Archived Blog
Street Ministry Retreat
Apologies once again for the length of time that it has been since my last post. The rains that I talked about in my last post lasted for only 3 days or so, nowhere near enough to solve all of the countries problems. Due to the fact that most of Ethiopia’s power generation is water reliant, the Ethiopian power Company is rather short these days. Thus, the number of days without power is increasing every week. Last week we had two separate 24hour periods without power, this week it is set to be 3. Fortunately on Monday, when I had a practical IT exam with my grade 10 students, we were able to use the Bingham generator to power the computer lab. Yesterday, the generator packed up, probably with overuse. So we wait today for the power to go off, knowing that when it does, we have no backup. Unfortunately, being an IT teacher, it really messes up my classes when there is no power. All the IT exams are over and finished fortunately.
My soccer team to have quite a number of games, they have had some great games, some not so great games. Keeping them going throughout all their games has been quite a challenge. We currently have 3 wins, 2 losses and a draw. We play again tomorrow, where we really need to win to stand a chance of getting into the playoffs. Again, I’ll keep you up to date.
Street ministry continues as normal, last week I wasn’t able to make it, but one of the other teachers was telling me about a very encouraging event; before they came to see the boys, someone else was talking to the boys, apparently telling them that they were fools, giving their souls for 1 birr worth of bread. The boys said they thought about this, but one of them said that that wasn’t the case; it was because Jesus loved him. Which was very encouraging for us to hear.
This week, I was on my way up the road in the taxi as normal and began to notice more fumes than normal in the inside of the taxi. Pretty soon, it became difficult to breath and others in the taxi started to choke as well. The driver continued up the road as if nothing was wrong. We reached my stop; I couldn’t get out quick enough, and took a quick look at the back of the taxi as it drove off. The problem was apparent; the bumper was hanging down over the exhaust in such a way to direct all the fumes back into the taxi. I felt dizzy and light-headed for half of the day. One of the other teachers had a small accident with a local here this week, the guy ran out into the road from between two taxis. Fortunately, the guy was not hurt but the police decided to try and make some money from the situation and impounded the car and have begun to make a big deal of the whole thing. Which is so frustrating, it’s no wonder that we’re advised against driving for the month before we leave here, just in case something like this happens. Unfortunately, road safety is not something that is taught in the schools here, no one learns that it isn’t wise to run blindly out into a road from between two taxis.
This last weekend, those staff involved with street ministry went back to Babogya for a spiritual retreat, a time of fellowship with each other and rest. It was very enjoyable, we all enjoyed relaxing by the lake, having a laugh, and worshipping together. Amanda and I led the worship, I played the guitar. Everyone seemed to really enjoy it.
Niall
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