A Joyful Whirlwind

Every trip has its own unique character.  The Lifewater teams and the training subjects and participants are different, of course.  But there are subjective and spiritual nuances as well.  On this trip, I had a sense of joy and peace from the very start. And, with the exception of a few minor stressful moments, that sense never really left.

What a great looking team!  (Well, mostly!)

Our team arrived in stages in Addis from me early on Thursday morning (June 13) to Christine late Friday evening.  The first hiccup was that our departure to Hosanna was delayed 24 hours when one of our team members immediately fell victim to local food or drink.  She recovered strongly, however, and we hit the road Sunday morning with Getu, our usual driver, and Mesfin, our extraordinary translator.  These two men are my dearest brothers in Ethiopia, and simply reuniting with them filled us all with excitement and confidence for the time to come.

Training in Paradise

Our training began Monday morning on the compound of the South Central Synod of the Mekane Yesus Church.  Our guest house was in the same compound (more on that in a later post).  Our participants included 18 teachers from primary schools in two nearby woredas (districts).  Although our start was delayed by torrential early morning rains that hampered their transportation, we never felt stressed about the schedule. Well, maybe a little.  But our participants were great from the start, thoroughly embracing our participatory training approach and their role-playing as primary school students as we modeled the curriculum.  We were back on schedule by the end of the first day!

"Clean Hands, Clean Heart"

The training was intense, with full days of lessons through Friday and a half day on Saturday.  During the week, all of the participants got the opportunity to do "teachbacks" in which they facilitated one of the lessons as teams.  While we were rotating our five facilitators, the participants never got a true break, and Mesfin in particular was working hard the entire week.

Getu Guchale, Driver and Spiritual Advisor

After a fun special event on Saturday (more on that later), everyone had a welcome 1.5 day break.  We capped ours with a trip to the beautiful Ajora Falls.

Tarekegn teaches the tippy-tap

On Monday we all traveled to the Shurma Dacho school where our participants split into four groups to teach two lessons each to a total of 130 fourth graders.  It was a fabulous, joyful experience, after which we were more confident than ever that this curriculum was in the hands of extremely capable and enthusiastic teachers.  We were so humbled by their gifts as they interacted with the children.

Did someone say, "Breakfast"?

One more day of training on Tuesday, then a celebratory half-day on Wednesday capped by the rousing certificate ceremony and much emotional sharing by the participants, our partners, and our team.  Then off for a one night R&R at the beautiful Negash Lodge, where we were entertained at breakfast on Thursday by hundreds of Colobus and vervet monkeys.  A short drive to Addis, dinner with Getu's wonderful family, and we all began our homeward journeys on Friday.

Beza and Samy, my niece and nephew

The time really flew on this trip, not just because we were busy, but because we were always "in the moment", being aware of what God was doing in our midst.  A joyful whirlwind, indeed!  More to come soon.