This is a blog about my family's experience with a little Ethiopian boy who came to the United States in January of 2012 for several weeks of live-saving medical treatment and who ended up staying longer. If you're new to the blog, click on "Going to Dafe Jema" to get the background story.
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The Biru Kumbi family are devout members of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. This became apparent shortly after Feleke arrived. He was extraordinarily careful to maintain all of the various dietary restrictions of his faith, of which there are many. We are continually surprised by all of the things he can't eat when he is fasting, and by the sheer number of fasting days. By some counts there are as many as 250 fasting days in a year. Fasting for an Ethiopian Orthodox person often means basically eating a vegan diet--no meat, eggs, milk, or cheese. Some believe that fasting forbids eating any food before 3pm or so during the fasting period. There are fasting days throughout the year. If you want to get a sense of all of the many celebrations and fasting days, go here.
Probably the longest fasting period is for lent, which is 56 days, ending on Easter, which falls on a different day for them than it does for Christians in the west. This year the Orthodox lent started not long after Feleke arrived in the US. This mean we had to learn quickly how to prepare vegan dishes. (We could not have him going on a religious hunger strike, especially given that we were trying to keep up his strength during the radiation treatment.) It was amazing how determined Feleke was to maintain the fast, and how uncannily aware he was of when it began and ended. He once told me, accurately, the number of days remaining. One night when I asked him how he knew (this was before he spoke English and way before he knew how to use the Internet), he took me outside and pointed to the position of the moon in the sky.
The very first week the Feleke was with us, before he knew any English at all, we took him to visit the Ethiopian Orthodox church in Commerce, Michigan. It was a very important Sunday in the Orthodox faith, the celebration of the Epiphany -- the revelation of God the Son as a human being in the person of Jesus Christ. When we told him of the possibility, Feleke really wanted to go. So we went, and we took a couple our kids along as well.
The music and the dancing were fantastic. Right up my alley. And the food was amazing. I'll have another post about Ethiopian food generally later on, but I'll just say here that the Epiphany feast following the Epiphany service at the Orthodox Tewahedo church in Commerce, Michigan is truly exceptional. It was one of many fantastic Ethiopian meals we would have over the months to come. The church service was also very interesting. The preaching and the chants of priests were in the language of Ge'ez (pronounced Geez, I think.) It is an ancient liturgical language that no one but the priests seem to understand.
At least some of the singing was in Amharic, one of Feleke's native tongues, and he sang along with everyone else. He knew all of the words by heart, and singing them seemed to transport him back to his home church in Ethiopia, where he must have sung the songs many times with his mother and father and brothers and sisters. The Orthodox "church music," as he calls it, has been a comfort for him here in the US. During the early days, when we had long drives in the car and the American music on the radio didn't appeal to him, I would use my Android phone to pull up videos of Orthodox church services. He was at first astounded that I could summon his music, with videos, to my phone so easily. Now that's no big deal to him.
Feleke has continued to attend the church in Commerce off and on, catching a ride with our wonderful, absolutely indispensable Ethiopian friend, Abdi Zeynu, who is a graduate student in the Engineering School at UM, a very devout member of the Orthodox church, and a mentor to Feleke. There will be more about Abdi's significance to our Ethiopian adventure in a later post. Feleke decided he wanted some nice church clothes, so we took him to JC Penney and got him this. He picked it out.
Ruth Ann and I have made made one return trip ourselves to the Orthodox church, for the Easter celebration. Although it started officially at 8pm, Abdi told us to come closer to 10pm, as the event could easily go until midnight. The reward for sitting through 2 hours of liturgy in a language we didn't understand, besides the pleasure it gave Feleke, was the chance for another Ethiopian feast. Unfortunately for us, the service continued until almost 2:30 in the morning. We didn't get home until after 4am. Feleke slept in the car on the way home.
Religion is a big deal in Ethiopia. Eastern Orthodox Christianity is the dominant faith in the country, both in terms of numbers of members and its place in the culture. Something like 44% of the population reports being affiliated with the Orthodox church. There are also sizable and increasing numbers of Muslims (34%) and Protestants (18%). Dafe Jema is located in the Oromia area of Ethiopia, where Oromo is the primary language. In this region, the Orthodox church has lost its dominance in the last 10 or 15 years, as the number of people professing to be members of the Orthodox Church has significantly shrunk and the number of Muslims and Protestants has risen. I would be surprised if such shift a significant cultural/demographic shift has not produced conflict, or at least tension in the area.
There are also Ethiopian Jews, or "Beta Israel." You can read about them here. In 1991, when there was political turmoil in Ethiopia, many of the Ethiopian Jews were airlifted by the Israli government to Israel for their protection. It was called Operation Solomon. Dr. Hodes was there at the time and was deeply involved in the operation, providing medical care for those who needed it.
That reminds me. Here is another cool story about another little boy that Dr. Hodes was able to help. There have been many.
***
The Biru Kumbi family are devout members of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. This became apparent shortly after Feleke arrived. He was extraordinarily careful to maintain all of the various dietary restrictions of his faith, of which there are many. We are continually surprised by all of the things he can't eat when he is fasting, and by the sheer number of fasting days. By some counts there are as many as 250 fasting days in a year. Fasting for an Ethiopian Orthodox person often means basically eating a vegan diet--no meat, eggs, milk, or cheese. Some believe that fasting forbids eating any food before 3pm or so during the fasting period. There are fasting days throughout the year. If you want to get a sense of all of the many celebrations and fasting days, go here.
Probably the longest fasting period is for lent, which is 56 days, ending on Easter, which falls on a different day for them than it does for Christians in the west. This year the Orthodox lent started not long after Feleke arrived in the US. This mean we had to learn quickly how to prepare vegan dishes. (We could not have him going on a religious hunger strike, especially given that we were trying to keep up his strength during the radiation treatment.) It was amazing how determined Feleke was to maintain the fast, and how uncannily aware he was of when it began and ended. He once told me, accurately, the number of days remaining. One night when I asked him how he knew (this was before he spoke English and way before he knew how to use the Internet), he took me outside and pointed to the position of the moon in the sky.
The very first week the Feleke was with us, before he knew any English at all, we took him to visit the Ethiopian Orthodox church in Commerce, Michigan. It was a very important Sunday in the Orthodox faith, the celebration of the Epiphany -- the revelation of God the Son as a human being in the person of Jesus Christ. When we told him of the possibility, Feleke really wanted to go. So we went, and we took a couple our kids along as well.
The music and the dancing were fantastic. Right up my alley. And the food was amazing. I'll have another post about Ethiopian food generally later on, but I'll just say here that the Epiphany feast following the Epiphany service at the Orthodox Tewahedo church in Commerce, Michigan is truly exceptional. It was one of many fantastic Ethiopian meals we would have over the months to come. The church service was also very interesting. The preaching and the chants of priests were in the language of Ge'ez (pronounced Geez, I think.) It is an ancient liturgical language that no one but the priests seem to understand.
At least some of the singing was in Amharic, one of Feleke's native tongues, and he sang along with everyone else. He knew all of the words by heart, and singing them seemed to transport him back to his home church in Ethiopia, where he must have sung the songs many times with his mother and father and brothers and sisters. The Orthodox "church music," as he calls it, has been a comfort for him here in the US. During the early days, when we had long drives in the car and the American music on the radio didn't appeal to him, I would use my Android phone to pull up videos of Orthodox church services. He was at first astounded that I could summon his music, with videos, to my phone so easily. Now that's no big deal to him.
Feleke has continued to attend the church in Commerce off and on, catching a ride with our wonderful, absolutely indispensable Ethiopian friend, Abdi Zeynu, who is a graduate student in the Engineering School at UM, a very devout member of the Orthodox church, and a mentor to Feleke. There will be more about Abdi's significance to our Ethiopian adventure in a later post. Feleke decided he wanted some nice church clothes, so we took him to JC Penney and got him this. He picked it out.
Ruth Ann and I have made made one return trip ourselves to the Orthodox church, for the Easter celebration. Although it started officially at 8pm, Abdi told us to come closer to 10pm, as the event could easily go until midnight. The reward for sitting through 2 hours of liturgy in a language we didn't understand, besides the pleasure it gave Feleke, was the chance for another Ethiopian feast. Unfortunately for us, the service continued until almost 2:30 in the morning. We didn't get home until after 4am. Feleke slept in the car on the way home.
Religion is a big deal in Ethiopia. Eastern Orthodox Christianity is the dominant faith in the country, both in terms of numbers of members and its place in the culture. Something like 44% of the population reports being affiliated with the Orthodox church. There are also sizable and increasing numbers of Muslims (34%) and Protestants (18%). Dafe Jema is located in the Oromia area of Ethiopia, where Oromo is the primary language. In this region, the Orthodox church has lost its dominance in the last 10 or 15 years, as the number of people professing to be members of the Orthodox Church has significantly shrunk and the number of Muslims and Protestants has risen. I would be surprised if such shift a significant cultural/demographic shift has not produced conflict, or at least tension in the area.
There are also Ethiopian Jews, or "Beta Israel." You can read about them here. In 1991, when there was political turmoil in Ethiopia, many of the Ethiopian Jews were airlifted by the Israli government to Israel for their protection. It was called Operation Solomon. Dr. Hodes was there at the time and was deeply involved in the operation, providing medical care for those who needed it.
That reminds me. Here is another cool story about another little boy that Dr. Hodes was able to help. There have been many.
