Friday-Saturday, January 22-23

Friday is our last day of teaching in Hosanna. We began at 8:30 AM and taught until 5 PM. Today we alternated between the classes. I taught Having a Relationship with God first to smaller of the two classes, and then to the larger class. Curtis taught Profiles of New Testament Churches, first to the larger and then to the smaller classes. We planned a night session at 6:30, so we ate a quick dinner and got back to work. All the men gathered in what turned out to be dark downstairs room at the Heme. The electricity was off all over Hosanna, but ever-diligent Makee rigged up a gas-powered generator to provide some lighting for the hotel. He brought a long extension cord with a socket to hang a single bare-bulb light in our meeting room.

I did much of the talking, teaching, and preaching in this final session. Having traveled to Ethiopia eleven times, most of these preachers know of my work and my love for them. I think I am in a position to address some sensitive issues related to the Ethiopian work, preaching, and money. I asked Curtis to chime in any time he wanted to, but that I was going to speak from my heart to their hearts about what I judge to be critical matters. I felt the setting was right and my relationship with these men was such that I could have this heart-to-heart talk with them. A few of the men that I know best told me later that my words hit the mark and were received in the spirit in which they were spoken. I am thankful for this.

Closing remarks were made to Curtis and me by three “older” men from three different areas of the country. Curtis and I noted later that it was interesting how they made three distinct observations. One expressed thanks for our coming, to our families, congregations, and individuals who made it possible for us to make the long, hard trip and work in Ethiopia. A second man noted how the classes brought together a healthy cross-section of Ethiopian preachers from all regions in which churches of Christ exist. The men were able to get to know other preachers better and learn of work being done in other places. A third man noted how the classes we taught covered a wide-range of topics in a balanced way. We appreciated their remarks and expressed our personal appreciation for the opportunity to do this work. Following this meeting, we had small group meetings with several key countryside men about upcoming work and needs. We ordered breakfast at the end of our Friday night since we asked for the food to be ready at 7:15 AM the next morning.

Knowing that I typically get up early, Curtis asked me to knock on his door at 6 AM to be sure he was up and going. I awakened at 5:30 and began sorting and packing. My objective was to pack in order to stay packed over the next five days in which we will be in and out of hotels frequently. At breakfast I noted to Curtis that I had taken a shower at the Heme Hotel for the last time this year. He understood exactly what I meant. The Heme shower is an improvement over the Liesak Guest House shower in Debrezeit, but not much.

After breakfast I packed the last-minute stuff and met Makee to settle our bill. Curtis and I arranged for tips for the servers, house-keepers, and guards. Several Ethiopian countryside preachers and friends gathered in the Heme courtyard where we took photos and gathered for prayer. We departed Hosanna for the trip back to Addis. The five-hour journey included the usual slowing and sometimes stopping for various animals and people, plus maneuvering around other vehicles, but it was largely uneventful. We were glad to arrive at the Hilton, and I’m sure Zerihun and Alemu were glad to get to their respective homes and families. Curtis made arrangements with a recommended taxi driver to transport us for our afternoon activities while I checked us in at the Hilton. The concierge helped me get some express laundry done that afternoon, and Curtis and I made plans for the remainder of the day. Later in the evening, we are invited to Zerihun’s and Martha’s home for dinner, and today happens to be Z’s birthday.

On our way out of the hotel, we dropped by the Hilton bakery to order Zerihun a birthday cake. We met Walde (WALLdee), a previously-used and trusted taxi driver, and set out for our  afternoon excursions. We wanted to go to a bookstore, souvenir shops, and a supermarket. We were looking for an Amharic Bible for Curtis and an English translation for Zerihun’s birthday present. We arrived at Mega Book Store at 1:45 PM and learned that the store doesn’t open until 2 PM – a strange opening time, it seems to me. We had coffee and tea at a next-door café while we waited. This bookstore had no religious books, so with Walde’s help we searched for others. After a couple of other shops, we found a small store that had the items we wanted. In the process, I noticed an optical store and suggested that they might repair Curtis’ eyeglasses. One of his lenses was not staying in the frame, and the Ethiopian optical lady applied a little fingernail polish to secure it. Next we went to the souvenir shops I have visited many times before. This involves first being swarmed by Ethiopian boys selling maps, tissues, and gum, and then bargaining with the souvenir merchants. I’ve learned to say, “Wo de nu” (wuh deh know), meaning “How much?” and “Sin te nu” (sin teh know), meaning “Too much!” and we have a little fun with this.

After souvenirs, we stopped for kolo (koh low) – a roasted barley mix. Curtis stocked up for his wife, Mary Ann, at Elsa’ Kolo shop, which we learned is the best in town. Next was Tomoca’s, where we bought Harrar and Yergecheffe roasted coffee beans. Upon returning to the hotel, I ordered a “small” flower arrangement for Martha and picked up Zerihun’s cake. The baker has misread my handwriting and had “Zerihnn” instead of “Zerihun.” I waited for the repair, and then stopped by to pick up the flowers. The small arrangement turned out to be a least two dozen yellow and red roses! I took it anyway; it was really pretty.

Earlier in the week, Gerry Sandusky from southern Indiana and Randy Harshbarger from Nacogdoches, TX had arrived in Ethiopia. We met these men at a designated place so the four of us could go together to Zerihun and Martha’s home. Once again, Martha and her helpers prepared a huge spread of both Ethiopian and American food. We enjoyed the food, made photos especially of the children, and had a little birthday celebration for Zerihun. To top off the evening, Martha prepared a traditional Ethiopian coffee ceremony. Curtis and I returned to the Hilton which was decked out with a red carpet, huge flower arrangements, and a buffet. Thinking at first this was all to welcome us, we began looking around for the Papparazzi. We soon learned that the place was rocking and rolling with an Ethiopian wedding. We caught up on emails and then crawled into the cleanest, nicest beds we had slept in for many days.

Sunday, January 24

Our last full day in Ethiopia for 2010 was the Lord’s day. The night before, Curtis and I arranged for Walde to pick us up at 7:15 AM to go to the Imperial Hotel and meet Randy and Gerry for breakfast. We all wanted a little time to visit and discuss the Ethiopian work in general and our work this year in particular. Each of us had a preaching appointment for the day – Curtis with Tesfaye Abate, Randy with Wubshet at Kara, Gerry with Alemu at Kotebe, and me with Mesfin at Sefara. Gerry and Randy left during the afternoon for Awassa and their countryside work over the next couple of weeks. Other Ethiopians than Zerihun and Alemu are going with them to guide and translate. Curtis went home with Tesfaye and had lunch with his family. I returned to the Hilton for lunch and to review the requests for support and other needs. Zerihun and Alemu came for a discussion about financial matters, and then Curtis and I accompanied them to the Green View restaurant. The Addis preachers plus Dr. Bedore, Beyene’s brother, hosted a “farewell” dinner. We enjoyed the meal, heard various speeches, and bid goodbye to our Ethiopian brothers one more time. The Ethiopian work is significantly progressing, especially in the countryside, and for this we are thankful.

I brought a laptop and other items from Beyene to his daughter Zimeta, so I arranged to get these to her. Curtis and I still needed the laptop to make final travel arrangements, so I left it at the Hilton concierge’s desk for Zimeta to pick up the next morning. We slept between 10 PM and 1 AM then got up to prepare for our 2:50 AM departure.

The fifty men were divided into two groups so we might have smaller classes and be as personal as possible. Both classes will be taught with a translator, either Zerihun or Alemu. My class met in what I might call an out-building on the Heme Hotel compound. We walked out the back of the hotel and down a path that cuts through the working area of the compound. In the working area are piles of building materials such as rocks, logs, and lumber. One area was equipped with a large table saw and what looked like a planer. In another area, workers did the laundry. It was interesting to notice that the laundry I left on my bed in the morning was later hanging on a clothes line to dry. Ah, that’s why my jeans are so stiff when they bring them back!

We taught our classes all day – from 9 AM to 5:30 PM. I taught The Big Picture of the Bible and Curtis taught How to Study the Bible. Each of us slightly modified our material the best we could to better suit countryside people. It is quite rigorous to teach all day long while crafting each sentence carefully to be suitable for translation and comprehension. By the end of the teaching day, we are ready for a little rest.

Wednesday, Curtis caught up on emails and I walked up onto the main street to see if I could find Ethiopian boys playing ping pong. A group was playing foosball, but not ping pong. I returned to the hotel and we had dinner, which included a lingering conversation with Alemu, Zerihun, and part of the time with Alemu’s brother Tesfaye (TESS fie). Curtis asked about a Canasta rematch. We played three hands and he won by 1,000 points.

Thursday was much the same. Curtis and I switched teaching sites, each teaching a different set of students. This day we planned a night session to run between 6:30 to 8 PM. We ordered supper at the hotel restaurant and then waited and waited. At 6:30, we decided to tell the serving staff that we would take our food at 8 PM. About that time, the food arrived, so we decided to eat it quickly and sent word to the men that we would be a few minutes late. We arrived just a little before 7 and had a conversation about preaching. Curtis and I talked about sermon preparation, planning preaching to cover all needed topics, the preacher’s approach to include himself in what he preaches, and using illustrations effectively. Zerihun told me afterwards that his was a useful and valuable session for the men. Curtis and I both checked email and I IMd Susan a few minutes. The clock inched toward 9 PM and we each decided to get some rest and be as fresh as possible for our final day of teaching.

Today is the eve of Epiphany, an Ethiopian Orthodox celebration connected with Jesus’ baptism. Because of this, the Ethiopians thought that getting a taxi back to Debrezeit might be difficult after 7 PM, so we arranged to leave about this time. The taxi did not arrive until 7:30, and we made our way back to the Liesak. Curtis and I went to the hotel restaurant for machiatos and played a few hands of Canasta. Curtis beat me by a few hundred points. By the time we returned to our rooms around 10:30, the Epiphany-related celebrations were just getting underway. The best I can tell, an Orthodox temple was nearby, across the street from the hotel. This meant the celebrations and rituals were also close. The amplified music and speaking were loud, and later the chanting began. I walked down the hall around 11:30 to see if Curtis was still awake. I did not see light under his door, so I did not knock. My plan was to see if he wanted to form a posse to go stifle the people who were making all the noise. I gave up on this idea and was finally to able to block out the noise enough to go to sleep around midnight. I was awakened around 3 AM, and the chanting was still going strong. I worked on my journal for a while and decided to try going back to sleep around 4. I pulled the covers up over my ears as much as possible and did go back to sleep. Curtis told me that the chanting finally stopped at 6 AM. I woke up at 6:30, and the bustle on the street had already begun.

We met for breakfast, finished packing, checked out of the hotel, and left for Hosanna. Since we need transportation only to Hosanna and not to villages, we used a rented private van. Zerihun and Alemu are accompanying us to Hosanna and will translate for our next set of classes. We traveled to Mojo then to Ziway through Butajera to Hosanna. A newly-paved cutoff road between Ziway and Butajera was supposed to be completed, but it was not. We bumped along on roads beside the new road for several miles. We encountered Orthodox celebrations a couple of times and had to wait for the throngs of people to pass. We made it safely to Hosanna and checked into the good ole Heme International Hotel. A question came up as to whether I had water in my room. I tried to flush to toilet, but it didn’t flush. I turned on the sink faucet, and water started running into the toilet tank. I turned on the shower, and water started coming out the sink faucet! Someone on the hotel staff came and got the water situation solved. I think I’ll be fine.

We finally arrived at Kotebe a little after 10 AM. Wubshet was standing at the roadside, ready to accompany Curtis about ten more minutes to Kara. The Kotebe folks were assembled and waiting. I got up to teach Bible class almost immediately. My remark that we were late even for Ethiopia drew a few chuckles. I taught about the desperate women who reached out to touch Jesus’ cloak. A little later during the morning worship, I preached on the impact of the resurrection. At Kara, Curtis spoke about the importunate widow, though he did not refer to her this way. Due to the time, Wubshet suggested he speak one “longer” lesson instead of two.

The taxi brought Curtis back to Kotebe to pick me up. We went to the Hilton for lunch, to make reservations for later, and to use a reliable Internet connection. We each purchased an hour connection, and it passed all too quickly as I checked mail and IMd Susan. We returned to Debrezeit and the Liesak hotel, had dinner, and decided to play another round of Canasta. We played three hands and remarkably tied at 2785 each. We decided this was a good place to stop.

I woke up at 7:20 AM and tried to remember what I was supposed to do. I had a vague idea about needing to do something, but at the moment I couldn’t pull it together. I decided to take a shower to see if this would help. Right after the shower, Curtis knocked on my door. I immediately recalled we had agreed that each would knock on the other’s door at 7 AM. It was now 7:40 AM and we were going to be late for our 8 AM appointment. Tesfaye was in the hotel lobby when we went down a little after 8. I had gone down earlier and ventured ordering breakfast for both Curtis and myself. We finished breakfast, topped it off with machiatos, and went to the bank next door to exchange US dollars into Ethiopian Birr.

Exchanging currency in the Debrezeit bank was an interesting process. First, we were ushered upstairs into a banker’s office where a woman sat counting Birr the entire time we were there. The banker filled out a form and began running the bills through a device which read the serial numbers. I brought fifties with dates other than 1996, knowing that banks have rejected bills with this date in the past. The machine accepted roughly fifty to sixty percent of the bills. I traded the fifties for some hundreds I had planned not to exchange at the moment, which the reader happily accepted. The bank people calculated the exchange, and I was on my way back downstairs. Curtis brought twenties, and the reader rejected about eighty percent of these. After this process, the banker said he would just exchange all the twenties, “since they were from an American bank.”Go figure. I waited my turn to go the cashier’s booth and received the birr. Curtis soon came down the stairs, waited a short time, and received his birr. Finally, after about forty minutes of banking, we traveled by taxi to the teaching facility.

I learned that the teaching facility is owned by a religious group, and they use it for classes and training, as well as renting it to others. It has several buildings with bedrooms and meeting rooms. Our twenty students have beds at the facility. The staff prepares and provides each meal plus tea and coffee a couple of times a day. The organization includes workers who grow most of their vegetables, and who operate a dairy and poultry farm. The food is fresh and nicely seasoned. Somebody in the kitchen here knows what they are doing.

I taught English-speaking students today, and Curtis taught Amharic-speaking ones. I worked through “The Big Picture of the Bible material, and Curtis taught “How to Study the Bible.” The students are mostly preachers and are interested and engaged. We teach about 1 hour and 15 minute sessions and take breaks for coffee and meals. The guys have many questions, and we try to address all of them. We decided to extend the afternoon session a little longer, delay supper a few minutes, and not have a night session. Curtis and I wanted to get copies made, check email, and get some rest. We traveled back to our hotel in town, had dinner at the hotel restaurant, and ventured out into town.

We left the copies to be made in a downstairs business and walked upstairs to use the Internet. Neither of us had communicated with our families since arriving in Ethiopia. All the connections were dial-up and slooooooow. After forty minutes, I finally connected to my AOL mailbox and in a few more minutes to Instant Messaging. I IMd Susan’s cell phone and she soon got online. I was glad to “chat” with her, let everyone know that we are okay, and catch up on matters at home. Curtis accessed his email box, but was never able to open the mail. He went downstairs to retrieve the copies and learned that the copy machine malfunctioned and only about half of the pages were copied, with most of them having a stripe down the middle. We walked back to the hotel and around 9 PM turned in for the night. We discussed trying our wake up method one more time – whoever is up at 7 AM would knock on the other’s door.

Finally on Saturday, the system worked. At 7 AM I went down the short hallway to Curtis’ room, and he met me at the doorway. We had each slept about ten hours! We got ready for the day and climbed into the Land Cruiser that came for us a little before 8. Today, I taught Amharic-speaking men on the Big Picture of the Bible and Curtis taught the English-speaking ones on New Testament churches. The schedule called for ending at 3:30 Saturday afternoon so everyone  could travel and be with their congregations on Sunday. Alemu stayed nearby to be with us and joined us for dinner in the hotel restaurant. I went to Curtis’ room and taught him how to play Canasta. After a practice round, we played a few hands for real, and I beat him by a slight margin, but not by much.

I have been reminded more than once of my motto about this county – “Ethiopia is always an adventure!” You never really know what may happen or how things will turn out. My 2010 adventure actually began at home the day I left the USA. Susan does a wonderful job packing for me, and this year she packed three times. Because of luggage restrictions on some airlines I am traveling, I wanted to check only one suitcase, which means one fifty pound piece. I purchased a hand-held luggage scale that showed I had sixty-two pounds instead of fifty. I jettisoned a few things, and we tried another suitcase. Fifty-eight pounds. I began making piles of absolutely necessary items and optional ones. As it turned out, I left behind almost all the optional items, including several books – some I wanted to use and some I wanted to give away. We kept paring down the contents until the scale read 50.8, and I decided to take my chances. I’d either try to sweet talk the agent, if necessary, or pay for overage.

Susan drove us to DFW airport where I asked her to just drop me at the curb outside Gate A9. The airline’s luggage scale read 50.3 pounds and the agent said nothing about it. Whew! I checked my bag through only to Houston and found my way to the gate. American flight 1314 from DFW to IAH left a few minutes late due to a ringing bell on board. A mechanic came aboard to fix the problem, and we soon departed. At Houston, I retrieved my suitcase and toted it to the Continental desk and checked it all the way through to Addis. My international itinerary includes two plane changes, one in Frankfurt, Germany and the other in Cairo, Egypt. With this many transfers spread over a couple of days, I sent my luggage down the conveyor with the distinct thought that it could be awhile before I saw it again.

I met Curtis Pope, my only traveling companion this year, just inside the security station and we made our way to the gate to await the departure. Continental flight 46 departed roughly on time. Curtis and I negotiated a new seating arrangement that gave us two outside seats of the middle three-seat section with no one in between. Sweet. An eleven hour flight is uncomfortable enough without being scrunched. We snoozed and chatted, chatted and snoozed for the duration of the flight that landed in brisk, snow-covered Frankfurt.

In Frankfurt, we transferred to Lufthansa for the 4 hour 35 minute flight to Cairo. We were scrunched on this flight. I sat in the seat directly behind Curtis, and the fellow beside me didn’t understand what sharing the armrest means. One touching side note occurred on this flight. On the jet bridge, just outside the plane’s entrance, sat an old Egyptian man covered in blankets whose hands were noticeably shaking. Even though his hands were underneath the covers, I recognized the classic Parkinson’s shake. Before long, the old man was being tenderly, patiently walked down the aisle by his son. Other passengers helped along the way, and the old man got settled in the seat directly in front of Curtis, with his son beside him. During the course of the long flight, the son ever-so-carefully helped his father up and toward the rear of the plane, presumably to use the restroom. Upon his return, Curtis expressed appreciation to the son for the honorable way he helped his father. I stood up to talk to the man, also expressing my appreciation, and explained that I, too, had Parkinson’s disease. I told him I hoped my sons will care for me in my old age as he does with his father. Hey guys, are you listening?!

After about a 4 hour layover in Cairo, we transferred to EgyptianAir for the final leg to Addis, Ababa, Ethiopia. Curtis and I were across the aisle from each other and continued our chatting and snoozing routine during the 3.5 hour flight. Even after circling the Bole airport waiting for a runway to land, we arrived in Ethiopia a few minutes earlier than scheduled. The question is would all our luggage arrive with us? As always on international flights, many suitcases come down the conveyor, and usually huge ones. We watched what must have been a hundred or so go by before we each spotted ours, which we retrieved and stacked on a cart. We wheeled the cart out into the main lobby at 4:30 AM, where Zerihun (zereh HOON) and Tagesse (ta GAH seh) found and greeted us.

Because of our different schedule this year, we are staying in Debrezeit (deh bra ZATE), a good- size city 45 KM southeast of Addis. The Ethiopians had arranged a van to transport us directly to Debrezait, and we arrived at the dark Liesak Hotel about 5:20 AM. After a brief discussion, the guard went to rouse a hotel manager, who unlocked the door and drowsily greeted us. With Ethiopians’ help, we hauled all our stuff up the two flights of stairs and crashed into our second-floor rooms. I dug the alarm out of my carry-on and set it for 8 AM to be ready for breakfast at 8:30 and transport to our teaching site to begin at 10. Curtis and I agreed that whoever was awake would knock on the other’s door at 8. I was roused from my nap by Curtis’ knock at 8:45. Oops, both of us had overslept! We hurriedly showered and dressed, and met Alemu (alleh MU) and Wubsheit (woob SHET) in the hotel lobby a little after 9. We grabbed a quick breakfast, at least as quick as it gets in Ethiopia, and traveled by van to the teaching site, arriving a little after 10, just about ten minutes past our scheduled start time.

We got right to work teaching, and each taught our classes for the remainder of the day until a little before 6 PM. After supper, Curtis and I had a conversation about preaching that we had in front of all our students. I think they enjoyed the format and we hope benefited from the conversation. By 8 PM, we were exhausted and needing sleep. We piled into the van for transport back to our hotel in town, but the van stalled going up a hill before we made it out of the teaching compound. The driver and his assistant tried to fix what was determined to be a fuel problem, while Curtis and I napped in the back. After a while, I got out to make some pictures of our plight. After 30 minutes or so, the general manager of the compound graciously agreed to bring his Land Cruiser and take us back to the hotel. About 9 PM, two tired preacher-men fell into their beds for a much-needed night of rest.

Jim, Pat, and I next visited the Sefara church, for which Mesfin and Tagasse are the local preachers. Only a handful of people were there when we arrived, so we waited about thirty minutes for others. Eventually, almost twenty assembled and we taught our last lessons in Ethiopia for 2009. By this time, both Pat and I were just about on automatic pilot, but we pressed on to do our best for yet another group. We returned to the Hilton, had dinner, and completed packing and preparing for an early morning departure.

 All of us met for breakfast at 8 AM to leave the hotel at 9 for shopping. I explained to the taxi drivers that we wanted to go to souvenir shops near the post office. They seemed to understand, but it took two tries to get there. We had fun shopping – bartering for our choices. For the most part, I purchased items for my newly-remodeled office that has an Ethiopian motif. Once everyone finished, we arranged for two taxis to carry us back to the Jupiter and to help us in transferring from there to the Hilton. I rode in Taxi 1, along with Thomas and Charlie. Our driver had an empty plastic gallon jug, like antifreeze comes in, and stored it in the floorboard beside his feet. He drove to a gas station, filled the jug with gas, drove back to the shopping area, got out and poured the gas into Taxi 2, in which Jim, Pat, and Andrew were still sitting and waiting. The taxi now had gas but would not start. Ethiopians pushed it down a small hill into a parking lot, giving the driver an opportunity to pop the clutch to start the engine. No luck. Our driver is a mechanic, so he ran back to help, opened the hood, sucked on a hose, reattached it, and helped push the car down a larger hill where it chugged to life.

 We dropped by the Hilton to leave our purchases and Pat, who would complete the arrangements for our rooms. The rest of us headed toward the Jupiter. Not far out of the Hilton drive, Taxi 2 died again. The driver positioned the car to go down a long hill to try starting it by using the clutch. Taxi 1 was driving alongside. At the bottom of the hill is a major four-lane road with a median. Taxi 2 did not start going down the hill and its forward progress stalled in the middle of the first two lanes of the busy road. In a moment, Jim, Thomas, and Andrew climbed out of the taxi and with doors opened pushed it across the busy thoroughfare to the opposite side. I told our driver to take us the short distance to the Jupiter and then return for the others.

 We men completed packing so we could move to the Hilton. We stuffed huge suitcases and Jim into Taxi 1, and when Taxi 2 appeared stuffed it full with more suitcases and Bedessa, an Ethiopian brother who has joined us along the way. We still had six suitcases and four guys left, when, figuring out what we were doing, the gracious Jupiter staff volunteered to transport the rest to the Hilton. I tipped them generously, and we completed the move. We dropped our stuff in our rooms and reconvened to go to La Parisian for lunch. Pat and I have eaten here several times and I wanted to take the others. We piled into the same two taxis, and the adventure continued. Taxi 2 started out fine, but before long died along the roadside. Our driver-mechanic stopped to helped, and we all got out to stand on the roadside. I suggested that we needed to get another taxi, but they asked us to bear with them for a moment. The mechanic raised the hood and trunk, took out tools and parts, and proceeded to replace the condenser while we watched and waited. This solved the problem, and finally we were all on our way.

 We returned to and settled into the Hilton, and before long Zerihun came to resume and complete our rambling discussion we had begun on the return trip. He stayed until Alemu appeared to escort us to his home for dinner. We enjoyed our first visit to Alemu and Tseganesh’s (zeh GAH nesh) new home, which they have lived in for about a year. With Jim and Pat’s financial help, along with help from other Americans, Alemu and his good family have a small but nice house to live in. Xhabier yemesgen - thanks be to God. We returned to the Hilton for a night of rest on firm but softer beds.

 The drivers dropped us off at the Jupiter Hotel. I gathered laundry from all, and one driver took Zerihun and me to the laundry and to run various errands. One errand was to “hotel shop.” The beds at the Jupiter Hotel are just plain hard. I would say there’s a difference between a bed that’s firm and one that’s hard, and these are hard. Jim and Pat looked under the sheets and blankets to discover the reason. A Jupiter bed consists of a plywood base on which a box springs is set. That’s it. No wonder I’m stiff every time I climb out of that bed. Zerihun and I went shopping for a hotel with softer beds. We found one in the Beer Garden Inn, another “international” hotel near the Bole Airport. I made reservations for the next two nights, and, after a few more errands, returned to the Hilton.

 Thomas and I have been planning to get a haircut each upon our return from the countryside. We walked to the Hilton and found both barbers available. We got haircuts simultaneously, and I stepped inside the Hilton lobby to see if I would see some of the staff, who are my friends from past visits. The concierge at the desk recognized me immediately, as I did him, and he thought I was returning to stay at the Hilton. I explained to him that I had tried to made reservations, but the price quoted was $220 per room per night. This is more than double what we have paid in the past, so we looked for alternatives. He has worked at the Hilton a long time, and he said he would speak with the manager about a better rate for a long-standing customer. In the end, he arranged for $140 per room per night, and I immediately made reservations. We are paying $125 per room for the hard Jupiter beds, and I knew everyone would be thrilled to stay at the Hilton. These arrangements went over “big” with everyone, and we made plans to move the next day. We cleaned up and took taxis to our favorite Italian restaurant to celebrate our successful countryside work. After ten days in the Ethiopian countryside, we were all ready for a good meal and for rest.