Dear Friends,
I returned from a second visit to Addis Ababa to renew my resident's visa last weekend with the
document in hand.
I missed the first week of teaching English to the Bible College Students so have finally gotten
very busy teaching 3 1/2 hours in the morning and 3 hours in the evening at the church in
Hosanna. It is a joy to teach these servants of God who are preparing to go out into the world
to preach and teach. They are so eager to learn and we laugh alot and it is so good for all
of us. We are using the Bible as our textbook and it is so good because it is what they are
most interested in.
English is taught in all the schools of Ethiopia and it is a good thing because it is one of the
primary links for communicating between the many different regions and tribes.
All is well, and I am learning how to unlock the front door but have not figured out how to get
out the back door. Things are put together in unusual ways here. I have to remove all the
linoleum because it was layed over unsealed cement which is sweating and I realized yesterday
how wet it is underneath.
I am grateful to have a quiet house, that is very secure. I can hear the hyennas just outside my
window at night. The wheat fields that surround the guest house have been cut and the winnowing
has begun.
The KG teachers from Yetebon are coming to visit for my Christmas on Sat. and Sun.
The little children living nearby are very eager to start kindergarten and I will have a meeting
about that mission next week. I will be teaching Christmas day as the Ethiopians celebrate in Jan.
Love to All and have a wonderful Holiday,
Dee

In The Middle of Dark Africa

I sit on the new hand-made mattress, an item familiar to third world countries, with this computer in my lap. It is very dark outside and inside except for the lighted screen glaring me in the face. There is no power tonight, electricity being rather new and not yet completely without its problems. Hopefully, the battery of this computer will hang in here with me while I occupy my time by writing about the moment.

A hyena whoops several times and is loud enough to not be far away. Now, there are several whooping but further away. Perhaps they are only answering back. I have no fear of them unless I should possibly meet several in a pack on my return to the house on a dark night. I wouldn’t do such a trip alone, am I stupid? I usually finish dinner just before dark and don’t have far to walk around the wheat field.

It is absolutely quiet for long periods of time. Occasionally, the metal roof will expand or there is the pounding of a pestle into the mortar filled with fresh-roasted coffee beans. It will be the final taste of the evening before neighbors retire in their newly built cement block houses.

Across the pasture and up the hill a ways, fires can be seen through open doors of the few remaining thatched mud huts in this area. I can only imagine that in ten years from now all of these will be replaced with mud houses that have metal roofs.

The darkness is again still, silent, and peaceful. I rather dread going back into the capital of Ethiopia a week from today, but I must to collect my resident’s visa so I can return to stay in Hosanna; a place I love to be.
Thank you God for planting me here.