Sunday, June 17, 2007, 11:53 PM
Our flights back to the US were uneventful – long and tiring, but uneventful. We transferred terminals in Frankfurt to board the short flight to London. At Hearthrow Airport in London, I sought out the Excess Baggage counter to reclaim our stored luggage. We braced ourselves for a long process, but it was actually quick and simple. I had previous arranged for Simon, our now-trusted taxi driver, to pick us up at Heathrow Airport and transport us an hour’s drive southward to Gatwick Airport. Simon thought American Airlines departed from Gatwick’s south terminal and dropped us off here with our. We discovered that the American counter was in the north terminal, so we wove our way through the crowd in that direction with our large bags on a couple of trolleys. The transfer entailed riding a train between terminals. Pat and I positioned ourselves to push our trolleys onto the train, only to discover that the only train running at the moment departed from the other side of the corridor. Pat told Kelsey and Lauren to open a way for her to push the trolley into the train car on the other side, but I was unable to get mine through the crowd. I got into position for the next train and boarded easily. The train doors closed for departure, but then opened again. This process was repeated several times before someone announced that the train was not working properly and everyone should exit and enter another train across the corridor. Knowing the ladies were waiting for me in the north terminal, I was determined to get on this train. I pushed my trolley, piled high with suitcases, across the corridor quickly and onto the other train. After the doors opened at the other end, I pushed the trolley out the door; when the wheels crossed the gap, the bump caused the top two suitcases to slide off onto the terminal floor. I pushed the trolley against the opposite wall, and a kind man helped me reload the heavy luggage.
I rejoined the ladies, and we found a place to sit and wait. As our departure time drew near, we made our way to Gate 62 to board American Airlines flight 79 to DFW Airport. We were now about 10 hours away from home! The final leg of our 30 hour journey was uneventful; and though we departed about 30 minutes later than scheduled, we arrived at DFW Terminal D right on time. We passed through passport control, retrieved our luggage, and passed through custom control. We commented that we had seen inside all the airplanes and airports that any of us wanted to see for quite some time. Our families were waiting to greet us; and we happily rejoined them, having completed another year’s Ethiopian adventure.
Thanks for reading and your interest in and support our Ethiopia work. I plan to publish hard copies of the journal, along with photographs and excerpts from the ladies' journals. If you wish to have a copy, let me know through regular Email or by telephone.
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Sunday, June 17, 2007, 11:52 PM
Our last day in Ethiopia for this year’s trip began fairly early. I completed packing my suitcase within a suitcase and wheeled it to the Fitness Center for one final weighing. I had arranged for Maluken to pick up the four of us at 8 AM. He called Mulu for directions and took us to her home for breakfast. Mulugeta and Mulu have a beautiful new home that their family has lived in for about ten months. Always a gracious hostess, Mulu served toast and scrambled eggs, fried beef, and fresh fruit juices. We enjoyed the meal and our visit. Maluken had waited for us during our stay and returned us to the Hilton about 11 AM. The ladies completed their packing and took their suitcases for weighing. We moved items from suitcase to suitcase, sifting and compacting what we would take with us. At almost noon, I went down to the desk at the Hilton to arrange for the ladies to check out of their room. We consolidated all suitcases into my room, with the plan to work out of this room until we left for the airport about 7 PM..
We left the Hilton about 1:15 PM to attend the now-traditional farewell lunch at the Dasalegn (deh SAH len) Restaurant. Several of the preachers we work with closely and their wives joined together to provide the nice Ethiopian buffet. I made a short after-dinner speech about our work and associations, and expressed our love and appreciation for the Ethiopians’ efforts. We returned to the hotel to make final preparations for leaving. In order to comply with the Lufthansa luggage restrictions associated with our tickets, Pat and I drug one suitcase down to the DHL desk in the Hilton and made arrangements to ship it back to the US. Several Ethiopians stopped by the hotel to say goodbye. I posted the final journal entries to be made from Ethiopia and checked out of the Hilton around 6:30 PM. The shuttle left to transport us to the airport a little after 7. The bellman suggested this was too early for our 10:30 PM departure time, but given our luggage issues thus far we decided to take no chances.
We stood at the Lufthansa desk for some time. I grew a little concerned as the representative continued to work on arranging our boarding passes all the way through to London. Given our record at airports so far I wouldn’t have been surprised at a glitch, but it didn’t materialize. He had some difficulty arranging our boarding passes for the Frankfurt to London leg, but in the end he did it. One benefit of the slight confusion was that the representative didn’t pay much attention to the weight of our luggage. We were all maxed out at 20 kg or 44 lbs, with a couple being just slightly over. After acquiring our boarding passes, we met Alemu and Zerihun for a final visit and farewell. We boarded the Lufthansa airbus on time and departed Bole International Airport about 30 minutes behind schedule.
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Friday, June 15, 2007, 09:31 AM
I woke up quite early and worked on my journal. I signed online and found Susan, who had been waiting to chat. We IMd for several minutes, and it was time to prepare for the day. Pat and I have our last teaching responsibilities today at Bole. I asked the girls to help us by packing our luggage and taking it to the Fitness Center to weigh. As you might guess if you’ve read previous entries in this journal, we are somewhat concerned about the limitations for luggage on the Lufthansa flights. We will be leaving several items in Ethiopia, judging that they will be less expensive to replace than to ship to the US. We will ship one suitcase through DHL, an international company that has a branch office at the Hilton. We have checked DHL shipping rates and found them to be reasonable. Lauren and Kelsey worked on this project while Pat and I went to teach.
Bole was the first church Americans began working with in Ethiopia a little over nine years ago. Today, there was some confusion in the schedule, and no ladies came for Pat’s teaching. About eight men came from various churches in Addis, and I preached two sermons – The Three Dimensional Church and Ironies of the Cross. When no ladies came for Pat’s class, she did a little visiting and then returned to the hotel. After I finished my final sermons in Ethiopia for 2007, I too returned to the hotel about midday. I arranged for Mulu to take us on a short shopping spree to purchase a few more items, one of which was a smaller carry-on bag for Kelsey.
Our evening program was dinner and a visit at Alemu and Tseganesh’s (seh GANN esh) home. We wore our "The Gospel is For All" tee-shirts, each bearing our own name, that Pat made to match the many gift-shirts she brought for Ethiopian children. Alemu and Tseganesh have four polite and respectful children who are 14, 12, 10 and 5. Their oldest son, Asencha (ah SEN cha), is working to be a translator, so we gave him a little practice. We enjoyed another carefully prepared meal, featuring lasagna, pasta forno, and pizza, along with traditional Ethiopia dishes. Tseganesh performed an Ethiopian coffee ceremony; we made speeches, exchanged gifts, and cut a chocolate cake. It was a delightful evening.
This is our last night in Ethiopia for this trip. Each of us continued the sifting process of deciding what to leave, what to take, and what to throw away. Pat noted that she has been too tired to send out her updates, but will do so soon. This will be the last journal entry while we are in Ethiopia. I’ll write during our trip home if I can, and I will post the final entries when we return.
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Friday, June 15, 2007, 09:31 AM
My assignment today is to teach a preaching workshop at the Kore meeting house. Pat is scheduled to teach ladies today at Altad at 2 PM. Doyamo (doy AH mo) is the local preacher for the Kore church, and preachers from throughout Addis joined us for the workshop. We had about ten in attendance, and all of them at least understood English, which afforded me the opportunity to teach without translation. At two points, Doyamo summarized in Amharic, so that a couple of the men might understand the finer points. I first taught on the nature of the Scriptures as the inspired Word of God. We did some work in 1 Corinthians 2 and how the Holy Spirit oversaw the production of Scripture so that the product is both the words of men and the Word of God. I emphasized the need for reading and study, and the need for placing ourselves humbly under the Word. In the second segment, I led a discussion about the life and work of a preacher. I had simply jotted down four points and four New Testament references that related to the verses. We talked about the preacher’s faith, life, work, and relationships. It was a healthy discussion, I think, that provided an opportunity to talk about cultural differences, as well as many other matters. In the final segment of the workshop, we had an interactive discussion about textual preaching. We took a passage from Acts 20, and I helped them understand a methodology for moving from the Bible text to a sermon.
Kelsey and Lauren slept a little later and then worked out at the Fitness Center. Pat, I think, rested and prepared for her afternoon teaching session. She and the girls went to Altad about 2 PM where Pat taught several ladies and shared gifts with them and children. We kept the taxi driver Maluken (mah LUKen), as I have now correctly learned his name, busy shuttling us between teaching sites. The preaching workshop extended into the afternoon. Maluken had difficulty getting to us because of a truck accident on the road. Alemu, Mesfin, Tagase, and I walked about a mile as it sprinkled rain before we learned of Maluken’s delay. On the paved road, we stopped by a small store that belonged to Alemu’s friend. The store owner insisted that I drink a soft drink, so I chose a cold Fanta orange. In a while, Maluken came, and we inched our way back to the hotel in the rain and heavy afternoon traffic. For the only night this week, we had no appointment. We ordered pizza at the Hilton Pizzeria and everyone gobbled it up and enjoyed it. I caught up on Emails and called it a day.
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Wednesday, June 13, 2007, 11:31 PM
Today is our scheduled R & R after the countryside trip and work. The girls wanted to sleep late, and I arranged for Mulu to take them shopping around 11 AM and asked Pat if she would go with them in case I was not back by 11. I had asked Zerihun to meet me at 9 AM to accompany me to the Cargo Terminal to pick up our shipped luggage. Muluka was waiting for me at roadside outside the Hilton entrance. I toted three large plastic bags down to the taxi and asked him to take me first to Endod Laundry. We then drove to the older cargo terminal near the airport, only to learn that we needed to go to the newer terminal a few miles away. The guards at the gate informed us the taxi could not go inside the compound until we had confirmation that the bags we shipped from London were in our possession. This served as a small precursor of what was yet to come. Zerihun and I walked about a quarter mile up the terminal drive to the building entrance.
An Ethiopian man was standing outside the building as we approached, and he directed us to the Ethiopian Airlines desk where I showed my receipt for the excess baggage we shipped a few days before. At this point, I realized that I did not have my passport; I had inadvertently left it at the hotel. I figured we would have to go get it and start this process again, but I decided to see what would happen. The Ethiopian airlines fellow looked for an Airway number on the receipt and, not finding it, directed us to the Lufthansa cargo desk upstairs. Our helper, who joined Zerihun and me at the door and more or less stayed with us the entire time, directed us up the stairs to the Lufthansa desk where the lady looked up our Airway number on a computer and wrote it on the receipt. She directed us back to the Ethiopian Airlines desk downstairs, and we returned to the same man, now having the number he needed. Zerihun asked him to “cooperate” with us, telling him I had an appointment later in the morning. The man looked over my receipt, began processing it, and asked for my passport or identification. I explained that I left the passport at the hotel, and I offered my TX driver’s license as a photo ID. He looked it over, said a couple of things to Zerihun, and in the end accepted it as positive identification, though he did not quite understand if I was David Thomas or David Holder. I noticed that my name appeared both ways on various forms throughout the process.
It was now time to go to the warehouse where the suitcases were stored. We passed through security, having to empty our pockets and persons of all metal items, and came to a man who took my receipt and looked on a computer to find where in the warehouse the luggage was stored. He filled out a form and directed us to another man to whom he gave the locator information. This man passed the information to a forklift driver who sped through the aisles to locate our stuff. While we waited, I noticed in the front of the warehouse that people had boxes, luggage, blue plastic barrels, and trunks that were in various stages of the process – unpackaging, examining, packing again, and I wondered if we would have to go through these stages, too. Before long, the forklift driver brought a wooden pallet that had on it two suitcases wrapped in blue shrink wrap with labels bearing my name. I hoped against hope that we were almost finished. Wrong!
It was now time to have the forms signed by a man who was not at his desk. As it turned out, this signature authorized someone to review the contents of the suitcases. Our helper directed us outside the warehouse, where we encountered the man we needed walking toward the warehouse. Zerihun explained our status, and the man took the form in his hand and went to his desk, where many people were gathered to request his signature. We had gone out of the warehouse to find him; he had taken the form and gone inside, so this meant we had to pass through security again. We crowded around his desk with everyone else and got his attention so that he scribbled his signature on the form. We found the review agents, one who cut the shrink wrap and sorted through every piece of the first suitcase and the other who filled out a form listing the contents. The items that drew their attention were the printer ink cartridges and the tee shirts Pat had made bearing the names of Ethiopian children He asked how many were there, and I estimated that it was 50. By the time the man opened the second suitcase, the recording agent was being distracted by others asking him questions and, seeing the contents were mostly books, made a couple of scribbles on the form and completed it. The sorting agent and our helper haphazardly stuffed the contents back in the luggage and forced the zippers closed.
We were directed to take this form to the customs office for review. Being a white man in this setting worked to our advantage, and before long we got the attention of a customs agent. In Ethiopia, there are no lines to stand in; people just sort of stand around or crowd together and work it out. We joined in the process, and an agent reviewed my form. At first, he thought I had a printer, but Zerihun helped him understand it was only printer ink cartridges. The agent was concerned that we had 50 tee shirts, when only one dozen of the same item is allowed. Zerihun explained that the shirts were gifts for Ethiopian children; the agent said he would have to discuss this with his boss. After a cell phone call, the “boss” appeared and began his review. He asked about the tee shirts and wanted to see them. Noticing his name was Dawit, which is the Amharic version of David, I tried to win his favor and distract him by mentioning that we shared the same name. We talked about this while we walked to the warehouse for him to look at the shirts. Our helper went through security, pulled a shirt out of a suitcase, and brought it outside to the customs agent. Would you believe that of all the tee shirts with children’s names, as we had been explaining to the agents, he brought one that had no name?! Seeing this, our helper scurried back to bring a couple of shirts with names. Satisfied that the shirts are gifts, the agents said he would discuss the matter with his boss. He went into a glass-front office where a man sat at a desk and motioned for us to enter. Dawit discussed our situation briefly with his boss, who quickly signed the form without any questions. Dawit took us to his desk where he made some notes on the back of the form and signed his name. We then returned to the first customs agent who filled out another form with two carbon copies listing the luggage contents again. He signed his name and placed a stamp on the forms.
Next, we went to a lady who looked up the amount of taxes we would owe on the contents listed, which by this time were the ink cartridges and tee shirts. At first, she too thought we had a printer, but finally understood the items were just ink cartridges. Zerihun left to clarify something with the customs agent, and I took out a small piece of paper and began taking notes about this process, knowing I would write about it later for the journal. I noticed behind the desk several large boxes filled with the forms of the kind we had received. It was obvious that the forms were in no order and no one would ever do anything with them again. Zerihun returned and the lady determined that I owed 438 ETB or what was for me a little less than $50 USD. We were off to the cashier to pay the taxes. People were crowded around his window, thrusting papers in front of him, so Zerihun and I worked our way in and paid. We took the receipt back to the valuation desk to confirm our payment and received yet another signature and stamp. It was now time to go to a desk to have the luggage released from the warehouse. As it turned out, this was the Ethiopian Airlines desk at which the whole process began. Many people were standing in front of the desk, and Zerihun told me to work my way in and ask for help. I’m sure people were not happy with me, but I did as directed and got my form in line to be processed. The lady behind this desk was typing in information and printing yet another form. When she completed the process for a couple of people in front of me, the paper in her printer ran out. A fellow went to find another roll, and we waited for him to change it. Now it was time for the lady to take a break, and a man replaced her. He was the man at the Ethiopian Airlines desk who accepted my TX driver’s license at the beginning of the process. It occurred to me that now I was standing at the same desk being helped by the same man with whom this process began. He printed the release form, and we went to the bank to pay an 11.50 ETB storage fee for their storing the luggage for a couple of days.
It was now time to return to the warehouse to acquire the suitcases. We passed through security again, located the man who needed to sign our papers; I signed a big book, and he granted permission for us to take the luggage. Someone with a portable lift moved the suitcases off the pallet onto a conveyor for them to be x-rayed, and the suitcase emerged near the large doorway where we set them upright on their rollers and wheeled them out to the dock. Zerihun walked the quarter mile back to the front gate to show the forms and receipts so Maluka could drive to the dock. Ethiopians loaded the luggage into the trunk of the taxi and Maluka tied down the trunk lid. I tipped our helper and got in the taxi. When the doors were closed and we were well out of range of the cargo terminal, Zerihun and I just had a big laugh about our experience. Now, over three hours later, having obtained numerous forms, signatures, and stamps, and with suitcases in hand, what else could we do but just laugh?!
We returned to the Hilton to leave the luggage in my room, and then I asked Maluka to call Mulu to find out where the ladies were shopping. He took me to meet them and to take Pat back to the hotel. Mulu graciously helped us finish shopping and returned the girls and me back to the Hilton. Lauren and Kelsey showed me their purchases and we grabbed a bite to eat for a late lunch at the Kaffa House.
Zerihun and Martha had invited all of us to their home for dinner and a visit. He had expressed concern earlier about the possibility of rain, since their home is in an area that is being developed and the roads have not been completed. He said if it rained, we would have some difficulty getting to their home because of the mud. About 5 PM when we were leaving the hotel, it started raining. Zerihun had arranged for his neighbor and brother to transport us across the city to his home. We were able to go only so far in his truck, and we walked the rest of the way. The ground was a sticky type of mud that caked onto our shoes and made it hard to walk. At one point, Pat’s shoes were so heavy she had to stop and clean them off, with Zerihun’s help. When we arrived at their lovely small house, Martha and Barkot, their daughter, greeted Lauren and Kelsey with roses. We took off our shoes at the door, and someone cleaned them during our stay. We had a delightful evening. Martha and others, including Zerihun’s sister Tseganesh (seh GANNesh), had thoughtfully prepared a feast of foods they knew we liked and could eat – pancakes, omelets, pizza, along with vegetables and breads. The food was delicious, and afterwards Martha performed a traditional Ethiopian coffee ceremony. We exchanged gifts, and they brought out candles shaped in the form of numerals – 8, 5, and two 1s. These were remembrances of the number of years that I, Pat, and the girls had been to Ethiopia respectively. We enjoyed a chocolate cake purchased from a coffee shop; Zerihun said it was too sweet for them, but it wasn’t for us.
By the time we left it was dark, though it had stopped raining. With a small flashlight, Zerihun and his brother directed us back through the mud to the truck. Martha gave Pat some rubber sandals that she wore through the mud, and then changed into her own shoes when getting into the truck. The neighbor, who had joined us for dinner, drove us back across the city to the Hilton. We took off our shoes before going inside and made our way to our rooms in either socks or bare feet. What a day!
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