Currently: enjoying banana muffins Aster made! Yum!
When
traveling into Addis, there’s usually a conversation that occurs with whomever
I’m seated beside. After inquiring to why they’re coming to Addis, they usually
return the question. I would say "yes I have lived in Addis for (this
number) of years. I teach at an international school- an international
Christian school. I teach high school English- literature, not the
language." For the last four years, that has been my identity. That's why I'm
in this country. That's what I do.
That's who I am.
I'm
here to be an English teacher. I teach Shakespeare and George Eliot. I teach
poetry and short stories. I teach how to describe with colorful vocabulary or
write a story that makes your audience laugh and cry.
I
work with teenagers in all their adolescent glory. In their drama, in their up
and down emotions, in their forgetfulness. I teach them in the classroom, but
I'm also their coach on the soccer field. I help them improve their writing,
but I also meet with them for bible study. I share with them the stories of
Silas Marner and Romeo and Juliet, but I also take them on trips around the
country either a six hour drive or three hour flight away. I hear about their
crushes, their thoughts on faith, their struggles with their parents or their
friends. This is a part of my purpose in being here- to be there for them.
And my role here also opens up opportunities for
others in the country. Because I teach their kids, doctors can give healing
surgeries to kids with deformed limbs and no hope. Because I teach their kids,
brave men and women go out and learn new languages so that they can translate
the Bible for those who have never heard it in their mother tongue before.
Because I teach their kids, communities are transformed by clean water, kids
are getting off the street, and people are hearing about the love of Jesus.
Teaching
is why I'm here. It's my purpose and my identity.
But my life here is so much richer than that. I
work with people from all over the world who are not just my colleagues, but
also my friends.
We
spend our week nights talking about our students who were having a rough day,
our friends who have something big happening at home, our family and the life
they're having without us. We spend weekends going out to eat, going to the
movies and holidays with one another, since we’re the closest thing to family
we've got here. We spend breaks from school checking out a new part of
Ethiopia, whether a few days by the lake or a trip of hours in a car to see
land and tribes that others usually see in a magazine.
I
learn something new every day about someone else's culture, whether our host
one or someone who is also a guest here. I experience new foods and new
traditions that wasn't weird until you talk about it with someone else. I share
something of myself and my culture/language/family around the lunch table or
over a cup of tea.
These are the people I know and love, the ones
who go through the good and the bad together. This is my community.
I have also seen some amazing places, met some
fantastic people, and done some phenomenal things in my last four years.
I
have worked at a youth center in Mekelle, I have harvested an inset tree
outside Soddo, and I have eaten kojo and drank fire water in Dorzi. I have learned
to make kimbap and bibimbap with my Korean colleague. I have learned about AFL
and how to shorten words like "arvo" and “sunnies” from the
Australians. I have practiced roasting beans and brewing coffee with my
Ethiopian friends.
And
that's all just in Ethiopia- I have had a chance to catch up with college
friends in the busy and bright streets of Hong Kong and sing karaoke in the
middle of the day and have amazing Korean BBQ in the city of Seoul. I got to
see and be a small part of the super cool things that my friends are doing in
their respective places, teaching English to precious, busy children, starting
a church plant and praying for the youth of Hong Kong to experience the love of
Jesus.
I
experienced the beauty of Spain and the hot sun of Dubai with my family. Whether
walking through the streets of Seville, Malaga, and Gibralter, or tasting the
salty water of the sea while in the midst of the wealth of the world, it was a
sweet time of connection and rest together.
I got to relax at the beaches of South Africa
with some friends, spending Christmas together, because we couldn't see our
families. Enjoying the view of Table Mountain from the beach and seeing baboons
and penguins on the way to the southernmost point of Africa.
These have been some of the vibrant places in
God’s creation I have just a brief taste of and seen some of his amazing work
around the world. This is my experience.
Four years holds a lot of time, a lot of
memories, a lot of me. I have grown as a person; in my emotions, my knowledge,
my life experience. I have developed my faith; in relationships with other
believers, in hearing about God’s amazing work in Ethiopia and around the
world, in seeing his faithfulness and goodness in my own life and in those around
me. I have been a part of a large church body filled with the nations of the
world, a small church body striving to reach their neighborhood, and an even
smaller church family meeting in one another’s homes and desiring to be a
support and an encouragement to our fellow workers in God’s kingdom.
And
now I have to say goodbye.
Not
entirely- I will return to this country next year. I will still be able to hang
out with those friends, be a part of that church body. I will still enjoy the
amazing taste of shiro and tibs.
But
my identity will be different. I will no longer be working with those
teenagers. I will no longer be living and working with those colleagues and
friends. I will, for the first time, not be living in the blessed eight acre
compound that is Bingham Academy.
To
that, I must say goodbye.
And
through the tears and the emotions, I can only be grateful. Grateful for these
last four years. Grateful for the people I’ve met, the relationships I’ve
formed. Grateful for the experiences I have had the privilege to have. Grateful
for the faithfulness of God that has been evident over and over in my life.
And
by His grace, I will make it through this goodbye and onto the next exciting
hellos.
