Okay, okay, the truth comes out in this blog. I've officially been pickpocketed. I wasn't going to say anything, for fear of giving my mother a heart attack. But with this story coming out, she'll know I'm not keeping any details of this trip from her! See Mom, I told you I'd tell you everything...even the slighty scary things. Don't worry, though, it was only a pair of headphones! So here's the story...
Kendra and I had our first day at the orphanage yesterday, and we left for our three hour lunch break (yeah, what? Three hours? I can't eat lunch for that long.) to find somewhere to eat. As we were walking down the street two boys, maybe 10 years old, came up beside us and started asking for money. We get this a lot due to the fact that we're "Faranje", so it was no big deal. We just kept walking, and there were plenty of other people around. I was holding my bag in front of me, because we have been told many times to watch out for "sneaky stealers" (side note: everyone also tells us that these pickpocketers don't harm people physically, they just try to quietly take your money...not good, but not the worst). Anyways, these boys weren't giving up and were starting to get very very close, practically stepping on my feet. I felt his hand go for my bag, so I grabbed it closer to me and we swatted him away, essentially. I checked for my wallet and camera right away, the only valuable things I had with me, and they were still there. I didn't find out until we got home that he had grabbed my headphones from the side pocket. Bummer! Still, it could've been a lot worse. Today I switched bags and am now using my backpack that came to Europe with me (not the giant one, of course, the mini one that comes off the giant one) because it is practically sneaky stealer-proof. It opens in the back instead of the front, so no one can get in while it's on my back. So don't worry, Mom and Dad, all is well. I even got new headphones today...they only cost a couple of dollars, since everything is so cheap here! Which brings me to my next story...
As most of you know, we have to pay a fee to volunteer. It's $1400, and it goes towards our housing, food and whatnot for the 12 weeks we are staying. We were not allowed to pay it until we got here, and just started trying to figure it out today. One American dollar is equal to about 17 Ethiopian Birr. If you do the math, that means our fee is approximately 24,000 Birr. That's a lot of birr. As I said, things are very cheap here. Let me put it into perspective for you: A carmel macchiato at Kaldi's (which is exactly like Starbucks) is like 12 birr. That's about $1.50. A big restaurant meal (I'm talking like not fast food...a legit restaurant) costs no more than 50 birr. That's around $3. A 30 minute taxi ride costs about 80 birr...that what, like $5? I think it costs that much just to sit down in a taxi at home. You get the idea, it's cheap in Ethiopia. A few birr goes a long, long, long way. Getting back to the point, you can only imagine what you could do with 24,000 birr here! So today, we attempted to get that money to pay the fee. As a result, I feel kind of like a drug dealer of sorts. Currently, I am sitting in a wifi cafe with 6,000 birr strapped to my stomach. So is Kendra. We failed at getting anywhere close to 24,000 birr from the ATM. We assumed we wouldn't be able to get it all at once, but we thought maybe 10,000 at a time? Not quite. So, thus far, I have 6,000 birr of the 24,000 birr fee. The best part is, the ATM gave me a HUGE wad of 50's. So here I am, with lots and lots of birr. Luckily, Kendra and I brought our money belts (I know, we are SO cool!) so we have our piles of money safetly hidden beneath our clothes :) We're going to ask Dundee if there's a bank that will let us take out the rest of the thousands of birr that we owe, which would make things a lot easier!
And the last story: The Black Tongue. I wasn't going to write about this either, because at first I thought maybe this is something awkward...or disgusting, and therefore embarassing. Further research shows that it is not. In fact, apparently it's quite common, so I'm willing to share with you. Last week, I woke up in the morning and went to brush my teeth only to discover something awful. My tongue was black! What that heck?! I was able to brush it away, but it pretty much freaked us out (naturally, because a black tongue is just gross!). Well, a few days after it happened to me, Kendra woke up to the same surprise. With this, we decided it was time to google "black tongue in Africa". Good news, it's not caused by some weird disease (or, what I was more concerned about, eating a large black spider in my sleep...remember the one that escaped under my bed?!). It's actually from Pepto Bismol! We learned this, and thought back: both of us had taken some the night before the black tongue incident (we haven't actually gotten sick yet, we both just had little tummy aches). Apparently it's some sort of reaction. Weird, but a relief!
Well, that's enough odd stories for one day! Bye for now :)
Kendra and I had our first day at the orphanage yesterday, and we left for our three hour lunch break (yeah, what? Three hours? I can't eat lunch for that long.) to find somewhere to eat. As we were walking down the street two boys, maybe 10 years old, came up beside us and started asking for money. We get this a lot due to the fact that we're "Faranje", so it was no big deal. We just kept walking, and there were plenty of other people around. I was holding my bag in front of me, because we have been told many times to watch out for "sneaky stealers" (side note: everyone also tells us that these pickpocketers don't harm people physically, they just try to quietly take your money...not good, but not the worst). Anyways, these boys weren't giving up and were starting to get very very close, practically stepping on my feet. I felt his hand go for my bag, so I grabbed it closer to me and we swatted him away, essentially. I checked for my wallet and camera right away, the only valuable things I had with me, and they were still there. I didn't find out until we got home that he had grabbed my headphones from the side pocket. Bummer! Still, it could've been a lot worse. Today I switched bags and am now using my backpack that came to Europe with me (not the giant one, of course, the mini one that comes off the giant one) because it is practically sneaky stealer-proof. It opens in the back instead of the front, so no one can get in while it's on my back. So don't worry, Mom and Dad, all is well. I even got new headphones today...they only cost a couple of dollars, since everything is so cheap here! Which brings me to my next story...
As most of you know, we have to pay a fee to volunteer. It's $1400, and it goes towards our housing, food and whatnot for the 12 weeks we are staying. We were not allowed to pay it until we got here, and just started trying to figure it out today. One American dollar is equal to about 17 Ethiopian Birr. If you do the math, that means our fee is approximately 24,000 Birr. That's a lot of birr. As I said, things are very cheap here. Let me put it into perspective for you: A carmel macchiato at Kaldi's (which is exactly like Starbucks) is like 12 birr. That's about $1.50. A big restaurant meal (I'm talking like not fast food...a legit restaurant) costs no more than 50 birr. That's around $3. A 30 minute taxi ride costs about 80 birr...that what, like $5? I think it costs that much just to sit down in a taxi at home. You get the idea, it's cheap in Ethiopia. A few birr goes a long, long, long way. Getting back to the point, you can only imagine what you could do with 24,000 birr here! So today, we attempted to get that money to pay the fee. As a result, I feel kind of like a drug dealer of sorts. Currently, I am sitting in a wifi cafe with 6,000 birr strapped to my stomach. So is Kendra. We failed at getting anywhere close to 24,000 birr from the ATM. We assumed we wouldn't be able to get it all at once, but we thought maybe 10,000 at a time? Not quite. So, thus far, I have 6,000 birr of the 24,000 birr fee. The best part is, the ATM gave me a HUGE wad of 50's. So here I am, with lots and lots of birr. Luckily, Kendra and I brought our money belts (I know, we are SO cool!) so we have our piles of money safetly hidden beneath our clothes :) We're going to ask Dundee if there's a bank that will let us take out the rest of the thousands of birr that we owe, which would make things a lot easier!
And the last story: The Black Tongue. I wasn't going to write about this either, because at first I thought maybe this is something awkward...or disgusting, and therefore embarassing. Further research shows that it is not. In fact, apparently it's quite common, so I'm willing to share with you. Last week, I woke up in the morning and went to brush my teeth only to discover something awful. My tongue was black! What that heck?! I was able to brush it away, but it pretty much freaked us out (naturally, because a black tongue is just gross!). Well, a few days after it happened to me, Kendra woke up to the same surprise. With this, we decided it was time to google "black tongue in Africa". Good news, it's not caused by some weird disease (or, what I was more concerned about, eating a large black spider in my sleep...remember the one that escaped under my bed?!). It's actually from Pepto Bismol! We learned this, and thought back: both of us had taken some the night before the black tongue incident (we haven't actually gotten sick yet, we both just had little tummy aches). Apparently it's some sort of reaction. Weird, but a relief!
Well, that's enough odd stories for one day! Bye for now :)
So exciting to read all of this. So glad you found a place to use your computers. Send us more info about sending packages. Be safe!
ReplyDeleteWatch out for the sneaky stealers:)!!! I love, love, LOVE reading about your adventures and can't wait for the next one!!!
ReplyDeleteHugs and kisses,
Cheryl
P/S: It sounds like perhaps you should be brushing more frequently;). Black tongue? Nasty!!