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Ethiopian Easter

One of the pastors in a church here once said that one of the great things about Ethiopia, aside from the weather, is that you get to celebrate all major holidays twice. Christmas, New Year and Easter are all celebrated by Ethiopians at a slightly different time of the year from the rest of the world. This is because they use a different calendar from the rest of the world; Ethiopia is currently in the year 2000 at the moment. So Forengis celebrate Easter along with the rest of the world, and then again with the Ethiopians.

So this weekend we were able to have the Horizon project boys round to show them the Jesus film which we had got in Amharic. It was great to be able to show the boys the film in their own language, with no translation necessary. After the film a number of the boys stood up to receive prayer and a number of them became Christians. It was really encouraging for all of us; they were all really moved by the whole situation.

On Sunday, the whole of Addis was in Holiday mode. There were many more animals on the streets than usual, plenty of places to buy sheep and chickens, and large numbers of them being led off to various homes. Slightly later on in the day there were piles and piles of skins lying about the road, and even some fairly gruesome sights like cow heads lying in the roads. However, it means that we were able to experience some wonderful Ethiopian hospitality. Brian and I were invited to a student’s house for lunch, and then our houseworker’s house for dinner. The only downside to this is that, so as not to offend your hosts, you must eat a lot. Our houseworker even admitted that if someone comes to an Ethiopian’s house and does not eat, they will wonder what the point was in coming at all. So we ate enough to last a week at our student’s house and then had to go and repeat the process at our houseworker’s. On Monday, I felt the aftermath of a full day of injera. It was really great though.

This weekend, Brian and I are hoping to take a trip somewhere, not really sure where. We’ve got 5 days off so we decided to take a trip out of town. Should be quite an adventure!!

Niall

Posted at 1 May, 2008, 5:30pm

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