Well, it's official. Today is my four week anniversary with Ethiopia. I absolutely cannot believe that we've been here for four weeks already! The time has flown by...four weeks in means we only have eight left (tough math, right there).
Not much has happened since the Betty Crocker blog post, because obviously not much can top that. This week, we've been going to help with the after-school program everyday, teaching the kids from the streets of our "neighborhood". We hope to be able to visit more orphanages in the coming weeks, but have had no luck getting back to the other orphanage. So for now, we're spending lots of time with the after-school program. Of course, we love these kids, too. After all, have we met any kids here yet that we didn't like? They are adorable, and range from about six years old to maybe 11 or 12 years. Since we started teaching them, they all find us every day when we head out of our house onto the street. We can't walk a block without hearing, "Deannaaaa!!! Kendraaaa!!" and being trampled by kids. We feel pretty loved! :)
But anyways, since I don't have many interesting stories to report right now, I thought I'd just do a general little somethin somethin about how we're feeling after living in Africa for a month. Might be boring for you, I don't know. But you know what? My mom reads my blog, and she would like it even if I just wrote, "Hi, I'm still alive and happy over here!" So I know that I'm at least pleasing one person with this. And anyways, I figured I just might be looking back on this awhile from now and it might be nice to remember how I felt after month one. So, there's my justification. Here I go.
I have to say, first and foremost, that I am honestly surprised at the fact that I haven't hated this place at all yet. I fully intended to hate Africa for like, the first week or so. I was totally ready for that. I even told my parents before I left (as they were giving me the "if you ever ever feel like you need to come home for any reason at all you just tell us and we'll make it happen" talk) that I would probably hate it at first and if I told them, they weren't allowed to freak out and buy me a plane ticket home immediately to save me. But amazingly, I have loved Ethiopia from day one. People here told us that culture shock would hit us around week three (and I suppose we're only a week past that) but it hasn't. At least not yet.
Now don't get me wrong, there have been moments when we weren't jumping for joy. For instance, when we were first introduced to our house we were a little...skeptical. I mean, our room didn't look super fantastic and we were greeted with the information that we currently had no running water. Kind of a bummer. We soon realized, though, that our beds were very comfortable, that our suitcases made for some great extra storage space, and that we could in fact manage to kill bugs by ourselves with our shoes (or with an air freshener assult, either way works). And now, our room really feels like our room. In fact, after seeing how other people are living out here it seems quite luxerious. Running water or not. Really when you have no other options, a bucket works out just perfectly. Although we've grown accustomed to showering slightly less often (you know...being kinnnd of dirty) and other such things, there are some aspects of American life that I'm missing.
One of those aspects would be Chipotle. Miss that place. I just want some Mexican food. Another thing I miss is walking down the street without smelling nasty smells. Like urine. Or seeing where those nasty smells are coming from (aka people peeing). Everywhere. I also find myself missing texting. Honestly I haven't missed my phone all that much, but from time to time I quite wish I could send out some texts to my American peeps. I miss cake, or brownies, or something. But we've discussed this already, in the Betty Crocker post. If she has cookies in Ethiopia, maybe she has cake. We can only hope. I also miss rinsing my toothbrush out under the faucet. Good thing I brought like eight toothbrushes, because they get crusty fast when you can only dump some bottled water on top to clean them. And of course of course of course, I miss you people over there in the States. With me often being online around 2am Chicago time, I only get to Skype with people every so often. I very much miss talking to you all, and seeing you all, and hanging out with you all. Honestly. Skyping with anyone from home is always so exciting. That being said, don't be offended when I say that I'm glad we planned this trip for three months because I'm not ready to come back yet.
There were two boys here before us who left the day after we arrived. They were here for a month, and I was thinking last night about how I couldn't imagine leaving here already. Because even though I just listed a few minor cons about living in Ethiopia, there are so many things I love that make up for it. I mean, let's be honest, not being able to thoroughly rinse my toothbrush is not that huge of a bummer. I love the food (except when it made me sick, but that was only one day of many. So we're good.), I love how cheap everything is, I love how there are donkeys everywhere, I love that goats and sheep just walk right by all the time, I love how people are always carrying crazy amounts of things on their heads or backs (blows my mind, all the time), I love that we get to walk so much in the beautiful weather, I love the sugar that they give you for coffee (it's super delicious), and I don't know, I just love so many things here.
To finish it off, I know I've already said how much I love all the people here. They are all just fantastic. Welcoming, friendly, helpful, awesome. We've met so many people already, and I know I'm going to miss them a lot when we leave. There's always someone around at our house willing to do stupid stuff with us, or just laugh at us as we do stupid stuff. After all, Amare and Desta helped us steel a sheep. That's pretty epic. And we got a whole group of our Ethiopian friends in on that fantastic game of Ghost in the Graveyard. We have such a fun time with them, every day. Not only have we made some really great friends, but we also really like how friendly even strangers are. If we're ever lost or need something, there's always some random person willing to help us out.
You can probably tell from previous posts and I may have been a little repetitive today, but long story short, I really am having an amazing time in Ethiopia and this first month has been one of the best months of my life. Coming here was certainly a very, very good decision. After being here for a month, I'm very happy. I know there's still so much I haven't seen or done here yet, and I can't wait for all the fun things that will happen in the next two months.
That being said, I'll work on having a more exciting story for you in the next post...I should probably free some more animals destined to be slaughtered or something ;)
Not much has happened since the Betty Crocker blog post, because obviously not much can top that. This week, we've been going to help with the after-school program everyday, teaching the kids from the streets of our "neighborhood". We hope to be able to visit more orphanages in the coming weeks, but have had no luck getting back to the other orphanage. So for now, we're spending lots of time with the after-school program. Of course, we love these kids, too. After all, have we met any kids here yet that we didn't like? They are adorable, and range from about six years old to maybe 11 or 12 years. Since we started teaching them, they all find us every day when we head out of our house onto the street. We can't walk a block without hearing, "Deannaaaa!!! Kendraaaa!!" and being trampled by kids. We feel pretty loved! :)
But anyways, since I don't have many interesting stories to report right now, I thought I'd just do a general little somethin somethin about how we're feeling after living in Africa for a month. Might be boring for you, I don't know. But you know what? My mom reads my blog, and she would like it even if I just wrote, "Hi, I'm still alive and happy over here!" So I know that I'm at least pleasing one person with this. And anyways, I figured I just might be looking back on this awhile from now and it might be nice to remember how I felt after month one. So, there's my justification. Here I go.
I have to say, first and foremost, that I am honestly surprised at the fact that I haven't hated this place at all yet. I fully intended to hate Africa for like, the first week or so. I was totally ready for that. I even told my parents before I left (as they were giving me the "if you ever ever feel like you need to come home for any reason at all you just tell us and we'll make it happen" talk) that I would probably hate it at first and if I told them, they weren't allowed to freak out and buy me a plane ticket home immediately to save me. But amazingly, I have loved Ethiopia from day one. People here told us that culture shock would hit us around week three (and I suppose we're only a week past that) but it hasn't. At least not yet.
Now don't get me wrong, there have been moments when we weren't jumping for joy. For instance, when we were first introduced to our house we were a little...skeptical. I mean, our room didn't look super fantastic and we were greeted with the information that we currently had no running water. Kind of a bummer. We soon realized, though, that our beds were very comfortable, that our suitcases made for some great extra storage space, and that we could in fact manage to kill bugs by ourselves with our shoes (or with an air freshener assult, either way works). And now, our room really feels like our room. In fact, after seeing how other people are living out here it seems quite luxerious. Running water or not. Really when you have no other options, a bucket works out just perfectly. Although we've grown accustomed to showering slightly less often (you know...being kinnnd of dirty) and other such things, there are some aspects of American life that I'm missing.
One of those aspects would be Chipotle. Miss that place. I just want some Mexican food. Another thing I miss is walking down the street without smelling nasty smells. Like urine. Or seeing where those nasty smells are coming from (aka people peeing). Everywhere. I also find myself missing texting. Honestly I haven't missed my phone all that much, but from time to time I quite wish I could send out some texts to my American peeps. I miss cake, or brownies, or something. But we've discussed this already, in the Betty Crocker post. If she has cookies in Ethiopia, maybe she has cake. We can only hope. I also miss rinsing my toothbrush out under the faucet. Good thing I brought like eight toothbrushes, because they get crusty fast when you can only dump some bottled water on top to clean them. And of course of course of course, I miss you people over there in the States. With me often being online around 2am Chicago time, I only get to Skype with people every so often. I very much miss talking to you all, and seeing you all, and hanging out with you all. Honestly. Skyping with anyone from home is always so exciting. That being said, don't be offended when I say that I'm glad we planned this trip for three months because I'm not ready to come back yet.
There were two boys here before us who left the day after we arrived. They were here for a month, and I was thinking last night about how I couldn't imagine leaving here already. Because even though I just listed a few minor cons about living in Ethiopia, there are so many things I love that make up for it. I mean, let's be honest, not being able to thoroughly rinse my toothbrush is not that huge of a bummer. I love the food (except when it made me sick, but that was only one day of many. So we're good.), I love how cheap everything is, I love how there are donkeys everywhere, I love that goats and sheep just walk right by all the time, I love how people are always carrying crazy amounts of things on their heads or backs (blows my mind, all the time), I love that we get to walk so much in the beautiful weather, I love the sugar that they give you for coffee (it's super delicious), and I don't know, I just love so many things here.
To finish it off, I know I've already said how much I love all the people here. They are all just fantastic. Welcoming, friendly, helpful, awesome. We've met so many people already, and I know I'm going to miss them a lot when we leave. There's always someone around at our house willing to do stupid stuff with us, or just laugh at us as we do stupid stuff. After all, Amare and Desta helped us steel a sheep. That's pretty epic. And we got a whole group of our Ethiopian friends in on that fantastic game of Ghost in the Graveyard. We have such a fun time with them, every day. Not only have we made some really great friends, but we also really like how friendly even strangers are. If we're ever lost or need something, there's always some random person willing to help us out.
You can probably tell from previous posts and I may have been a little repetitive today, but long story short, I really am having an amazing time in Ethiopia and this first month has been one of the best months of my life. Coming here was certainly a very, very good decision. After being here for a month, I'm very happy. I know there's still so much I haven't seen or done here yet, and I can't wait for all the fun things that will happen in the next two months.
That being said, I'll work on having a more exciting story for you in the next post...I should probably free some more animals destined to be slaughtered or something ;)
Yes, I am thrilled to hear from you again. We are very proud of you for doing such a wonderful thing. Continue to enjoy for the next two months! Love you
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