Thursday-Friday, during which we finally go to the post office!

There were no patients on Friday. Noooone. After lunch, I read with Meskeram for awhile. In the evening, we went to play soccer (for some reason, we no longer play on our field). We play now outside near Samson’s house, on a terribly slippery small field that runs into a threshing floor. Dodging cows and donkeys to get our ball back, priceless. Anyway, we had to stop to ge the ball from one of the guards, and there was an evil creature (aka, goat) tied there, and Yobe grabbed it by its balls and picked up. I could not stop laughing (do not worry, I did feel some pity for the poor thing).
Friday, we had a few patients, and near patients. Why do all the patients come right around 12, as we are leaving to go eat. Cameron cannot leave because Amanuel is usually not there, and we might prescribe something for the patients. We went home and did non-electricity things for awhile. I went into Cameron's room and came back out pretending that Kitty had been in his room. AND HE BELIEVED ME. It was great and super funny. Finallllllllllly… guess what! Abebe came to TAKE US TO THE POSTA BET!!!! Post office!!! Hareg was with us, so we dropped her off at home and then stopped at the post office. I made copies of our passports while Cameron bought peanut butter from the grocery store downstairs. I left with two packages, and Cameron (who had a slip for an envelope) left with three packages and no envelope. Background: The post office lady is a very disagreeable lady, and would not give me the other two addressed to me (Mom they are from you, I assume…. I identified them by the duck tape all over them :-D). They were addressed to Hareg (and me DOH) but she filled out the papers for Hareg, and did not have the time (“no time no time”) to switch the slip and let me take it. Oh, but she can give it to us on Monday. Does she realize how hard it is to GET to the post office? We do not arrange our own transportation, I explained, and it is very inconvenient to come to the post office to get our mail. Monday. Well, we cannot come Monday. Maybe Wednesday. Does she not want us to clear out her behind-the-desk area of all our packages? Anyway. We will be nice to her even though she… is mean. We had a package-opening party when we got home. Cameron’s three were all from Southern, and one of mine was from CHRISSSSS and the other from my aunt! Both excellent packages :-D, THANK YOU GUYS!!! and we got cool things from the SM office as well. Mmm I smell like veggie meat (Friday is taco night).

Monday-Wednesday, during which we have no class :-(

On Monday we had two patients in the clinic [in the morning]. The first man had a super infected wound, which was cool for me but so not for him. It did not look too bad, until Adonya took off the scab. It was sunk in the middle to over a centimeter below his skin! You could tell it hurt a lot, but he did not even say ouch. Dr. Debela thinks I might have scabies. The only problem with that is that in order to get rid of them, you need to wash everything in boiling water. Our washing machine only does cold water, and the biggest pot we have is probably only big enough for my clothes, not my bedding or towels.
The second lady was a lady in labor, so it would have been exciting if her baby could have been the first born at our clinic, but she had had a baby die just after being born last time, so Dr. Debola sent her to a hospital or something. She waited around here for ever, though, because Daniel was taking her and he was in a meeting. Eshi negir at work again. Haha, and EVERYONE was late, except Cameron. I had been up half the night itching, and so set my alarm clock for later then did not get up, Meron and Bayise were late, Daniel was SUPER late with everyone who takes the “service” (gets a ride to work), and we did not see Abebe all day. Class went really well with my favoritest class.
Tuesday…. Tuesday… Oh we were SUPPOSED to go shopping. But Amanuel was sick and something else, so Cameron had to stay at the clinic, but I was (grudgingly) going to go alone, but then Abebe could not even take me grocery shopping (we needed to get money and go to the post office too). I was on the edge of angry… and this week’s Sabbath school lesson is on patience. Well played. Anisha, there are starving children in Africa…… and Jennifer and Cameron were VERY NEARLY two of them! You can tell Jill she can use that on Miranda and Garrett.
Anyway, so I hung out the entire morning with Cameron in the pharmacy. We watched Esther. THEN we find out that it is a half day :-/ so no class. Oh, and by the way, yeah, the kids were right, there is no class for the rest of the week because of exams or something. Thanks, Ato Kinfe. If they want the kids to treat/respect us like teachers, they ought to keep us informed of when we will not have class. Abebe showed up in the evening and took us on a quick (and surprisingly inexpensive) shopping run.
On Wednesday, Amanuel was finally better, but we had no patients all day. We even went back after lunch and there were no patients. So I had a very successful day. I read some, played cards with myself, listened to my ipod, and then was bored. Ha, Cameron said I had too much to do. After lunch, I finished my test for the first half of the Boxcar Children… I hope I actually get to use it…. darn not having class. At least now the second grades are caught up with one another now… I read with Meskeram for awhile, then tried to play soccer, but left shortly after we started because I was going to cook. I made tofu wot and shiro, both of which turned out pretty well, considering, but I forgot to put tomato paste in the tofu wot and ginger in the shiro. Oh well, we ate it. The injera we had bought was turning moldy. Things here go moldy like no other. I think Daniel is arranging a trip to the post office for us tomorrowwwww *crosses fingers*.
WOAH I can make the page a different color… AND make it say “DO NOT COPY” AND add a border! Funness.

Thursday-Sunday, during which we go swimming!

I have some sort of itchy bite againnnnnnnn. They started out on my left leg and my hands and wrists. Now they are on my lower left leg, and both upper legs, both hands and wrists still, and on my hips. ITCHY.
There were no patients on Thursday :-/. I finished inventory and printed the rooms that are finished. Class was good. We finished a whole chapter. They will probably be ready for the test on the first half in two weeks. I started writing the test, and it is really good. Mek’des, Hermela, Dureti, and Meskeram wanted to study, so they took turns reading the Boxcar Children outside our house. We decided to give them all Dumdums, but Dureti left her wrapper. GAH. Thursday night we cooked rice and beans for everyone at the clinic.
No patients on Friday either :-/, but lunch was a success. Cameron’s beans turned out amazing, and the rice was not mushy. We read again after class, and boy, are those kids bold. We really need to lay down the law. Dureti and Mek’des have been following Cameron into his room, asking for things and touching his stuff and asking inappropriate questions, and they followed him into the kitchen on Friday. Dureti took the spoon out of the honey bowl and stuck it in her mouth! And Mek’des had the manners to wipe the spoon with her finger before eating it. Dureti will come right into our house, and we have to physically chase out/remove China. We have to close the kitchen blinds so they do not stand there and harass us. We went to Vespers, but only stayed for the singing—they started really, really late and we were really, really hungry.
On Saturday morning, I told Cameron, “don’t chew with your mouth full!” Oops. Before church, Sinke brought us shiro and injera. WOOHOO. Church was fine. For Pathfinders, we went on a hike/swimming!! It was supposed to be to identify birds, but I hiking was just more fun. The swimming place was only about an hour away. I learned that it is perfectly acceptable to take some shumbra from someone else’s field when you walk by. Yum. The swimming place was beautiful. Girma was the first one in, and soon shed his shorts so he had on a tank top and his underpants. Cameron was the second one in. I wish I was that brave, but I do not want to get parasites. Someone convince me that I will not get sick if I go swimming, please. The little boys wore their birthday suits, and most of the other guys went in their underpants. Gezehang and Alemayhu did not go in either, and Nabon just waded, so I did not feel so bad to not be swimming. We sang some songs after, and walked home. It was very dark when we got back, but it was such an awesome day.
Today Cameron cleaned, we went to Safara, and I mopped. I will make bread when the floor dries. I borrowed Sinke’s mop bucket—SO much easier than using the sink. But I used WAY too much laundry detergent. I basically mopped with bubbles :-).
Today while we were playing soccer, I did not do half bad. Gezehang is a monster. He is so good. Baybe (Estifanos) kept calling my name, then his favorite four letter word beginning with S. He kept trying to get my attention, but I did not fall for it. Meskeram eventually asked me why I was ignoring him, but I was like, “Who?” Ha. And then China kept trying to kick me, but I would just pick up my leg and catch him in the stomach. I win today, Solomon boys. I win.

And I have no idea why everything else is blue and underlined.

Saturday-Wednesday, during which we ride a mini bus, Higer bus, see Epiphany, and have no water for two days.

A picture of the guy's leg tumor.

Saturday was good. We did special music with Amanuel (on recorder). It went really well. We had potluck in Dr. Gemechu’s apartment with Hareg, Amanuel (who was the speaker) and Bereket (who taught Sabbath school). I do not know if I have mentioned, but there will not be potluck anymore. But we have been invited to the apartment the past two weeks, so maybe it will continue that way. I think that we should have potluck, but have it be a potluck instead of Sinke making everything. Sinke can just make the injera, and everyone else can bring a wot. It makes more sense. Pathfinders went well. We sang and then the kids broke into groups and were given a topic to discuss. While they did that, Amanuel, Bereket, Kibret, Cameron and I rehearsed some special musics. In Amharic SWEET. We are singing in four parts. After the kids presented what they had found and answered some questions about it, we showed the rest of Jonah. Then we watched a marching movie.
I do not think we did anything on Sunday. OH! I made pierogies! Curtis and Meredith had brought me sourkraut, and we had bought Vidalia onions at Lomyad, so I made sourkraut, then made them into pierogies. Hey, kids, when there is nothing to do on Sundays, what do you do for fun? Oh, we hang out in front the the feranjiwoch window and giggle while we watch them do strangs things. And we kick their kickball onto the roof. Thanks, China. Yeah, they hung out ALL while I was making pierogies. I let them try a bite of one, and I do not think any of them liked it. Maybe they will not ask us for things anymore. We have a brilliant plan, to give them Warheads or Fisherman’s Friends next time they ask for candy. All we need now is… Warheads and Fisherman’s Friends. And stickers with itching powder. Heehee. Only good little not-greedy children will get nice treats. For dinner, I fried them up with onions like we do for Easter and Christmas, and Cameron really liked them. Yay! They did not turn out badly at all, if I do say so myself.
Monday was Monday. We knew we were not going to have class on Tuesday, because it was Epiphany, a big Orthodox holiday, but we did not know that the kids only had a half day on Monday! I specially arranged to have 2B on Wednesday [even though they are my least favorite class] and 3rd grade only on Thursday, but it turns out that I have to miss 2A too! Drat. I love 2A. They love me. Maybe I will have an extra 2A class on Wednesday of next week. Third grade is already way far ahead. Around 130/2, maybe, I heard Dureti calling and calling and calling my name. I ignored her (she is the worst when it comes to asking for things). I went outside finally around two thirty, and it turns out HELEN had been calling my name, not Dureti! I felt so bad. So no class on Monday. Around 4, Girma came to take us for a walk (?). We went out the back, and then through the fields and it started to rain. POUR, more like it. Girma did not understand why I was okay with getting my hair wet. Haha. We had sheets of mud/t’eff on the bottom of our shoes. We took refuge under the future employee housing for awhile, then went home. We were so wet. We found out that the Florida Hospital mission trip for April is canceled. Well, it has been moved to October, which does not matter to us, because we will be gone. So we are sad that we will not get to see the Yosts again. Boo.
On Tuesday, we had no water when we woke up, which is super weird because it had rained the day before, and we had electricity. Sorry Cameron, no shower. We took a taxi (mini bus) with Girma, Meskeram, and Mekelech to the bus station before Girge, and the girls went on to Hareg’s house. Bereket and Kibret met us there, and we went with them, via HIGER BUS (AHH!), to Megedanya (the main taxi station) and another Higer bus to somewhere near the main Epiphany festivities. There were SO MANY PEOPLE! And some horses—with actual English saddles! Pretty. I want to be an Ethiopian horse policeman. Either that or I can join the RCMP. Bereket guessed 100,000 people. We saw the big parade, and the priests and elders and their cool umbrellas. And the supposed Arc of the Covenant. AND we saw the Pearsons! They were there with some other people from the hospital. It was nice to see them. It was SO hard to move through the crowd. My philosophy was “stick as close as you can to Bereket (or whoever was in front), your eyes on the ground, and keep his shirt in your periphery vision.” When the crowd got really bad, it was easier to follow, since we all basically moved as a unit. It was Bereket’s first time at Epiphany too, which I guess is not that surprising because he is not Orthodox. We ended up seeing another smaller parade, and then we stopped for lunch (YAY). It was called Five Zone, and had feranji food, and some really good-looking pizza, but we got Ethiopian food. I got shiro, and Cameron, Bereket, and Kibret split two meat dishes—t’ibs and something else. It was really good shiro. We had a lot of trouble finding a taxi to get home. We tried at this one stop for awhile, then tried another one. We FINALLY found a Higer bus that was supposed to be going to Bole Road (we were going to go to Kaldi’s for coffee (it is like Starbucks…. so much so that it got sued), and, for me, ice creammmmmmmmmmmmmmm. It ended up going to Megedenya instead, so we caught a bus to Girge, had coffee there, then they put us on a bus to Safara. We got off at our produce stand and got bananas, potatoes, avocadoes (for Cameron) and eggs (for baking!). Then we walked to find Girma, who thought we would get off at the last stop. There were some guys on horseback, and a beautiful buckskin, all decked out in his saddle, went running down the street, sans rider. It was SO funny. The other guys went after it. We finally found Girma, and it started to rain (not as bad as the day before, though), and I joked that every time we were with him, it rained. We STILL had no water when we got home, but we had another surprise. The beans we had been soaking had begun to ferment or mold something, and bubbled over—ALL over one of our chairs and all over the table. It smelt HORRIBLE HORRIBLE HORRIBLE! And we had no water with which to clean. Thankfully, we still had pierogies left over, so we just microwaved them. I had three, and Cameron polished the last 12. I went to bed early, since I could not take a shower.
Still no water on Wednesday, so we told Daniel, who told Yobe, so went with me to look for Solomon. The guy whose wife bit him came in to have his dressing changed, and one of my 2A students came in with a fever and abdominal pain. We tried to do a stool sample, but as of now *ahem* no luck. We went him back to class and said to come again after he eats lunch. Today is going very slowly. I finished inventory as much as I can, and those are the only two patients who have come. Class today was fun. I had 2B, but apparently the communication of “2B on Wednesday, and 3 only on Thursday” failed miserably. There were only like, 20 kids in the class. I restarted the book, we learned bakery again, and I introduced “polite.” We only got a little bit further than the entire class did last week. I made them give me a sentence “May I please have/go….” And once one kid did it, they got a Smartie. And then another kid, and another, until they got the hang of it: Give a sentence, get a candy. Funny, though, no one gave me “May I please have a candy?” I ran out of candy with 6 KIDS LEFT! ONLY SIX! Gah. But I took down their names, and will give them another chance next week. That is what you get for going when no one else goes. Like when Dr. Barnhurst gave us the code word in recitation… which I forget, unless it was elephant… that gave us 10… 10!!! free points on a mechanism question. I wish I remembered the word... Thanks, Dr. Barnhurst, for not putting it on the test key.

I forgot to mention, we went to a new grocery store and out to lunch with Dr. Gemechu on the Tuesday before he left. THE GROCERY STORE HAD ICE CREAM, so we bought a pink one. It turned out to be strawberry ice cream, which I usually do not choose if there is vanilla or something, but it was SO good. It was like, 14 birr for a tiny little cup, but it was so worth it. Lunch was nice; we went to the first restaurant we went to with Abebe. Cameron got a hamburger, and I got pizza again. Dr. Gemechu got t’ibbs, and ate only mostly the meat… with a fork, of course. Funny.

The whole week :-)

Woah, has it really been a whole week since I last updated my blog? Oops. I shall claim “busy.” Well, this week has been pretty busy. Saturday there was no potluck, which was like DUWAH? But Dr. Jerry and Mr. Jack (Dr. Jerry is the head of Adventist Disaster Relief Association (ADRA) in Ethiopia) came, so apparently that warrants a special meal, so we ate with them and Dr. Gemechu and Hareg in Dr. Gemechu’s apartment. Pathfinders went well. We sang a few new songs and Nehemiah taught us some marching. It made me want to watch “Cadet Kelly” really badly. Sunday I made banana bread and we went to Safara. We met up with Mrs. Desta, Firmaye, Samara, and their older sister (Yanekachew was sick at home) and went to the bee hives to meet Ato Desta for lunch at some lady’s house. We had already eaten lunch, so I was full (Cameron was still hungry, though) so we went and they had some beef jerky stuff on injera. I drank most of a soda, and that’s it. Things finally began picking up in the clinic this week. On Wednesday, I think, we had a man come in with a monstrous tumor on his leg that was bigger than a cantelope. It had been growing for two years, and he came from a far far kebele (town area) to get it seen, because he heard there were American doctors here or something. Well, you have Cameron and I, but we hardly qualify :-).

I got to take some BPs and give an injection and do more inventory. Class went pretty well this week. I passed back the tests and started “The Boxcar Children” in the second grades. At the end of class on Thursday, I asked the kids what Henry had just gone to buy in the book. I spent some of the class explaining “boxcar” and Jessie had just found some blueberries. After quite a few kids who had no idea, I got MANY answers of “boxcar” and “blueberries.” That is one of the frustrating things—even if you say that “BLUEBERRIES IS NOT THE ANSWER,” you will still get kids who say “blueberry.” I said that they should know it; that I knew it in both English and Amharic. So then I wrote the first letter in each language on the board, and then the second, and Helen FINALLY got it! Hahaha. Milk. Not too hard. Well, they had fun, anyway. Having the kids act “afraid” was always fun.
On Wednesday night we made a birthday pie for Hareg… and there was enough pie filling for Jennifer and Cameron to have a pie! It was delicious.
Today we walked to Safara to get eggs so I can make pierogis on Sunday. We had an entire entourage, since we left right after school got out. In the beginning, Cameron was holding hands with two kids, and there was a chain of kids with their arms around one another on either side of that. I felt left out, but it was suuuuper funny. Then I held hands with the two girls who were with us. That is the last time, though, we walk into Safara at that time of day—the sun was shiny--ouch.
Dr. Gemechu left Thursday night :-(. We miss him already.
My toilet is stilllll having problems. Gah!!!!!!!!!! It overflowed twice today. But I am making friends with the donkeys. They each ate a piece of carrot from my hand. I named them Mandonkey and Itdonkey.
Yesterday, I decided to be brave and went to Sinke’s kitchen and asked if we could practice making injera. Cameron joined me, and we each made two (my first was worse than any I had done previously). Meskeram made us shiro (the best I have had ever) and they gave us two injeras to take home. Very good candlelit dinner. Our sink was being… crazy, and had peed all over the floor, so we got Solomon and he tried to fix it, but he ended up recalking part of it and said he was just going to turn off the water for the night so the calk could dry. YAY no more cockroaches coming through that way! He tried again to fix it, but it turns out that we need a whole new faucet or something, and so we have no faucet in our sink until at least Monday. Washing dishes was fun tonight. We saved so much water haha.
Well, it is just as well that I did not blog all week…. blogspot will not post it.

Friday, during which we clean

Friday felt like a really low-keyed Sunday. I woke up and waited for Daniel (who never came) so I called Dr. Gemechu and he said that the nurses were not coming in. Cameron and I cleaned/tidied our house, and we put away all of the Christmas stuff. I made another potholder and watched TV. Cameron went to Safara with Samson, but I decided to stay home. They ended up just going to his house, and Cameron ate more meat (cooked, this time, tibs). I missed Vespers, but I did not mean to! I put on a dress and went outside because I saw the land cruiser, but it was over, not starting *headesk*

Christmas, during which I eat meat

Yesterday, Cameron’s studentYanekachew invited us to his house for Christmas. He lives in Safara. His sister is Firmaye, who is in my third grade—I saw her in town on the first time we stopped in Safara for groceries late at night. And so he came for us in the morning, and we walked to his house. Their house is pretty nice, considering. They are Adventist, which is super cool. We got there. And. They. Served. Us. Lamb. …………….And. I. Ate. It. I had some serious trouble chewing and swallowing it. Cameron ate SO much. I ate the minimum. Seriously. I felt kind of impolite, because I ate so little, but I ate a whole roll of injera, and drank most of a Mirinda. I would have finished it, but Cameron drank it. And I think I may have eaten some doro wat too. At least it was a mystery, not like chewing on hunks of meat. AND I drank half a cup of coffee. They also have an older sister, and, I think, and elder brother. They have a little brother too, Sama or something. They call him Sammy. He is cute, but kind of spoiled. After eating so much and drinking two cups of coffee, Cameron drank like five cups of tej, which tasted different (better) than the stuff they have at potluck. Turns out, it was Firmaye’s birthday too! so they had dabo and oranges and Mirindas and bananas and the Ethiopian speciality, kitfo. Cameron ate some, but I refused, saying I was full (which I was) and that I would get sick if I ate it (which I would have). Cameron ate some kitfo and a huge bone covered in meat. Brave guy. The kids loved my camera. Ugh my tummy feels funny. I forgot to take charcoal before leaving/with me to eat right after I ate whatever scary dead things we had to politely eat. Yanekachew, Firmaye, and Sammy walked us home, and made themselves right at home in our house. Cameron broke out the keyboard and yeah, they had fun. The Cameron went to take a nap/eat some charcoal, and I did this and watched TV. Not much supper for us. Tummy is grumbly. No thanks. At least I’m not Cameron.

A chunk of time

Saturday was good. Cameron and his family were here the whole day. Rehearsal went okay, kind of. Amanuel and his kids were SUPER late, and they are over ¼ of the cast. And I especially needed Amanuel for the first scenes. Girma never showed, so afterward, I talked to Yared about being the new Magi 1. He agreed, however begrudgingly. I found Girma and told him that he was officially out of the play. Er, program. I realize that he has good excuses for why he is late/does not show, but I need to be able to rely on him. If he is too busy, then he ought not have said that he could do it (much less that he wanted to be Joseph!). During soccer, Yared and Girma came back to me, and Yared promised me that Girma would learn his lines. Well, okay. Cameron’s family stayed until late, and Tamirat came and picked them up. They had a 230 am flight. ICKY. On Sunday, we went into town to get some produce. We found Samson again, WHO WAS LATE TO PRACTICE JENNIFER SAY WHA????? How do you get lost in 45 minutes? He totally knew when practice was, because he translated for Tsebenesh and Meseret. Anyway. Amanuel never showed. His kids were superfantastically late. However, Girma DID show, and he knew his lines pretty well. Well, not his verse of We Three Kings. Several people STILL do not know the lyrics! Anyway, it went okay.
I did not feel well on Monday. I went to the meeting at the clinic, then went back home and slept. What did I eat that made me so sick? I woke up around 1 and felt much better. I gave 2A their tests. EPIC fail. Well, at least they did better than 3’s first test. Their average score was 22%, and three kids passed with a 50%. I did more sheep costumes, and realized we had misplaced Ephrem’s costume! AHH. So we looked and looked, and asked Ephrem. No luck.
On Tuesday, I looked in the computer room for it. Again, no luck. 2B took their tests. Even with their teacher reading all of the questions out loud, their average was also a 22 percent. Four kids got 50%, and maybe two got higher (they left one question blank, so I am going to have them answer it next week. If they do this well, I am willing to let them answer the question. If it is the difference between a 2/24 and a 4/24, who cares. Ephrem was so worried about his costume that he made Tamu knock on our door and asked if he could look through the box. He did, and immediately found his costume. Next time, PLEASE do not wrap it in your red head covering! I thought it was Mary’s. It just never registered “two red costumes, well, that is weird.” Anyway, answered prayer big time there.
Tuesday night I got an email regarding an answered prayer of mine. That it is starting to be answered, that is. Prayer is such a powerful thing.
On Wednesday, the school celebrated Christmas, or, as they like to call it in English, “the x-mass holy day.” I do not really care for that title. All the kids decorated their classrooms with streamers and the chalkboards with colored chalk drawings. A lot of them drew Santa Clause on the board, and some even had a Christmas tree in the classroom. We had a good time taking pictures in the morning. Then. D-day time. Bekelech had a test, so she did not come, but EVERYONE ELSE came! Bebe missed school, and Temmy and Alemayo stayed home too… AND Lamlam, Bezunesh, and even little Edelowyt. I let Mek’des be a sheep. All in all, the play went, well, I was “backstage.” Someone tried to help me by bringing on a chair for scene two, but I was like, “No, do not go onstage again kthanks.” I wore blacks for a reason. Cameron says the singing was okay, but that it was hard to hear anything. Hareg really liked it, and so did Daniel. Amanuel, actually, was the biggest disappointment (considering I do not know whether or not Girma actually knew his verse of “We Three Kings”). He wanted to bring the words to “Away in a Manger” onstage for the last scene (he (Joseph) and Mary, the Innkeeper, and the narrator sing it together). WHAT? No, I said. I would rather you stand there and look like an idiot. He insisted, and I insisted harder and took his script and pushed him onstage. THEN HE GOES TO CAMERON AND GETS THE HYMNAL! NO, AMANUEL, NO! So yeah. Not too pleased. But whatever. I hope it made a difference for someone. After the play, we took pictures of the different classes having their Christmas parties. Cameron stayed with 8 for lunch and stuff, but I had too many people. Too many people. Lunch at home for me, then I went grocery shopping while Cameron ate lots of bread and drank lots of coffee. We chilled inside a bit, being interrupted every five minutes by more kids wanting balloons. We want to give to them, but we want to give to grateful, humble kids, NOT greedy little monsters. Mek’des has turned into a greedy little kid. We played soccer for awhile in the evening. We started making dinner (injera, shiro, and the green bean and carrot dish) in the dark WITH MY NEW CANDLE, but then the electricity turned back on. America called around 9something, and I got to talk to Rachel, which was cool.

Gah I am so frustrated at blogspot. POST MY BLOGS DODO!

Thursday-Friday, during which third grade becomes my least favorite grade

On Thursday, I started inventory… again… in the clinic. This time, there is a code. For example, SC/02-B/003/A112 is in the Summit Clinic, a piece of furniture (a bed), the third bed labeled, and in room A112. It was confusing as anything at first, but now I understand. I totally skipped the room with a bunch of instruments in it haha. I will save that for last. I am very thankful that Mom sent those sharpies, though. Even though they wash off of metal, I am still labeling them as if I do not know heehee. Hmm, Thursday class. Possibly worse than my first class ever. Quite possibly. Poor Eyerus and Samson, who want to learn. And that is all I am going to say about that. At least I get a break from them for next week. I stayed in my house the rest of the night. Samson came to get the football, but that’s it.
Friday was pretty good. I met with Ato Kinfe to give some of the parents’ money for their kids’ school bills, which was touching. I also had a talk with Kinfe about third grade’s atrocious behavior. I have no idea how to punish them. If we were in America, I could at least make them understand me. I could take away recess or send them to the principal’s office. He said he would talk to the teacher. I inventoried the procedure room, then back to give the homeroom teachers’ the money to buy their kids something for Christmas. Kinfe had somehow gotten the names of yesterday’s worst offenders, and made them apologize to me. They knelt on the floor for awhile in his office while he talked to them, then made them all say yekerta to me. The girl who sits L4L with the short hair, Argdeh, I think, could not keep a straight face. I felt a tiny (tiny) bit bad for the boys, because once I disciplined them, they were okay. Fantu (who I flat out kicked out), seemed the most penitent. I finished inventorying the lab and another room and started the overnight patient room, then left for lunch. I made stir fry, which turned out really good. After lunch, I found Salam (who does not attend class anymore because she says her mother will beat her (and who am I to argue?)) and had her take her test (which she missed). She improved from a 5/24 to a 6/24, which s…”which” was supposed to be “but.” My fingers have a mind of their own. So as I was saying, she improved to only a 6/24, but she got the last question correct (What word means mother AND father?), which is more than I can say for most of the others. I feel so badly for Eyerus (who is so smart and sweet) who still did not pass… which is weird because I KNOW she understands) and Samson (who had the highest grade on the fill in the blank test, but got a lower score on the easier one). They want to learn. Rehearsal went pretty terribly as well. WE PERFORM IN LESS THAN A WEEK. Girma does not know his lines. Only half the people show up to each practice. I still have not finished costumes or props, but I just barely had a brilliant idea for the shepherd’s “chair.” Thank you, Janyne. And I have to make gold, frankincense and myrrh. OOOH but Cameron has something we will use. So only two more to figure out. Oh and I have to make Samson a door for the inn. Vespers was mercifully very short (they wanted to finish before it got too dark). And now I am taking a brief respite from sewing sheep costumes. At this point, I am praying to get everything finished, forget sewed to last. I can fix them later. I am just going to cut holes for their heads and pray that they will not fray too much. A few emails, then sheepness.
Cameron and family are back!!!!

Tuesday-Wednesday, during which I see Meredith and Curtis!

Tuesday was pretty normal. We actually did have a patient or two. Class with the second graders went okay, considering. I wonder if most of them even care. There are two kids who I know care, because they understand, but the rest… who knows? We played kickball again, with more people this time. Eventually, though, Yobe got fed up and said that it was time to play football instead. I am pretty sure the way to win is to put me on the opposite team. I stink! Fun, though. Oh, I forgot to mention, Samson is AMAZING. He made China make up with me! So I took him back to the house to give him his toy and I gave him a Hershey kiss too. He waved goodbye to me, so I hope all hard feelings have been mollified. I made macaroni and cheeseeeeeeeeee for dinner, or was it lunch, on Tuesday? with the Velveeta my mom sent with Cameron’s family! It turned out wonderfully, and I had made the right amount of sauce for the amount of pasta we had left (for three meals!). My family friends, Meredith and Curtis, arrived Sunday night! They are here to adopt, which is super exciting. I finally got a hold of them and arranged to hang out with them on Wednesday. I waited at the clinic forevars, then we finally left to bring me to the Hilton (and Hulu, Daniel, and Dr. Gemechu places). OH MAN, HE IS SO CUTE!!! His name was Binyam, but now it is Hensley Binyam. He is 9 months old. They are also adopting a little girl, Hollis (I forget her Ethiopian name) (she is two months old now), but they have to come back to get her in April. But since they are here, they let them have her while they are here. She likes to be held. I played with Hensley—I am his auntcousinthing. I get to spoil him rotten—I’m doing a good job so far. The Hilton gives them fresh fruit every day, so they gave me some of it! So I have mangos, bananas, and oranges. I think I will just start calling them “greens” or “yellows” because they rarely get orange…. and apples! Shoo, apples. Which is really funny considering how expensive they are here! Dr. Gemechu had some stuff to do with his flight, so he invited us to lunch at the Hilton with him. It was a lot of fun. Meredith and Curtis got to try Ethiopian food, and I even got Hensley started on his first solid food—injera (fitting, right?). He loves to play with my watch. We hung out at the room a little bit, then their driver came to bring them to bring Hollis back to the transition house, and then shopping. We were almost at the transition house when their driver Ohnetu, got a call that they needed to be at the embassy NOW. I still do not understand the rush. So we literally dropped Hollis off, and I am not sure if it was better that it was fast (no time to get emotional) or not. We ran by the Hilton so Meredith and Curtis could get their passports (thanks, Hareg, for telling us to always bring ours :-)). I waited in the car with the driver and read a book and stuff. Talking to their driver was fun. After about an hour, Curtis came out for the diaper bag, and, since he said that they had said it might be another two hours, I went back in with him. Something happened to one of the guys that was there to adopt two older (7/8 years old) girls, and he had to be brought to the hospital (he looked okay to me on the stretcher, but what do I know?). It was only another twenty minutes at the most, and Hensley Binyam Hannah officially belongs to us! Well, Meredith and Curtis… and Jennifer! He is such a sweetheart. We went to Churchill Rd and I got to lead the shopping dealio, since my limited Amharic is better than Curtis and Meredith’s none. They got little souvenirs for people who had helped raise money, and giraffe thing for Hensley’s room, and a CD, and Meredith got a scarf and they bought me one too, and a map. Then we stopped by Bole Mini for some dabo colo and banana muffins. I got one for each of my bruhzers. Then they brought me home (and I had NO idea the Kalaala dance rd was so rough on cars!). I had a FANTABULOUS day and I absolutely LOVE Curtis and Meredith and Hensley and Hollis.