Today was a day full of fun and friends. We had a leisurely morning, waking when we had slept ourselves out, eating a simple breakfast, and playing in the yard with Giggles' stuffies. Fasil, our landlord's son, came at 11:00 to take us to the International Evangelical Church where we were to meet some friends of friends and fellow Mennonites. The church is in a distant corner of town, so it took about 20 minutes to get there and Fasil had to ask a few people in the vicinity to find its exact location. Addis has no addresses to speak of, and only the very major streets are named, so one finds one's way by asking for landmarks, adjacent buildings and the like.
The church meets in a lovely modern building built about 12 years ago. It is non-denominational and holds services in English. Many of the people attending are Ethiopian, as well as many ex-pats (foreigners). Our friend said that during the persecution of the (non-Orthodox) church during the Mengistu regime, Ethiopians who worshiped with foreigners and in English had some immunity to persecution. (As it turns out, the persecution only strengthened the church; when the Derg was overthrown the number of believers in indigenous evangelical churches had grown more than ten-fold, I believe.) Even today the Orthodox Church is opposed to evangelical and Protestant churches and often stirs up unrest and trouble against them, destroying or burning the church buildings used by the local congregations despite their operating with the permission of the authorities. Complaints to said authorities rarely result in punishment of the offenders, as this is a democracy based on popular opinion, not the rule of law or the protection of minority rights.
But I digress.
A Christmas tree adorned the front of the church. The service consisted of a special Christmas celebration with hymn singing and a telling of the Christmas story. After the service we accompanied our friends to a Menno potluck and gift exchange. There we met several people with Mennonite roots – the field representative of the Canadian Food Grains Bank, Mennonite Central Committee's Ethiopia country reps, a young woman teaching English in a government school who was seconded there by a Mennonite mission organization, and several of the Ethiopian staff of Meserete Kristos College (the seminary operated by the Ethiopian Mennonite – literally "Christ our Foundation" – church). Our friends also work at the MK College, located in Debre Zeit, about an hour's drive southeast of Addis
We enjoyed a lovely potluck Christmas dinner. Chicken replaced turkey, but otherwise the trimmings were complete: stuffing, mashed potatoes with gravy, salad, and veggies. (Well, I guess we were missing the cranberry sauce and the pies for dessert.)
Giggles found some other little girls close to her age to play with; in fact all the kids were girls except for one young man who was too old to be considered a kid, really – likely in his late teens.
After dinner the young kids each got a Christmas stocking stuffed with goodies, and we adults and teenagers played the "Now you've got it, now you don't" Christmas gift exchange game, where people open presents one at a time and you can steal something you like from someone else.
Laolao, Laoye and I ended up with quite a bit of candy, which we certainly don't need! Maybe we'll take some of it to the orphanage and give it to the kids… or take it on our next trip and pass it out to the kids we meet in the villages
All that filled the afternoon, and we arrived home shortly after sunset. I needed to make a few phone calls, so while Giggles played and drew, I managed to find the "on" button for the cell phone we have for the duration of our stay, and started to make arrangements for the next couple of days.
First I got in touch with Solomon to arrange to visit the Transition House and meet Poppet tomorrow afternoon. I have been debating for the past week whether to visit between our two trips, not wanting to cause Poppet anxiety when we show up and then disappear again for a week before taking him to stay with us. But I finally decided to go ahead. We'll just be sure to make it very clear that we WILL be back in seven sleeps and then he will come to live us forever. I am excited and nervous and glad and everything one could possibly be when anticipating meeting a child one has loved in absentia for going on eight months now.
A few more calls and it was high time for bed. Another busy day tomorrow!
(Continue to 24 December: A little boy on Christmas Eve)
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