Church in Gambella

Working for CCL has thus far been amazing. Throughout the summer I have progressively been won over to the concepts of human development and improvement through leadership education, training, and just investing in others. The significance of this really hit me this week as I helped our small Gambella office hire more staff members for an extension to our current project. While conducting interviews, I continually found myself attempting to gauge the potential of the person on the other side of the desk. The people we will hire are qualified to fill their roles, but I am so excited to give them an opportunity to grow and develop though their upcoming experience with CCL. My only regret is that I will be leaving soon, and will not be the one who is able to help them do this.

I recently was invited to and went to a church service here in Gambella. In the middle of an obscure field sat a large structure with a zinc roof. I arrived fashionably late (1 or 2 hours late that is), and caused quite a stir for the preacher as I had to enter from the front of the structure and proceed to the back. After he finished his sermon I was invited to get up on the stage to present myself and my work to the 500+ people in the audience. Everyone was very kind, and translators were provided for me since I know very little Amharic and none of their tribal dialect. After I finished, two or three more people got up and preached for a while. All of this was fine and dandy, but what came next floored me. The keyboard was fired up, a tune was begun, everyone rose from their seats, they began swaying back and forth, and on some unknown cue they began singing in unison. Singing is not really the right word. It was more shouting at the top of their lungs with all the passion and conviction that a person could possibly muster. It was truly incredible though, as it all melded together! I have no rhythm, but I found myself swaying back and forth and smiling the rest of the evening.