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.)