THE STORY OF JEMAL

Jemal is the name of the little boy that we have sponsored through Christian Children's Fund for 10 years. He lives in Ethiopia. Through the years, we have sent a small amount of money each month to help support Jemal and his family. We have sent letters and photographs and kept up a good relationship with him through CCF. Each time we sent Jemal a package with a few small gifts in it-we always received a letter back thanking us for the "two t-shirts, the three sticks of gum, the flashlite" etc... So we always knew that he was getting exactly what we had sent. If any of you have ever wanted to support some third world child, but weren't sure if your money was really being spent the way you intended-well, this is the organization to use! They have since changed their name to "Child Fund" but it is still the same charity.

Anyway, we had always wanted to visit Jemal someday. One day, a missionary spoke at our church. His name was Malcolm Hunter and he and his wife Jean had spent over 40 years living and working in southern Ethiopia among the nomadic peoples of the area. He spoke of the desperate need for safe, clean water for southern Ethiopia. We have since come to know Malcolm very well and he is quite the character! He is a tall, ruddy complexioned Scotsman that loves Jesus, the forgotten nomadic peoples of the world--and adventure! He is a modern day Indiana Jones! We listened spellbound for 2 weeks when we traveled with him and Jean last Feb. throughout southern Ethiopia. We heard story after story of miraculous interventions by God, and incredible accounts of suffering of the indigenous Christians from various sources.

But anyway, back to Jemal.

After bringing Tom to speak with Malcolm, and hearing more details of the situation in Ethiopia, Malcolm challenged us to go see for ourselves what it was all about.

So six months later, after about 20 immunizations(10 in each arm) and swallowing giant horse pills every day to protect us from malaria-we were on our way to Addis Ababba-the capital city.

We hired a guide and a driver and began our adventure! There is about 14 miles of asphalt in the whole country and we quickly left it behind. Miles and miles of dusty, rutted roads with herds and herds of slow-walking, stubborn cattle walking down the middle, accompanied by slow-walking herd boys with sticks. Despite lots of horn honking, dramatic exclamations by our driver and elaborate shoulder shrugs by the boys who can't make the cows move out of the way faster, we were having the time of our lives! Everything was so foreign, so exotic, so....African!!

We passed mile after mile of round mud huts, men plowing fields the way they did it in Bible times- with only a sharpened stick and a team of oxen. Little kids running alongside our Land Rover asking for "Highland Highland"- our empty water bottles. To have your very own container to carry water in was a precious commodity to them. It broke my heart to see how desperately they tried to get our empty bottles-and all the while I was thinking of how many countless plastic water bottles are filling our landfills in America. But the thing that made the biggest impression on us was their smiles. Everywhere we went, they would stop whatever they were doing to smile and wave to us. Even the women, bent over with back-breaking loads of firewood on their backs would smile at us. The Ethiopian National Airlines has a slogan "Ethiopia-follow the smiles" and that is so true! What friendly people they are!

So we finally arrive at the little village where Jemal lives. We had hoped that they would be as excited to meet us as we were to meet them. Maybe even his whole family would be there to meet us, we hoped. Well......the whole village turned out to greet us! They lined the road laughing and clapping and cheering and following us to Jemal's house. It was overwhelming!

I mean, here we are-just 'ol Tom and Teresa from Bullard Texas- but they treated us like royalty or something!! Jemal was waiting at the front door with an armful of wildflowers and the biggest smile you ever saw! You could tell he was so proud to have visitors like this-all the way from America! And for us- to finally meet this little boy we had cared about and prayed for for so many years, well- it was a heartfelt moment. We went into his little one room hut. Mud walls, mud floors and two rickety chairs which they insisted we sit in. Then after we had been there a few minutes a man burst into the house. It was Dete- Jemal's father. He had been working in the fields and ran all the way when he saw we had come. Without any of the usual polite introductions he threw his arms around Tom and gave him a big bear hug. Tears were streaming down his cheeks. Our translator told us that Dete was saying how grateful he was to us for our support over the years. Our support helped his family to survive this hard life. Well, we were ALL bawling by that time! haha

The money we had sent went to pay for school supplies for Jemal, medicines for their family and seeds and grains for them. We were overwhelmed to see how that little bit of money that we sent each month-a dollar a day-had made such a significant impact on this family. Wow. Now THAT was money well-spent!

They had an elaborate coffee ceremony honoring us- fresh ground and roasted coffee served in tiny china cups. It was funny for us to see as we traveled all over Ethiopia, how even the most humble of homes has a 'coffee service' for honored guests. They lay fresh boughs of greenery and flowers (if there are any) and burn incense as well. Then Dete really 'put on the dog' for us and served us with bottles of orange Fanta. (warm, of course) Orange Fanta is THE soft drink of Ethiopia and a real treat for them. Bless his heart, he spent way more than he should have on us- but we were his honored guests........

We spent several hours there- exchanging small gifts, Texas Longhorn t-shirts for all his siblings (no we aren't UT fans-just thought they would like something that said Texas on it!)

About 40 people crowded into that small house, faces were crowded all around the one window and the doorway-and the rest of the village were all gathered outside the house-whispering and laughing about what was all going on inside Jemal's house. It was an event for the whole village! When we got ready to leave, they started singing and dancing their traditional dances. Tom danced the twist. Everybody laughed and then we were hugging goodbye and climbed into the jeep and waved as the little kids ran alongside us as long as they could waving goodbye to Jemal's American friends. It was the beginning of a life-changing journey for us.........

.....I'm rolling in the dough!

Bread dough, that is ! To go along with my new-found skills as a campfire cook, I can now add bread baker to my list of survival skills. I put out an APB (All Points Bulletin-remember "Dragnet"?) on our community email network. The email asked if any of my neighbors could teach me how to bake bread the old-fashioned way (no bread machines)

Well- now I am up to my armpits in bread dough!! haha

So far, I have learned how to make Marjorie's Famous Biscuits, Jo's Norwegian Potato Bread, Karen's Honey Wheat and Sourdough Bread, with Beryl's Cinnamon Rolls and Sue's Yummy Bread to follow--- and who knows who else is to come! I will have the biggest hips in Ethiopia by the time I am done!! Hopefully I will walk it all off so I can continue to eat these wonderful breads from these special neighbors. And as you can see, Tom is loving these baking lessons!!

...just call me "Cookie"

Well, for those of you who know me- cooking has never been my forte. I pretty much have honed my microwave skills and that's about it. But things are about to change-BIG TIME! So in preparation for this big- time change, I decided that I better find some alternative cooking methods for Ethiopia. We bought a solar oven and I have been experimenting with that and having wonderful results! I baked a loaf of cinnamon raisin bread that was almost too beautiful to cut into it. (but we did! yummmy!) My next experiment was a pot roast and potatoes and carrots. I put it in at 11:30am and it was done by 4:30pm. I know it was a success because all my neighbors kept sniffing the air as they went by and asking me what was for dinner and could they stay? Tom said it was the best pot roast ever-as good as his mother's!

It's just amazing that more people don't use this method of cooking. It doesn't matter what the ambient outside temp is- there could be 3 feet of snow on the ground. It cooks by the power of the sunlight-the rays of the sun are focused like a magnifying glass onto the pot of food and it is slow cooked by the sun. No need to add any water. It never burns. No stirring needed. Just occasionally make slight adjustments to the direction of the oven in relation to the sun-rays.

The best part is you don't heat up your kitchen and you don't use any electricity or gas. A free, re-newable energy source!

I am especially excited about the implications for the women of Ethiopia. No more fetching wood for fires. No more inhaling all that smoke and soot into their lungs from daily cooking over the open fires. There is a possibility of someone opening a manufacturing facility in Ethiopia to make these ovens (at a considerably lower cost than they are now) Think of all the people they could employ in building these ovens- and the possibility of having sponsors donate money to buy ovens for the women in southern Ethiopia!

Another way of cooking is with a cast iron pot-a 'Dutch oven'. Many people who camp use these to cook-among them my relatives Pete and Karen and Duey who have introduced me to the wonders of peach cobbler and monkey bread by campfire! Dutch ovens have a flat lid and you put charcoals on the lid and a few under the pot. This was how the old-time settlers on the wagon trains heading west cooked their meals-even sourdough bread-which is my next bold venture into the world of campfire cooking! ding a ling a ling ....dinner's ready!!!