It's time to visit Tesfaye's Mother

January 4th, 2010 email from Tesfaye:  In this email Tesfaye told me there is not much new and not to worry, he is eating well - sometimes at a hotel or restaurant, and on the weekend at Dr. Rick's house.

He was particularly excited that he recently spoke to his Mother, who is anxiously waiting to see Tesfaye (she has not yet seen him since returning to Ethiopis mid-October post surgery). She said if he cannot come to her she will come visit him but, as Tesfaye and I discussed last summer in Vancouver, he really would like to wait for when I can come to Ethiopia  to accompany him and surprise his "mum" on that first visit, when she will see with her own eyes his amazing physical transformation.

I  am very keen to meet Tesfaye's mother and family  in their village and witness the reunion; I just know that it would mean so much to me if I can share with him what most certainly will be a wonderful and moving moment in Tesfaye's journey.  I have been trying to juggle things as best I can to get there as soon as I can.  Although Tesfaye will wait as long as it takes, if it is not feasible to get there reasonably soon I will tell Tesfaye not to wait for me to visit his Mother. I believe he told her he will come in about a month, so I am seriously looking into my options to get there mid-February, during the second week of the Olympics here in Vancouver, as business will probably come to somewhat of a standstill. Too bad it takes so long to get there from here and there do not seem to be any easy routings.

New Year's wishes from Tesfaye - "about interesting life"

December 26, 2009 email from Tesfaye in response to a "Happy New Year" email from Nanci - Tesfaye's email is a touching reflection by him on 2009, as "the old year is going to past, new year is going to getting" :

Hey mum how are you toooo?

I want to sayjust Merry x mas and happy New year for next week,I wish this New year is great ,safely , successfully ,lovely and healthy ,wealthy for all us .old year is going to past ,new yea[r] is going to getting ,we all wish great year .

Ma I proud all about your message and kindness ,you know what, I am lucky to get you ,you are my life ,if i did not get you and Abba [father} i never get good life in my life , you are my second ma ,who is a kind keep in own house for five months with experiences and who is give a computer ,even it has not Internet connected her .i m using at Internet cafe .

so ma, when I guess this all aboutinteresting life i cant believe it.because how i was/ I was living with disgusting bump, you knew that , now everything is amazing. we know all about that Love Tesfaye

actually are you celebrate X-mas Ma?

As Tesfaye observes, life is interesting indeed. Whether by chance or design, a series of actions and events were set in motion some time ago that led to, as Tesfaye expresses, an amazing transformation in 2009 for Tesfaye and his life, for which both he and we are grateful.

Happy New Year!

January 1, 2010: I am here having a great time in Hawaii and will convey a recent message from Tesfaye later, but for now I simply want to wish everyone who reads this blog a very Healthy, Happy and Rewarding 2010!

More later.
Gary

Emails from Tesfaye with Pictures - happy/studying hard

November 22nd to December 9, 2009:  Over the last couple of weeks Tesfaye has sent us three or four short email updates with a few pictures,some of which related to my November 3rd post and were just loaded into that post today.  To summarize those emails:

      Last week Tesfaye had the week off of school and so he just relaxed and did some reading, as the week before that he had exams. He asks about

all of our family, including our cockatoo Mango and dog Ziggy and enjoys the pictures we send him. Often our long emails to him with lots of questions receive a brief answer, as the cost to use the Internet cafe in Addis is relatively expensive. He sent us some pictures taken at school with some friends, showing his new short haircut - very handsome!      
Overall, he sounds and looks happy. Our friend Dr. Rick also tells me that Tesfaye seems very happy;  Tesfaye is sharing an apartment with Aselefaw that is within walking distance of Rick's house, and Rick says that whenever he sees Tesfaye he still marvels at how straight Tesfaye is now.

Tesfaye Updates - by email and telephone

Friday morning November 13th,2009:
Email - I woke up to an email from Tesfaye in which he apologized for the slow response to my last one. He said that when he thinks back to everything here in Vancouver he is sad and it seems like a "memory". He misses everybody and has seen almost all of our family in his dreams.  He is also happy to be back learning at school, and started a new school on October 27th; next week he already has some exams.

Telephone call - In his email he gave me a phone number to call and Nanci and I did manage to reach him on our first try. The conversation was a little difficult because of a big delay or echo when you talk, but he sounded extremely happy to hear our voices - you could tell he had that big smile on his face as he talked to us.  He is feeling good, sharing an apartment with another young man who had surgery, and working hard at school. We asked him how his eating is, and it seems that since he got used to eating a wide variety of western food here in Vancouver he now gets a little tired of a steady diet of Ethiopian Injerra meals; oh well, at least he has enough to eat.  As we were talking  he was just on his way to Dr. Rick Hodes' house for Shabbat dinner and was looking forward to it. We will talk again soon, and I said I will look into trying to get to Ethiopia towards the end of January to try to go with Tesfaye to see his family back in his village in Gojjam.  We'll see.

A newly discovered update from Tesfaye (photos added Dec.9,2009)

Monday November 2nd, 2009: The last couple of weeks I have been hoping for more details from Tesfaye when he sends us the occasional email. Well, today I kind of felt like I had come upon some rare old lost text, when upon reviewing an email from October 13th I saw two attachments that I had not noticed or read before, and which required the downloading of a program to convert it to a format my computer could read. Below is a summary of the two attachments and some extracts I have reproduced:

1. Reactions to Tesfaye's return: In one of the attachments Tesfaye said how happy he was to see his friends in Dr. Rick Hode's house, and
how excited they were about his return and how happy they all were about his successful back surgery. He also said that he met his best friend from the years when he lived in the "Mercato", and he couldn't believe how Tesfaye now looked; similarly, he met his nephew, a policeman in Addis, who also couldn't believe the change in Tesfaye's back. Finally, the same reaction when he visited his last school and saw his friends and the Director. When Tesfaye spoke to the Director of the school he asked  if he could skip to Grade six, promising that he will study very hard; the Director seemed willing to allow it.

2. Beautiful farewell and welcome sentiments: In the second attachment Tesfaye reproduced the lovely Farewell message from my children, and included two Welcome messages from a couple of sweet younger housemates of his that I have had the pleasure of meeting. They both praise the miracles G_d performs, and express how much affection they hold for Tesfaye. I have reproduced those two Welcome messages below in their unaltered beautiful original wording and spelling:

A Note from Balemleye:

"Welcome to Addis My Brother.

God is always with you, God loves you very much, God mad surgery for you, you know what you are good person, God loves you. From Balemleye to my brother Tesfaye Negussie. You are truly very special and that's just why it is so wonderful to be welcoming you to enjoy together, the times that lie ahead, welcome."

A Note from Zemenay:

"A Hearty Welcome to Great Brother Tesfaye.  From your Sister Zemenay.

A special welcome that has with it many good wishes for you; may you find everything absolutly wanderful and pleasant in every way.  Tesfaye did you see what God mercail [sp.miracle].  Tesfaye, God mad you to straight, God is so kindness and lovely, you can't tell about God, it is so many you can't finsh.  If you do good thing and if you listn he will make you care and straight, so there is no like God.  I'm happy because you are straight.  Tesfaye, I can't tell you, I'm mor than hapair. Are you? "

Lovely heartfelt sentiments for a special young man.