More Updates on Ethiopia

A quick note about last Wednesday; not sure if I've mentioned it:
We, Parvin and I, spent the evening at the One Planet School owned by Gail and Zalalem Amare. Shokufeh Murray from Castlegar is one of the three young women serving there for a Year of Service. Gail and Zalalem organized a BBQ for us, with cubed or bone-in mutton, salads, injere, soft drinks. We were able to tour the school and then were treated to a concert from Garry Sterling (currently of Syndey Australia), joined on a couple of numbers by Wes Baker. There was lots of talking, visiting, laughing and getting to know folks. We were invited by the owner of a local authentic Ethiopian restaurant/night club to come to visit her establishment. Her daughter will go to Montreal in a few months to study architecture. It was a great evening, warm and only slightly windy. There was a vast canopy of stars, of course, and the fragrance everywhere of spice and flowers that is typical of Ethiopia. Transportation was arranged by the Amares on the school bus.

Two other quick remembrances about last Thursday:
Ethel Crawford, who for many, many years greeted the Pilgrims in Haifa on their arrival and looked after them while they were there, is part of the choir. While we were rehearsing, she looked out of the window and said that the hill we could see from the window looked to her just like the Mount Carmel looked before the Arc was built on it.

One of the women in the group waiting for transport at the airport decided to visit the washroom. While she was there, the uncertainties of Ethiopian electricity became apparent as the lights briefly went out in the entire airport. She hurried to leave the darkness of the unfamiliar room. When we were all back at the hotel, she realized that she had left her purse, with all her money and credit cards and passport, hanging on the handle of the bathroom door. Many prayers were said as she rushed back to the airport, with the help of one of the National Spiritual Assembly members. As pretty much expected, no luck in finding it. She and her husband tried several times to call through to the USA to cancel the credit cards. No luck there, either. They wrote their son at home, but he wasn’t allowed to cancel cards not in his name. No luck trying to get the US Embassy either. Finally, we all gave up and went to bed, with many prayers for detachment. Friday, there was a call from the airport; her purse had been found, totally intact, money, credit cards, passport, everything in the right place and in the condition she left it in. What a testament to the honesty level of this country!

Friday was the first real test of the culture clash. 40 + North Americans hit all at once for breakfast at the restaurant where there are only two servers on at any one time. Not only that but to get to the cashier, the coffee/tea/hot water, they must go downstairs, wait for the item needed, return upstairs before serving. Fortunately, breakfast is a self serve buffet here, so it was not too bad. 9:00 o'clock and the busses came to pick us up to take us to the Baha'i Centre for registration for the 75th Jubilee of the Baha'i Faith in Ethiopia.

I've written this note at least 10 times tonight and so I'm sending it off now, before things collapse again. I hope to catch up to where we are tonight, as there won't be much chance to access the internet over the weekend.