Hello peeps!
So, not much news to report from this fine country of Ethiopia. Things have been a bit uneventful for the past couple of days. It's been rather relaxing around here, which has been nice. But I've got some time now while I wait at the wifi cafe to see if my lazy sisters will get out of bed and Skype me :) so I'll fill you in on some random little happenings...
Let's see. First of all, Kendra and I got our hair braided like legit African girls. We were sitting around our house the other night, and Dundee and Amare's sisters were there. All of a sudden, they just started braiding Kendra's hair. Of course, that meant they had to do mine, too. It was pretty exciting, and we looked pretty awesome (or maybe a litttttle weird...). We took it out the next morning, because well...let's be honest. We don't really look African. I mean yes, I am pretty much incredibly tan....but we're not that tan. We figured we might get even more looks than usual if we went out with braided hair, trying to look African and failing. And anyways, we really needed a shower. That braided hair of mine had not been washed in too long, and it was well worth taking the braids out in order to get clean hair. But never fear, I have pictures! Coming soon to your Facebook.
Speaking of showers...Kendra and I still don't have running water. Not like this is news to anyone, given that we've been here for a month and have never once been able to use running water at our house. I bring this up, though, because we both awoke in the middle of the night to the sound of trickling water running through pipes. Was it just a dream? I don't know. All I know is that when we woke up in the morning, there was definitely not running water. Sad day.
Alright, let's talk about food again. Remember how Amare and Dundee's mom made us a fantastic dinner a few nights ago? Well, she cooked for us again. Two more times. And both times were amazing, of course. One night we had pasta with a meat sauce, vegetables, and fruit salad. The other night we had pancakes! And wow, was that a surprise! In fact, it was a surprise times two. Amare had told us that his mom was making pancakes for dinner and we got ever so excited. Then, she brought dinner in and we saw the "pancakes". They did not really resemble the pancake I am accustomed to. We questioned this and said, "Um, that looks a lot like injera. We like injera but...it's not a pancake..." to which we were told, "No, it is a pancake. Ethiopian pancake." Okay, so we were kind of bummed. But then, surprise surprise, Kendra took a bite and yelled, "it's a PANCAKE!" Amare's mom (and everyone else around) laughed at how excited we got all over again. After all, they did tell us it was a pancake. We just didn't believe them until that first wonderful bite. Tomorrow we are going to be making homemade American style pancakes for the Ethiopians. I don't know who is more excited, us or them.
Woah! We saw a giant turtle yesterday! We were sitting in some grass in a little mini park type area just minding our own business when Kendra screamed. There was an extremely large turtle walking right towards us! And let me tell you he was really bookin it, for a turtle. He got to some pretty high speeds, and he was really just coming right at us. Resisting the urge to see if we could pet him, we moved to slightly higher ground. We weren't sure if mayyybe he wanted to eat us...and that's just not a risk I'm willing to take. After he left, two tiny puppies came to visit us. They were just adorable! Except for the fact that there were fleas all over them, so we couldn't pet them. Bummer, yo.
This morning, I was walking to meet Kendra at a cafe near our neighborhood. Just walking down the street I've come to know and love, taking in the Ethiopian scenery. A usual morning. Then a random Ethiopian guy came up and started a conversation with me as I was walking. Still, a usual morning. We get this a lot. People really like to come up to us and say hello. So anyways, he chatting with me about how nice the weather is and if I come from England or America...just small talk. Until he decided to check my marital status. "So...you have husband?" he asked. I replied with, "Uh...yes? I'm going to meet up with him right now." In case you were wondering if I got married since leaving America, worry not, it was a lie I told the man. He seemed bummed, and left with a sigh and no goodbye. Sorry, buddy. My fake husband and I are very happy at the moment.
Let's discuss the things Kendra and I are doing work-wise now, shall we? I don't want you getting the wrong idea, thinking I'm spending all my time in Africa doing silly things like eating pancakes and stealing sheep. This past week, we went to the after-school program every day. This is for the kids who live on the streets of our neighborhood. You can tell very easily that these kids don't have much, but they're an amazing bunch! There are a lot of them, and apparently there usually aren't people to help with the program. Kendra and I decided that we wanted to help out every day, so we've been planning activities and games and hanging out with them every afternoon. This is nice, because once we find a closer orphanage we can still do that in the morning and this school group in the afternoon. The kids are a lot of fun, and range from about five to maybe 13 years old. One day, we taught them to make paper airplanes. They loved it. We're looking forward to seeing them again tomorrow! Again, I'll have pictures up of these cute kids soon :)
Well I'm nearly out of random things to talk about here and Kim and Cheryl just are not Skyping me...what the heck guys, come on. What else could you possibly have to do? Just kidding, I still love you. I just think you should Skype me.
Want to know how much Amharic I know? It's going to be hard to type it in here, and I'm just going to go with phonetical spelling, because I don't know the crazy Amharic alphabet. Or how to type with the Amharic alphabet. I only know how to speak it. So, here goes:
Salahm. Denanachu? Ene arabungne. Erat ifilligallo. Hulet arungwade tshirt allesh.
That says "Hi. How are you? I'm hungry. I want dinner. She has two green tshirts." I know, impressive! What's even more impressive is that I also know the days of the week, all kinds of food, how to count to 100, and lots of other random stuff. But I'm not going to type all that on here because that's just boring. So if you want me to show off my bilingual-ness, Skype me and I'll have a conversation with you in Amharic. It'll be fun.
Oh yes, I know what else! Kendra and I bought a hair straightener a few days ago. A pretty exciting purchase because (don't judge me, I'm in Africa with no running water) it makes our hair look cleaner for a longer period of time. Nice!
Guess what? My sisters do love me! They just both Skyped me. Finally. I know you were all worried, so I thought I should update you. Brady asked when I was going to come over again, and if I was at Grandma's house. Aww, no, I'm much farther than that my cute little nephew :( I miss those kids!!
Anyways, I'll give you one more random story then I'll shut up for now, since I'm not trying to pass the time waiting for my sisters anymore. When we acquired our wonderful hair straightener, we of course went right home to do our hair. Kendra (being kind of short, as you may know) was standing on the toilet to reach the outlet in the bathroom as I was leaning over the bathtub washing my hair in a bucket. Then there was a scream and a crash as Kendra broke the toilet seat and tumbled into the toilet. Luckily for her, when the seat broke a piece was under her foot. That, combined with her quick reflexes, allowed her to avoid contact with the water inside the toilet. Close call.
Well, that's all for now! I'm sure I could go on and on and on and on with random African stories, but I think people can probably only handle so much before they start getting bored. Yes? So I'll save some for next time :) Until then, peace out everybody!
So, not much news to report from this fine country of Ethiopia. Things have been a bit uneventful for the past couple of days. It's been rather relaxing around here, which has been nice. But I've got some time now while I wait at the wifi cafe to see if my lazy sisters will get out of bed and Skype me :) so I'll fill you in on some random little happenings...
Let's see. First of all, Kendra and I got our hair braided like legit African girls. We were sitting around our house the other night, and Dundee and Amare's sisters were there. All of a sudden, they just started braiding Kendra's hair. Of course, that meant they had to do mine, too. It was pretty exciting, and we looked pretty awesome (or maybe a litttttle weird...). We took it out the next morning, because well...let's be honest. We don't really look African. I mean yes, I am pretty much incredibly tan....but we're not that tan. We figured we might get even more looks than usual if we went out with braided hair, trying to look African and failing. And anyways, we really needed a shower. That braided hair of mine had not been washed in too long, and it was well worth taking the braids out in order to get clean hair. But never fear, I have pictures! Coming soon to your Facebook.
Speaking of showers...Kendra and I still don't have running water. Not like this is news to anyone, given that we've been here for a month and have never once been able to use running water at our house. I bring this up, though, because we both awoke in the middle of the night to the sound of trickling water running through pipes. Was it just a dream? I don't know. All I know is that when we woke up in the morning, there was definitely not running water. Sad day.
Alright, let's talk about food again. Remember how Amare and Dundee's mom made us a fantastic dinner a few nights ago? Well, she cooked for us again. Two more times. And both times were amazing, of course. One night we had pasta with a meat sauce, vegetables, and fruit salad. The other night we had pancakes! And wow, was that a surprise! In fact, it was a surprise times two. Amare had told us that his mom was making pancakes for dinner and we got ever so excited. Then, she brought dinner in and we saw the "pancakes". They did not really resemble the pancake I am accustomed to. We questioned this and said, "Um, that looks a lot like injera. We like injera but...it's not a pancake..." to which we were told, "No, it is a pancake. Ethiopian pancake." Okay, so we were kind of bummed. But then, surprise surprise, Kendra took a bite and yelled, "it's a PANCAKE!" Amare's mom (and everyone else around) laughed at how excited we got all over again. After all, they did tell us it was a pancake. We just didn't believe them until that first wonderful bite. Tomorrow we are going to be making homemade American style pancakes for the Ethiopians. I don't know who is more excited, us or them.
Woah! We saw a giant turtle yesterday! We were sitting in some grass in a little mini park type area just minding our own business when Kendra screamed. There was an extremely large turtle walking right towards us! And let me tell you he was really bookin it, for a turtle. He got to some pretty high speeds, and he was really just coming right at us. Resisting the urge to see if we could pet him, we moved to slightly higher ground. We weren't sure if mayyybe he wanted to eat us...and that's just not a risk I'm willing to take. After he left, two tiny puppies came to visit us. They were just adorable! Except for the fact that there were fleas all over them, so we couldn't pet them. Bummer, yo.
This morning, I was walking to meet Kendra at a cafe near our neighborhood. Just walking down the street I've come to know and love, taking in the Ethiopian scenery. A usual morning. Then a random Ethiopian guy came up and started a conversation with me as I was walking. Still, a usual morning. We get this a lot. People really like to come up to us and say hello. So anyways, he chatting with me about how nice the weather is and if I come from England or America...just small talk. Until he decided to check my marital status. "So...you have husband?" he asked. I replied with, "Uh...yes? I'm going to meet up with him right now." In case you were wondering if I got married since leaving America, worry not, it was a lie I told the man. He seemed bummed, and left with a sigh and no goodbye. Sorry, buddy. My fake husband and I are very happy at the moment.
Let's discuss the things Kendra and I are doing work-wise now, shall we? I don't want you getting the wrong idea, thinking I'm spending all my time in Africa doing silly things like eating pancakes and stealing sheep. This past week, we went to the after-school program every day. This is for the kids who live on the streets of our neighborhood. You can tell very easily that these kids don't have much, but they're an amazing bunch! There are a lot of them, and apparently there usually aren't people to help with the program. Kendra and I decided that we wanted to help out every day, so we've been planning activities and games and hanging out with them every afternoon. This is nice, because once we find a closer orphanage we can still do that in the morning and this school group in the afternoon. The kids are a lot of fun, and range from about five to maybe 13 years old. One day, we taught them to make paper airplanes. They loved it. We're looking forward to seeing them again tomorrow! Again, I'll have pictures up of these cute kids soon :)
Well I'm nearly out of random things to talk about here and Kim and Cheryl just are not Skyping me...what the heck guys, come on. What else could you possibly have to do? Just kidding, I still love you. I just think you should Skype me.
Want to know how much Amharic I know? It's going to be hard to type it in here, and I'm just going to go with phonetical spelling, because I don't know the crazy Amharic alphabet. Or how to type with the Amharic alphabet. I only know how to speak it. So, here goes:
Salahm. Denanachu? Ene arabungne. Erat ifilligallo. Hulet arungwade tshirt allesh.
That says "Hi. How are you? I'm hungry. I want dinner. She has two green tshirts." I know, impressive! What's even more impressive is that I also know the days of the week, all kinds of food, how to count to 100, and lots of other random stuff. But I'm not going to type all that on here because that's just boring. So if you want me to show off my bilingual-ness, Skype me and I'll have a conversation with you in Amharic. It'll be fun.
Oh yes, I know what else! Kendra and I bought a hair straightener a few days ago. A pretty exciting purchase because (don't judge me, I'm in Africa with no running water) it makes our hair look cleaner for a longer period of time. Nice!
Guess what? My sisters do love me! They just both Skyped me. Finally. I know you were all worried, so I thought I should update you. Brady asked when I was going to come over again, and if I was at Grandma's house. Aww, no, I'm much farther than that my cute little nephew :( I miss those kids!!
Anyways, I'll give you one more random story then I'll shut up for now, since I'm not trying to pass the time waiting for my sisters anymore. When we acquired our wonderful hair straightener, we of course went right home to do our hair. Kendra (being kind of short, as you may know) was standing on the toilet to reach the outlet in the bathroom as I was leaning over the bathtub washing my hair in a bucket. Then there was a scream and a crash as Kendra broke the toilet seat and tumbled into the toilet. Luckily for her, when the seat broke a piece was under her foot. That, combined with her quick reflexes, allowed her to avoid contact with the water inside the toilet. Close call.
Well, that's all for now! I'm sure I could go on and on and on and on with random African stories, but I think people can probably only handle so much before they start getting bored. Yes? So I'll save some for next time :) Until then, peace out everybody!
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