Jones Family Post--Reflections

We've now been home almost 3 weeks, back into what is summer routine...middle kids up and running (literally) with their cross country teams at 6am most mornings, then to symphony practice for their upcoming Charlie Chaplin silent film project.  Hunter and Harrison are enjoying a more laid back summer schedule, which is good for both of them.  Reading, swimming, basketball, lemonade stands...music, friends, family meals...strengthening bonds and making more memories.  Ivan has fully embraced his new role at Travis Credit Union, and I've now delivered my 100th baby since joining Kaiser Permanente earlier this year.  We celebrated the arrival of our newest nephew, born the day after Ashley celebrated her 13th birthday!  And we were so happy to see & spend a bit of time with Marta and Deme on an unexpected visit to northern California.  We are joining in prayer with many, many folks for Kalkidan's recurrent tumor to be definitively healed.  

The cadence of life...so rich, sometimes predictable, often not.  We remain ever grateful for each new day.  God is good--always--no matter what mountaintops or valleys we experience. He is merciful, just, gracious, generous, and full of lovingkindness. And He will never leave us. Know Him who loves you deeply and created you in His image...this is my greatest hope.  --sj

Jones Family at Blue Nile Falls

And now, some reflections from our family:

Ivan:

On the way to Ethiopia, I started reading the book Flash Boys by Michael Lewis.  In the first chapter, the author describes how a few entrepreneurs dig a fiber optic trench from Chicago to New York—some 827 miles—so they can shave less than 2 milliseconds off the time it takes to place a stock market trade.  A millisecond is only one thousandth of a second, but Wall Street firms ponied up nearly $3 billion for the right to use the new line.  The book goes on to reveal several insidious schemes perpetrated by many of these firms to bilk common investors out of billions of dollars.  Speed and greed are common themes throughout the book.  Yet it also tells the story of a few players in the game who want to clean up the playing field by shedding light on the nefarious plots of high frequency hedge funds and dark pools.  They create a new stock exchange that set fair rules and takes away opportunities to cheat.  Overarching all of this is the idea of ingenuity—some for good and some for evil—and the power of incentives on effecting human behavior.

On some levels, much of what I experienced in Ethiopia lies in stark contrast to the environment depicted in Flash Boys.  In comparison to milliseconds, time in the rural areas we visited is often measured in days.  Growing up in coastal North Carolina, we operated on ‘beach time’ for much of the summer.  And living in Hawaii, we quickly grew accustomed to ‘aloha time.’  But ‘Africa time’ is another gear downshift.  According to Lewis, Wall Street firms think nothing of upgrading IT equipment every six months to ensure they achieve the fastest possible communication.  Yet in Ethiopia, I was asked by a young girl if she could have my empty plastic bottle because she wanted to use it to carry water back to her home.  Roadside markets sold old canola oil bottles for the same purpose.  What different values we place on the same resources.  Donkeys and 10-year-old Toyotas are the most common modes of transportation, and the average cell phone looks like it was made in the 1990s.  These are modest items, but illustrate practical steps taken to make a difficult lifestyle a bit easier.  Electricity is fairly common, but as one local health clinic can attest, access to the grid is not always as simple as one might think.  So, thousands of local residents are limited in the health care they can receive at the government-sponsored clinic because that very government will not take the steps required to provide the power that is so badly needed.  However, the clinicians there work hard to make the best of it and are genuinely proud of what they can offer.  Contentment is all about perspective.

I met a man who works in a local hospital but dreams of improving his status by opening a chicken farm.  He presented us a business plan after much study and contemplation, and in just four days, had built the first building with help from at least twenty friends.  He still needs about $2,500 dollars to make this all happen.  I appreciate his ingenuity—his excitement—and his incentives are clear.  His plans don’t have the pizazz of cross-country fiber optic cables, but there is a lot to be said for an honest day’s work.

For part of our time in Ethiopia, we served at a mission which included an orphanage, hospital, school for children, trade school for adults, medical college, and farm development center.  A chief goal of the mission was to address poverty by changing the playing field through teaching skills, healing disease, introducing vegetation to address hunger, and showing the love of Jesus to those in need.  Like in Lewis’ book, some decided to run counter to the norm and build a better model for the greater good.

I don’t want these to sound like the reflections of a spoiled American who has ‘seen the light’ and now wants to bash the US for its greed, waste, and shortsightedness.  Nor am I trying to highlight ways in which Ethiopia is behind the times and offer panaceas on how to fix it.  These are two very different nations—ten time zones apart—who share many of the same successes, dreams, concerns and struggles.  Our paces and perspectives are different, to be sure, and those clearly play into how we operate within our daily circumstances.  Yet at a more visceral layer, we may be more alike than it appears.  Reading Flash Boys helps me to bring into focus many of our surface-level differences, but on a deeper level, the stories merge.  Technologies are available to help our lives, but at times they are used (or not used) for ill.  Incentives for better lives drive ingenuity, whether you’re talking fiber optics or chickens.  Systemic problems create tiers in society, yet forces for good exist to bring equity and hope.  

We can learn from each other; may we encourage one another to fight the good fight.

Will:

     I spent my time at Project Mercy interacting with the children living there. Our team helped the children with their reading skills, as well as some indoor activities, such as Legos, puzzles, and making bracelets. Outside of the classroom, I played many different sports with the kids. My favorites were throwing the American football and playing (real) football. 

     The highlights of my time at Project Mercy were playing sports with the kids and bonding with my family. When we first arrived at Project Mercy, we expected to be teaching the kids how to play sports. But we soon realized that they were very skilled in many sports, besting our team in most games. It was very fun learning how to better play football from the house kids. I feel like I really bonded with my family over this trip, especially my older brother, Hunter. We played sports together, ate together, and watched football with Adam and Riley together. It was an overall amazing experience, and I hope to return.

Ashley:

I had the amazing opportunity to teach a house kid, Amani, violin. I had not played for several years, but I was very excited to get the chance to play. I don't think he had a lot of experience, so I taught him the notes and we did some scales. After he was confident, I started to teach him basic songs. I did not have song books available, so it took me a few chances to get the correct notes and play it for Amani. We started off with Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. After he mastered that, we moved onto Mary Had a Little Lamb. He had more trouble with that, so I wrote the letter notes on a notebook and we went through the song one note at a time. Eventually we added if the note was an upward bow movement or a downward bow movement. The final song I taught him was Star Wars. We didn't quite master that one, since it was more difficult, but we made a lot of progress. Amani was very willing to learn, and was extremely grateful. He never gave up and he did not want to learn a new song unless the previous one was perfect. He was a hard worker, and I cannot wait to teach him again when I come back!!

Please share your top three memories from:
1. Traveling in northern Ethiopia
The churches in Lalibella
The boat ride in Bahir Dar
The beautiful hike and water falls in Bahir Dar

2. Project Mercy
Meeting Wingil, Mehret, both Lydias, Hywot and seeing Zondra
Playing vball with Sesay and others
Teaching and playing violin
Difficult puzzles
Devotions

3.  Germany
THE CLINES!!!
Gutenberg museum
Battle field memorial
Staying with Bodit and meeting Oma

Did you form any new relationships?
Miguel, Dana, Devin, Desmond, all the kids

Was it good family time? How so?
Yes! It was fun to play sports, teach, doing puzzles, traveling, and trying new things together

What will you remember most?
The kids happy faces and beautiful smiles

Do you want to return? Why or why not?
OF COURSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Any surprises? Anything unexpected?
The kids were GREAT at everything and they never gave up

Would you recommend this experience to others?
YES! This was an amazing opportunity and I would definitely invite my friends and their families!!

Harrison:

Today I read with Ashenafi.  I call him “Ashi” because he lets me.  We read a book called Monkeys in the Forest.  He reads pretty well, but there are some words he has trouble with.  I help him through it, and he gets them in the end.  I really like Ashenafi.  He is really nice to me, he is good at soccer, and he is a good reader.  This is something really special about Ashenafi:  he had a terrible infection in his foot and almost lost his leg.   He used to be in a wheelchair.  Dr. Fekadu did surgery on him, and now he can run and jump and play soccer.  God is good!

This past week at Project Mercy has been really fun because I get to play with my friends, the food here is really good—“Mom, the soup they make here is so good!” The beds are comfortable, and it’s good to have quality family time here.  I have enjoyed watching “Ratatouille” with Mom and Ashley at night.

The Ethiopians seem so happy.  They might not have a lot, but they are not poor.  They are genuinely happy.  There is something about them that makes me feel at home.  I like it here in Ethiopia.  Project Mercy is the best ever.  When I grow up and become an adult, I might want to live here.  I want to live in a tukul at Project Mercy.

Hunter:

Before leaving for Ethiopia, I was constantly asked by my friends and peers questions such as “What are you going to do? What do you think it will be like? Are you ready? Are you scared?” I told them we were going to be touring around the country and seeing cultural sights for the first week and volunteering as humanitarians the second, and I put on an air of confidence and told them I was not scared and was definitely ready. But at the same time, underneath the surface I was apprehensive and a tad nervous. I confided in my closest friends that I had absolutely no idea what to expect from the experience. I felt unprepared in a lot of ways; I could not visualize in the slightest what the trip would hold in store for me. That’s the way I wanted things to be. I did not want to have any preconceived notions about the trip so that I could fully appreciate and absorb the gravity of the experience.

No amount of preparation could have primed me for everything I saw, heard, and felt during the two week expedition. Seeing the rural tukuls outside of the Lallibella airport, the constant stream of beggars, mostly children, who came up to us as we walked and sometimes as we drove, and the skinniness of the limbs and bodies of the people populating the towns we stayed in were all deeply moving, sadness inducing events. I knew Ethiopia was a poor nation, especially compared to the standard of living we have here in America, however it was nonetheless shocking to witness firsthand the full weight of the poverty in which these people live. What surprised me most about these experiences, however, was the joy on the faces of the impoverished. Their faces lit up as we approached; children waved and bellowed “Hello!” and “Salem!” as we passed, as if nothing made these people happier than our presence in their country. In America, it is hard not to get wrapped up in the “Wealth equals happiness” motto engrained into us by the influence of consumerism. Seeing joy emanate from the faces of those who have little to nothing was a reminder about what actually matters in life and what we should place true stock in.

Project Mercy was another humbling, profound experience. The graciousness of the staff, who spoiled us at every meal, and the kindness of the house kids, who insisted they help load our bags on the truck before our drive back to Addis Ababa, especially stuck out to me. I will never forget the looks on the kids’ faces when we gave them the gifts of books and soccer t-shirts. The gratefulness in their hearts was quite evident and something I won’t soon forget witnessing. The morning time we spent with the kids was truly awesome; it was heart-warming getting to hear and assist kids read books to us. I had been told some of the kids could not read at all as little as six months ago, and hearing the progress they made just in the few days we were there was very uplifting and encouraging. In addition, playing sports and doing outdoorsy activities with the kids during the afternoon was the most sheer fun I have had in a long time. A lot of the kids were impressive in the soccer games and I also had fun teaching the kids how to play basketball and flag football. It was great to see how much fun and enjoyment they took out of the sports and to see how excited they were to be able to play in the jerseys the Greers supplied. I was able to make a lot of personal connections with the kids either by playing soccer with them or by discussing the World Cup and their favorite club teams and players. It’s great how much a game can connect people from completely different worlds and backgrounds. I miss Project Mercy already and can’t wait to go back and see Sammy, Ashenafi, Wingail, Kedram, Sisay, and the rest of the house kids again.

Ethiopia was amazing on many levels. It served as a reference point for me to check my privilege and gain more insight into how truly blessed and lucky I am to live the life I lead. It reminded me joy has nothing to do with standard of living, possessions, or wealth. It served as a method of exposure to how much of the world lives and greater instilled the passion I have for wanting to help others.  I cannot wait to go back and earnestly hope I have the opportunity to do so again soon.