Rats, Mice, Fleas and Spiders. Lovely. (3-27-12)

So yesterday was a pretty epic I-live-in-Africa-with-lots-of-creatures day.  In the morning, Nina (our new guest, a lady from Florida) informed us that she didn't sleep very well due to the mouse she found in her bed.  What?!  Scary!  This was in a different bedroom than ours, which instantly made me feel better...but still, her room is only about five feet from mine.  All things considered though, hearing about a mouse in someone else's bed is the least of my worries.  At least I didn't see it.

At school on the other hand, I did see it.  We were in one of the little rooms getting some supplies we had brought for an art project with the kids when we saw a mouse run right by us.  Little Mouse hid behind a box, and we screamed.  Masresha didn't seem concerned at all.  In fact, he just left the little guy there, wherever he was hiding.  He's probably still in there.  Ew. 

It got worse after school.  We were at home, getting ready to head out to dinner with some people.  I was walking back from our room.  The second bathroom is right outside ours, and I heard a little tap tap tap.  I assumed it was water dripping, which was incredibly dumb of me considering we haven't had water in days (more on that later).  But when Kendra walked that way, she saw a rat (okay, I don't really know if it was a rat or a mouse.  But honestly, what's it matter...it's a nasty rodent either way.  I'm going with rat though, cause I heard this sucker was big) run right through the bathroom and out the window.  Second rat/mouse spotting inside our house in one 24 hour period.  Not cool.  If you recall the incident weeks ago when we got attacked by a rat in our outside kitchen, you may recall me saying that Amare and all of them assured us they were only outside - never inside.  Well, I beg to differ.  Clearly they were wrong.  There are officially rodents coming in and out of our house.  Thankfully, we have not seen any in our bedroom or bathroom and we figure if we keep the door shut, we're in the clear (I know that isn't completely true, but please don't burst my bubble of fake oblivious happiness).

We went to dinner, came back, and were getting ready for bed when I discovered the next creature.  I felt a little tickle on my foot, and looked down only to discover a flea.  A gross little flea, on my foot!  I flicked him off, and he jumped right back on...what?!  No, not allowed.  I flicked him off again, and killed him (I think).  I then proceeded to check both feet and legs for any more fleas, and change into different pajamas.  I didn't find any, and have been telling myself that that's the only one and there are no more anywhere ever.  Kaela is a bubble-burster though, and tells me that we all have fleas all over because we're living in Africa.  I told her no, she's wrong.  Maybe she does, but I only had one and I killed it.  So I'm home free. 

Flea killed, I was walking to bed and saw a spider.  It was a pretty good sized spider, but I had seen enough creatures in one day to be unfazed.  I announced that I had found a spider to Kendra, and then squished it.  Pretty proud of myself.  Kendra was, too.  The best part is that after doing a little check between my sheets for any unwanted guests, I just closed my eyes and went right to sleep.  No problem.  Didn't lose any sleep over the fact that there were rats, mice, fleas and spiders running around my house.  What's wrong with me?

Now on to my complaint about water.  We haven't had water in sooooo many days again, and I am dirty.  So, so dirty.  Baby wipes can only make you feel so clean when it's 90+ degrees every day and dusty and dirty outside.  When you work with kids who pee on you in the morning, and kids who have snot and dirt caked on them in the afternoon you just feel dirty and wipes don't cut it.  Unfortunately they have to, because we evidently have an extreme lack of water.  The last real shower I took was over a week ago.  Oh my goodness I'm disgusting.  It's even worse when you find a flea on you, and think "if only I could scrub and scrub and scrub in a long, hot shower" but you can't.  You can't even rinse off in a cold shower.  Because there is no water.  I can't even describe to you how excited I am to shower when I get back to America.  Words can't explain how amazing that will be.  11 days, and I'll be CLEAN!!!!!  :D

My life just got a lot better. Camel riding in Africa: Done (3-24-12)

So today I rode a camel.  Epic!!!  Now, I know you can ride camels in America.  In fact, when I told my family that one of my goals while in Africa was to ride a camel they informed me that you can ride camels in America and that I didn’t need to travel all the way to Africa to accomplish this goal.  I understand that, but is it cooler to say, “I rode a camel in Illinois!” or, “I rode a camel in Ethiopia!”  The answer is Ethiopia.  Obviously.  So, I rode a camel in Ethiopia!

It was a fantastic time.  Just wonderful.  Last weekend, we told Amen that we needed to ride a camel before leaving Ethiopia.  He said he would take us to the beer factory this weekend…because clearly a beer factory is the place to find camels?  Strangely enough, it’s true.  Don’t worry, I was sure to remind him every day this week.  I had my hopes way up.  He followed through, and my dreams came true today when Kendra, Kaela, our new guest (who just arrived from America today, and jumped right on a camel!), Amen and I all headed to the beer factory for some camel riding.  There were also monkeys running around, which just made my day even better.

We all had a pretty awesome time, I believe.  I know I did!  Oddly enough, Amen was the most afraid.  He keeps claiming that the camel tried to “kick him” in the face with his head.  It was kind of hilarious to watch him.  I went first, and after struggling to climb onto the little fellow was instantly surprised at how tall he was when he stood up.  Woah!  I was high!  Luckily, it turns out it’s pretty darn easy to ride a camel.  He even did a little running while I was on him, and I didn’t fall off.  Because I’m the best camel rider ever.

The area was called Sebata, and it was very pretty.  It was just outside of Addis, and there were lots of pretty trees and even a waterfall!  It was like a little paradise.  Especially since there was a camel there.  I’m just so happy I got to ride one today…time is running out and I was seriously concerned that I wouldn’t achieve my goal!  But, worry no more, I’ve done it.  AND, big news, I’ve also checked “befriend donkey” off of my list.  I know I see donkeys all over here (everyone else knows too, because I still point them out all the time, even though I’ve lived here for nearly three months), and so befriending one should be easy enough.  But generally they just walk right on by and the opportunity just hasn’t presented itself.  A few days ago, however, a donkey just turned and walked right over to me!  It was pretty clear that he wanted to say hi and be my best friend forever.  Good thing, cause I really needed a donkey friend.  I’m feeling so accomplished these days…donkey befriended, camel ridden…oh it’s so fantastic.

Let’s see…what else can I tell you…

Nothing much besides the ordinary day care and after school stuff has been going on here.  I still love the kids, and I’m getting a little bit stressed out about saying goodbye to them.  Two weeks from today, and I’ll be on a plane heading back to America.  I can’t believe it!  Time has gone by so fast.  I mean, I’m totally pumped for that burrito that I requested be waiting for me at the airport (okay, and to see all my peeps back home) but I’m going to be super bummed to say bye to all my peeps here!  We’ll see how that goes.  Until then, Kendra and I plan on having a fantastic, awesome, wonderful, exciting last two weeks.  We’ve got more souvenirs to buy, a list of things to take pictures of, and all sorts of other things to do!

Alright, that’s all I’ve got for now!  Time for me to go eat some shiro.  I’m pretty pumped to make some for everyone at home, btw….  J

The Streets of Kore (3-21-12)

So I'm just chillin at home after a wonderful morning at the day care, waiting for school time this afternoon.  Since I have nothing better to do, I figured why not tell you a little about the streets we live on?  I don't think I've done much of that yet, and it's quite different than the streets of Saint Charles.  Perhaps if you've read allllll the millions of blogs I've posted, you remember how I described the minibus experience a long time ago.  Seems like the easiest way to go, so I'll just go ahead and tell you about our "neighborhood" as we experience it, with all five senses. 

Sight

I'll begin with sight.  There is much to see on this wonderful street.  Mostly good things, but some I could live without (mainly the men peeing everywhere).  When you leave our compound, you see our Target.  Really it's not Target, because they don't have Target in Ethiopia.  But it's pretty much just as great.  Across the dirt path from our house there is a concrete wall that makes up a few more compounds.  In the middle of the wall there is a small hole for a window.  Walk up to this window, and you can pretty much buy anything your heart desires.  Bread, Coke, water, eggs, minutes for your cell phone...what else could I ever need?! 

Now if you walk to the left for a while, you'll see the dump.  A beautiful sight where Addis accumulated lots and lots of trash.  Of course, I was being sarcastic when I said "beautiful" sight.  But actually, when we went to check it out once it was kind of not so bad.  After school one day, Kendra and I decided it was time to see the garbage dump.  We started walking there and randomly came across Masresha.  We told him we were just going for a walk, and he pretty much got super concerned.  Yes, it was still light out and we were only walking about five minutes from our house.  Still, Masresha was not okay with this.  He insisted that he walk with us and told us that after 15 minutes we had to go home with him because he was "too worried".  Anyways, as I was saying, you see the garbage dump.  It is, as you would imagine, a large mountain of trash.  In addition to the trash though, there are some little farms, lots of goats and sheep, and lots of kids playing.  Even a soccer field.  There are also large piles of dung which has been made into perfect circles.  When Masresha said, "some people make injera with this" we naturally got worried.  Because that sounds like they make injera with cow poop and I just never want to eat that.  Turns out he meant they only use the poop to start the fire to cook the injera.  I don't know if that's much better, but at least I haven't been actually eating cow feces. 

If, instead of heading towards the garbage dump, you head to the right when leaving our house and walk down the dirt road you'll come to the main road of Kore.  The main road is basically paved, though there is still a lot of rock and dirt.  The sides of the road are dirt, and most areas have little trenches dug out.  We aren't positive what these ditches are for, but often you see men peeing in them.  I'm pretty sure I haven't gone a day without seeing a man peeing on the side of the road since I've arrived here.  Fabulous.  Besides urinating men, you see lots of little shops.  Lining the road are little "buildings" made from scrap metal.  Each place is it's own little business.  They may sell food, clothes, movies, etc.  They may be a barber shop or a pool house (there are like, 50 places to play pool on our street.  I don't really understand).  They may sell wood or other such supplies.  One of our favs is the guy who weaves scarves on the side of the road.  He has a whole big weaving thingy set up, and just does it right there.  In fact, I bought one yesterday and Kendra is going to pick one up today.  He's pretty good, we're fans of his.  There are also teeny houses behind certain scrap metal walls, just off the street.  When you're walking down the main road, you see lots and lots of people.  Many people walking around, some selling things, some just hanging out.  There aren't tons of cars, though there is usually a pretty steady stream of minibuses.  In the distance, there are mountains which I think are very pretty and would still like to climb.  People keep telling me they'll take me, but they haven't yet.  And time is running out.  Last but not least, you see many, many animals.  Donkeys (love em), goats, sheep, cows, chickens, cats, dogs, horses...you name it, it's probably walking down my street right now.  Animals, shops and peeing men...I think that about sums up the sights of our street.

Smell

Well you smell a lot of pee.  Okay, maybe not a lot, but more than I would like.  If the wind blows in the wrong direction at the wrong time, you just get a really nice whiff.  It's not the most pleasant smell.  You also smell a lot of animals.  And body oder.  And breathe in a lot of dust.  Often enough, however, you don't smell much of anything out of the ordinary.  And occasionally you smell something yummy like a coffee ceremony or bread baking...yum.

Touch

When walking down our street every day, we shake hands with approximately 2349587 people.  Most are children, but you get the occasional adult, too.  Random children like to run up and shake our hands, walk hand-in-hand with us, or just give a little high five in passing.  It doesn't matter if they know us or not, because we're white.  Evidently that makes shaking my hand really exciting.  Sometimes we even get hugs from children we've never met before.  Long story short, there is usually someone reaching out for our hands at any moment during our walking down the road.  Sidenote - I know I'm talking about the streets of Kore, not the streets of Mexico (sidenote inside the sidenote - I mean Mexico in Addis Ababa, not Mexico south of America.  We have a Mexico here, too, you know.  Unfortunately they don't have Mexican food...I don't know what's up with that), but I just want to say that sometimes people in Mexico try to hold your hand or something too.  I'm speaking of the man who was sitting on the side of the road in Mexico and reached out for me as I walked by.  His hands made contact with my pants, and left behind some unknown substance.  I should add that these pants had just been washed, and should have been good for like six more wears.  Really, dude in Mexico?  My clean pants?  Anyways, back to Kore streets.  So, while lots of kids are holding your hands, you have to watch your feet.  The sense of touch is more important here.  Especially when you walk down the dirt path to our house.  There are ginormous rocks all over the place that make up the "road", and this makes for a very difficult walk.  If Kendra and I come home after dark, we have to walk arm in arm so we don't trip, fall, and die.  Sometimes you kick giant rocks accidentally, and it really hurts your toes.  Even if you're wearing your super-awesome-I'm-in-Africa shoes...aka your Toms.  Another painful experience that I think goes along with this sense of feeling things: wearing contacts.  Pretty much every time I wear my contacts here dust or something just as hurtful gets in and makes me go a little bit blind.  Unfortunate.  There are also constantly flies touching your legs, your arms, your face, your ears...but I think I covered that well enough in my last blog.

Taste

This one was hard for the minibus description as well...as I have not tasted minibuses or the street.  I have, however, tasted things while walking down the street.  The most memorable being sugar cane.  Masresha bought this for Kendra and I once on the way to school.  It tasted like a tree and I coudn't eat it.  I probably taste dust a lot too, since it's pretty incredibly dusty here, but I don't really notice anymore.

Sound

Most often when walking down our road, we hear the word "farenje".  I know I've said it before, but it means foreigner.  If you're white you're a farenje, and you will be told.  Many, many, many times.  In case you forget.  Someday I should take a count of how many times I get called farenje.  Kids say it, adults say it...they all think it's necessary to point out that I'm white.  As if anyone was unsure.  If, by some odd chance, you happen to walk past another farenje, you will likely hear them say hello to you.  Because evidently the fact that we are both clearly not African means that we are instant friends.  You will also hear lots and lots of people asking how you are, how is Ethiopia, what is your name, and any other question they know in English.  Sometimes you hear inappropriate things as well.

The best sound, however, is when you turn onto the main road I described and hear a herd of children yelling your name and running towards you.  This pretty instantly makes up for anything I have mentioned that might be a little unpleasant...flies and pee, for example :)

Ta-da!!  Home sweet home…Kore! 

Happy St. Patrick's Day! (3-17-12)

So today is St. Patrick's Day.  Yum.  Not surprisingly, there seems to be a lack of celebration in Ethiopia.  Unfortunate, as I could really go for a delicious St. Patty's dinner.  Though I suppose if I were even able to find corned beef here, somehow, I just don't know that I'd be able to trust it.  I swear, I get sick here more than ever in my life.  I don't know what it is...I guess living in Africa does take a little toll on the body.  In America, I think I'm a pretty healthy person.  I rarely get sick.  Here, I've become accustomed to feeling a little off most days.  In fact, I think I'm generally more surprised when I wake up without a stomachache.  I don't know if it's the water, the food, or what.   But something gets me here.  I mean, my doctor did tell me to swish mouthwash, close my eyes, and put vaseline around my mouth and eyes when I shower (vaseline to repel the water, eyes closed to keep water out and mouthwash to kill germs if any little droplets sneak in) which I admittedly do not do.  Whoops.  But really, we have running water so so rarely that I feel like this is not a problem to worry about.  How many real showers have I taken since I got here?  Probably less than 10.  When the chance comes, I guess I just get too excited and don't take all those precautions.  So...maybe I have myself to blame for feeling sick so often.  But like I said, I haven't taken that many showers (haha ew Deanna) so if that's the culprit, I should've only felt sick a few times.  Anyways, enough about feeling sick because that's just a boring and lame topic (sometimes I really get sidetracked and start talking a lot about unimportant things...Kendra has learned this about me, and often catches me talking and talking and talking without response from her, in which case she tells me to shut up).  So like I said, I'm actually quite used to the sickish feeling so it's all good!  On to something much more important...

Flies.  Woah, Ethiopian flies.  Is there anything more annoying in my life?  I think not.  I've told you how much I enjoy being here and whatnot, but these flies may drive me insane before I leave.  I'm going to try something here.  From now on, for this blog post only, I am going to let you know everytime a fly lands on me by inserting a little note like this: [fly].  Now, I will not be counting the times I can't feel...like when they land on my pants and it doesn't bother me.  Only the times when a fly is crawling on my skin or trying to land in my eye, mouth, ear, or nose.  Since this has happened at least 15 times since I started this blog about ten minutes ago, allow me to catch you up [fly] [fly] [fly][fly] [fly] [fly][fly] [fly] [fly][fly] [fly] [fly][fly] [fly] [fly].  Ok, now I'll continue.  I kind of hope this annoys you, because [fly] then maybe you'll understand just a little how [fly] much I want to kill all the flies in the world.  It's not just that they are constantly landing on me, it's the fact that I think they are an extra aggressive [fly] species of fly [fly].  I think they target faces.  Everytime I walk out of my house, it's like I'm assulted so badly that I can't speak to Kendra without risking eating a whole family of stupid, obnoxious flies.  Or breathe, without having five flies go [fly] up my nose.  I just want to kill them all. 

[fly] In other news, I know I haven't posted in a while so I'll try to catch you up.  Though there hasn't been too much excitement, so I hope I don't bore you. 

On [fly] Tuesday, I got a package from America.  Um, super fun.  My mom sent us a whole big bag of M&M's!  Oh deliciousness!  We we're pretty pumped for that.  It also had some [fly] supplies for the school, things we could bring to the kids at the day care, and pictures from my nephews and niece (cute!).  I pretty much loved it. 

This week, we bought Bingo at one of the grocery stores by us.  We were looking forward to bringing it to the after school group to play with the kids.  On Wednesday we did, and they [fly] loved it.  First of [fly] all, [fly] when we told them that we were going to play a game called Bingo one kid bursted out into the Bingo song.  Amare was our translator that day, and asked him to come up in front of the [fly] class and sing it.  He knew all the words, which was quite impressive!  And cute.  I've got a video to prove it.  Once we started playing, they all got super into it. [fly] Anytime they had a number we called, they'd high-five a bunch of their friends or cheer for themselves.  They were all yelling, "leyla leyla leyla" (another, another, another) pretty [fly] constantly.  They had a fantastic time, and we are looking forward to playing with them again soon!  I just love those kids.

Speaking of loving those kids...I don't know how I'm going to say goodbye!  Admittingly, there are certain kids I have gotten closer to than others.  There are a lot of kids who come and go in the after school program that I just haven't gotten the chance to really get to know.  On the other hand, there are [fly] kids who come [fly] every day who I feel like I know really well.  For example, the group of kids who walk us home every day, the two older boys who like to protect us from what they think are the annoying little kids (of course, we don't think they're annoying, but it's funny that the older kids get so protective of us), and our [fly] "brothers".  These kids I have spent a lot of time talking to and hanging out with, and I just think I'm really going to miss them!  The kids who walk us home are so fun, and funny.  I really enjoy getting to joke around with them and it's pretty fun to have a herd of children hugging us goodbye outside our door.  The two older boys I really like, because they think it's so important to watch out for us at all times.  They get so worked up if they think the younger kids are swarming us too much, and it's actually quite funny.  Plus, they are interesting to talk to since they know a little more English than most of the younger ones.  Our brothers I [fly (wow, it's been a while!)] just love.  I think it started out as a little joke, with Solomon asking me to be his sister and then his friend going up to Kendra and essentially being like, "hey what about me", but we've actually gotten [fly] quite close to them.  They always come greet us right away, they sit by us, talk [fly] with us, and even give us little presents.  By presents I mean things like drawings they made or something they picked up on the street...literally.  One day, my brother gave me a dirty plastic black necklace.  Of course, I kept it.  I'm sure I'll never wear it, but it's in my suicase to bring home with all my other souvenirs.  In all seriousness, the phrase "it's the thought that counts" is taken to a new level here.  This is another reason why I feel we have gotten so close to these two boys.  While many other kids will want to talk to and hang out with us at the school, they see us on the street and come up saying "give me money!" anytime we cross paths.  Sometimes [fly] even on [fly] the way into the school gates.  Now, I don't want to sound insensitive.  I understand that these kids are living on the streets, and that we are the "rich" Americans.  And I also understand that they all see this so, sooo much in their daily lives that it's not inappropriate to them.  But [fly] still, it's a bummer when a kid you see every day at school runs after you begging.  I don't know, it's hard to explain why.  I don't know what word to use.  "Annoying" is wrong, "sad" is wrong, I don't know.  It's just hard, I suppose [fly].  Anyways, back to what I was saying...one of the reasons I feel like I've gotten very close to our [fly] "brothers" is because

they are not like that.  As I said, they are always excited to see us, they love [fly] sitting with us, talking with us, getting to know us and everything, but they never ask for anything, let along beg for money.  And it's not a matter of them having more money than the other kids, it's a matter of respect.  I can tell you just from seeing him every day, Solomon doesn't have much.  He wears the same clothes every day.  By "every day" I mean I have literally only seen him in one shirt, and I usually see him five days per week.  He wears a pair of flip flips that are not only too small, but also broken.  He fixed them with a nail.  In fact, when he was playing soccer on Friday with the other kids (in his broken flip flops, because he most certainly doesn't have soccer shoes), his nail contraption fell out so he stopped playing and came to sit by me instead [fly] while he tried to nail his flip flop back together again.  While he was hanging out with us watching the others play soccer, he mentioned how thirsty he was because he had been sick.  I had a giiiiiant plastic water bottle that I had just refilled at home with nice, cold water.  When I told him he could have it, he looked surprised.  He checked with me about five times before actually taking it.  Then, he thanked me profusely ("oh, very big thanks!" he said).  The look on his face was a look of extreme thanksfulness, seriously, and it was just a bottle of water.  It was the same look I would expect from my nephews if I gave them a new Wii game, or a bike or something.  But instead all I gave him was water.  Not even water I paid for, just water I refilled [fly] for free at our [fly] house.  Oh my goodness, serious tangent again.  Getting back to the point, Solomon doesn't have anything more than the other kids at the school who run after us on the streets and beg for money, but he never, ever asks for anything and is even slow to take what we offer him though it was only a bottle of [fly] water.  Alright so, I just don't even know where to go with this anymore.  I'm actually just frustrated that I can't explain all of this better, and almost feel like I just shouldn't have tried to write about it because I think I just failed miserably (haha) but I'm gonna leave it all in here anyway.  Just know that I think my stupid attempt at explaining how much I like these kids and how much I'm going to miss them is, well, stupid.  And it's not a description that I feel is good enough to get my point across. [fly] I wish I was better at writing so you could understand what I'm trying to say, but I'm no author so I suppose I'll just have to try to tell you all about it in person when I get back to America.  Perhaps that will work out better for me :)  Sorry for this extremely long and maybe pointless paragraph.  Moving on...

We got some pictures of our kids at the day care on Friday!  They are quite the energetic bunch, so photos were a little tricky...especially when they saw the camera and got [fly] super pumped.  I'm going to try to put them up on Facebook tomorrow...we'll see!  The good news is that the little one that was really sick last Friday is doing much better this week.  Phew!  We've started recognizing these kids on the streets, too, which just gives us even more people to say hi to.  Fun stuff!

It's really hot here, and we don't have running water again.  Just thought I'd throw that in there.  It's like I live in Africa or something.  Weird.

We've taught our peeps at home how to play BS, the card game.  We [fly] were getting bored of [fly] playing the same two games over and over every night with them, so we decided to teach them something new.  They love it.  Amare thinks it's hilarious and just so exciting, and Amen is actually a very good liar.  Masresha, not so much.  Anytime he lies, he cracks up right away.  So that's been fun.  We also got super into "The Terminator" one night this week, which was odd.  I don't know if I actually like the movie, or if I was just excited to watch an American movie on TV in English.  Either way, Kendra [fly], Amare's two younger sisters, and I were all transfixed.  And the two sisters don't even know much English...and they certainly couldn't read the Arabic subtitles either.  They were still on the edge of their seats with us.

Oh I know!  I bought more souvenirs!  That was pretty thrilling.  Masresha took us shopping at a place where they sell lots of souvenirs.  He said he had to take us  because it was safer that way (Masresha is very protective of us...the other day, he wouldn't even let us walk down the path from our house by ourselves.  Silly guy!).  So he took us, and we found a few more things to take home.  Super exciting.  One of my suitcases is getting full already!

You know what else is super exciting?  Amen told us he would take us to ride camels next Saturday.  I'm holding him to this, and am planning on reminding him every day this [fly] week.  I've waited so long already, and I don't have much time left.  Three weeks, people!  I can't even believe it.

Desta made us shiro a few nights ago and it was ever so tasty!  Apparently he used to live on a farm in the countryside?  I guess his parents send him shiro and everyone always told us that Desta makes such good shiro.  And they know shiro is our fav.  So Desta so generously shared his shiro powder with us, and made us a yummy meal.  MMMmmmmm.

Well I believe it's time to wrap this up.  Kendra asked me like 20 minutes ago if I was stilllll blogging.  I think I got a little sidetracked a few too many times in this post.  My apologies.  Next time I'll try harder to stay on task :)  Time to find something for dinner...there seems to be no food in this house.  On the menu for tomorrow: French toast from Kaldi's for breakfast.  Can't wait!!

P.S. Good news - the flies seemed to have backed off a little for a bit, have you noticed?!  ;)

Sleepovers and Pedicures! (3-10-12)

This weekend is turning out to be quite a relaxing few days! So far, it has been filled with delicious food, games, movies and wonderfulness. I'm loving it!

We started Friday off at the day care. We were with the same kids, and had lots of fun playing with them again. There was something sad that happened this time, though. One of the little boys (all the kids in this room are around two or three years old) had been very quiet and reserved all week. On Friday morning, he couldn't stay awake. One of the nannies felt his head and realized that he had a very high fever. The nurse who works at the day care came to check him out and was concerned that he may have meningitis. The poor little boy looked so sick! They still weren't sure what was wrong with him when we left. I suppose it's good that he was at the day care because otherwise he likely would have gotten no help at all, but it would still be awful if he had something like meningitis. Especially with there being about ten other toddlers who are in the same room with him all day, sharing toys and playing together. Hopefully he's okay next week! He's such a little cutie...I feel so bad for him :(

That was the downer of the weekend. Besides that, it was all quite enjoyable! Friday afternoon, we went to hang out with our school kids while they played a soccer game. That was a lot of fun. We were talking to some of the older kids for awhile, and we really like them. In fact, they kind of crack us up. The oldest ones (between 12 and 13 years) like to protect us, in a way. When all the younger kids run all over us, hang on us, and crowd around us, the older ones think we are bothered and that the little kids are being rude. They come over and shoo them all away and act all grown up. We don't mind the little kids at all, but it's funny to see the older ones get so worked up about it. They have so much fun playing soccer, and we had a good time hanging out with them for a while.

After the soccer game, we went to a delicious restaurant with Dundee and his girlfriend, Ruth and our American friends Kaela, Krista and Lisa. This wonderful restaurant was called Island, and it was simply amazing. First of all, they had chips and salsa. AND chips and guacamole. What?! Yum! I haven't even seen that since I was in America...let alone tasted it! Secondly, there was bacon on my chicken sandwhich! Um, yum again! Wow! Obivously it was a great experience.

We then made our way to Kaela, Krista and Lisa's house to have a little sleepover. Girls night, American style. It was fabulous. We played Apples to Apples, made brownies (brownies!!) and had quite a lot of fun. This morning, they even had muffins for us and let us use their shower (because even though Dundee promised we would have running water for the rest of our trip, we haven't had it for the past two days. Shocker, I know). That makes for a pretty awesome sleepover. Right now, we're just sitting around watching some movies. Makes for a pretty solid Saturday!

Tomorrow will be just delightful as well because Kendra and I have made appointments to get pedicures. At a spa! For only 170 birr. That's $10. Yes, please. I totally can't wait. We are going to a place that is supposedly very nice, says another American we know. My toes are gonna look super beautiful!!

I plan to finish off the weekend with some time at the wifi cafe, putting up these blogs and hopefully some rockin Awassa pics. Perhaps even some Skyping:) As of tomorrow (Sunday), we officially have only four more weeks to go...I'll be seeing you all soon!!

How many times can you say "love" in one blog? (3-7-12)

The past few days at the day care and at school have been simply wonderful. I cannot stress enough how much I love these kids, and how much I'm going to miss them when we leave.

First let me tell you a little more about the day care. We have been in the same room the whole week, with the kids who are about two or three years old. They are funny, and sweet, and cute, and cuddly, and I could go on and on. Yes, they are dirty...and sometimes they pee on me, because only the babies get diapers. But, it doesn't even matter because their adorableness makes up for it. They were so excited to see us today, and we didn't spend two minutes without a child in each of our laps and another trying to squish in on top. They are so pleased with whatever toy happens to be in the room, and play happily for hours with us. They sing and dance, and play Ethiopian games with the nannies who work there, too. The nannies are very nice, and mostly around our age. They know a little English, and were having a great time quizzing us on our Amharic skills today. Highlight of today's time at the day care:

One of the nannies turned on the light in the room while the kids were playing. Instantly, they all froze, pointed at the light, and said in unison, "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh". Not screaming, more like a sound of amazement. Think the little alien dudes in Toy Story when they say "the clawwwwww ohhhhhhhhh". It was nearly the same. But I don't think these kids have seen Toy Story. When she flipped the light back off, they went right back to playing. She did it again, on and off, on and off, and everytime the kids gave the same response. It was hilarious! I'll have to try to get a video...I think it's better if you see it :)

So anyways, we love the day care. The nannies are great, the people in charge are so nice, and the kids are fantastic. Tomorrow we're going to try to take some pictures of them so you can all see their cuteness. We're also going to bring even more toys and donations tomorrow, because they can really use them. There are so many kids there, and they are all coming from the streets, which means they don't have much of anything. Kim - I'll be bringing the baby clothes you donated, which is fantastic...these kids can suuuper use some new, clean, stylin' outfits!

And now on to the school. I love these kids more and more every day! They are an awesome bunch. I love that they adore coming to the school, and I love even more that when I walk through the door fifty kids yell, "Deanna! Deanna! Deanna!!" every single day. You'd think they'd get tired of me...or at least used to me being there. I mean, the excitement has to wear off sometime, right? But instead, the excitement seems to grow everytime (for both the kids and myself!). After they greet us with almost overwhelming enthusiasm, we have some time to hang out and talk with them before whatever lesson is planned for that afternoon begins. Even though they don't speak English anywhere near fluently (and our Amharic is even worse), we have some great convos. It doesn't take long to figure out that you can talk about all kinds of things even with a pretty legit language barrier. They love asking questions about America, and telling us about themselves. We talk with them, play with them, and laugh with them until it's time to get ready to begin. Some days, we bring our cameras. They always get way pumped about this, because they love getting their picture taken. Today was one of those days, and I got pictures of some pretty super cute kids. My "brother", Solomon (who I believe I wrote about in one of my last blogs), was all about getting pictures with me, and the other kids were taking turns posing with my sunglasses. I just love it, really. After we hang out for a bit, we get them all inside for the lesson or activity of the afternoon. Today (get excited, Mom!) we had them write letters or draw pictures for my Mom's second grade students. Her students had written letters to Kendra and I and they had lots of questions about Africa. To give you a few examples:

Do the kids do nothing at school?

Do they have books?

What do you eat?

Do the kids write or draw or anything?

Kendra and I thought it would be fun if Mom's students got some mail back from students in Ethiopia, instead of just the two of us. Our kids got really into it. We told them they could draw a picture that shows something about Ethiopia, or they could write a little letter in English or Amharic. A few of them have very impressive English skills and wrote. Others write in Amharic, which I think will be really cool for the kids in America to see (of course, I will work with one of my Ethiopian buddies to write a translation...time to put Amare and Masresha to work!). The younger kids drew pictures. They all turned out really neat, and I'm so excited to send them! Maybe if my mom is awesome she'll make copies of the letters when she gets them so me and her students can keep them. Hint hint :)

When it's time to go, we get attacked with goodbyes. In Ethiopia, you say goodbye with a kiss on the cheek. This means that by the time I've managed to get through the school gates, I've gotten about a million goodbye kisses. We usually have an entourage walking home with us. Generally this consists of my brother (who I just love), Kendra's brother (who we also just love), and about fifteen other kids (okay, we just love them, too). We walk down the street hand in hand singing random songs, skipping, running, and talking. Usually this gets us a lot of laughs from strangers...I guess seeing the two white girls of the neighborhood skipping along with a group of random Ethiopian kids is kind of a funny sight. I love it, and this quite possibly might be my favorite part of the day. I love it all, and I love them all, and I know I'm going to miss them so, so much. It kind of makes me sad already.

Buuuut, on a happier note, guess what these two girls have at their house?! Running water! I know this has been said before and so far it's never lasted more than like a day and a half. I don't want to jinx it but...we've had it for almost four days straight now. Woah! Warm water is still a luxery that we are not experiencing, but beggers can't be choosers. We can take a shower whenever we like (cold, but still clean!) and we can even wash our hands with real soap in the sink. Beyond exciting. Just had to throw that in this blog. A little random, but very exciting...for us, at least.

Now, my friends, it is dinner time. A delicious soup is calling my name!

Awassa: Best Weekend Ever. (3-5-12)

I love Awassa.  Wow.  I almost feel like I'm speechless because I love it so much...but then I think about how long this blog is going to be and realize that I'm evidently the opposite of speechless.

Let's begin.

On Friday morning, we began our journey.  A couple of people had dropped out, so that left me, Kendra, Lisa, Dundee and his girlfriend, Ruth.  This meant we could all fit in Dundee's car, which was good news.  We piled in, and left the city.  This was exciting enough on its own, because a little break from Addis was certainly needed.  It was about a four hour drive, with beautiful scenery the whole way.  After driving for an hour or so, something exciting happened.  It sounded like this:

Lisa: "Hey, there's some camels."

Me: "Where? Where?! Where?! WHERE?!!!" At this moment, I was frantically searching for my camera and the camels at the same time.  Don't worry, I found both.

Kendra: "CAMELS?!!!!!!??!!!!!"

Dundee just kept driving, and Ruth laughed at us.  Unfortunately, as Dundee was driving about a million miles an hour, we were not able to get pictures.  But we decided not to worry, we'd just have to hope to see them again on the way home.  I was a bit disappointed, because what were the odds of that?  How often do you just spot camels when you're not in a zoo?  Apparently often enough.  More on this later.

Just over halfway there, we stopped at a beautiful beach area for some lunch.  There was a very nice resort there that overlooked a lake.  It was very pretty, and super in the middle of nowhere.  I liked it very much.  Also, I got spaghetti with alfredo sauce (yeah Ben, my fav!) so that was just delightful.

Because Ethiopians seem to run very late and on a very slow clock, planning to leave Addis at 9am to get to Awassa at 1pm didn't happen.  We arrived around 6pm instead...just in time for dinner.  We met another friend who lives out there and had been visiting Addis about a week ago, named Josie.  He came to dinner with us, and then we hung out at his "man room" (what he referred to his house as) for a while before heading to our hotel for bed.

Now let me tell you a little about our "hotel".  Of course, Kendra and I were beyond pumped because Dundee had promised running water.  I pretty much cared about nothing else.  Staying at a place that has running water for two nights?!  Heavenly.  There was in fact running water, but this was certainly no five-star hotel.  Not that I expected it to be, but it was just kind of entertaining to see our room.  It was tiny, for sure.  Room for a bed, and not much else.  They generously give you a bit of toilet paper (by a bit I mean no more than you absolutely need for a two night stay) folded nicely.  No crazy toilet paper roll business...that's too fancy.  My bath towel was pretty epic, since it was a children's beach towel featuring Barbie.  That's just fun.  But the best part was our mosquito net.  In Awassa, since it is at a lower elevation than Addis, there is malaria.  Of course, I'm taking medicine anyway so I'm good to go.  But for the extra protection (and because it was just awesome - not being sarcastic here) we took full advantage of the net.  It was like sleeping in a tent!  Pretty exciting stuff.  Then there was the shower.  Wonderful streams of water, flowing and flowing.  Of course, it flooded the whole bathroom because there isn't actually a shower or tub...just a shower head.  But who cares, we were so clean!  All of this greatness for only 150 birr per night.  Yes, that's approximately $9.  Ha!  Luxurious.

Funny story - Kendra and I shared a hotel room.  We were told that we each had to have our own, unless we were a couple.  We assumed that this was for money purposes, and were bummed that we couldn't just pay for one.  But it's only 150 birr, so not a huge deal.  Anyways, as I said, we still shared a room.  We each received a key to our own, which were two rooms right next to each other.  We soon decided that we were too afraid to sleep by ourselves on the first floor of a new place with windows that I'm pretty sure my four-year-old nephew could break into.  And the beds were pretty ginormous.  So, I moved my things into her room.  Well, the next day my bed had clearly not been used.  Evidently this was a cause for concern.  The hotel people confronted Dundee and asked if we had shared a room.  We told him yes, because we were afraid to be alone all night (I know, total chickens).  A little background information: homosexuality is very not okay in Ethiopia.  Dundee assured the hotel peeps that we were not a couple, and never wanted to be a couple, just two stupid Americans who wanted to share the room. 

We showered, we slept beneath a mosquito net, it was a delightful night.  The next day, things got wayyy super fantastic.  We started the day off with breakfast, where Kendra and I got awesome gigantic pancakes.  Yum.  Then Josie said he would take us to his "Starbucks".  This place was the total opposite of Starbucks.  It's was super traditional Ethiopian, but the coffee was amazing.  After that, we began our adventure of finding all kinds of super cool animals.  Let me preface this by saying that all the animals I am about to mention were wild animals...not animals from a zoo.  Yes, the people living in Awassa know where to go to find these animals, but they are not in cages or in any sort of wildlife preserve or anything.  They're just hanging out, and it was pretty much the best ever.

First, we saw crazy huge birds.  By huge I mean almost as tall as Kendra with beaks as long as my arm.  They were insane.  We went to see the fish market on the lake and they were everywhere.  On tree tops, in the water, flying around, on the grass, all over.  They didn't seem afraid of people, because they got verrrry close to me.  I was a little bit afraid of them though, because I'm pretty sure they could eat me.

We then walked a little ways into some trees to where we could find monkeys.  There were so many!  Tons of them!  They were so cute..not like the giant scary ones we ran into at the Nile gorge, but little ones that seemed harmless.  Apparently they get fed a lot, because it you hold out a piece of food they walk right up and take it from your hand.  Oh my gosh, I loved it.  We had leftover pancake with us (which we had brought just especially for the monkeys) and we fed them.  It was so much fun, having them walk up and grab it.  Some of them even had little baby monkeys hanging on to their stomachs...so adorable!  It got even better when I got to feed a monkey while it sat on my shoulders.  I was beyond excited...the pictures I have do a pretty good job of showing that.  It was absolutely amazing.

When we ran out of monkey food, we got on a little boat and headed out onto the lake to see the hippos.  We were very excited, but also very nervous that our boat would tip and the hippos would attack us.  Apparently they aren't nice creatures.  But our boat driver, Massai, seemed like a very good protector-from-the-hippos type of guy.  So that's good.  We took the boat all the way across the lake an then, all of a sudden, hippos!!  Right there, swimming around!  We saw at least six of them, maybe more.  He took us as close as we could safely get, which was a little closer than we thought was safe.  But the hippos did not attack us, and we loved seeing them.

It was lunch time then, which we had at a very cute little resort on the lake.  There were monkeys running around, which obviously makes for a fantastic time.  Every time a table was left unattended a monkey would jump up and steal the food.  Sometimes the monkey would jump up while the table was not unattended, in which case people would usually scream and I would laugh.  Clearly a fun lunch.

The rest of the day was spent hanging around outside, relaxing.  After dinner, things got pretty exciting again when we went on a hyena hunt.  Don't worry, we stayed in the car the whole time...I wanted to see a hyena, but I didn't want to be eaten by a hyena.  We drove around, Dundee and Josie in the front and us four girls in the back, and searched.  We hadn't been driving long before we came across our first hyena!  He was a big guy, and fast!  After that, we saw three or four more running around.  One even ran across the street right in front of our car!  It was pretty thrilling, I must say.  All in all, a delightful ending to one of the most amazing days ever.  I cannot blog well enough to make you understand just how incredibly happy I was to see weirdo birds, monkeys, hippos, and hyenas.  I miss them all already.

On Sunday, we were planning to leave in the morning.  Of course, that didn't really happen.  After breakfast, we walked around a little and climbed up this random giant tower that was in the middle of a roundabout.  Pretty good view, but very high and rather slippery steps.  We had to walk down verrrrry slowly.  We then went to visit a sister of Dundee's that lives in Awassa.  She lived in a teeny tiny neighborhood that looked like it was all farming houses.  It was cute, and there were lots of kids around who were super excited to see us farenje.  They were pretty cute!  We finally made our way home in the late afternoon, stopping again at the resort we ate at on Friday to have some dinner.  The ride was basically the best ride of my life, because we did indeed come by camels again.  There was instant excitement in the car, and we made Dundee turn around and pull over so we could get pictures.  So we're in the middle of nowhere Ethiopia, surrounded by dirt, beautiful trees, and nothing else (besides the epic herd of camels, obviously).  There were tons of them walking around out there, it was so cool!  Lisa, Kendra and I were standing outside the car on the side of the road getting ready to take some pictures when Dundee said, "Um...you should get back in the car.  I think someone's coming."  By 'I tihnk someone is coming' Dundee meant 'there's a dude with a giant stick coming to attack you'.  When we turned around, we saw this Ethiopian guy running at us at full speed, huuuge giant stick in hand.  It's true, Ethiopians are not slow runners.  This guy was moving quick.  And he was clearly headed towards us.  Evidently he was not pleased with us taking camel pictures.  Naturally we got into the car as quickly as possible.  He was still coming after us, and nearly reached the car just as Dundee was turning around and speeding off.  Woah!  That added some serious excitement to the camel spotting.  And also some danger.

We made it home safe and sound, and instantly began sharing our stories with everyone.  I think they realized very quickly how much we loved Awassa.  It was absolutely amazing, and I had a fantastic time.  It was so nice to get out of Addis for a couple of days, and there were so many fun things we got to see and do.  If you ever go to Ethiopia, I highly recommend it.  I feel disappointed in myself for not doing a better job on this blog post, because I want you all to understand how amazing it was.  However, because of all that amazingness, I am still a bit exhausted tonight and I'm writing this right before bed so I can post it tomorrow.  So even though this writing is not super epic, you'll just have to believe me that the trip was super epic.  Perhaps pictures will help...hopefully I'll get some up tomorrow! 

The Kids (3-5-12)

So a lot of people have been asking me what's up with the kids...if I'm still seeing them every day, what's going on with the orphanage, etc.  I figured I should devote a blog to them to fill you all in :)

First of all, yes, we are still seeing kids every day (except Saturdays and Sundays).  I know some people have been asking about the orphanage, and why I'm not seeing them all the time anymore.  Well, this is quite a long story and something I'd rather not try to explain via blog post.  Essentially, we had some issues with people who set that up for us.  It all ended with someone making us both cry (which Amare and Dundee found shocking) and us being totally bummed for a day or two.  But all is well now!  I'm not trying to be one of those "I want to be mysterious so I'm going to hint at the fact that there's a story I could tell and then refuse to tell you" people...those people annoy me.  I just think the explanation is too confusing to write on here.  If you're curious, I'll tell you all about it in another four weeks and six days, when I return to America.

So anyways, that's why you haven't heard much about the orphanage from me.  Still, we have been going to the after school program for the street kids every day, Monday through Friday.  The kids are between about 6 and 13 years old, and they all live in our neighborhood.   The program gives them something to do after they finish school, instead of walking around the streets.  There are about 70 kids on an average day, and they all squish into one tiny room and sit on the floor.  I enjoy working with them a lot.  The kids are all fantastic, and they love being there.  They get excited to see us, and always look forward to coming back the next day.  I'm going to miss them a lot when we leave! 

For the after school program, we do things like tutoring, art projects, and games.  We took them to the children's theater one weekend, which I wrote about in another blog.  We also have a lot of time to just hang out and talk with them or play outside together.  Today, we had some down time and were talking with a few of the older kids...around 12 or 13 years old, maybe.  They were asking us all about America.  They wanted to know about our houses, our cars, our family, friends, all kinds of things.  One boy asked how many siblings I have, and told me he didn't have any.  He asked if I would be his sister, so I now have an Ethiopian brother.  His name is Solomon, and he made me promise to bring my camera tomorrow so we can take a brother/sister picture.  Love these kids.

Since the afrer school program is in the afternoon, we had mornings free.  Today we were able to start volunteering at a day care in our neighborhood.  The day care is for children up to three or four years old who live on the streets or are very, very poor.  The day care was opened to provide care for those children of mothers or families that live on the streets and need the day to try to find work, or who cannot afford day care but need a place for their kids to go while they work.  The kids get breakfast and lunch there, and occasionally a bath.  They come in very dirty, and get changed into clean clothes right after breakfast.  After that, they get to do a lot of playing.  We played with the kids all morning, and loved it.  They are so cute, even if they don't smell particularly fantastic :)  There are 60 kids there, so there was plenty for us to do.  We still have quite a few toys in our suitcases that were donated, and we'll be bringing them over soon for the kids.

Hopefully this helps for some of you that had questions.  I'm sorry if I don't talk about the kids every time, but sometimes I think that people might get bored always reading about the same thing...I don't know.  I feel like most days we do the same things with the kids, and I don't want to be too repetative.  That being said, if there's something you want to hear about or anything like that, just let me know and I'll do my best to fill you in!