Ethiopia by E-mail
Subject: HI from Addis on Monday March 12
Date: Tue, 13 Mar 2007 00:41:45 -0400
From: Pat Rollin parollin9923@hotmail.com
We are doing well. Jim is very busy. He was at a retreat last weekend to get the straigatic plan for the School of Social Work done. They have been doing interviews and finding out what the NGO's want in the way the students are trained and what the ministry thinks of the training. They have students and staff working together to make the final report. This weekend we went to Jimma to visit the university there. He spent all day Saturday and Sunday morning in meetings. We left Addis on Friday about 3 hours late because of mechanical problems with the plane. The airlines fed us lunch at the airport and we left for Jimma. We were going to go to a palace but did not have time so we visited a museum. Jimma is in a very warm area which produces a lot of coffee. They have a lot more trees but it is dusty. It was a really nice trip and we enjoyed seeing another part of Ethiopia. I went to the university to see what it looked like. It was very pretty with a lot of birds, trees and flowers. I talked to some of the students and instructors. They were very happy to see an American and wanted to know what I thought of Ethiopia and Jimma. I visited with a couple of young ladies who told me that most men in Ethiopia travel by themselves. The ladies thought it was good that I was with Jim and that their men should change the way they treat their wives. Although they did say that the husbands were not being mean to the wives they felt that men don't think about including their wives. The one young man asked me what I was doing in Ethiopia and seems surprised that I would follow Jim to Ethiopia without a job of my own. I told him after almost 35 years I have followed Jim a lot of places and we are a team.
I have not been doing too much. Yorde and Beti's mom is in the hospital and I have gone to visit her. It was my first trip to a hospital ward in Ethiopia with the exception of the Fistula Hospital. I am not sure what is wrong with her. They said she was running a fever and was on an IV. I talked to Yorde last night and she said her mom was eating a little which she was not doing earlier and they hoped she would be going home soon. I am keeping her in my prayers and hoping she will be well enough to go home soon. Yorde's older sister Hana is staying at the hospital every night to take care of her mom. Most families do not leave their family member in the hospital alone at all. So Yorde and Beti spend the days and Hana goes home to get some sleep and rest then comes back in the evening to spend the night. The family provides bedding and meals for the sick person.
Pat.