Humbled by Hospitality

Yesterday afternoon, our family was invited by our house worker Yakaba to come to her house for lunch, for a kind of post-Christmas meal. We set off at noon and she directed us in the van as we wound our way through a labyrinth of streets filled with gated compounds, many with enormous mansions towering above the walls. We made our way down the hill and the houses gradually became more humble dwellings. Finally we parked the van by a small souk (shop) and walked down a very steep incline of loose gravel to a small compound with a corrugated metal fence and door. Inside, the ground was rocky, though very clean.  We encountered a simple pit-latrine and a white-washed mud-walled building where two families live together. Yakaba and her husband and their 1-year-old son Sami live in one room, where we spent most of the afternoon. In this room there's a double bed, a love-seat, an armchair, a coffee table, 2 dressers, a TV, and various decorations on the walls--mostly Ethiopian Orthodox artwork of Biblical scenes. Little Sami toddles around happily, bouncing a small ball and playing with a bag of small toys his mother got out for him, his cousin, and our kids to play with.

We brought a bag of sugar as a gift, as it's customary to bring a gift of sugar or raw coffee beans when visiting someone's home. Yakaba's sister, who lives with them and takes care of their son while they're working, had been hard at work all morning and we were served lunch and soft drinks soon after we arrived. As it is Christmas week and still a time of special foods, we were served some delicious kai wot (a spicy beef stew), a dish with (goat?) intestines and carrots, shiro wot (a favorite spicy vegetarian dish of ours made with ground chick peas), rice cooked with carrots, and of course injera (the typical Ethiopian fermented flat bread made with the staple grain teff). After the meal we hung out and played with the kids and looked at photos of Yakaba's wedding and Sami's baptism and practiced our Amharic a lot while Yakaba's sister roasted coffee beans. When the beans are nearly finished, the "roaster" will bring the pan off the fire into the house for everyone to smell the smoke and aroma of the coffee, before she grinds it up and boils it in the traditional clay jebuna coffee pot (pictured). Then Yakaba poured the coffee into the little traditional coffee cups (pictured) and we all enjoyed several cups (I kept it to two because of the baby!).

It was a very interesting visit and especially so because Karina is now old enough to really observe her surroundings and ask a lot of questions. She was very intrigued with everything and noticed both the things that are similar to our house--the bed, the dressers, Sami's toys, the TV--and the things that are different: "The house is so small and it's only one room!" "There's no bed for the baby. Where does Sami sleep?" "There aren't any windows!". It was a neat opportunity to talk to her about how different people live and how God takes care of us in different ways.

From our point of view, we were impressed by the contentment and happiness we saw in this home as well as the enjoyment of living and working together in close quarters. We were humbled by the generosity and hospitality shown to us; Yakaba even insisted that our kids take one of Sami's toys home because "he has many", she said, when she knows very well how many toys our kids have at home.

We all enjoyed ourselves very much and it struck me how much fun it is to be here as a family. Our kids made themselves right at home and our hosts enjoyed watching what they do and interacting with them. I love visiting with Nate because he takes great care to follow all the polite customs and really gives it his all with his Amharic, playing with the kids and asking lots of questions. It was a great way to finish off the Christmas holiday--back to language school on Monday!