Sometimes I wonder if too much pondering can be a bad thing for me. I've been doing lots of thinking, maybe more on the verge of obsessing, about life and it's meaning, about faith and what I think I believe during my travels here in Africa. During long car rides, on the airplane, in the evenings alone in my room, without much distraction my mind begins to wonder about lots of things. I'd almost rather be distracted sometimes, and I've run out of Office episodes to fulfill that purpose.
I wonder if I sometimes make life much more complicated than it needs to be. Right now I kind of wish I could compare my life to a 100 piece jigsaw puzzle. I think it would be enough to challenge me, but simple enough that I would be willing to take the time and have patience to figure it out. Instead I feel like right now life is a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle and the pieces are scattered everywhere. Some parts that once seemed to fit in the puzzle have been broken apart or lost. Maybe a few random sections are pieced together, but I am far from seeing any kind of meaning or part of the final picture and I just want to kick it all apart and stop trying. Or start a new puzzle because I give up on this one. Maybe someone can improve upon or give some hope to my metaphor? I'm not saying I want to have EVERYTHING in life figured out because that would be impossible and boring. But it would really be encouraging if I could feel a little more certain about some things.
I think I'm probably getting a little too personal in this entry so I will move on to some of the things we saw and did while in Ethiopia. My favorite, most memorable part of the trip was when we drove 7 hours north of Addis Ababa into the highlands where the clouds often touched the earth and the fields and mountains were covered with golden grains of wheat and barley. Little round houses made of stone with straw roofs were scattered in clumps on the hillsides among tall evergreen and eucalyptus trees. It felt like we were stepping back in time, to a place untouched by the outside world. Along the roadside and in the fields people herded sheep, cattle and goats. Driving past these picturesque landscapes, I wondered how my life would be if I had grown up in a tukul on one of these hillsides.
(see photo of strange alien flower we found)
The project that MCC supports in this area is a peace committee that mediates conflicts between family members when there are quarrels about land, food, women, etc. For a while there had been a number of revenge killings where families took justice into their own hands and killed those who had wronged them. Sometimes homes were burned and children were afraid to go to school should someone from a feuding family try to take revenge on them.
(see photo of landscape)
It was encouraging to hear how people had put their trust in the peace committee and were going to them when they had a problem. It was also encouraging to hear that the number of revenge killings had been greatly reduced and people really praised the program.
(see photo of peace committee)
I have to also mention that the people in this area were quite beautiful. They had different features and clothing than people I've seen in other African countries I've been to. The head wraps that some of the older men wore almost reminded me of people you might see in India or Afghanistan. Since it's so cold here (we saw frost one morning!) people wear a gaby, a big cotton cloak, to keep warm. I got to try one on. :)
(see photo of frost on our car and me in the gaby)
Well, time for the next blog entry. Hope you're enjoying the Christmas season wherever you are! We had 14 hrs. of driving to and from our countryside destination in Ethiopia and during those 14 hours we listened to 259 of Doug's (MCC country rep) Christmas songs from his ipod. I am happy to get little tastes of Christmas while on the road. :)
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