No Longer In Addis

A couple of days ago, I sent out an email that looked like this:

Just a quick note as I am walking out the door. The day I arrived in Addis almost two years ago, my roof started leaking. This morning, my roof was leaking again. Different apartment, different room, but coincidence? I think not. Perhaps the Compound's way of saying goodbye. After two years at Bingham, I am about to start my journey home. A fair bit has happened since my last newsletter, but it will have to wait for another time. In the meantime, for your further enlightenment, here is my itinerary for the next few weeks:

Today: Addis to Toronto (via Frankfurt)
July 4: Toronto to Washington DC
July 11: Philadelphia to Dallas
July 18: Dallas to Brisbane (arriving on July 20th around 11AM)

But for now, it's time for me to say goodbye.

David Peterson, Addis Ababa Correspondent
Signing out.

So, that's why I am currently in Toronto. Actually, I'm in Cambridge, a town/city of about 118,000 south-west of Toronto. I'm visiting Dan Lambert, who was my housemate for the first part of the school year. As for the rest of the stuff that has happened since, here is a quick
summary:

Elections
Ethiopia held it's third ever democratic elections on May 15. The first one didn't really count since there was only one party running (the others boycotted). The election itself was run on May 15, and the official announcement date was June 8th. However, this was delayed to July 8th (due to ongoing investigations into fraud). Just today, I read that it may be delayed again. In the meantime, the government had put a ban on public demonstrations for a month after the poll date, which has now been extended to the announcement date.

Starting on Monday June 8th, and escalating until Wednesday June 8th there were civil disturbances (a.k.a. rioting). What exactly started it is still somewhat unclear, but they resulted in over 40 people being killed (officially - unofficially the estimate is much higher).
For safety, Bingham decided to close the school for the Thursday and Friday, although there have not been any further outbreaks since the 8th. Hopefully this will remain the case after the official results are posted too.

Andrew in Addis
My brother Andrew decided to visit me for a few weeks. He arrived on May 24th and we headed off to the Simeans to climb the highest mountain in Ethiopia (and the 4th highest in Africa) two days later. We made it to the top (braving hail and snow to get there) and back,
although my knees are still complaining about the experience. We were going to visit some other parts of Ethiopia the next weekend, but then the election riots broke out, so we were stuck in Addis. He did help out with some of my lessons though, for which I was greatful. You can ask him to see some of his photos - there are some nice ones.

Those were the main items of interest. Please keep praying for Bingham. There is still a need for a couple of extra teachers, particularly in the maths/science area. As I've said before, God is faithful and provides enough people to do the job, but it would be nice for them to actually have a couple of extras for once :)

As for me, I'm currently planning on trying to get a job when I get back, and then return to Uni to complete my education degree next February. After that, it is in God's hands.

I'll probably post a few more entries about my trip home. After that, this blog will probably lie dormant for some time. For now though, I still have some grading to finish off and email back to Ethiopia. I'd better get cracking.