Now I don’t get a lot of readers. My highest day was right when I got back from Africa and that was just over 100 reads in one day. But what’s funny is that I’ve been getting a steady amount of reads lately that is much higher than I normally get. So I went and looked at the search terms to find out what people are looking for, and apparently my post on The Public House is bringing in a lot of traffic.

I find this hilarious. Who would have thought that despite all my highly entertaining, craftily written posts, my post on beer would be the most popular? LOL!

Ok, on a different note, I have consolidated all my Africa posts into a new page which you should see at the top of this blog called “My Africa Trip”. I’m still getting a lot of people asking how the trip was so I figured I’d link all the posts on one page to make it easier to read about the trip. Feel free to pass along the link to that page: http://danapellerin.com/my-trip-to-africa/

There’s an outstanding exhibit running right now at the Campus Bible Church and it’s called Step Into Africa.  It’s a stunning look into the African AIDS epidemic through the eyes of children who live in the center of it. Some of our team members from our Africa trip went through it the other day and they said it was outstanding and very moving. So if you’ve been reading about our Africa trip, or want to help a great cause, or just need something to do today or tomorrow, check this out.

Here’s a blurb about the event from the Campus Bible Church website:

“World Vision Experience: AIDS was launched in fall 2005.  In the first year, nearly 20,000 people in 10 North American cities visited the Experience.  The Experience was featured at the 2006 Global AIDS conference in Toronto.  The national tour of the World Vision Experience is traveling to 72 cities in 2007 and 2008.  Approximately 3,000-4,000 visitors are expected to visit the Experience in each city.

Participants leave the Experience with a better understanding of the impact AIDS has on children, and they are given the opportunity to take action in response to what they have learned and experienced.”

There’s also some great worship music to be enjoyed every night at 7pm. Tonight it’s Jon Shabaglian who’s an outstanding performer, and then tomorrow, yours truly is playing with the rest of the Clovis Hills band to rock some serious worship.

So come on out and support this great event. Here’s a link to the Campus Bible Church for complete information. I will see you there!

It’s not easy to put a personal journal out there for everyone to read. The first inclination is always to “clean things up” for public consumption. But I felt that if people were going to get a glimpse of what it really means to be on a mission trip then I would have to leave everything in. So I tried hard to do that and be as transparent and descriptive as possible.

I think maybe that’s why God presented this opportunity to me. So that I could write about what we saw and felt. And maybe for some of you that will mean that when God presents that particular challenge to you, and you’re asked to step out in a way that seems really uncomfortable, or even crazy, that you’ll take Him up on it.

Anyway, thanks for the encouragement and the kind words.  God bless.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I just want to thank every single person on the trip for holding it together and making our team a cohesive and focused unit. Despite all the warnings beforehand of “conflict resolution” and this and that, other than some expected homesickness, this team really exhibited a Christian attitude through every situation and I’m proud to have been influenced by these folks. I especially want to thank my band bros and bunk-mates. Without you guys, this trip just would not have been the same.

I want to thank the folks who work there full time. I’ve never met a more incredible group of God fearing folks in my life. Folks who have put aside their own comfort, their own desires to live their lives by Christ’s example, serving others. You are all amazing.

I also want to thank my new friends in Ethiopia, who I’ve already been emailing since I’ve returned. I’ve honestly never met so many strangers who have welcomed us like we were family. These people fed us, opened their homes to us, led us around, let us teach their kids! I’ve learned that the Ethiopian people are an amazing people. Proud yet humble, extremely kind and gracious.

And I want to thank God for opening this door and changing my life forever.

So where to next? Antarctica!!! Ok, just kidding. I’m going to stay home for a while and since it’s our 20th Anniversary this year, Michelle and I are going someplace romantic together this year. But next year, who knows? Maybe I’ll go back to Ethiopia to visit my new friends, and take my family next time.

Thanks for reading.

Today we got up early and went to breakfast. I couldn’t eat. We’ve just been eating way too much on this trip. The rest of the gang had French toast. Yeah, French toast in Ethiopia. Who would have thought?

We made the drive back to Addis, which took a while. There’s so much cattle and stuff crossing the highway you really can’t do 70 or 80 like you can in the states. 45 is really cookin’ here. Anyway, we got back to town and stopped at a pizza joint for lunch. It was really good. Probably some of the best we’ve had here.

We finished off the day with some worship and bible study with a bunch of folks and it was just a really good way to finish off our time here.

January 26, Saturday, 11:00PM Ethiopian Time

Well we’re on our way home. We spent our final day shopping and I bought a ton of stuff for my girls. A bunch of silver and housewares for Michelle and a few bags and trinkets for Deanna. It was a bear getting it all in my bags and I had to fill the cajon with my dirty clothes to make room for everything. Then at the Addis airport they decided to make me empty out all my carry ons. The bag I brought is for my motorcycle and so it’s got a metal frame so it holds it’s shape. Everytime it goes through the scanner they think I’m carrying something dangerous. That’s the last time I use that bag, even though it’s a really cool bag.

Well, going to try to get some sleep. 31 hours of travel ahead of me. Sad to say goodbye, but it will be good to get home.

Today we drove to a town called Worabi. I think that’s how you spell it anyway. We met an incredible couple named Andy and Coleta who live and work here in this tiny town. We got to their house early and then they drove us up into the hills where we could see across the whole area. It was an amazing sight to see and I am floored how truly beautiful Africa is. I found a nice rock to sit on and just enjoyed the sun shining down on me and the wind blowing through the trees as I looked out over Worabi and the surrounding land.

Afterwards we drove out to the goat project that Andy runs along with some locals. What the goat project does is raise goats (surprised?) and then distribute these goats to widows. As far as I can gather, in cultures like these men play a dominant role and therefore women are dependent on them for many things. If you don’t have a husband or sons, you are pretty much, for lack of a better term, screwed. So the goat project raises healthy goats, and delivers them to the widows and then follows that up with education on how to milk and breed these animals in order for these women to sustain themselves and their children. It’s truly a great project and I was really stunned to find out that Andy, who has degrees in mathematics and computer science, gave up the career opportunities that come with that kind of education to come to Ethiopia and raise goats for poor widows. These are the kinds of people who work here. They are truly amazing.

It was pretty cool visiting the site itself too, although it’s a 40 minute drive down what can only be called a “road” in the loosest sense of the word. I was in the back of the SUV and was hitting my head on the roof so much I have a permanent indent on my cranium from that little button on the top of my baseball cap. Once there though we saw some cool stuff roaming the countryside. Wild boars and baboons to be exact. We were even so “lucky” as to see a few baboons doing…. *ahem*….. adult baboon things right there in the open. The Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom theme song was suddenly filling my head, and oddly enough it was being played on funky guitar with a wah pedal……

ANYWAY…. there was a river close by and so then went down there to check it out. It was nearly dry, but deep enough to skip some rocks in and Justin handily whooped me in our impromptu rock skipping tournament.

After that we went to dinner for what would be our last taste of true Ethiopian food.  Luckily for us, somebody ordered ahead and the restaurant substituted bread for the traditional engera. The meat turned out to be what we think was goat or sheep though, and no, it does NOT taste like chicken. It’s chewy and very oily. They love spices here though and so they served a plate full of some spice that I couldn’t identify. I discovered that if you put enough of it on the goat meat, it isn’t half bad and I ended up nearly clearing my plate.

We finished the evening with some worship together and I have to say that’s been some of my favorite times so far. Just hanging out with believers, jamming some music acoustic style, singing, and just enjoying each other’s company. Good times.

I’m up early this morning. Last night there was a little bit of a meltdown with a few of the girls. Not sure exactly what went down but there’s some people who are struggling with the stress of the trip. This is not unexpected. The hardest part of being here is being completely out of touch. No phone calls, almost no internet access. So there’s just no connection to home. Everything we have to comfort us is right here, and that’s hard.

So as I’ve been thinking about this, it strikes me that this is a real test of our strength in God. This is where the rubber hits the road in terms of finding comfort in the Lord. But that’s a huge reason why we’re here, right? To be pushed, to be stripped of all American comforts, to live with those who’s daily lives are steeped in poverty, and let God be the only thing to lift us up. That’s something that’s so foreign to me. When I’m bummed back in the states I can always grab a beer and flick on the tube for comfort. I can hop on the bike and head to the hills. I can confide in my wife. But none of that is here. There’s nowhere to turn but back to God.

On another level, I feel embarrassed for even showing the slightest bit of homesickness here. Yes we are deprived of the things we are used to, but still, we’re living like relative kings here. So I feel compelled to set an example and not let our hosts see me waver. If I truly believe in a loving, caring God, then now is the time to turn to Him and let him comfort me.

When I boil it down, this whole trip is really a set of faith exercises. I love the analogy of growing as a musician. If you want to be good at guitar, or drums, or anything in life really, how do you do that? You practice. Practice, practice, practice and then when you are sick and tired you practice some more. This is how we learn what it feels like to do something. Us drummers call it muscle memory. You can actually feel when you are playing correctly.

So too must we “practice” being faithful. We must learn what it feels like to trust God to work things out for us. And more often than not, that doesn’t mean he’s going to straighten the path for us. I’m amused at how much we pray for “comfort”, when what we should be praying for is the ability to deal with our discomfort. It’s through learning to deal with hardship that our faith is strengthened. I heard a worship song the other day that asked God not to move the mountain, but instead show us how to climb it. That was powerful to me.

So this trip has been one exercise in faith after another. Each day I’ve had something else stripped from me, been asked to do something I didn’t think I could do, and everyday I feel a little stronger.

January 23, Wednesday, 4:45PM Ethiopian Time

This morning we finished up at Destiny school and it was heartbreaking. The kids were awesome and we took pictures with as many as we could. I gave Gutu a photo of me and my family. I hope he shares it with the other kids. The principal gave us all really cool t-shirts that say Habesha (Ethiopian) on them, and the vice principle gave us postcards. It was kind of funny because somebody handed me my postcard with the backside up. I read the back and then turned it over to find a picture of a tribal woman with no shirt on. It caught me by surprise and my first inclination was to hide the photo from the kids surrounding me. Then I realized…. I’m in freaking Africa! I had to laugh at myself for being a retarded American. The staff at the school then performed a coffee ceremony for us. I’m really going to miss these coffee ceremonies. I’m really going to miss these kids.

Now we’re in a town called Budijira. It’s a small town about an hour outside of Addis. We stopped on the way at a place called Devil’s Lake, which is a huge crater almost 900 meters across that has filled with water. It’s quite amazing and just across it we can see the Rift Valley. All of this area is farmland. The people live in mud huts, literally. They are made of “poles” driven into the ground then covered with a mud mixture. The roofs are topped with grass. It’s almost unreal and I feel like I’ve just stepped back a thousand years into the past.

As soon as we got out of the car a crowd of kids started to appear to check out the foreigners. They were really fun kids, all muslim, and told us about the area we were in. There were several older kids who are studying farming and agriculture at the nearby school. One of them wanted to race me up to the top of a hill and so I took him on. I’m quite proud to say that this 40 year old California boy outran an African kid on his own turf. Yeah baby! I thought my lungs where going to be forcefully expelled from my body when I reached the top, they burned so bad from the dust and lack of oxygen at 8500 feet, but I managed to hold my game face. Ha! From the top we got a great view of the valley and the kids pointed out the grade school (which is a tin sided shack) that they attend. From there we headed into Budijira and got our rooms at a local hotel.

I gotta say I’m quite impressed with our accommodations. Hot water and a TV in every room. Of course we only get one channel. But it’s the BBC and so we’re getting a little home style entertainment. All this for the grand total of $4 a night. Yeah, things are cheap here. Let’s talk about that a little.

The average dinner at a NICE restaurant in Ethiopia, which is pretty close to American standards, runs from 35 to 45 birr. That’s about $4 to $5. Crazy. At Merkato I bought a really nice African necklace for Deanna for $6. A bracelet for $2.50. A set of hand carved candlesticks were all of $7. Here in Budijira, 13 or so of us just had dinner and coffee and the grand total was $25. Yes twenty five. It’s quite amazing and an American could really live well here, as long as he had a source of income. There are no jobs here. I was speaking to the math teacher at Destiny and though he has degrees in Math and Computer Science, he’s a grade school teacher because that’s all he can get. He doesn’t have his own computer so he can’t pursue a career in computers. The guy practices his programming by writing his programs on paper! Amazing.

Anyway,  I had some time to talk to Mica and get to know her a bit. What an amazing person. For somebody so young to be so focused is inspiring.

Today we got up and had our usual morning devotional before we head out for the day. Always good to get your mind focused on God first thing. I feel kind of bad today though. After our normal scripture reading and what not the subject of missing home was brought up and everyone was asked to talk about something they miss from home… and I just kind of popped.

There’s two reasons I got a little perturbed really. One, each of us was required to share something of an personal nature and that just doesn’t wash with me. If I feel the need to share, I’ll do it. If I don’t feel the need, I don’t appreciate being coerced because now I have to be serious on command. What am I supposed to do, make something up?? And that leads me into my second reason for being ticked, is that I really hadn’t missed home. That’s going to sound cold, but honestly, I came all the way to Ethiopia to do a task. God and my band brothers have kept me very good company. I feel very content at the moment and feel like I have a real purpose here. Yes I miss my girls, but that was fully expected and something I’m prepared to deal with. So the last thing I needed was to start getting sappy about being away from home with 6 days left in the trip, and I kind of said so.

Later though, I felt bad. The fact is that not everyone handles problems the same way, and with my “suck it up” attitude, I very well could have stifled somebody else who really needed to be able to open up to the group. So I feel like crap about that. I need to learn to bite my tongue at times.

After our devotional time we went and spent a full day at Destiny. I’m telling you, these kids are amazing. I’m starting to learn their little quirks and personality traits. Who is the thoughtful one, who is the emotional one, who are the smart ones and who struggle a little. The fifth graders are my favorite. There’s Gutu who’s got a chipped tooth and always seems to be dirtier than the other kids. He’s so eager, and helps us keep the pre-school kids organized during our courtyard singalong times. There’s another kid, I think Frank said his name was Manuel or something like that. He’s a very thoughtful and quiet kid, but incredibly smart. I asked him what he does after school and he said that he goes home and studies. Then there’s little Betelem. What a stunning little girl she is. Very quiet, very reserved. Her eyes are like amber and when she smiles her face glows like a morning sunrise. It’s in these kids faces that God’s incredible love becomes obvious.

It’s been a blast here at the school.  Everyone is singing John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt, which is kind of funny when you think about it. That’s going to be our greatest gift to Ethiopian culture. Ha!

Busy, busy day! We got up early and went to Destiny school for half a day. It was really cool today hanging with the kids. Justin and I got to teach art and that was awesome. I felt a lot more at home teaching something I know a little about. Although it’s been years since I’ve sketched anything, the kids don’t know that. Ha! They were really loving today though. They are so happy to have guests in their classrooms and they gave us all kisses when the classes were over. Then we went into the courtyard and played some kid songs and everyone had a great time.

At lunch we met a great Ethiopian guy named Casahoon (I’m sure I mangled the spelling of his name). What a great story this guy had though. Once a basic slacker not taking any responsibility for his life, opened the Bible, and it changed his life. Now he’s got hope and is working toward a better future for himself and also teaching the Bible to his family. What a great testimony. I was especially impressed at how freely and openly this guy shared his faith. We Christians in America could learn a few things from him.

The funniest thing about Casahoon though is that he is really working on becoming fluent in English and for some reason he is fascinated by American slang. For some reason hearing an Ethiopian guy say “What’s up homies?”, is just freaking hilarious to me. So we taught him every bit of slang we could think of. I got a kick out of watching him pull out a little piece of paper that had American slang written all over it, and adding all of our sayings to it. It was great fun talking to him. At the end of lunch Casahoon proudly announced his newest phrase “Let’s roll out, yo!”, and we left.

We then went to Merkato. Merkato is the biggest outdoor market in all of Africa, and the second largest in the world. It’s made up of blocks and blocks of shops, some in buildings, some in tents, some just wherever the vendor found a few square feet of space on the sidewalk or in an alley. It’s truly amazing to see. You can pretty much buy anything you can think of at Merkato, from washing machines and TV’s to spices by the pound and everything in between. There’s even a huge black market for used stuff, so I would see guys with nothing but used power strips, or dismantled radios and TV’s. So if you needed a belt for a tape deck, or spare capacitor and you needed it cheap, this is where you’d come. Amazing.

Of course as soon as the vendors see white folks, dollar signs flash in their eyes and so they do everything they can to get you into their shop. Sometimes they’ll even hand you an item and not let you put it down! So you’re kind of on the hook until you convince the guy you’re not going to buy it or you relent and hand over the cash. I watched Paul haggling with a really animated shop owner over some African trinket and it was hilarious. The guy refused to let Paul give the item back and kept pushing Paul to name a price. So Paul would throw out some ridiculously low price and the guy would grab his head and say “Aieee!!!”. Then he would come down on the price a little bit and the haggling round would begin anew. It was awesome. I learned quickly to keep my hands in my pockets and not make too much eye contact, because I had no intention of buying a bunch of stuff this day and honestly, I’m not much for haggling.

So after Merkato we went and had dinner at an American couple’s house. Always nice to have American style food again.