Since blogger is not working at all. So I do not feel compelled to update much.

Tonight was our first clinic emergency. Gueremew called Cameron (how good is it that he had his number?), and said to come right away. The lady… well, 21 year old... had a headache and abdominal pain. I did my best, and we called Dr. Debela. Amanuel was on his way though. And even though so many of her family came, none of them spoke English. Whoopee. Anyway, it was probably a peptic ulcer, so we got 73 birr and she got medicine and I got to give her an injection. Very exciting.

So blogspot has been out of commission so long I have lost the motivation to blog, which is good news for all the people who sit through and try to decipher what I write. Wow, I have been starting every entry with a lament about blogspot. Classes have been going well, 23 kids passed their last test, and the second graders’ average was higher than the third graders’ (43.1% vs 36.8%). I went reward-happy for those who passed (and even more so for those who passed according to American standards). Unfortunately, that means that all the other kids were jealous and stuff. Hard knock life, you only got 2/22, so you do not get a chapstick like the kids who got 19/22.

Dr. Gemechu is back—he arrived last week. On Sunday, Samson had invited us to Amanuel’s house, so we went and it was fun. I drank two—read it, TWO—cups of coffee, and had part of a soft drink. Charlotte would die here—soft drinks all the time. I baked banana muffinsishcookiesishbread. I combined the recipe for pumpkin cookies and banana bread, so I would not have to wait for hours for the bread to cook. I also baked Anisha’s Christmas cookie bar mix to bring to Ato Yaried’s house. We had been invited to go to Helen and Eyerus’ house on Monday, so after class we went. Poor little Helen must have been tired, because she walked super slow. It was a lot of fun. They had soft drinks for us (since last time we said we did not drink beer, so how considerate :-)). And Wayzaro Salam had made a great spread for supper. Arsema was her usual charming self. I am glad we went this week, because everyone is fasting now (aka no meat!). But they invited us back again sometime after Easter so they can serve us meat ick. Ato Yared wanted to take lots of pictures, so we have awesome pictures. And then he invited us back to their kitchen, which was weird, and W/z Salam was so embarrassed and kept saying it was a mess (well, it was, but whatever, workshop/kitchen made from put together pieces of tin would be hard to keep organized. Sweet pictures, which I will upload if blogspot ever works. The girls and I have some awesomely funny ones. Ato Yared walked us almost all the way back home (we met Alemayhu, Temmy, Gezehang, and Samson on the way back), and he talks SO loud!

Last week when we were with Bereket, we found out that the cafeteria serves food for the teachers Monday-Friday! AND WE FIND OUT ABOUT THIS NOW?!?! Gah. So on Tuesday, we finally got the opportunity to go get good Ethiopian Bayinetu at the café with Bereket. It was good, too. It had miser wat, potatoes and carrots, and… something else. It was very good. And Bereket paid (how nice) and then we went back to our house and made him tea (the café was not serving any because the power was out).

We also went out Tuesday night. Other Bereket (from CMC church) invited us to speak at some thing for college students at a big church in another part of the city. Just our luck, it was rainy and muddy and ick. We met him at Megeneña and got to the church with my only getting my feet icky once. The church is a little bigger than Meriden. Cameron spoke about the cross, and I told the story of the tree trees (one ended up being Jesus’ manger, one the fishing boat, and one His cross). After Cameron spoke, we did a special music, and we eventually headed home. We met several very nice people. One lady was named Meseret, and a guy who lives near us named Johannes (his mother lives in Queens), but he lives at the university now, I guess. Anyway, we had a hard time finding a bus back to Meberat Haile, because Other Bereket was doing it weird, so we eventually did it our way—go to the main station, and ask someone “Meberat?” Then they find us a bus, and we go. We took a Higer bus back to Safara (weird), but it kept waiting for more people but people kept getting off and it was late and Jennifer was tired and Cameron was hungry. While we were at the smaller station with Other Bereket, someone with new sharp shoes stepped on my foot. It got all muddy. Anyway, we made it back to Kalaala in the dark without getting attacked by drunk men (the town was basically deserted) or hyenas (though part of me wishes I had seen one!).

Now my biggest problem is not that blogspot will not work, but it is that the internet will not even connect—inde?

Dr. Fekede’s daughter Aida is here for a few days. Hopefully Abebe will be able to take us shopping today. It is even okay if I miss class, because third grade is so far behind second.

Oh, something else very exciting about the past few days—many of my friends have sent me nice long emails! I love my friends.

Oh dear. Meseret troubles. She is an older student in third grade, and lives really close to the campus (unluckily for her, the “teacher, it is rain and I live far” excuse does NOT work if I know where she lives). Today, she WALKS OUT OF CLASS IN THE MIDDLE OF CLASS!!! *bigger font* AND THE TEACHER DID NOT DO ANYTHING!!! until I was like, “Uh, excuse me, WHERE IS SHE GOING?” Then he got up slowly and went outside after her, and comes back in alone. Near the end of class, Meseret strolls back in and sits down. Even though I had given the whole class a “that is so rude and she just lost your class a whole point” lecture, I told Meseret again how rude she was. Honestly? Gah. Then, near the end of class, I notice that Firmaye had little pieces of Styrofoam in her hair! I asked who did it, and they blamed Abraham Solomon, then they blamed… Meseret. What is that girl’s problem!? To Abraham’s credit, she had Styrofoam, not him. So I took it away and threw it in the dustbin. THEN after class, Gezehang was handing out some papers, and Meseret was causing more problems, (I do not remember exactly) and I took away MORE Styrofoam that she threw angrily on the floor and huffed out. Oh yeah, and Cameron had loads of problems with her when he was trying to play football with some kids after school. Gah.