Another beautiful day in Ethiopia!  It is late Sunday afternoon as I write this. Jim is reading a bird book, trying to identify several exotic birds we have seen around our yard.  One is a wren-size ground bird that is irridescent turquoise and green. We saw it on the ground twittering away, not especially afraid of people. Next time I hope to have my camera ready.  The other is some sort of flycatcher that nests in our yard. We have seen 4 in the same tree at one time. Its tail is at least 10 inches long, though it is a bird no bigger than a robin.  There are also large white stork-like birds we see around the rooftops and sitting in trees.  And today a lovely bird with a downward curved long thin beak came right to our patio and dug into our flowerpots for nectar.  I'll see if I can identify them and let you know.

We attended a neighborhood church today which is a congregation for the Anouak people who come from southwestern Ethiopia. The tribe extends across the border into Sudan as well. They are very striking people, extremely tall (the man who translated the sermon for us was at least 6'9" or 10"), thin and very darkskinned, almost blue-black. We were invited from another instructor here, an American, who goes to their church every week. She said last year she invited them to her house for Easter dinner after church.  Women came to her house two days early and began cooking. So they had a real Easter feast of large bowls (served in gourds) of a maize-like grain with vegetables in it.  She said they served 140, including about 45 children.  Since it was raining somewhat that day, they all crowded into her little house, but had a wonderful time.

Church started at 9:30. They had to stop at noon, because there was a wedding in the church building that afternoon and they had to set it up.  What a wonderful joyous group of people.  About four young men played the drums, which were real African drums with skins stretched over wood frames--some of the wood frames were beautifully painted in red figures. I'll post photos tomorrow. The drums looked as if they had been played for 50 years, the skins beautifully worn and spots showing were fingers hit the beat time after time.  Two to four drummers played 4-5 drums, some with their hands, some with sticks. And there must have been three or four rythms going at the same time. Then the choir, half wearing purple gowns and the other half in green gowns, began a song by clapping the rythm with a single voice singing. Then the rest of the choir joined in, then the drums. The whole congregation began clapping and singing (everyone knew all the words--no books or bulletins) and pretty soon a little fancy footwork and some swaying was going on too.  There was a hymn sung (probably ten minutes each in length) between each activity, each Bible reading, the sermon, announcements, etc. One of the really moving things was when the worship leader asked if people had certain things they wanted the congregation to pray about.  Almost everyone had something of concern, and they made your heart ache. One had a close relative with a very serious illness, another had lost his home in a fire, another had concerns about a friend whose son had recently died, another spoke of a fight between two close relatives. It made Jim and me feel like we wanted to stretch out our arms and give all of them hugs and whatever they needed. Yet at the same time, they showed deep faith that their concerns when brought to God would be heard. There were four people there who have been working for the last thirty or so years to translate the Bible into their language and they announced that it is in its final reading at the published. There was great celebration about that. Now they have the Bible only in Amharic, but not their birth language, except that one of the translators said they have had the New Testament for quite a few years.

Many of them greeted us after the service with handshakes and sometimes hugs. They invited us to come back next week and invited Jim to preach. There was a couple there, both Anouak, who now live in Brisbane, Australia. She is a nurse and said she met her husband in India. He was the brother of a man in the congregation. Apparently there are about 180 Anouaks in Brisbane. Who knew?

So this was a wonderful warm and new culture we met today, and we're so thankful for their kindness and welcome.