Praise God!
After almost a month, my husband and I are back to our work, work of making a video message for you, our beloved followers. You have no idea how we’ve missed seeing you all, I mean, seeing you through the camera. I always envision seeing you.
Yes, we stayed in the most beautiful and peaceful city in the world, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the city CNN and BBC and other similar media were claiming and saying, “Don’t go to Addis because the city is not safe! And if you’re already there, leave the city as soon as you can.”
Praise God!
Ethiopia is now singing saying:
“By this I know that You are pleased with me,
Because my enemy does not shout in triumph over me.” Psalm 41:11 NASB Praise God!
Our stay in Addis was wonderful! Spending time, celebrating holidays with our families is just priceless. It was such a pure blessing directly from God and we were cognizant of every moment. Praise God!
May God keep our beautiful country, Ethiopia, in peace and prosperity now and forever (forever meaning, until these earth and heaven pass away)!
During our stay in Addis, my Berhan (my husband) and I’ve noticed many things and we had deep discussions on the matters at the end of each day. I’ll share with you two of those matters with this post. I think these two issues stood out for me the most:
- The value the society gives to a person or an individual
One day we went to Commercial Bank of Ethiopia to learn more about the diaspora bank account they were advertising. So, we went to one of their local offices, found next to the hotel we stayed in. At the door, a lady told us to get a number and we did. Then she showed us a seat. There were at least eight or ten people waiting. Then a guy from one of the counters called one lady. I think she was talking to him before. But he hollered and said, “What do you want to do today?”
I was totally shocked. I was like, “How dare he ask her like that in public while everybody is listening!” Before I came out of my shock, the woman said, “To deposit some money.” Guess what? The bank clerk asked her, again loudly, “How much are you going to deposit?” She quickly replied, “1,200 birr,” and she began to get into her purse. She looked way advanced in age. I was totally upset! I was like, “What? There is no privacy here!”
I tried to calm myself down. Then my number 50 was called and I approached the window praying that the guy wouldn’t talk to me loudly. Well, he didn’t but two other people approached his window right after I approached that same window. Mind you, I am standing at that same small window. One guy slipped his bank book through the window and said, “I will wait here.” And the other one said something and the bank clerk, putting my paper aside, went to attend the guy’s issue (I guess he left a paper with him before).
I prayed quietly, “Lord, please, help me to calm down here.” I felt like screaming saying, “This is my turn! 50 is my number and it is my turn now! I didn’t approach the window when other numbers were called.”
Oh, no! That is not the way they do their job and nobody is saying anything and nobody seems to care.
You have no idea how that incident bothered me. Am I westernized here? I don’t know if I am. Don’t get me wrong. I love our culture of eating together and sharing our joy and sadness but I don’t know if it is good for us as a society to have absolute no respect to an individual, a human being. This may not be looked at that by many in Ethiopia and many may say, “Well, that is your problem, not ours. We see you as a human being. If you want a special service, there is no such kind of thing.”
No! No! No! I am not asking any special service. I am asking a person to get a chance to be heard and get a service they need. A person shouldn’t be seen as people and a community, but as a person. Number 1 and number 50 should not be served at the same time in the same widow.
Some may say, “We are poor! We cannot serve everybody like that! We have to serve a group of people so we can get the job quickly.”
Really? Let me leave this topic here. God willing, I may come back to it another time. But let me say this: Maybe this is a sign how much we don’t have any respect to “a human being” who is created by the image and likeness of God. And, I think, until we get this right, we may not come out of a social status called “poor.”
- Not seeing married couples enjoying life together, alone
The other issue that bothered me a lot in my stay in Addis was everywhere my husband and I go to, we saw only men or only women in a group, talking, eating and having fun. That is good! But we couldn’t find married couples doing that. We couldn’t find a wife and a husband, eating and talking and having fun. We saw a couple with their kids eating and playing at a kids’ play area but a married couple? We haven’t seen one.
Maybe there is such a place called for married couples only and we didn’t go to that place? I don’t know.
You don’t need to go any far to see a young man and a young girl clinging to each other, talking, laughing, and walking as if they were the last ones left on earth. I love seeing that very much but we wished to see married couples doing that but we haven’t seen one.
As we’ve learned from some people there, married couples usually visit families or sick people together or take their children to a kids’ place and then they all eat burger and fries and go home.
Oh, my friends who live in Ethiopia, I thank God for you for most of you have maids in your home, to help you with your house chores and kids; but I was wondering if these maids make you live like single people, not nurturing your marriage and not taking your parenting role head on. I wonder!
I am sure there are many teachers in Ethiopia but I pray God raises many more teachers across Ethiopia who teach and reveal the heart of God in the area of marriage and parenting. Yes, that is my prayer for my country now because I believe with all my heart that a lasting peace and safety of a country and a nation cannot be secured by strong military force or other things but by strong marriages and families! As we can learn from the Bible, a healthy marriage of one man and one woman and a family that comes out of that marriage is a sure building block of a healthy and strong nation. I hope and pray churches across Ethiopia work hard in this area. ///