Yesterday morning, we left home and headed to school...only to find out that the kids were on break. We knew that they'd be on break next week, but it was a surprise that they were already off on Friday. So, we turned around and walked home. As we were waiting for our guard to open the gate to our house, one of the dogs that lives with us (Bobby) walked up and proudly dropped a goat head at our feet. Kendra yelled, "Ewww, Bobby!!" Sensing our digust and disappointment, I guess Bobby realized he didn't need to share. So he picked it back up and started eating. Just chewing on a goat head. It was quite possibly one of the most disgusting things I've seen. I mean, the head still had eyes and everything. It was a legit goat head, and the dog was munching away on it like a tasty treat. Totally uncalled for. When we got into our gate, all three dogs started fighting over it as Dundee chased them around the yard trying to get it away. Classic.
Since we were apparently off school, we had a pretty uneventful day. We hung out at the house for awhile, and then made our first journey to the supermarket. It was a pretty sweet grocery store, and we got ourselves some delicious stuff! A couple waffles for breakfast, some bread to make peanut butter and jelly, Mr. Potato Crisps (which is a way cooler name for Pringles), and some candy (I'm feeling chocolate deprived out here!). It was pretty exciting, I must say. After that, we headed back home for some dinner and our second Amharic lesson.
We have two wonderful Amharic "teachers". Really they're just friends of ours that Dundee asked to teach us. Amare did our first lesson, and last night Ready taught us. He taught us the alphabet, which is just so big and tricky! He tells me that I speak better than some Ethiopians because my pronunciation is so good. I'm thinking this isn't true at all, because half the time I pretty much just make up sounds. It's such a tricky language and a lot of the time it's hard to tell what sounds they are making, which leads to me just guessing away. Therefore, my pronunciation cannot be amazing. Sorry Ready, I'm not sure I believe you! :) Learning Amharic is really fun though, and I hope we are able to learn a lot while we're here. Ready even gave us homework, so we've got some studying to do this week!!
After our lesson, we had our first Ethiopian coffee ceremony! Everyone has been talking about this, so we were pretty excited. It's quite a fancy little thing. First, they roasted coffee beans over a little fire with coals in our house. Then they grind them up by hand and make the coffee. It was yummy! They serve it with popcorn, which seems like a random combination...it's quite enjoyable, though.
Kendra and I decided today was kind of like Thanksgiving in Ethiopia for us, due to the large amounts of food we were given. Because the school we are teaching at is celebrating their third anniversary, a bunch of moms from the community cooked lunch at our house. It was a huge lunch, and there were lots of people there. Kendra and I filled our plates with delicious food, and then started eating away. When we were almost finished, and totally stuffed, Dundee started talking about how we have to finish everything on our plates and then get more to eat because "it's the culture" (notice the quotes...Dundee often tries to trick us, and when we asked other friends they told us otherwise). Kendra and I said no way, we couldn't eat anymore. As we finished, Dundee asked one of the people that cooked to bring us more, and we ended up with another full plate. We ate more, but couldn't manage to finish. Right after that, they started giving us coffee, popcorn, and other snacks. It was just food, food, and more food! So very much food. I'm ready for a nap :)
Oh and guess what? We still love Ethiopia ;)
Since we were apparently off school, we had a pretty uneventful day. We hung out at the house for awhile, and then made our first journey to the supermarket. It was a pretty sweet grocery store, and we got ourselves some delicious stuff! A couple waffles for breakfast, some bread to make peanut butter and jelly, Mr. Potato Crisps (which is a way cooler name for Pringles), and some candy (I'm feeling chocolate deprived out here!). It was pretty exciting, I must say. After that, we headed back home for some dinner and our second Amharic lesson.
We have two wonderful Amharic "teachers". Really they're just friends of ours that Dundee asked to teach us. Amare did our first lesson, and last night Ready taught us. He taught us the alphabet, which is just so big and tricky! He tells me that I speak better than some Ethiopians because my pronunciation is so good. I'm thinking this isn't true at all, because half the time I pretty much just make up sounds. It's such a tricky language and a lot of the time it's hard to tell what sounds they are making, which leads to me just guessing away. Therefore, my pronunciation cannot be amazing. Sorry Ready, I'm not sure I believe you! :) Learning Amharic is really fun though, and I hope we are able to learn a lot while we're here. Ready even gave us homework, so we've got some studying to do this week!!
After our lesson, we had our first Ethiopian coffee ceremony! Everyone has been talking about this, so we were pretty excited. It's quite a fancy little thing. First, they roasted coffee beans over a little fire with coals in our house. Then they grind them up by hand and make the coffee. It was yummy! They serve it with popcorn, which seems like a random combination...it's quite enjoyable, though.
Kendra and I decided today was kind of like Thanksgiving in Ethiopia for us, due to the large amounts of food we were given. Because the school we are teaching at is celebrating their third anniversary, a bunch of moms from the community cooked lunch at our house. It was a huge lunch, and there were lots of people there. Kendra and I filled our plates with delicious food, and then started eating away. When we were almost finished, and totally stuffed, Dundee started talking about how we have to finish everything on our plates and then get more to eat because "it's the culture" (notice the quotes...Dundee often tries to trick us, and when we asked other friends they told us otherwise). Kendra and I said no way, we couldn't eat anymore. As we finished, Dundee asked one of the people that cooked to bring us more, and we ended up with another full plate. We ate more, but couldn't manage to finish. Right after that, they started giving us coffee, popcorn, and other snacks. It was just food, food, and more food! So very much food. I'm ready for a nap :)
Oh and guess what? We still love Ethiopia ;)
I'm glad you still love it! Don't get too spoiled over there.
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