Off to the village after two interesting days in Addis Ababa

As mentioned on the Facebook Tesfaye page, it seems that access to blog sites is restricted, but I have just found by using remote desktop to get into my office computer I can bypass that. I only have time now to say that the first day in Addis Tesfaye was there to greet me with big smile at the airport and I saw his "apartment" and his school and later spent time at Dr. Rick's house with his gang, though Rick did not arrive from the USA until after I was back at the hotel, where he surprised me with a late night visit.

Yesterday was another great day revisiting the Mother Theresa Mission in Addis with Dr. Rick, and then going to the small Mercato with Tesfaye where I spent a few hours learning about Tesfaye's 4 years of life there - where he slept,ate, peddled his wares in the wheelbarrow, and meeting so many people who knew and remembered Tesfaye from those days and were so happy to see him and spoke so kindly about him. Although I had read and heard from Tesfaye many stories about his life in the Mercato, as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words.

Later I got to partake in Dr. Rick's well know Sabbath dinners.

I will fill in with more details and thoughts here probably in a few days when I return to Addis,sooner if I can, as in a few hours I am off to catch a plane with Tesfaye as we make our way to the village and see his family today.

They say that in life timing is everything - it's not easy, but almost there!

Monday February 22nd and Tuesday February 23rd, 2010: If it's Tuesday it must be?

A couple of days before Nanci and I left for Montreal I had bad news of an impending 4 day Lufthansa pilot strike that had caused my connecting flight from Frankfurt to Addis Ababa to be cancelled. Then just before leaving Monday I heard the strike had been postponed, giving me hope that my flight would be reinstated; unfortunately, it was not soon enough to reinstate that flight.So after spending Monday night and most of Tuesday in Montreal before catching my overnight flight to Frankfurt, here I am dealing with a 12 hour layover as I wait to catch my late night flight getting me into Addis at 7:30 am.   I did enjoy the benefit of some good timing on the way: I was happy to bump into Debbie and Michael Smith at the airport lounge in Montreal, even though I only had time for a quick five minute hello. Also, here at the Frankfurt lounge I saw Saba Batra, who is on her way back from India to Vancouver after a month in India visiting family. She is getting married in June in Vancouver.

As I flew here from Montreal I thought back to the short but sweet one day visit I had in Montrea, and  I found a certain symmetry in the fact that there I was with Nanci as she was visiting her mother for the first time since Rhoda had her heart surgery last summer, and I am about to accompany Tesfaye to his mother Yeshi's village where they will see each other for the first time since his back surgery last summer in Vancouver (more details are in my post of February 5th below).

In any event, I am anxious to finally get to Addis and see Tesfaye, as well as Dr. Rick Hodes and Azmera and the other young people living with Rick, and my young friend Workie in Gondar, and mabye also get to one of the Spread The Love Project schools in the Gondar area. It will be nice to reconnect with Ethiopia and all of  those people. I even had a chance here in the Frankfurt airport lounge to practice some of my limited Amharic language vocabulary on one of the staff, as I knew when I looked at her that she had that classic female Ethiopian face that you see in the centuries old paintings.

I truly am excited as I get closer and closer to sharing that reunion that is about to happen between Tesfaye and his mother and siblings; funny, That Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics glow and buzz that I felt so strongly and enjoyed from the Opening Ceremonies until I left on Monday, seems to be fading quickly. Although Ethiopia is far removed from the Olympic scene (though they did have one athlete representing Ethiopia in Vancouver), I will try to stay current on results as best I can and will be rooting from a distance.

Now I am going to try to sleep a bit before tonight's flight.

Reunion Time at last - I'm booked to go!

As I mentioned in my previous post on Friday January 15, 2010, I have been trying to juggle my schedule so that I can fly to Ethiopia this month to finally travel with Tesfaye to his village for his first reunion with his mother and siblings in over two years and, more importantly, it will be the first time that they see each other since his life altering surgery.  I am scheduled to fly from Vancouver on February 22nd to Addis Ababa via Montreal and Frankfurt, arriving the evening of the 24th; I will fly back to Vancouver early in the morning on March 6th.

I recently spoke with Tesfaye to tell him I am booked and, as you can imagine, he is so excited for himself and his mother that this time has come. I too am excited, for I have been hoping and dreaming of one day being able to share in what will surely be a very special moment in Tesfaye's journey of hope. After spending the first couple of days in Addis I plan to fly with Tesfaye on the 27th to Bahar Dar, the nearest city you can fly to, and then it is about a 4 hour journey by car to the nearest town of Agew Gimjabet, followed by a 1 hour and 45 minute trek on foot to Tesfaye's family village Gimja Bet Maryam; I will have a chance to meet Meheret, the shop owner Tesfaye and I would call to get word to Tesfaye's mother to walk to town from her village at a predetermined time and day to receive our call, as she has neither phone nor electricity in the village.  I expect I may sleep one night in the town and one night in the village. On the third day if it appears that I can fit it in, I may fly from Bahar Dar up to Gonder for a day and night to visit my friend Workie and to see one of the Spread the Love schools, either the original or one of the two new ones. For now, anyone interested in viewing a map of Ethiopia and those locations can go to http://www.blogabond.com/gs99van and zoom in and out of the map for different views and detail. I did not yet have time to figure out how to reproduce a map like that on this site.   When I am away I may provide updates and photos on both that site and this.

I am also looking forward very much to spending some time with my hero Dr. Rick Hodes and catching up on all of his current activities and projects.  I will report back on this also. I will see him in Addis, and maybe in Gondar as well, as he is going to be there with a mission coming to visit from the US.  Israel has opened up the list  again of Ethiopians eligible to emigrate to Israel, so the JDC is gearing up the clinics and compounds again for that. The list had been cut off back in 2008.

Chloe Malle - Bright Young Thing (Entertainment & Culture: vanityfair.com)

Vanity Fair Magazine January 2010: Chloe composed Tesfaye's "Life History" that is reproduced on the right hand side of this Blog; she is featured in a January 2010 Vanity Fair article,Chloe Malle, Bright Young Thing Entertainment & Culture: vanityfair.com.

The Vanity Fair article has a beautiful picture of Chloe and also shows a picture of her lovely mother (Candace Bergen) from her senior high school days. Under her causes, she naturally mentions Dr. Rick  Hodes' work at the Mother Theresa Mission in Addis Ababa.  After graduating from Brown University, Chloe spent a year in 2008/2009 living and working in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, helping Dr. Rick Hodes carry out his humanitarian tasks. While there she got to know and become a good friend to the many young Ethiopians that live with Dr. Rick.  Tesfaye was happy he was able to see her again and spend a few days living with her and Azmera at her New York apartment, and Nanci and I were also very happy to finally meet Chloe in person (see my Postings about this, including pictures of Chloe, made on October 25 and 29,2009 covering our time with Tesfaye in New York from October 4th to 7th before we bade him farewell as he made his way back to Ethiopia).

Chloe's telling of Tesfaye's life story, which I actually only received shortly before he was due to arrive in Vancouver in May of 2009, moved me greatly not only on first reading but has continued to do so on every subsequent reading to this day. I know Chloe will be successful with her writing career and any other undertaking she chooses to take on.

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.