Gumuz Survey Trip

A little over a week ago I took a survey trip to the Gumuz area in Ethiopia. We were exploring the possible site of an agro-forestry project. The Gumuz are a people originating in the Sudan but spill across the border into Ethiopia. In the past they have been slaves of both Sudanese and Ethiopians. They are a primitive tribe still existing by hunting with bows and arrows and foraging for food.
The area they live in is fertile and also rich in minerals. It could be a very rich area but is extremely impoverished and the ecology is being destroyed. The Gumuz are killing all the natural wildlife in the area and are cutting down all the trees for charcoal, firewood and lumber. When they clear out one area they move to another.
The local church we are working with in Bahir Dar has been targeting this group for the past three years. Several of its members have been working out of a little town called Gilgel Beles. This is the regional centre for the Gumuz that are located north of the Nile (there is another group south of the Nile). They have established good relationships with several of the villages and meet weekly with about 150 of them under trees in the villages.
Here are some of the findings of our survey trip.
Malaria is the number one killer. More than 50% of deaths are caused by Malaria.
There is a high prevalence of malnutrition as their main diet consists of a slop made from millet with little else. It is one month after harvest and their storage bins are empty.
Almost anything will grow in the area, however, fruit trees were all but non existent.
There used to be abundant wild life including elephants, wild pigs, cheetahs, leopards, deer, and many indigenous birds, however, the Gumuz have killed off most of the wild life.
The Gumuz are cutting down most of the trees in the area to sell as charcoal, firewood and lumber without any programs of reforestation.
The Gumuz have a long history of violence and inter-tribal fighting. Armed police are afraid to go into the area. This has prevented much being done in the way of development. Through recent efforts by groups and churches like KHC good contact and relationships have been established to the point they are now wanting to change their past ways for a better future.
We are hoping to see an agro-forestry project established through KHC to address some of these concerns. We are also looking at the need for a more comprehensive health project to address some of the major health concerns.
University Students in Bahir Dar are back at school and we have kicked off the Big Brother/ Big Sister program this year. We are looking at increasing the numbers of participating students this year and have some practical ideas for the students to do that, Lord willing, will improve the life and future of the street kids.
Things continue well at the school I am teaching at and Sue continues to teach the girls at home.

Bahir Dar Academy

It has been some time since we put out an update. Ethiopia has the second highest population in sub-sahara Africa yet is characterized by the lowest access to primary education. Only 51% of eligible children attend school. Only 40% of eligible girls attend school. Secondary education is only accessible to 10% of the population. Those who manage to attend school usually receive very poor education with very limited resources. Fray Shibabaw and her school Bahir Dar Academy is doing a great deal to change that. There are more girls attending than boys and the girls are consistently getting the higher marks. Recently many students from Bahir Dar Academy took national exams for Ethiopia. The average grade for all students across Ethiopia was 50%. The lowest grade for students from Bahir Dar Academy was 94% and several got 100%. The quality of education at Bahir Dar Academy is miles above the national average.

This year we have a new computer Lab with 25 new computers PTL! We also have a junior computer Lab with an additional 10 computers. I have 750 computer students which are taking a great deal of my time at the moment. I have two assistants, however, that will be able to take over more responsibilities once they get up to speed- hopefully freeing my time for the many other " irons in the fire."
Some of the other ideas we are working on is to develop several vocational training centres that will be an opportunity to address the incredible unemployment plague of this country. We are working with my sister Beth and her organization Dev-xchange to see some of these ideas become a reality. Their website is http://www.devxchange.org/. There are two ladies from Barrie that are helping to start an International Hair Salon and cosmetology school. We see this as one opportunity to give young ladies an opportunity to earn a living other than prostitution. Devxchange has been set up to give professionals the opportunity to give something back to developing countries like Ethiopia so if you have any skill to offer in just about any field get in touch and we'll put you to work. Contact mailto:info@devxchange.org?subject=Information.
We are also continuing to develop the multi-purpose centre with the KHC church. Due to the high cost of cement we are exploring some new technologies that may introduce revolutionary building techniques to the typical cookie cutter construction techniques they use here. We'll keep you posted as this develops.
Sarah and Rachel are continuing their home schooling with Sue. Sarah's favourite subject is Math while Rachel's is Art and Recess.
The University students are not yet back to classes so we haven't kicked off our Big Brother- Big Sister program this year yet. We recently took a seminar on storytelling. This was designed to communicate with non literate people. We hope to train the university students in some of these techniques as they work with the street kids.

Big Brother Sister Program

This week we are in Addis for a home schooling weekend conference followed by a week of standard testing for the girls to see if they are keeping up with their peers at their appropriate grade levels.

One of the exciting developments is our "Big Brother/Sister" program. We have been working with the University Christian Fellowship this past year to get them involved in reaching some of the many thousands of street kids in Bahir Dar. They officially started their program with the core leadership group running a trial program to learn from it. They are excited about the results as they are already seeing lifestyle changes in some of their "little brothers". Some are studying diligently under the street lamps at night. Others are recognizing the importance of hygiene and are making an effort to improve their sanitation and hygiene. The university students are also enjoying taking the kids on special outings for swimming and are looking after essential needs such as shoes and medical attention. They are beginning to expand the program this week to bring other university students on board. The last two Friday's I was invited to speak to the core group of university students about getting involved. It was well received and hopefully will see many get involved. It provides an opportunity for the students to get involved with the lives and homes in the community.

Sue is continuing to work with "the Sisters". She is visiting the local hotels and trying to get their interest in carrying deserts on the menu which she wants to train the x-prostitutes to develop into a business. We are also in the research stages of developing an outlet for Dairy products such as pasteurized milk, cream, cheese, butter, yogurt and ice-cream. None of these items are currently available in Bahir Dar and we think there is a market for them among the hotels, tourists and foreigners living in the city. She is also developing small group Bible studies with the girls.

The computers continue to be a challenge. I brought one with me when I came back from Canada and a data projector. However, with three sitting at a computer it still takes three weeks to cycle through a class once. I have 8 classes with 400 plus students with only 6 computers. If you want to send out work groups and each person carry a lap top in let me know.
We've recently started an Alpha program, together with another Christian family, for foreigners living in Bahir Dar. This program is a small group discussion on the big questions of life. There are a number of foreigners living in Bahir Dar and we hope this will be a good opportunity for their involvement.
Around $6,000 has been donated from the memorial gifts given in memory of my father. This will be used towards the multipurpose youth, education and worship centre in Bahir Dar. While I am in Addis this week I will be looking for an appropriate block making machine.

Bahirdar Project Startup

It has been some time since you've heard from us and a lot has happened. My sister Beth and her daughter Gypsi spent a couple of weeks with us and were a big help with planning some of the programs we want to launch. Beth has worked as a consultant for years with both government and non government organizations. Beth sat down and diagramed in a tree chart all the things we are involved with or plan to be involved with. There were many pieces in the jigsaw and at first we wondered if any of it would make sense.
Eventually things began to clarify and she even color coded areas that would be our direct responsibility. There are three main partners that we hope to develop programs and projects with. They are the KHC Church, University Groups and Bahir Dar Academy (where I am currently teaching).
We are in the process of developing concept papers for each project and program. I plan to post these on our website so you can download them and help us find any resources (including personnel) that may be needed for them. The List of the Partners and proposed programs/projects are as follows.
University Students- There are three groups of University Students we plan to work with targeting street kids, and prostitutes. Gypsi is providing a link as well to Trinity Western University (in Canada) that will provide input, support and linkage. Sue will take a primary lead in getting this program off the ground starting with a University Group called "The Sisters". She plans to start some income generation projects and a discipleship group with an x-prostitute, some of her contacts and "The Sisters". With another group of university students we hope to launch a big brother, big sister type of program with street kids and other needy kids in the town. This could have a real impact not only for the street kids but also as the university students get into some of the other homes of the town and have opportunity to share their faith.
KHC Church- The KHC Church has struggled for years in the north against great odds. Last Sunday we were in Addis to see Beth and Gypsi off and we met an elder at IEC who said that years ago he first went as a missionary to Bahir Dar and was in prison many, many times. The church here has persevered and the many walls of prejudice and religious persecution are slowly coming down. We plan to work with the Church to see them develop a multi-purpose youth and education centre which will also serve as a place to worship. We also want them to continue to develop their leadership training through the Bible School and find vocational training ideas that will enable them to go into new areas as tent makers. We are also looking at how the church can reach the deep rural areas where 80 to 90% of the population live. While Beth was here we visited some work that the southern churches were doing in areas like Chencha. It was quite impressive how whole communities were being changed with spiritual, economic and health development. There is a lot that can be developed in this area in the north and it would be great if the church could take the lead in it.
Bahir Dar Academy- What Fray and her husband are doing in Bahir Dar is going to have a huge impact in the coming days. Not only has Fray developed a quality elementary school that is expanding to the high school level but her husband is developing a medical school and hospital that will be unequalled in Ethiopia. Fray is also the head of a 3,000 member women entrepreneurs for Ethiopia. When she took over a few years ago there were only 60 members. She is also wanting to develop a vocational training centre. One of the ideas we are working with is an abandoned resort hotel where the owner died before completing it. It is now under power of sale from the Bank. Fray wants to turn it into an East Africa Tourism training centre. Ethiopia has so much to offer in tourism but is badly underdeveloped with poor standards of quality in almost every sector. This could also be used for church denomination conventions, leadership training etc. This weekend the University leadership group is having a retreat but there is no place for them to go. They are using the KHC facilities which is merely 3 rooms, no beds, no kitchen, no water. Anyhow lots of pipe dreams but God has blessed Fray and her husband with not only vision but the ability to get things done.
PS- On a sad note I just received word that my Dad is in the hospital with a possible heart attack and pneumonia. His condition is not good and he is not expected to recover. Please pray.

Christmas in Ethiopia

Christmas in Ethiopia. For most Ethiopians our Christmas slips by almost unnoticed. They are on a different calendar and even celebrate a different day for Christmas. We tried to make the most of it by baking Christmas cookies and having various groups of Ethiopians over for celebrations. They thoroughly enjoyed it and said they had never had any Christmas celebration like it before. We had some gifts and things to give like books, food and home-made play dough and they seemed to appreciate them a lot.
We received several packages from Canada and the US the week before Christmas so the girls were delighted to have many wonderful gifts on Christmas day.
After Christmas the SIM had a conference at a place called Sodore. We weren't sure what to expect as the flyer the SIM sent on the conference called it "The bi-annual Endurance Test" with rabid thieving monkeys, green slime specially shipped in from abroad and added to the pool at no extra cost, and fasting food (food that will give you the desire to deny yourself). I think they intentionally put reverse psychology to work as it was much better than we expected. The girls thoroughly enjoyed themselves as there was a team in from Canada that had a whole children's program planned. Sarah cried at the end of the conference as she enjoyed it so much. The hot springs pool was clean the first day but went downhill rapidly as the week progressed. (They only fill it once a week and don't use chemicals and bus loads of local school students drop in to swim.)
After the conference at Sodore we had a northern team meeting at Babagaya (the SIM conference/retreat centre). This was the first time that those working in the north of Ethiopia had gotten together. Everyone was scattered in different areas of the north and doing completely different types of ministries so it could hardly be a team as they only saw each other once or twice a year. It was a great time of sharing together and planning how we could help each other more with resource sharing and strategy input.
We arrived back in Bahir Dar last night at midnight. We had planned to stop half way but the one decent hotel between Addis and Bahir Dar was fully booked so we decided to keep traveling. It's good to be back. There were a few minor incidents of trouble while we were gone but no major unrest like we experienced before.
My sister Beth and her daughter Gypsi will be coming out in a few weeks to help us with some program and project design. Beth has a wealth of experience in development projects and will be invaluable as we look at how to target assistance for the street kids and helping girls forced into prostitution to get off the streets and lead productive lives. We have found a core group of university students here who are keen to take a lead role in addressing these needs. Gypsi, who is attending Trinity Western University has started an Africa club to partnership with the university students here. We are excited about how this can work together to strengthen the effort of the students here.
I will be sending out shortly separate updates on needs for various items in case some of you want to help or know of solutions to current needs.
As you know the school I am teaching at has 1300 students and only 7 working computers. When I mentioned this last time, Jim Melvern and my brother-in-law Grant were able to find 50 computers from a school board in Canada, however, the shipping costs will be around $160 per computer. If you want to help with this or know of a good shipping solution let me know.
The Church in Bahir Dar has opened their leadership training centre (Bible School) after being closed for years. They have 18 students from various communities across the north but have few resources. They were lacking even the basics such as blankets (temperatures plunge into the 40's at night during "cold season"). I just received a phone call asking if we had a VCR as a guest lecture has come with training materials but they have no way to show them. They are needing many resources including a photocopier as well as vocational training resources for their leaders. If you are interested in finding out more or helping with the Church needs, let me know. In spite of their meager resources they are finding a way to move forward and train leaders for the north.
We are also in the process of helping start a vocational training school. This is just in the formation stages but you will hear more of this later.