wisdom and grace to look after her and raise her up.

I love you very much! Kisses and hugs for you and the boys.

Satusi

Erik Loves His Coffee with a Caffeine Rush

This is Erik at a coffee ceremony. As you can see the coffee is very strong, but it was good coffee...it is a little surprising how hard it is to get good coffee otherwise though unless you have a coffee ceremony well that is for the guesthouse anyway. Mom and I did go on a scavange to find nice coffee for the guesthouse but it was expensive around 60birr

Addis Kidan Headquarters

Travel Arrangements

Hi Everyone:

Travel is very difficult here…even in Addis. Today we took a taxi (our regular taxi driver’s name is Kirma) to Sitota’s foster home. We had to push the taxi to get it started, poor Kirma’s battery had died. It stalled again in the middle of ‘a highway’ that was under construction. Out of the car again! and we pushed it again to get it started. The pollution is something else when you are on the streets of Addis. Today, both Erik and I thought we were in a need of puffer when we were sitting in the traffic jam.

Erik’s and my plan for next week is to go out to an ethnological museum tomorrow. It’s set within Haile Selassie's former Palace. Also, right after that I want to take Erik to St George Cathedral and Museum to find out more about the Orthodox church of Ethiopia. This is part of Erik’s Church History course. We’ll have to call upon Kirma’s and his driving services (he got his battery fixed while we were visiting Maija-Sitota).

Satu

Maija-Sitota

Dear David:

Today we had our third visit with Maija-Sitota…again, she is as beautiful and sweet as ever. She is still getting used to our white faces. The kids in that foster home hardly ever see white people. They are very protected, which is okay. Anyway, today she stayed awake little longer. She is well fed little girl, my arm was getting shaky holding her for so long. Today we also met Haregewein the first time. We were really glad to meet her…I really like her.

Haregewein said Sitota was very fortunate as she has been very well looked after from her beginning. Haregewein asked her uncle if we could sometime visit them and talk to them and they said it would be okay. She said it’s very difficult to get there (Kembata Region). We would have to make it an overnight trip and it might be very hard especially if we had to take Sitota.

Love Satu

Answers to Prayer and Prayer Requests

Dear David, Simon, Risto & Seppo:

It’s been such a blessing to have Mesi and Doug here…I think Erik especially has enjoyed Doug’s company (he makes a good youth pastor). Also, we have enjoyed our devotional times together in the evenings.. For a few days we had with us a missions doctor from Nigeria. He was such a deep, spiritual man, just broke into spiritual song when trying to explain some attributes of God. He told us years ago he had been on his death bed and no medical help was found but God healed him. He had been applying for a visa to Kenya to a very special medical conference he needed to go but had been getting very hard time from the immigration office here. Our group had been praying for him and yesterday he came in all beaming and praising God….He got his visa just when he was ready give up and go back home.

Also, our earnest prayer is that Kidist’s health would be restored back. She has been sick for years and gone through all the medical test you could imagine…here in Ethiopia as well as in USA. Alayu and Kidist would like to go and minister to the people up north outside of Addis but it has been impossible for the health problem she is having. Please have our Church Pray for them and their situation.

Love Satu.

A-Hope Orphanage

Dear David:

We just came back from the orphanage….we met with one of the people in the admin. Office. Wonderful young man who seemed to really love the children. In this location they have 36 kids. 4 of them are infants. He gave us a tour around the place. All these kids were in an adoption program (like our cafac one) ‘til they were found out to have aids. This organization picks up those kids and looks after them and most of them will get adopted eventually. US and Spain are the only countries that allow kids with aids to be adopted. ( Ethiopian government provides aids medication to its citizens which I think is provisions from US) Anyway, we met a little baby boy who was found somewhere on the street abandon at an age of 1 month. Now he is 3months and waiting for his parents to pick him up. We coloured pages out of the colouring books with the kids and they were trying to teach us amharic as well as practice their english. Erik and I are trying really hard to practice our amharic and people seem to be very happy to help. So, back to the Ahope orphanage….We’ll go and see the program co-ordinator on Monday morning and discuss with them about how we could help out. I think next time we go there we’ll bring some beads and string for all the kids to make some bracelets with.

Love Satu

A lady is just sitting out of the sun on the side of the road. It is common to see people just sitting on the roadside. - Erik

Mekanisa King's Kids

When we went to go see where the Mekanisa Church is and what they do there were some kids gathering in the rec room here are two of them. Sorry I don't know their names. - Erik

Satu's Update

Hi David!

It’s another sunny day in Ethiopia! Merry Christmas….it doesn’t seem to be a big deal here.

Yesterday, Alayu took Erik, Doug and myself to see the Addis Kidan Headquarters. It’s a fenced in lot (most of the homes are fenced in here unless they are made out of cardboard boxes or tin cans) with a few barracks put together. Kifle is a very quiet man but he has a big, expansive plan of building a headquarters that will provide space and accommodations for the training of the pastors from the Addis Kidan churches around and outside of Addis. Also it would be used for administrative offices, library and such. We saw the plan (Erik will send you a pic of it). It’s 4 stories high. I talked to them about having someone from their church (someone with the vision and charisma) to go on ‘tour’ in Canada and the US to make churches aware of their plans and ministry and perhaps partner with some churches in North America with this project. I told Kifle that you might be able to help them to put together somekind of proposal for their building plan.

Also we went to see Mekanisa church….they don’t have much of a building but they are busily using what they have. We met with their program coordinator. He has a degree in computer science. He was so excited. He explained about all their ministries. Erik and I will probably help with the feeding program for the aids victims on Fridays. We are planning to go to the nearby orphanage with Erik to give out some coloring books and crayons and color pictures with the kids. The orphanage that is near the guesthouse is called A-Hope. It’s an orphanage for the kids with aids. Just about all the kids in that orphanage are already adopted and are waiting for their adoptive parents. That orphanage is very open to visitors.

We went again to one market area in Addis. This time we took the ten-cent taxi. You have to change from one to another to get to your destination. We had Mesi and Doug with us, but we are going to have to learn to do that on our own. Soon Mesi and Doug will leave and we will really miss them.

Erik is taking a little nap. I’ll wake him up for a short walk after which we’ll start preparing our Christmas Dinner. Curried chicken. (Chicken is very expensive here, one small one was almost 100 birr).

I can’t wait to hold Sitota again. She is beautiful! She needs get out of that foster home and start blossoming into her own little person!

Love you,
Satusi

The Orthodox Church is prominent throughout the city of Addis

Mom, Maija-Sitota and Big Brother Erik To The Rescue

Satu and Erik finally get to hold and love Maija-Sitota. She has fallen asleep in their arms. Maija is so cute and pudgy Mom says.

Mom Meets Maija-Sitota

Daddy's two beauty queens. They're gorgeous!!!

Ethiopia Streetscape

A man in the background pushing a wooden cart of hay, the foreground an old man looking for someone to help him.

Arat Kilo Addis Kidan Baptist Church

The Christmas service at Arat Kilo Church put on by the young people and children of the church. Christmas in Ethiopia is Jan 7 so they have decorated the church and put on a Christmas service you can see the young lady speaking at the front. Reminds me of when our "KING'S KIDS" take the morning service at Grace Fellowship. Wouldn't it be amazing to have a whole bunch of these kids come to visit us in Cape Breton or Vice Versa.

Photos to Post

Erik has figured out how to compress some photos and email them. These are the first ones I hope more will follow of all the wonderful people they are meeting and places they are visiting. It seems that there is so much contrast and diversity in Addis Ababa.

David (1/6/2009)

Letter From Erik

Dear dad,

Right now I think it is 10? In NS. I just looked at your other e-mail from yesterday. We did celebrate mom’s birthday at the guest home and on Saturday we went out for supper at a pizza place down the street call Metro. We got her a cake at the guesthouse and we had a coffee ceremony, it was good and most of us put on traditional Ethiopian clothes. I have pics of that but they are not sending on e-mail even if I compress them. Doug (one of the missionaries here) says pics send well on MSN so I will give that a try. I’ll send them to Seppo since he has a MSN account.

Well today we went to see Maija-Sitota, she fell asleep in our arms again, we must be boring. Only joking I think it was because mom was singing to her. At first she was making strange but then she just looked around with question in her eyes, ‘who are these people, I think I seen them before,’ then she just fell asleep like I said. Also today mom and I went to the super market down the street all by ourselves this time. We got some chocolate, pasta, some Ethiopian Spice (not sure how to spell it), some orange juice, more chocolate and veggies. On the way back mom and I went for a little adventure walking through part of the town. Once we got back mom discovered she had a sun burn!! Now she thinks she has melanoma.

Anyway keep in touch,
Love Erik & Satu

Letter from Satu

Hi David!

An other beautiful day in Addis! We went to church with Alayu and Kidist today, the church they usually go to, Arat Kilo. They had a kids service today. Actually the kids that are part of the Compassion program sang and one girl ‘preached’. It was quite lively and I felt God Spirit in the service even that I did not understand everything. Alayu sat beside us and translated some. We were the only white faced people besides one other woman. (whom I did not get a chance to talk to). Little kids call us foreigners….they are very curious and always hand out for money. Even in the church one boy wanted to have the offering money in Erik’s hand. We are just hanging out today. Perhaps we’ll go for a walk and shop for our groceries. We’ll make our own meals on Sundays.

Yesterday, we went on a shopping expedition (that is what it is) with our very dear friend, Mesi, she is a young Ethiopian girl (24) married to this very nice and fun American missionary Douglas. They are staying here while they were getting her visitors visa to US. They will stay ‘til the 17th.. God is so good, He knows what we needed. We have had a great encouragement from them and fellowship. We have a devotional time every evening together and a time of prayer. We have also learnt quite a lot from them about the culture and discovered a little of the ‘inside’ track of being a missionary here. It’s only two of them that are working there in the country side of Tigra.

It can be quite disturbing to go out on the streets here…walking or shopping….you really stick out. Lots of poor people have their hand out for money. Yes, I was telling you how we went shopping yesterday with Mesi and our driver. When you hire a driver here, you also hire a body guard. Anyways, we went to couple of markets. At the first one we bought a Masinko, one string violin and a nice bowl shaped wooden drum, some wooden orthodox crosses and trinket necklaces. In Ethiopia, they don’t have a fixed price for the foreigners. It is usually 3 times more for us….but you know me….they didn’t know what hit them when I got there. One vendor told Mesi she is impressed by my ability to bargain…usually foreigners just agree to any price they ask. Even if I paid their asking price it would still be quite cheap.

You have to be quite careful about giving alms to the poor, especially to the kids. One day we were walking with Mesi and Doug and had bought some bread in order to give it out to some needy ones. I made a mistake of giving some bread to a young boy and soon had the whole crowd of school kids around me pushing and shoving. Mesi and I were surrounded by them….I had to tell them firmly to ‘stop’, which they understood and froze for a little while. Good thing Doug was with us and put them in order.

In Addis area there are lots of places you can get some aid. Alayu said these people on the street have other options but they often just get used to getting their income by begging.
Alayu is a wonderful man….he is very humble and wise with lots of insight of people and life in general. I think he could be easily taken for granted. He has many brothers and sisters. He is the oldest one and ended up putting many of his brothers and sisters through school. His next brother is a supervisor for the Compassion Ethiopia. We met him today at the church. I still don’t know what our ‘job’ here is. We’ll have a tour of some of their work on Tuesday.

Before I close I would like to ask you to add to your list of things to bring over Metamusal (a fibre supplement)…Alayu’s wife, Kidist, has a really painful problem with her digestion. Even the doctors in US couldn’t find the problem. I gave her the oatmeal, chammomile tea and an other couple here gave her Metamusal and that seem to help her little. I told her I’ll ask our church to pray for her. She is in pain most of the time and her tummy swells up in your eyes if she tries to do some physical exercise. Would you let me know if can do that. Buy the Metamusal without sugar so there would not be so much useless bulk to bring.

I must go…we are having a coffee ceremony at 4pm.

Love you so much and I miss you.
Satusi

Hi Everyone there are two new followers of the blog. Jim and Joanne. I have several contacts Jim and Joanne in my address book and I am not sure who you are but if you could confirm that would be great.

Sincerely,
David & Family

Satu's Birthday Party in Ethiopia

Hello David

We have celebrated Satuʼs birthday with coffee and with piece of cake. It was good.

God bless you all

Alayu

Comment from David: The coffee Alayu speaks of is a coffee ceremony where they roast the beans and then brew the coffee. While drinking coffee some beans are thrown on the fire. When the fragrance is gone the ceremony is over. That is how I understand and perhaps we will here more on this from Satu and Erik.

Dear Dad - Love Erik

Dear Dad,

Right now is 2:00pm Ethiopian time (8:00pm) in the time zone

Ski Ben Eoin must be nice right now with all the fresh powder.

For the taxi fair (to visit Sitota) we have figured it out, we are getting a ride with Kirma. He is a friend of Alayu. He does charge 150 birr, which is an all right price and we won’t do that all the time. Sometimes we will take a line taxi or go with Alayu, which is a lot cheaper. And I think the Internet is 3 cents per minuet. Also plugs work fine here, they did have a lot of converters here already because they have North American devices.

And a little later on I will try to send those photos but right now we are going to have evening devos

Anyway enjoy your Pizza (made by Chef Seppo) and Skiing

Love
Erik

Note from David

Erik and Satu are having difficulty uploading to the blog. They are on a dial-up connection that seems quite congested. So for now they are sending emails to me that I will upload for them. For now it looks like no pictures.

Emails from Erik and Satu

January 1, 2009

Dear Dad:

We went to go see Sitota today! She fell asleep in our arms, at first she was a little uneasy then she started to warm up to us a bit, babbling and playing with moms necklace. Also on the way to the orphanage we drove through the city, that was a big eye opener. The traffic was crazy; it isn’t like Canada where rules are enforced, as soon as the car stops there are beggars coming up to the window asking for money. Instead we send them away with food, which all we had was ring pops. Our driver, Ketema (means city) is very nice and he taught me a bit of Amheric. Around 2:30 we met with Kifle from the Addis Kidan Churches & the earliest we could have the tour and figure where we will help out is on Monday but we are going on Tuesday because we go to see Sitota on Monday.

Later today we went to a café with the young life group and bought some drinks on the way up a collage student named Isayas joined us. He and I talked and walked on our way up; he was telling me that he grew up in a Muslim village near Africa’s largest market called Merkato. A year ago he was saved, he says it is tough to live in with Muslims, because of the criticism. He is very happy though, he is studying law and wants to be a judge, and his marks are really good. He is getting sponsored by a man in the states named Mark with the money he has received he has bought himself a laptop. So I got his e-mail off of him and we will talk to each other.

Chow (that is what they say),

Erik and Satu

Letters from Erik and Satu

December 31, 2008

Dear Dad:

We touched down yesterday at around three in the am, got our Visa and change our dollars to birr. Everything happened so easily, no trouble. After we did that part of things we went through customs, got our luggage, and had our kind drivers waiting for us on the other side. Outside the temperature was moderate, felt like our summer’s night, also there where two guys trying to help Alayu and the other guy (cannot remember his name). After going down the streets with palm tree medians and tall buildings on either side we drove into the court yards of the guest house, Alayu gave us a quick tour and showed us our rooms. We share the guesthouse with a group of people from an organization called young life, they are from the States. We each have our own room with comfortable double size beds. Settling down for the night we wake up around 2pm to sunshine pouring into our room. At this point we get washed up and go for a brunch of coffee and toast, then Alayu asks if we want to go for walk down to the super market. The walk was nice and warm but as you walk there are beggars and you feel bad turning them down, Alayu said if you do give out money you only give it to the lame or people with health issues. Also before we walked to the grocery I witnessed a lamb getting slaughtered and skinned! In the super market, we bought some yogurt, nuts, tea, mango juice and fruit. The yogurt is expensive but the fruit is quite cheep.

January 1, 2009

Dear Dad:

Now I am adding to this a day later because the power went out yesterday. Yesterday we were pretty much just trying to fit in. Mom and I had been invited to a party for the folks from the States because they were going back home, that was what the slaughtered lamb was for. Before we ate we had a prayer circle; we sang and danced in the circle as well. Anyway I have to go now so I will send you this e-mail.

Love:
Erik & Satu

The Little Boys Say Goodbye to Mom & Erik

Hi Mom & Erik:

We love you and will miss you. Everything you are doing in Ethiopia is so important. We so look forward to your return with Maija-Sitota our new sister and daughter. Be careful but look to God for His adventure. He has many exciting things instore for the both of you and Seppo and Dad will work hard to prepare for the day when they will join you both.

Love the boys

Seppo, Risto, Simon & Dad (12/29/08)

Heading to the airport

We are leaving on a jet plane hope we'll be back again...

Thanks to the Taylors for putting up with our crazy clan. (12/29/08)

Departure from Cape Breton

The trusty old Kimbley Van is loaded with passengers and luggage. Sunday afternoon heading to Halifax to stay at the Taylors before departing from the Halifax airport. (12/28/08)