October 28, 2009

Still having trouble with time and awoke at 2:30. It was very noisy outside with people on the street yelling, and roosters, donkeys, and dogs all making their respective noises and again with the prayer songs being broadcast over loud speakers at about 5 am .


We left to have breakfast and I called home briefly on Evan's phone to see how the computer problem is. Things seemed to be going better with that but another problem with other things. It makes me feel helpless to be so far away.
The next destination was another set of plots outside of town. My first impression was how dark the soil was.  It looked similar to how black our soil in Idaho is after a rain only this soil on top was dry. It was somewhat a sandy loam. The soil was of the type that most would love to have in their garden. I hope when we travel to Robe abd Goba, the soil will be as nice.
The grain trials were the same varieties as the day before and the best grains seemed to be the six row barleys such as “Millennium.: As for the hard red spring wheat the best performer was a variety named “Buck Pronto”. Some pests on other varieties were apparent such as rust and termites on the roots which I have never seen before.

As at previous plot sites, there were several local agronomist people who were there to be with us. They all stated their education and specialty and very eager to be with us. I find the Ethiopians to be very humble people; very nonthreatening, always willing to help and serve us and willing to receive any advice we were willing to give.  The next destination was a Dept. of Agriculture facility that included a resource building similar to where a county agent might work. They had a library room with some tables and desks and in the corner there was a small bookshelf with a small collection of agricultural books, mostly in English. They recognized that it was small and asked for help of how they might add to their collection.There were adjacent buildings that we toured. Next was a repair/machine shop. They had a couple of government vehicles getting dusty and told us they needed repair but didn’t know how to fix them. They told of countless others through- out the country that were inoperable and in bad need of mechanics.

We went inside the machine shop where there was a large lathe, band saws, drill presses, welders, and other machine tools. Thy told us that most of what they have had broken and missing parts and unsure of how to fix them. They have been given the duty from the central government to design and develop equipment that would help agriculture in their country. Because of their limitations they were only making such things as poor designed wheel barrows with which to carry crops from small fields, small burners for villagers to cook their food on. The most productive item I felt was a little grain and sorghum thresher of the sizes that were operated by hand or small motor. They would sell them to someone in a village that would use it on his own crop then rent out to others. The design and structure would be thought of as substandard by most in the US. It was the same story in their wood shop building with broken down equipment with no knowledge of how to repair it. Lloyd, after recognizing their dilemma stepped up and said that he has a brother at home that is handy at repairing such equipment and to write down the make and model numbers and he would  see what he could do. We later thought that it might be beneficial to have Paul Morrell send someone over to help them in these matters and that it would bolster our relationship with government. I left with such a sad feeling that their agency was in such sad shape and how in the world could the people of Ethiopia’s lives improve any time soon. I had the feeling that they were looking at us in humility for any help we could give.
We then went back to town to get some lunch after which I separated early to go to an internet café next door but it was closed for some reason. Our driver Andu, was patiently waiting outside in the shade on a chair so I went to visit with him. We talked about little things and he said he was married with an 18 month child and really didn’t like large cities and he wants to live in a small town. He asked if I was familiar with the American show ”Small Village” and that would be the ideal town in which to live. To live on a small farm in quaint little town was the perfect place. At first I did not know the show of which he spoke but soon realized he was talking about “Smallville”. I laughed and assured him that isn’t quite how it is in small town USA but that our small towns are usually far better than the large cities. He said he liked shows and movies that weren’t full of sex and violence but were more uplifting. That was a breath of fresh air coming from a young man over here. In our travels the last couple of days we have talked a little bit of the church. Amsalu was given a Book of Mormon in Oromo language by Evan on a previous trip to Ethiopia and he asked if it were possible to get one in English because though he is more fluent in speaking Oromo he is more literate in English and that he would very much like to attend church with us on Sunday. Well the three of us Mormon white boys in the back seat couldn’t help give each other the “wide eyed stunned” look. Lloyd told him he had a copy to give him back at Addis and would be happy to take him to church. Amsalu is a very intelligent man of 49 years with a wife and two children, 14 and 17. He is well read and enjoys reading self books. He asked if we had ever heard of one an author of several books that he enjoyed reading by the name of Stephen Covey. He was impressed to know that he was Mormon. He thought that we might know him and that it would be great to invite to Ethiopia to speak. Evan and Lloyd quickly said they had never met him and that would be a tall task. Well of course I had to tell them of time I went to West Yellowstone to church and we sat together on a bench and became “best buds”. Well maybe a little exaggeration on the “best buds” but thought it might not be too impossible. I have really grown to enjoy Amsalu. I feel there are many more like him that are smart, humble and ready to hear the gospel and that more than anything will bless this country. I think our influence here is underestimated with much potential.


We couldn’t make it all the way to Addis so we stayed in the same motel as two nights before. As we sat at inner Amsalu had to discuss the hardships of raising teenagers and we had a good discussion about balance of our children’s agency, a very interesting discussion.