Saturday, May 17, 2008

Off to Ireland!

We are all packed for our trip to Ireland—the place our Irish pastor calls “the real Holyland”. I printed our boarding passes and played the role of help desk with the other relatives who coming with us: Kathy’s two sisters and maybe one brother in law.

He is still on the fence about whether he will board the plane or not. He must decide before he goes through security, so we don’t know what he’ll do until he does it. Saturday night he said he wasn’t coming, then he changed his mind. He did check in, but that doesn’t mean he has to get on the plane. His OCD is giving him fits, such that he did start taking Ativan, but that only dulls the symptoms for a while. He called us many times Friday night and into today with questions.

Shane took Max to the store last weekend to buy Mothers Day flowers for hi mom. He didn’t choose them on the basis of how they looked or the varieties included in the bouquet—he made his choice based on how they smelled. We saw him briefly this past week before they took off for bunch ball practice (or soccer, as it’s known in some circles). We explained that he would not see us for two weeks, and that we were going to visit Auntie Ann in Ireland. Kathy asked him if he wanted us to get him a present over there and all he said was “Bring me back something cool—the coolest thing you can find.” So—we have our assignment.

I took Friday off to prepare for the trip, but I still stopped in the office at 7am, before anyone else got there. I spent four hours Thursday night putting together some training schedules for the two new people who start on Monday. My boss had hoped that I would have time to do that, and since the regulation clock ran out, I had to go into overtime to get them done. He did come into the office just as I was leaving, so he was pleased to see what I accomplished.

We talked to our daughter Ann a couple of times Friday night and Saturday, so now it’s all over but the boarding.

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Ethiopian Visitors Rock Cleveland

This past week was very busy at work since we have a delegation of eleven people from Ethiopia visiting the campus. They are here to learn about American business and American education so they can go back and train their own business owners and students about ways to be successful. In the past, the delegations consisted only of two or three people and no women. This time there are four women in the group which makes it more interesting. One is only 22 while the others are probably fifteen and twenty years older than that.

The men are college professors at Addis Ababa University and business leaders. One named Johannus is the president of the Ethiopian Employers Federation, kind of a chamber of commerce for the country. He is interested in doing his PhD in Business at my college. Another is a teacher at AAU and requested a copy of my textbook to bring back to Ethiopia! Does that mean I am now an internationally known author? Maybe.

I went to an evening reception in their honor on campus on Wednesday night and the event was catered by an Ethiopian restaurant with authentic food. With my delicate constitution, I was a little leery of that, but the food was delicious! Later we learned from a woman named Seble that to her taste, the food was terrible—not authentic at all. It wasn’t prepared properly and the correct spices were not used. Now it would seem that I have fallen in love with bad Ethiopian cuisine.

This reception was my first chance to meet them all, so it was a little awkward at first, and kind of formal. We were impressed when some of them got up to address the group about one topic or another and bowed first to the assembly before they started orating. Johannus talked about their goals for the visit, Seble talked about the status of women in Ethiopia, a man named Alemseger talked about the recent history of his country, recounting the damage done by seventeen years of a communist government that came to power in the ‘70’s. When Johannus pronounced “Ethiopia” to my ear it sounded like “Utopia”, which I found quite amusing, though I did not share this insight with anyone else. Seble remarked that the membership of their legislature is about 30% women.

There was yet another party at my boss’ house—he and his wife put on a dinner for everyone and Kathy and I attended. This time was more fun because it was more informal, with some of us in jeans. I sat with Alemseger for a while and he seemed fascinated with Paul’s neighborhood. There were some African American kids, ranging in age from maybe ten to eighteen in the yard across the street. Alemseger said, “That looks like it could be one big family.” I didn’t know who they were so I said, sure. “Are there many accidents here? It looks dangerous for the kids to play on the sidewalk like that.” I said, well, you try to teach the kids to stay out of the street. He said, “But the ball—they will chase the ball into the street.” Yes, I suppose they could. He couldn’t get over that.

Kathy was a little apprehensive about going, but I told her that she would love them and they would love her, and it turned out to be just as I had predicted. She made a friend of everyone there. One of the younger guys, Yaschilal, asked her if she had another daughter that he could marry. Apparently he wants a green card.

He and I got into a discussion of capitalism, somehow. When he was growing up, the only thing he knew was what the communist government had told him. Even though they are gone now, he still carries images of the treacherous capitalists stealing from children--the posters he saw as a child. We were interrupted at that point, to go in for dinner, so we'll have to pick that up next time.

There was an older woman who sat between us at dinner, and Kathy kind of bonded with her, as well. Later, our host, told us privately that the woman had confessed to him that she was “not welcoming”, I guess she meant she was not outgoing. I had wondered if she was feeling well, since she seemed so withdrawn. She also turned out to be a very nice person.

They all invited us to Ethiopia, so who knows? Maybe we’ll go there some day. I mentioned to Seble that we were considering going on a cruise that stopped in Alexandria, Egypt. Earlier we had been talking about how the famous skeleton of “Lucy” had been found in Ethiopia, the oldest evidence of human life. She pointed out that Alexandria is located at the mouth of the Blue Nile, which has its source in—you guessed it—Ethiopia.

Sunday, May 04, 2008

Ode to Spring

For some reason, this spring’s beauty seems to have lingered a little longer; a reward for surviving another winter---a winter whose swirling snow and frigid air has already faded from memory. We were just complaining a moment ago, wondering if spring would ever come, and now we’re stuffing sweaters away for next year and digging out our favorite summer t-shirts.

The flowering trees—dogwoods and whatever the heck the other ones might be—the pink and white and purple clouds scattered down the sidestreets hover just a little longer before the blossoms rain down, coating the lawn with their color—yet one more spring treat.

It’s a cliché, but darned if our yard isn’t perfumed by the lilacs in the neighbor’s yard—a pleasant smack in the nose when we walk out the door and head for the car to go to work. Just a reminder that wonderful things are going on despite our conceit that we are in control.

Just for a moment, it’s OK that dandelions dot the landscape. Right now they are part of the whole panorama of color that comes with spring. Tomorrow I will murder them in their sleep.