Hey, I'm Still Alive! (2-29-12)

Helloooo everyone!  It's been nearly forever and ever since I last posted a blog.  There are a few reasons for this:

                1. The wifi cafe we had been going to, Limetree, is in a place called Bole.  Bole is quite a nice area, and for awhile we were addicted.  It takes about 30-45 minutes to get there by minibus, so we would go there during our downtime, get some lunch, use some wifi...good times.  Well, we've been cutting back lately because it takes five minibuses round-trip and costs just over ten birr for each of us.  We're trying to save money, so you see we simply can't afford to spend so much on minibuses all the time.  I mean 10 birr is like, 75 cents or something.  That's just outrageously expensive.  Okay, just kidding.  But saving that 10 birr really does make a difference, sadly enough, because everything is so cheap here!  Plus, if we go to Limetree we have to buy food so we can use their wifi and that costs even more than 10 birr.  So long story short, we're not frequenting the place anymore and although it's depriving us of internet, it's saving us lots of birr.  And I like to have birr in my wallet.

                2. The other place we used to visit often is King's Hotel.  King's is much closer, and we only have to get a coffee or soda or something and they let us sit in their lobby and use the wifi.  Very inexpensive.  It was fantastic!  The guy who always worked in the lobby would get excited to see us, and even the owner of the hotel knew and loved us.  He would greet us happily every time we came.  Then one day it all went downhill.  We were sitting on the couches doing a little Facebooking, a little emailing, when this man came over and said very harshly to Kendra, "Put your feet down!  Do you do that in your own house?!"  She was totally caught off guard, and wasn't able to formulate her answer before he walked away.  What she wanted to say was, "Yes, actually, I do sit like this in my own house?"  In fact, she's sitting like that on the couch at our house right now, as I write this...one foot curled up under her, the other on the floor.  Evidently the man at the hotel was not pleased with this.  Perhaps if he had asked more nicely it wouldn't have been so frightening.  When we realized that he was working there (although we had never seen him before), we were a little hesitant to go back.  Because he's scary and mean.  Our wifi time then dropped down a little for a few days, but we overcame our fear and returned to King's.  We had one happy time there, but the next time it continued downhill once more.  Which brings me to point three.

                3. We had another unfortunate happening at King's Hotel.  Shortly after arriving, a lady who works at the restaurant there came over to us.  We figured she was going to ask us if we wanted drinks, because as I said, we got a drink everytime we used their internet.  Instead, she said to me, "You remember a few days ago you and your friend were here and you take two Sprite and you sit over there?"  I said yes, I remembered.  She then told me, "Well I came out when I finished working and you were gone and you did not pay.  I have receipt."  Well this was just wrong.  I do, as it turns out, remember paying.  I remember those Sprites that we drank, because we usually drank coffee.  But it was very hot that day, so we got Sprite.  I also remember paying.  I remember because she was not around, so we asked a random guy that worked there for the bill.  He brought it, then took about 20 minutes to bring change.  I remember this, because I remember waiting and waiting for our change.  We left the receipt in the bill thingy (yes, that's the formal name), so I'm assuming she thought that meant we hadn't yet paid.  Now, the bill was only 20 birr.  That's just over a dollar, I can afford to pay that twice.  But she was genuinly mad, and when people are mad at me I feel really bad.  I tried explaining that we paid someone else so that she wouldn't think I'm a common dine-and-dash-er.  As we were conversing, the owner who loves us overheard and came over.  He essentially told her to leave us alone.  Needless to say, she never came to take our order that day.  We haven't gone back since (although we are going to suck it up and go tomorrow, which is why I'm finally writing this blog) because now she hates us and the feet-on-the-couch guy hates us, too.  That makes two haters.  Therefore, we feel unloved.

And so, you now understand why I haven't been posting as many blogs.  Or maybe you don't understand because my reasons are a bit silly, but at least you've heard them.  Moving on to the actual blog now.....

Last Sunday, we got to go to an Ethiopian wedding.  The first difference from American weddings is that we were invited Saturday night, by Dundee...not by invitation from the people actually getting married.  We had met the couple, and they knew us, but we were a little confused that Dundee was inviting us the night before.  He assured us that that's just what people do here, and that they really wanted us to come.  We were a little worried that we might be kind of like wedding crashers or something though.  We were also concerned that we did not have any clothing that was wedding appropriate.  I mean, let's be honest.  My wardrobe is not particularly nice here.  And let's be even more honest.  My clothes are dirty.  I have three pairs of jeans, one jean skirt, and about six tops.  That's all.  Everything gets worn at least three times before it gets washed.  I know that's disgusting, especially because yes, that means I wear a t-shirt three times in this incredibly hot, dusty place where I have no running water and can't even shower, but that's how it has to be.  So I'm sorry.  When I get back to America, I will wash my clothes and shower regularly.  And it will be absolutely amazing.  Anyways, that's not the case here.  So what do I wear to a wedding?!  Dundee and Amare both said anything was fine, it didn't matter.  We could wear whatever we wanted.  They basically told us that we had no choice but to attend the wedding.  We did want to go to see it, so we pushed aside our concerns and agreed.  Kendra wore my jean skirt and a black shirt, and I borrowed Kendra's black skirt which I wore with a very high class top - a blue t-shirt from Target that I spent maybe $6 on?  Totally something I would never ever wear to a wedding in America!  To top it off, I wore my nicest shoes.  Meaning my partially broken Old Navy flip flops.  Super classy!!

The wedding was at 2:30pm, which means it started around 3:45pm when people actually started showing up.  People are very late in Ethiopia, and evidently a wedding is no exception.  It was definitely different from an American wedding, but not as different as I expected.  The bride was American, the groom Ethiopian.  Still, most everyone attending the wedding was Ethiopian.  The bride and groom arrived together, and were sitting halfway outside the car.  They had the windows rolled down in the back and they say on the door in the window and hung on to the roof.  Safe?  Probably not, but we've seen this a lot in Ethiopia when weddings drive by.  The people in the wedding (they had bridesmaids and groomsmen) and other important people, like family, were following behind in other cars.  The ceremony reminded me of, essentially, what I think a very inexpensive wedding ceremony would be like in America (with some Amharic songs mixed in).  Some people were pretty dressed up, but as it turns out there were a lot of people as casually dressed as us (phew!).  After, there was a reception-type thing that happened, but Kendra and I didn't go.  It seemed like not many of the people were following to the reception, and there were only two Americans there that we knew and they weren't going.  We were invited, but I don't think we were expected to go.   It was a nice afternoon...gave us a little something different to do!

Remember when we had running water for like, three days?  I can hardly imagine...we haven't had it for so long again.  That was a wonderful, heavenly time.  Well it's been gone again, and I haven't showered in I don't know how long (I'm sorry I'm being so disgustingly honest in this blog...I hope you don't all think less of me...).  I literally cannot remember the last time I took a real shower.  I know it wasn't this week, or last.  It was sometime two weeks ago.  Yeah, ew.  It takes about three days, and then a bucket shower sounds extremely amazing.  Trust me.  When you get this hot, dusty and dirty, a nice bucket or water sounds beyond fantastic.  My last bucket shower was Saturday night, and it is now Wednesday (that's four days.  And think about it a little more: that's four days since I last used a bucket to clean myself.  It's not like I got sparkly clean and beautiful, even four days ago).  I think another one is going to have to happen tonight.  It's going to be one of the highlights of my day.  The funny thing is that I know I will feel amazing, refreshed, clean, and just all-around wonderful after I take a bucket shower tonight.  One bucket of water.  I can't even use that much soap, because it's hard to get soap off with just one bucket.  And on top of that, the water isn't even that clean.  There's little floaters of dirt and who knows what else in it.  It doesn't matter though, because I will cherish every drop.  Can't wait.

The other highlight of my day was going to our American friend's house for lunch.  Kaela came over this morning and invited us, and we eagerly accepted.  She made us a delicious vegetable soup, salad, and grilled cheese!  Yum!  Good stuff.  That was delicious.

This afternoon, Tigist (our old cook and cleaning lady) invited us to her house.  Her house is literally one room that is big enough for a bed and a table.  She lives there with her two year old daughter.  It was amazing how small it was, and how little they have in there.  Even still, they seem to love their house.  She made us dinner and even did a coffee ceremony for us.  Fancy!  The coffee was delicious, and we had a good time hanging out and playing with her super cute little girl.

Yay time for some random stories now!  Here's random story number one.  At night, we've been hanging around our house.  It's hard to get home after dark if Kendra and I go out, because there aren't many minibuses, so we chill with peeps at our home instead.  Well we came across something very fun at the school we work at a few days ago: two 550 piece puzzles!  Hours of nighttime entertainment right there.  I know, we are so cool!  We brought them home, and got to work.  The best part was when the Ethiopians tried to help us.  Amare had the right idea, but clearly had no puzzle skills.  It took him foreverrr to find a match.  When Amen came to help, it was just hilarious.  He was sitting next to me trying to put two completely random pieces together by pushing them into one another (meaning instead of lifting one up and placing it into the other piece, he was just trying to shove them together somehow).  I looked at his strategy and asked him if he had ever done a puzzle in his life.  He said no.  Never, in his entire life, had he done any sort of puzzle.  What?!  I literally had to teach him how to put pieces together.  It was pretty amazing.  When he got his first piece, all by himself, he was incredibly proud!

Here's another story: Last night, we were all sitting around hanging out.  Just talking, not doing too much.  Kendra and I were coloring, because we're like five year olds apparently.  You know, nothing unusual...just relaxing.  All of a sudden, I look over and Masresha is painting his toes with the nail polish I left out while he's talking to us about minibuses.  I died laughing, because what the heck.  He was painting his nails.  Apparently he saw the nail polish and wanted to see what it was like?  Um, funny.  So he now has a couple of nails that have a nice coat of red paint on them.  Nice.

Okay let's wrap this up.  I'm pretty pumped, because this Friday we're going on a little roadtrip to a place called Awasa.  It's supposed to be absolutely beautiful, and I can't wait.  It will be very nice to get out of the city for a few days!  We'll be there from Friday to Sunday, and I can't wait.  I heard there's even going to be a shower there...with running water.  Could this really be true?!?