The Bakers in Ethiopia: Accounting for Your Self on Palm Sunday (and pics)

Four Gringos at the tractor ceremony

We were thankful for Kevin O’Shea and Chris Grover’s visit; though, we thought it brazenly immodest that in their short time here they learned more Amharic, Annua (k), and Swahili than any of us. They are unpleasant in this way.

When you see something beautiful, you want to share it, and they were just the folks to appreciate it. Even the not so beautiful things are more enjoyable (endurable) experienced together. That is the way God made us – we were made for friendship and fellowship – how often we forget this. The friendships here in Gambella are as robust and full as George Baily's and not limited to the confines of any one home. You haven’t heard people laugh until you pack yourself and 11 other (unwashed and un-deoderized) people into a 7 passenger jeep on a 105 degree day and go barreling down a dirt road and see the Anuak laugh as Chris Grover tries to speak Chinese.

The heat about killed us in Gambella. It cooled to 95 degrees at 3 in the morning. Until the rains come, there will not be much hydro power in Ethiopia and Gambella is at the front of the line when it comes to load shedding. Benjamin completely ruled out the possibility of telekinesis – no boy has stared harder and longer at fan blades willing them to turn. Without power, the bottled water easily gets to match the ambient temperature (over 100) – so for those of you back there, next time you are really thirsty, go try a glass of it. We found a hotel with a generator; their water was about 80 degrees – enough for a brain freeze.

The Anuak worship service was inspiring if not engulfing. So many people living hard lives to their fullest - bringing earnest praise and joy to their worship. There wasn't a lot of cash collected at the offering, but someone did leave 30 kilos of corn meal from their farm. Of all the things I have seen here, I bet I remember that the longest. We left at the 3 hour mark to catch our flight and see if we could find some more water. We all agreed it would be cool if we too brought referee whistles to blow hard on during the “songs of praise” portion of Olivet’s service – that is exactly what they do here and it has quite an effect when done at the right moments and just behind your head. The singing, the drumming, the melodious cadence of their language – all a glory to God – we floated to the rafters with them in Spirit - and cried for no reason other than the beauty of it.

We had some strange moments out in the bush villages passing out clothing, shoes (donated by the Ragged Mountain Running Store - God bless the Lorenzonis!), soccer balls, medicine and other items that had been in our hall closet too long.

Today is Palm Sunday and it is instructive to contrast our entry into these villages will Jesus's Triumphal Entry. While there was some enthusiasm when we rolled in with our Land Cruiser full of us and stuff, we had nothing to offer that could really help these people in any meaningful, sustainable way. In fact, it was we who were on the hunt for meaning and salvation, and like them, we are also waiting for our Savior to return and make things right once and for all. In the meantime, not all of the disparity in the world's wealth distribution can be neatly blamed on the geo-political factors that you as an individual can not reasonably be held accountable for.

As soon as you see the people approaching, you realize your miscalculation – 33 pairs of shoes for 300 feet sort of thing - so you turn to the elder and say,

“Can you distribute these after we leave? We don’t want to be the “great white ~~hope~~ idiots” or anything…”

He says, “No way. They will become angry with me. You can leave here. I cannot. You decide who gets them.”

He has a point, but the indignity of it is nauseating – lacking the wit or wisdom to figure out who gets what, you speed up and then the hands start grabbing and you feel responsible for triggering their descent into the shoving and grabbing – because, frankly, you are responsible for it. Piñatas for kids are one thing, but seeing grandmothers yank shoes from the hands of children not their own is another. Would it have been better to not have brought anything? “Yes,” if it is about your own sense of decorum, “no,” if you ask the person who got the shoes.

At the last village visited, Kevin literally gave the shirt off his back – the rest of us did not, we are not in as good a shape, spiritually or physically. But that is what these moments call for – I do remember wishing I could tear a hole in space and bring through it all the contents of my garage, closets, drawers and the thousands of items barely enjoyed or appreciated stuck lifeless in my embarrassingly materially abundant life.

What then? In the midst of (truly) embarrassing riches – when it is finally “out” about how much you have, what do you say? What would you say? What would you say if all your belongings - the entire contents of your home were dumped in the corn field by one of these little grass huts? I picture myself standing there in front of these people, with my pile of stuff behind me...

“Er, I don’t know exactly how the world got to be like this, but I want to apologize for the pieces of it I think I probably screwed up. I guess I have a bit of a problem with, ah, consuming too much. As you can see, I had an unusual fear of running out of dress shirts and ties. What? No, I don't have to wear them to work - they are just a good thing to have."

"Nope, no one in my family actually skate boards, they are just also good to have around in case of an emergency. And, those tape measures, well they are tough to find when you need them, so I guess I just bought one whenever I needed one - believe it or not it's easier to drive to a store than to remember one is in the kitchen drawer - crazy I know."

"T-shirts? We actually rarely wear those, we use them merely as gifts when they have something funny or special written on them, but also to commemorate certain days – you know, like signs or something."

"The running shoes? No, we also have cars, but, well, you see, we all eat too much and have to run a lot. So they are always around. These other shoes we actually use, not all the time of course but most of them get worn I think…well at least half of them, maybe at least once a year, I am almost certain about that. - but feel free to take all of this stuff - I can replace what I need to - just forgive me for taking so much more than my fair share of things on this little planet of ours - I truly don't know what came over me.”

Jesus come back soon and sort this out, please.