Tuesday Recap (Ethiopia)

Going Back a few days:

Tuesday Recap in More Detail

Ethiopia was cooler than I expected for Africa in the summer but I guess that is normal there. It reminded me of Baguio in the Philippines, including the traffic and landscape, unfinished buildings, poverty on the side of the road and pedestrians all over the road, high-rise hotels next to squatter communities (tiny ply-wall houses), and a Mercedes Benz swerving around the guy walking his water buffalo in front of the hotel. As the old song says “everybody’s got a water buffalo” … more true in some countries than others.

We rose early Tuesday to the noise of what Gabe thought sounded like bombs going off, which we later found out was fireworks for a Muslim holiday (thankfully not explosives). During the dark hours you can hear an announcer to a soccer game in the heart of the city, and other festive things on a PA system that remind me of the Philippines. I don’t know if they did calls to prayer in the morning, but we did get a wake-up call from the hotel front desk, scarfed down breakfast and managed to get the last seat on the shuttle to the airport, our biological clocks still off from jet lag and time zone changes (getting more than 5 hours straight sleep hasn’t happened yet for any of us I think). We exited the hotel past lion and cheetah (stuffed and in glass cases in the entryway) and rode to the airport with a nice Congolese lady heading back to her country to work with the elections. She explained to us some of the political dynamics in Congo and was kind enough to help us learn some Swahili (I think she spoke 6 languages or so, similar to Didier). There are many more Muslims in Ethiopia than in Congo.

In the airport I noticed an interesting sign right next to the Restroom sign “Prayer Room for Females.” There was also one for Males, but I guessed my non-Muslim garb and God may not be what they had in mind, so I decided to do my prayer elsewhere while sipping Ethiopian coffee, which is excellent.

The national soccer team of Ethiopia was going through security with us, and Gabe explained to one guy who asked about the guitar that he played Christian music on it, music about Jesus Christ. On the flight, God’s providence allowed each of us to have an exit row seat in 3 different rows for extra leg room and each of us were in the middle seat of our row and able to share about our trip and about Christ with different people. I had printed out the Powerpoint slides of my great-grandfather’s story in Congo (see 8/23 blog post) and was able to share the story and gospel and what it can do with my row mates, while I heard Gabe also speaking a lot about Christ behind me to an African man. A young lady from mainland China on my right not only listened with great interest to my story, but she literally read along with me the entire sermon notes I was writing on my laptop for what I will preach on 9/4/11 in Congo, and I gave commentary and explanation to her along the way and was able to explain the gospel and adoption in ways she had never heard before. I felt like Philip on a “flying chariot” of Ethiopia (Acts 8) explaining Christ to one on the way to Africa.


We touched down for a brief layover in Malawi, which has a landscape you expect to see Simba and Nala and young warthogs in (Lion King, for those of you who don’t have children). Then the final leg of our trip brought us to our final destination. We began this journey at 5:00 a.m. Saturday 8/27 California time, and finally arrived in Lubumbashi, at 2:30 p.m. Eastern Congo time Tuesday afternoon. A grinning open-armed Didier greeted us with a warm Christian embrace and wonderful words in his thick African accent: “welcome friends, to the other side of the ocean.”

The airport is quite chaotic getting through customs and getting out with your bags, but Didier has a friend who works there who escorted us through the mobs out to the parking lot for an unforgettable moment where Josie and Gabe first embraced their twins Kara and Brandon (Gabe and Kara on right below and Josie and Brandon on left).

                                                   Phil, Josie Brandon, Kara and Gabe

                               Happy Boy in his Daddy's Arms, how can you resist loving him!?!

Somehow all of us and Didier and Annie and their 6 kids, the twins, and baby Marie-Claire (Kivren), and our massive luggage all fit in their van. Some things we’re getting used to in Congo:

-          steering wheel on right side of cars

-          pedestrians all over the road, no sidewalks and no one looking where they’re going, walking with their back to you, and your van consistently seems to just miss many by inches

-          parking in front of the mayor’s office and the business building 20 yards away says on its sign in big red letters “Al-Qaida” (I decided not to hang my American face out the window while we waited for Didier to come back to the car :)

-          no toilet paper or toilet seats except in the nice bank or places in town (which makes things complicated when you don’t have Imodium with you and ate some vegetables you probably shouldn’t have the day before)

-          driving over ditches when you park

-          dirt roads that are more like dried out river beds but with more potholes than typical ditches

-          markets that feature large octopus as you walk in

-          pharmacies that are little tin shacks

-          incredible kids who love you and swarm you, especially if you just pumped up a soccer ball and gave it to them

                          Brandon on right, Anita (Didier’s daughter on left, my buddy since I’ve gotten here)