Oh Those Bitter Herbs!

Last night Rachael and I went to a Passover service at BYU. Her Isiah professor holds several of these each spring, it includes a full catered meal as well as an explanation and celebration of the Passover.
To celebrate the passover, certain foods are eaten in remembrance of the Israelite bondage in Egypt, the most memorable of these is the bitter herbs (horseradish). three times throughout the celebration you eat a spoonful of straight horseradish, in memory of the burdens placed upon the ancient Israelites. It was a great evening, it was very educational and enjoyable but if I ever have to eat straight bitter herbs again it will be too soon.

Pictures of Rachael and I in Island Park in March

Island Park March 2008

Letters From Ethiopia

Here are the letters I wrote while Rachael and I were in Ethiopia. That was a great experience.

10-01-2007

Dear Family & Friends,

Ethiopia is great and so are Rachael & I. this weekend was Muskel (sp?) a national holiday to celebrate when the “True Cross” was found and brought back to Africa. Before we got here I didn’t even know that the “True Cross” was in Africa, in fact I have always learned that the crusaders brought back enough pieces of the “True Cross” to build a “True Ship”, they should have looked in Ethiopia.

Since this weekend was a holiday Rachael & I went up to Addis (the Capitol) to stay with missionaries from our church. They are retired ranchers from Canada. They are one of two missionary couples we have become friends with, the other are retired ranchers from Colorado. We met them a couple weeks ago at church and when you are one of 3 couples from North America you tend to gravitate to one another.

(Outside the Church in Addis.)

We were supposed to ride up with Kidane, a local Ethiopian we work with but a day before we were supposed to leave he decided not to go. We still wanted to go so I drove. If you have ever played “Grand Theft Auto” or any other video game where you can just drive where you please then you will have an idea of what driving in Ethiopia is like. It is like driving at home in that you drive on the same side of the road (most of the time). But that is really the only regulation that seems to be something everyone follows, other than that the biggest car seems to make the rest of the rules, and we did not have the biggest car. With a lot of prayer and frequent use of the car horn I am driving like a local. Now I just need to get a goat to sit on top of the Land Cruiser so that we will look totally inconspicuous.

We stayed with the Woodruffs and it was so much fun, kind of like spending the weekend at your grand parents. They have a great house with clean floors which are a rare occurrence here. They also have water heaters and that is a flat out luxury, a hot bath is a nice thing every now and again. We also ate unfamiliar foods like pancakes and roast beef with mashed potatoes, weird stuff. A couple weeks ago when we were at there home for Sunday dinner they gave Rachael & Me their crock pot to use while they were at a conference in Uganda. We were nervous about borrowing something that we could not easily replace if it broke but they were kind and insisted so we took the pot.

Few things are as comforting as a home cooked meal, and few meals are more tasty than one prepared in a crock pot. When we got back to Debre Zeit we were excited to cook a big meal in the crock. We bought a lot of vegetables and even some ham to put in to the stew. Rachael is a great cook and got it all prepared and kind of to our surprise the crock pot worked. It was very old and well used appliance evidenced by she dents and burn marks covering it, but it worked and we were excited.

After an hour or so of cooking I went to stir the pot and I noticed a funny smell but this is Africa and you just have to get used to funny smells here. An hour or so later I noticed a little smoke but this is Africa and maybe the neighbors were just burning garbage again. Lunch time rolled around and Rachael went to check on the pot when I heard her call for me and say that something had gone wrong. This time there was a lot of smoke and Rachael had lifted the pot revealing a new hole that had been recently burned into the table.

Unfortunately we were not able to return the Crock in the same condition we received it in, but at least it gave Rachael a poignant example for her talk she gave on Sunday, the topic was honesty.

We have been able to attend the small branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints here in Debre Zeit and it is amazing. The only members of the branch born in the church are the small children. They have a great little chapel that they take great care of. Rachael and I were called as the young men and young women presidents. It is a great experience and a wonderful chance to grow spiritually.

(Youth o f the Debre Zeit Branch.)

We also recently learned that we will be splitting time between where we are currently living and a town three hours south. So it looks like I will be doing a lot more driving. Pray for us please. We are wondering what our house there will have living in it. Here we have frogs but we are ok with that because they at least eat the other things crawling around.

(One of our house frogs.)

Life is great, today is our one month wedding anniversary and as I look back on the long life Rachael and I have lived together as Husband and Wife I would not change a thing. I love my wife and I love all of you (a little less than I love her, but that is to be expected). Thanks for reading this and I hope to hear from you all again soon.

Love,

Gavin Goodwin

P.S. I put some pictures below.

(These kids thought it was pretty funny that we were white and in a car.)

(In the city, men carry stuff too.)

(All the children are learning English they can all say Money, Money, Money!)

(We were here inspecting a rain catchment that had been installed about 9 months ago and I thought this was something that I rarely see at home.)

(In Ethiopia you can drive through people’s farms, I think it is a good system.)

December 4th 2007

Dear Friends and Family,

Another few weeks have flown by full of Go-Karts, Rastafarians, latrine pits, more close calls than I care to remember on the Ethiopian highways, long waits at regional airports, and more churches carved out of solid rock than you can shake a processional cross at.

Often Rachael and I were asked what’s the most fun thing we have done since we got to Ethiopia. That is a great question but until a few weeks ago we would have to respond that nothing really jumped out as the most fun. We would explain that while the whole experience has been great we have not yet had time to do anything that would stand out above other things. That all came to a crashing halt when we discovered that just down the road from our house is a real life Ethiopian Go-Kart track! I like Go-Karts period but the Ethiopian ones are crazy. It is like they used to be, you can bump and crash into each other and nobody says a thing. It is also challenging in that you have to dodge the nuts and bolts that fall off of the carts in front of you.

We also had yet to experience any cultural dances or ceremonies, and then we spent a week in Shashemene. Shashemene is the most practical place for us to stay when we are working in Arsi, where the water project we have been working on is being implemented. It is also a unique place in the world in that it is a bit of a haven for Rastafarians from the whole world. The man Ras Tafari whom Rastafarians believe was the living god was also known by the throne name Haile Selassie. He was the last emperor of Ethiopia. To thank African Americans for financial and moral support during the Italian Ethiopian war, he made a large amount of land available to African Americans in the town of Shashemene; mostly Rastafarians have taken advantage of the opportunity.

We arrived in town as the annual celebration of the coronation of Haile Selassie was winding down. Our hotel was host to some of this celebrating, and Rachael and I went one night. I have never seen pot smoked with such openness before (Rastafarians use Ganja as part of their religious experience). There were probably 50 people in attendance; the rest had already wandered home. There was loud dance music and the young boys were “toasting” (kinda like rapping) over the music, and all the kids were dancing as their parents got high. Marijuana is not illegal in Ethiopia. We of course did not join in the smoking but from the smell of the whole hotel we could have been arrested on probable cause had we been in the States.

While we were staying in Shashemene our days were spent gathering materials and building four water catchment/animal shelters/latrines in the surrounding villages. It is a pretty ingenious unit that takes care of three of the most important needs for health in the area. Rain falling on the roof is collected in a large storage tank. Two thirds of the structure is used as a secure place for families to store small livestock safely from Hyenas. Animals are incredibly valuable to these families and to keep them safe from hyenas (a very serious threat here) they keep the animals inside their house. As a result children are sleeping on the same floor that animals relieve themselves on. The remaining space in the structure is used for a pit latrine, without a latrine the families just go to the bathroom in the yard leaving the waste open where children play. It is a huge help for health in these areas.

The structures are the passion of a donor from the states who was with us as we began the initial construction. And as a very generous thank you he gave Rachael and I a trip to Lalibela, Ethiopia. Lalibela is a world heritage site because of the 11 churches carved out of solid rock. We flew up for two nights and received private tours of all the churches, including a monastery that for protection from enemies was carved into the top of a mountain over 10,000 feet above sea level. This was cool enough to trump the Go-Karts. We rode mules from our hotel approx. 7 km to the church; only walking when it was too steep for the mules to carry us (I was amazed how steep it had to get to be too steep!). My mule was named Solame which in Ethiopian Orthodox (one of the oldest Christian faiths in the world) lore was Mary’s midwife for the birth of the savior, just when you thought your nativity was complete you find out that you are missing Solame. It was an amazing trip, one that I would love to repeat.

As our experience here is drawing to a finish (hopefully an anti-climatic one) I know that boarding the plane to leave will be a bitter sweet experience, we have made so many wonderful friends that we would have probably never had the opportunity to meet and ironically enough most of them are from North America. I will miss the African sunset with acacia trees silhouetted on the horizon. I will miss all the children that run along with me on my morning jogs (I will not miss them asking me for money or a pen or my shoes). I will miss the wonderful members of our church that we have gotten to know and have been so kind to us. I will not miss cold showers and being out of water for a couple days at a time. I will not miss hand washing underwear. I will not miss anything about driving here. I will not miss the early morning calls to prayer (I will miss a culture where it is socially acceptable to let others know that you pray).

We are excited to return home. I am excited to go skiing. I am excited to see my family, and Rachael’s family. I am excited for clean water that comes out of faucets that are inside the home. Ethiopia is a great place for so many reasons but America is my home and I will be there soon. Thank you again for everything. I hope to see you soon.

Love,

Gavin

P.S. pictures are below.

(if you look closely you can see one of the many clever ways goats are transported on the Ethiopian highways. This picture was taken just as we were driving into the capital city.)

(Sitting in traffic is not so bad when you have a view like this guy. Traffic is bad when you have to breathe the fumes from the truck he is on.)

(I have wanted to eat here since we arrived, it was not as exciting as the sign promised, we did not even try the food.)

(This is probably the first time these children have seen their reflection.)

(We did not intend to capture this woman picking her nose but some things just work out.)

(GO UTES!!!)

(I am in the habit of shaking out my shoes before I put them on, to shake out pebbles or spiders. I honestly have never found anything other than a pebble, until one morning this frog fell out of my left shoe. I will continue to shake out my shoes.)

(Lalibela.)

(The ride to the monastery.)

(Life is good at the top of the mountain!)

10-29-2007

Dear Family and Friends,

So another few weeks have passed and a whole new batch of experiences. I saw my first African wildlife (1 ostrich on the side of the road and a bunch of flamingos about a half mile away), we went to a wedding, I have been able to hone my first aid skills, and a bunch of other stuff I’m sure.

We are having to travel quite a bit still in preparation for large scale project about 4 hours south west of where we live. We were down there a couple weeks ago and I learned some pretty important life lessons.

Lesson 1. Never forget your neck pillow when you will be spending 20+ hours in the back seat of a Toyota Tundra; within three days the kinks will stay for a long time.

Lesson 2. NEVER, NEVER ASK TO CHANGE HOTEL ROOMS IN ETHIOPIA! we got into town later than we thought and the nice hotel was full, the room we were able to find was filthy by American standards and not great by Ethiopian standards. I suggested to Nigatu that we should try and stay in the nicer Hotel the next night he went down and asked that we be given a new room. The staff was very accommodating and even upgraded us to what I would guess was a suite. It was great; the only problem was that someone else’s luggage was already unpacked in the room. We explained that to the front desk and they gave us another suite which we decided that there was no way we were staying in when Rachael checked the bed and found cockroaches on the headboard, we went downstairs and got the key to the first room and slept there. We slept fairly well until…

Lesson 3. When in Ethiopia, never rent a room within sight of a mosque. As I said above Rachael & I were sleeping pretty well until about 3 a.m. when all of a sudden I was disturbed from my slumber by the loudest praying I have ever heard! It was blasting from the loud speakers attached to the 50 foot tower. The praying continued for what seemed like half the day but was probably less than 10 minutes. Most people that know me know that I am a pretty sound sleeper but it took me a bit to realize what was happening and even longer to fall asleep after it was over.

Lesson 4. I have it pretty easy. The whole next day we traveled to some of the villages we will be implementing the water project in. We met with mothers groups in 4 villages; they meet under trees and sit on the ground. Many of the women had small children. One of the villages was so far from clean water that the mothers would have to leave the home for 10 hours to bring water back to the home. It was definitely a humbling experience.

We spent that night in the nice hotel and were grateful for a hot shower and really (American Standards) clean sheets. The next morning we had a “nice” meeting with a local government official.

Lesson 5.Corruption is alive and well in Ethiopia. That’s all I have to say about that.

So that was our visit to Arsi, we were excited to be home but two days later we traveled a little less than 2 hours to Addis Ababa to price out new and used cars for our organization. We learned a couple interesting things with this as well.

Lesson 6. Do not get sick in Africa. Since this is nearly impossible try and be sick in a clean place where you can use a toilet and get lots of rest. This is also nearly impossible but Rachael and I were very fortunate to be staying with our senior missionary friends who had both a clean house and a working toilet. I was very fortunate.

Lesson 7. I do not come close to understanding how things work here, sometimes the faucet’s suck water up instead of dispensing it and a used car can cost twice as much as a new car. Since we have duty free status we do not have to pay a duty on a new car (the duty can cost as much as twice the value of the vehicle) but even if we paid the duty we could still probably get a new car cheaper, go figure.

Lesson 8. In Ethiopia you can go to a wedding where a 17 year old girl marries a guy that she met when he was serving as a missionary in her town a few months earlier, and it is great. Those of you that are not a member of my church this may require some explanation why this is an unusual thing to be happy about. First of all, like most Americans I have a hard time being happy for a 17 year old getting married, I think things like “she is way too young”, or “what is wrong with a guy in his 20’s that he would even want to marry a 17 year old girl”. Next, Missionaries are not supposed to be meeting girls and especially not young ones. But this is Africa, she is Ethiopian and he is from South Africa. In Africa 17 is actually quite a sensible age to marry and he waited until he had finished his mission and returned home to pursue her.

In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints marriages are ideally performed in Temples so there is not really a traditional wedding ceremony for a marriage outside of the temple, for this reason the only thing that matters is that they are married by someone with authority. There is no temple in Ethiopia so the wedding was in the yard outside the church. It was a beautiful day and a very nice ceremony. While the bride was getting ready the branch president had those in attendance sing hymns. The people here love to sing. There is a LDS hymn book published by the church with over 300 hymns in it but here they sing about 7 or 8 of them. The first hymn we sang as we were waiting for the bride is one of the few that the members of the church in Ethiopia know, and one of my personal favorites, “Come, Come Ye Saints”. This is a beautiful song written about the Mormon Pioneers crossing the plains, it is not however a song that you would usually associate with a wedding. Here is a line from the song : “and should we die before our journeys through, happy day all is well”. A little somber for a wedding but ah well. The wedding was really nice, Rachael made a book for guests to sign and the senior missionaries made cake and sandwiches for everyone. The cake was really nice; they do not have cake like that here.

Lesson 9. Candy is more valuable than coins. Saturday was the Halloween party that Rachael and I planed for the youth in the church. We were expecting about 50 kids between 12 and 20 years old, but we had well over 100 most of them were between 8 and 13 years old (Africa is rich in children). They do not celebrate Halloween here so the activity was basically a mini carnival with different stations like: “pin the nose on the pumpkin”, “limbo”, Bobbing for oranges”, “musical chairs” and a coin toss.

I thought that using real coins might case a problem but to my surprise it was just fine. We had popcorn, punch and a little candy for treats. The candy did cause a problem, we made sure that everyone got a piece but I looked over and saw Rachael being mobbed for the leftovers, I actually saw elbows start to fly as a she was engulfed in a wave of Ethiopian preteens clamoring for what was left of the small sweets. We decided to lock the rest in the car; I got a lot of sad faces asking for just one more candy. The activity was really fun but not unlike herding cats.

We are both happy and mostly healthy, stiff in the joints but healthy. I really appreciate the few emails I have gotten back because it is nice to know what you are up to as well.

Thanks & Love,

Gavin Goodwin

P.S. here are some more pictures, I hope you enjoy.

(Just hook up a horse and you got yourself one fine taxi.)

(A hairy little ass.)

(The men do a lot of standing around, the women pretty much work all day.)

(It really was a nice wedding, and the cake was REALLY GOOD!... I have been here too long.)

(This was just a small part of the kids… I am really glad I we do not have any children yet and I am REALLY glad that I don’t have 100 kids that do not speak the same language I do.)

(Bobbing for oranges, apples are really expensive here. This was going great until the kids started eating the oranges.)

(Rachael is the one on the right.)

9-21-2007

Sup All,

This one is going out to all my homies back home and wherever. First of all let me thank all of you for your love and support with Rachael & My wedding, even if you were not present you have helped me become the person I am today and with out that influence I would not be where I am, and for the first time in a little while I know that I am exactly where I should be and doing exactly what I should be doing.

Let me bring you up to speed. After the wedding Rachael and I hoped a plane for Italy on our way to Ethiopia. I have never traveled internationally so I was concerned about getting sick but not to worry I got sick about a day and a half before we even got on the plane so getting sick over seas was not really anything to worry about. So I was not feeling well on the plane but I got some Ginger Ale and Sun Chips (the traditional medicines of white bread, crackers like me) and it really helped to settle my stomach. We switched planes in Cincinnati before we crossed the Atlantic, we had to run to catch our connecting flight and when you are playing Russian roulette with every thing you eat running while carrying about 50 lbs. of carry on bags is not a great idea. We made the flight and as the flight attendant checked our tickets I thought she said that Rachael and I were sitting on opposite sides of the airplane, I did not react well to the news but when I realized that we were in fact sitting together I just felt like a jerk (I was really sick remember). We found our seats and I still felt like a jerk and got up and apologized to the flight attendant and explained the situation and asked her forgiveness, she was very gracious and I felt better.

Apologies work. Just before we started taxiing to the runway the same flight attendant asked us if we would like to sit in two empty seats in first class, of course we did, I was still Ill but we were both a lot more comfortable.

Italy was so great, expensive but great. There is really no substitute for being there and actually seeing the things that we study in humanities. Things like The Pieta, The David, The Pantheon, The Forum, Circus Maximus, The Coliseum, The Grand Canal of Venice and the most inspiring to me, my new wife Rachael are impossible to describe with any sense of justice. They truly have to be experienced first person.

When we left Italy we were sad to go but excited to move on to our next adventure, 3 and a half months in Debre Zeit Ethiopia as humanitarian interns. We flew Ethiopian Air from Rome to Addis Ababa, the capitol of Ethiopia. Ethiopian Air is a little like flying on a Greyhound bus but the T.V.’s had a compass cycle through that always pointed the way to Mecca; at least I think that was what was happening. When we arrived we had to negotiate with customs so that we could bring the office computer we carried from Salt Lake City. The officer ran the computer through the x-ray machine and said that he would have to charge us “umm… maybe $50.” I responded “No” Rachael continued to negotiate with him while I made sure none of our other bags wandered off with curious officials. Rachael did a pretty good job negotiating because she got him down from $50 to $0 so persistence pays.

We were hoping for someone from Ascend Alliance (the organization we are interning with) to pick us up at the airport but this is Ethiopia and no one was there so we took the Sheraton shuttle and spent a night at the hotel, it is part of the “Sheraton Luxury Collection” and that is not an exaggeration, it is by far the nicest hotel I have ever stayed at. The next day we were picked up by the in country staff and taken to the office/intern house in Debre Zeit. We stayed one night there because the next day was the Ethiopian Millennium and the government was shutting down for a week. So to be sure that we would be able to get the supplies we needed we went back to Addis Ababa and stayed in the office apartment there. It was a fun week with out any means to cook food but we bought lots of bread and Nutella.

For the millennium we were picked up by Nigatu (the head of the Ethiopian work for Ascend Alliance) and taken down town to celebrate. The highlight of the evening was when Nigatu was distracted by fireworks and rolled the truck into the van parked in the middle of the street in front of us (I do not think the traffic laws are as strict as they are in the US). The driver of the van was a little upset and opened Nigatu’s door and tried to pull him out and beat him. I was a little unnerved by the experience.

Ethiopia truly is a beautiful country full of wonderful people and we are doing much to improve the lives of the villagers we are working with, unfortunately much of that is talking to politicians so that we can get approval for the water projects and other things we are working on.

Well, that is probably enough from me for now, know that I love you and am so grateful for the friendship you have shared. Personally think it is a little hokey when people say things like that in mass letters but this time I mean it. Please forward this on to anyone that you know would like to receive it because I just may not have their email address.

Thanks again I hope to write a few more of these while I am here too keep everyone posted. Because telecommunications here are a bit spotty I will not be able to keep up my usual means of communication, like showing up uninvited, eating all your food and watching your T.V. but remember I will be back at Christmas so we can pick right back up where we started.

Love,

Gavin Goodwin

For Everything There is a Season

So last week Sundance closed and there is a good chance that my skiing days are over until next season. As depressing as that may be, on a good note, Rachael and I finally went for a bike ride today. Rachael bought me a bike for my birthday in March but today was the first time I rode any further than our neighborhood. We left from our house in Provo and rode up to Bridal Vail Falls and back. That's about a 20 mile round trip, Rachael says that 20 miles is a really short ride, but all things are relative. It was a beautiful ride. I have never really done anything on the Provo River Trail except longboard down and being on a bike, I am gaining a much better understanding of all my friends who complain about longboarders on the tail, especially since one nearly ran into Rachael as soon as we started up the Canyon. He would have hit her head on if we had not shouted for him to pay attention. does that mean that I will not skate the trail any more... no it definitely does not mean that it simply reinforces the idea that some idiots on their skates can ruin it for the rest of us.
For those of you who have not visited Provo Canyon lately, I strongly recommend that you do, and if you see me struggling to keep up with my wife, please keep in mind that I married Rachael and keeping up with her is a near impossibility.

Bowling a 48

Yesterday was Family Home Evening. This might be my favorite night of the week. As you may have guessed our family is small, just Rachael and I so this is a great time to spend together. That evening we fixed dinner, had a spiritual thought. We had decided that we wanted to go out and do something fun for an activity so we pulled out our "Starving Student" cards and looked at the free section. we decided to go bowling at the BYU game center because shoe rental was included (we did not make any money for 3 months so the budget is a little trim and the 50 cents to rent shoes was just not an expense we were willing to make).
We drove over, presented our coupons, picked our balls, got our shoes and we were ready to roll. Two frames into the game I had a total of 2 points. In case you did not know I am a terrible bowler. I tried another ball to see if that would help, but after 3 different balls I finished the game at an amazing 48. I don't know a lot about bowling but I think that is kind of a low score. Rachael smoked me with a score somewhere in the 80's. What can I say, Bowling runs in the family.