(Jared's journal recap)
We woke at 5:00am to the sound of dogs howling, men howling strange prayers to a god that doesn't exist, and roosters. It was confusing. I could not differentiate between the noises at first. It was just a sad, out of tune song. I don't know if the dogs joined the men or the men joined the dogs, but I couldn't sleep through it. The sound carried from all over. Far off, up close. I could probably hear 20 different men singing prayers out of tune with dogs joining them. None of them sang the same song. The chorus of chaos created a hum into the morning.
Coffee! The coffee here is amazingly fresh and bold. The woman and her husband that run the guest house roast their own coffee and sell it in the states, Blue Nile coffee. It is a staple where we are staying. I enjoy a nice time in the word and a great cup of coffee. Romans 8 is where I am camped out, as well as my study/read through Joshua. God reinforces my new and upcoming role as a father. "21 And he said to the people of Israel, "When your children ask their fathers in times to come, 'What do these stones mean?'
22 then you shall let your children know, 'Israel passed over this Jordan on dry ground.'
23 For the LORD your God dried up the waters of the Jordan for you until you passed over, as the LORD your God did to the Red Sea, which he dried up for us until we passed over,
24 so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the LORD is mighty, that you may fear the LORD your God forever." Part of my role will be to teach Isaiah to fear God and to observe his faithfulness.
We enjoy a nice breakfast then leave for Ethiopian culture training. Ironic since I feel like we have been getting this since we stepped onto the plane in Dulles. It is more of a history culture training. Ethiopia's history and culture is so rich. Built around God ( or gods for some), family, and work. We learn how to make ingera, which is a spongy pancake like bread, but not sweet, more of a sour dough. It is made from a wheat grass called tiff. Ingera is traditional Ethiopian staple, much like rice is for Asians and pasta is for Italians. They then make stew called wat to eat with the ingera. The wat we made was made from onion, garlic, tomato, ground chic peas, and Berbery. Berbery is a staple spice made from many different spices, but the base is ground red pepper.
We also roasted and ground our own coffee. Awesome. I am going to buy some I roasted beans before we leave.
We picked up a few small things at the local marketplace on the way back to the guest house. A large hand carved wooden bowl, some hand carved wooden canoes, we thought these would be neat for Isaiah's room.
After a much needed nap, we are headed out for dinner at a traditional Ethiopian restaurant. Dinner was nice with ingera and different kinds of wat. There was music and traditional dancing. Very interesting. Tomorrow we are headed to a feeding program. It is awesome to see the church invested so deeply in the lives of the poor. It is a strong testimony to the nature of the God they serve. The church that is invested in loving God and loving people is the Christian church, especially the evangelical Christians here.
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