Yates Family In Soddo

We are preparing to come home for the delivery of baby #2! What a joy and WHAT A STRESS! It is so interesting to watch my heart change and see all these unexpected changes occur. All the other times in my life, returning from an international location to the US what exciting and full of a sense of familiarity, after a time and season of distance and unfamiliarity… NOT SO THIS TIME. And it is even more complicated because we are still in transition. We are still in temporary housing. Our belongings are not in drawers, because we have none (we are living in someone else’s house). The house we will live in is still not complete (now 5 months late) but should hopefully have a dry room for us to store our belongings in during the rainy season while we are away. Ultimately, I cannot tell if we are leaving home or going home. Where is our home? What is most familiar? This is even more complicated because Adam and I have started many new projects at the hospital and developed many new relation...

I am sitting in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia. I am sitting at Han restaurant, a delicious eating delicious authentic Chinese ( like China, not panda express) food. I am sitting watching Cole run and play in front of the Chinese restaurant with a Russian boy who he can't share two words with but the joy in their play tells me they are communicating just fine. Cole is going to have some really unique experiences growing up here in Ethiopia. As we live here we will meet people not just from our own culture and our host culture but all different people who have left their homes and are traveling this world. I hope this has gives Cole eyes for seeing that the world is really big but we who live here all share a lot in common and that God loves all of us.

Dr. Jeremy and I are in Mozambique this week!  We are here to learn more about OpenMRS, a software project that we are using at the hospital. Electronic medical records in Africa? Crazy! We are a pretty advanced hospital trying to do excellent care for patients in rural Ethiopia, so we are looking for ways to improve health delivery here. Electronic medical records will help us answer questions about it patients and care that will help us improve care and systems in the hospital. After a pretty exhausting 2 weeks of dealing with governments to get our paper work all squared away, this week is not coming at the best time for our family. But all the pieces feel into place and here I am. I miss Michelle and Cole a bunch but we are able to talk on Viber so wee can stay connected this week. I hope the time at the conference this week will help me get ready to be more useful at the hospital.  It's my first time in Mozambique and all of a sudden the air feels like I'm really in Afric...

These are instructions for celebrating Christmas in Ethiopia with a Southern California tradition: Tamales! Tell people that you miss tortillas and Mexican food initiating the sending of Masa Harina packages Wait 3-8 weeks for packages to arrive, celebrate Ask for recipes from friends with experience.  When none come look up some on Internet. Drive 5 hours north and procure Pork Fat and Pork meat from Addis Ababa Render Lard from Pork fat for 2 days in crock pot through various power outages Cook delicious pork Look for Corn Husks and and find that they are unavailable in Soddo right now Substitute banana leaves from tree outside Make Chili Salsa from dried chili brought from America Make Masa dough by mixing Masa and Lard Realize the recipe you found is way way off on ratio Panic Find new recipe and do your best to salvage Blanch banana leaves Make Tamales Wrap tamales in splitting banana leaves Wrap banana leaves in foil because banana leaves aren't holding up Steam tamales for 7...

We are sitting outside in the beautiful sun studying Amharic while Cole joyfully plays in his bathtub on the porch. We are thankful for so many things here, and for the many blessings that we have. Language study is hard and tiring, but we are starting to figure out this language and speak in halting phrases to our neighbors and new friends. We are blessed by so much love and support from you all our friends and family and thank you for reaching out to us. Next comes more transitions, moving from Addis to Soddo into temporary housing, and changing language teachers. We will learn to live in a new place again while pursuing language study full time and overseeing the construction of our home in Soddo and engaging in relationship with our mission partners. The anticipation of transition is always difficult for us but often we do well through the changes. Please pray that all goes smoothly in this next season.

It has been a while since we have updates our blog... Even though life feels simple, it also feels so full: full of daily life like washing and cleaning and food prep. But also full of emotions. It's sort if funny how these things sort of hit you. Adam and I went out to celebrate his birthday tonight, and we went to the only ice cream shop in town (that we know of). As we sat there, everyone was speaking English, there were other Americans there and then over the speakers I heard the song With everything by hillsong. It is a passionate, beautiful song. In that moment I didn't feel frustrated or upset, I just felt an overwhelming sense of being homesick. It was a reminder that I don't really feel at home here. This song touched the deepest parts of my heart that I feel have been sort of dry and unattended. I missed feeling the music of home in my soul. I realized that I need to be intentional to tend that part of me, because it won't just happen naturally here. And that...

Today, Adam and Michelle started our first day of language school at the Joint Language School in Addis Ababa to attempt to learn Amharic. I was feeling a little bit nervous about starting this difficult language. There are letters (or fidels) in the language. I walk around and feel like I am looking at squiggles and hearing nonsensical noise. But today was awesome! We will be learning via the GPA system. Growing Participator Approach: http://growingparticipatorapproach.wordpress.com/the-growing-participator-approach-gpa-a-brief-state-of-the-art-and-some-practical-illustrations/ Like a baby, we start our language learning with listening and pointing only. This allows us to understand the language first. Later, we will start to talk and finally learn the alphabet and to read and write. Basically, what it looked like today is we heard words, pointed at objects and played with dolls. I hope the rest of the schooling is just as fun! And Cole had a great day with Wendy. She arrived safe and...