No-Cameron week

Wow, it seems like I have not updated in awhile, but it really has not been that long. Saturday was good—Sabbath school, church, lunch, Pathfinders. We got halfway through the “hard” ASL game. Oh yeah. After Pathfinders, we went to Amanuel’s house to visit. And we ate dinner there. Sunday morning, Kibret interrupted me in the middle of my breakfast to attend the promotion meeting with the Kalaala community leaders. We caught a ride to Sefara, so we only had to walk half of the way (back home). The rest of the day was spent cleaning.

Monday Monday Monday? Stuff. Haha, we worked out a food schedule for the next few days.
Tuesday, we finally finished the book in second grade!!! Yes! And then the kids and I sang and stuff. We watched House, played lots of Rummikub, and then Abebe arrived to bring us to the airport to pick up Austin, Cameron’s cousin. We saw a bunny on the way to the airport! Yay first wild life in Kalaala (we saw monkeys and baboons in Gimbi). We waited in line and got our entrance tickets, then joined a VERY long cue to get into the line for security. I brought a book so I would not be annoying, which Cameron appreciated. But we found out that, actually, we were in a line to get into the line to get into the security line. Fun stuff. We ended up only waiting in the airport for 15 minutes. Cameron was so happy to see Austin! It was happy. Back to Kalaala, and right in front of the compound, we saw what I have been waiting to see for months—hyenas!!! Cameron and Anisha had both gotten to see them, so it was unfair, but man oh man—we saw SO MANY! Maybe fifty. So many. They were not as big as Cameron described, but the ones we saw were females—the males came by later behind the ambulance and they were bigger. It was really cool. And they were literally right in front of the compound. Soooo cool. Then we kind of unpacked, and hung out and stuff. I eventually showered and went to bed, but they stayed up much later, and still both woke up to make promotion on Wednesday morning.
So yes, woke up early (after going to bed late) to go to the road with Amanuel. It went really well, since we were later than last week, and it was not a holiday, so we got more farmers and fewer students and there were many donkeys. We showed Austin around the campus, and then they stayed at the house and were going to nap, and I went back to the clinic. They did not end up napping haha. We played some UNO after lunch, then I had class with third grade. They are doing a verbal unit now. Well, verbal/reading. While reading with the girls after school, I took note of a few words they had trouble pronouncing because English is stupid like that (enough, near, hear, but then bear, etc). They get to be noisier, so I think they will like it. After class, I sang a bunch with the girls, then more with a different set of girls. Then they really wanted to meet Austin, so I went back to see if he was awake. They had been napping, but he was awake and did eventually come. They named us Hyena (me), Giraffe (Cameron), and Ostrich (Austin). We ate flowers and then played football. Dinner, packing packing packing, more UNO, Bones, shower, then bed. I woke up to see them off. Very sad. Now I am lonelyyyy. No patients yet today. I am sure I will be fine, though. This is why I could never not have a roommate—I LOVE YOU POPS!

Thursday nights through Sunday night, the power went out… tonight… Sunday, it went out right in the middle of me blogging. Jolly.

Okay, Thursday, nothing of note, except my waxident. I got wax all over my computer, the trunk, Cameron’s sink, and my chair. I got it all off except for what is all over my chair.
Friday, I got to be the lab tech and pharmacist for an hour or two, until Isias arrived, and I was demoted to only the pharmacist. Fun times anyway. Friday after school, I hung out with Eyerus and Helen by the milk house. We sang and it was fun. On our way back to the gate, Yobe and Gezehang were washing the car Daniel uses, and I stole the hose, and sprayed Yobe and the girls and me. Yay. It was SO hot. The water felt so good. The power went out while I was cutting papers for Pathfinders next week, and so Saturday morning it looked like a paper factory exploded. Saturday was very interesting. I was bringing the keyboard to church, and I see these two feranjis! Two feranjis. That are not Cameron and I. I am sure I came off rude. Anyway, they are Mark and Nicole from Washington (or Washington DC if you listen to the dude who translated into Amharic for them). Anyway, Nicole and I basically talked the entire time they were here (minus church and Sabbath school). We hit it off great. It was nice to have someone to talk to until they left—the lack of Cameron makes me lonely. We were walking over by the tree that the bees have moved into on the path between my house and school, and A BEE STUNG HER! Those bees, who I walk by all the time, who NEVER sting anyone… and I tell all the kids “Don’t be afraid. They won’t sting you if you don’t bother them” stung her. Oh yeah, and she is allergic. Gah. Sooo we went back, I took the stinger out, gave her some Benadryl, ice, lalala. She was all good. Pathfinders was the last half of the ASL game.

Sunday was so interesting. I had to go get produce and groceries, so I was planning on just having one of the kids go with me. But Tsigue knocked on my door and asked if I wanted to go. So we walked to Sefara then took the mini bus to Girji, then walked to Hareg’s house. I met Edelowyt’s mother. Abu was on the porch, and Meske and Betty were helping him walk. So Hareg and I watched him and chatted. I got new books. Around noon, we ate (YAY, Ethiopian foodz!), had tea, then I went with Tsigue grocery shopping. It was funny, because they made it sound like Yared would take me to a grocery store, but we just walked. She bought supplies for THE NEW KITCHEN AT THE CLINIC, and I bought spaghetti. Then the ambulance drove by, and we got in and went down the road. Theeen I bought bananas and CORN and a papaya and mangos. I think that’s it. The papaya was SO good. And so were the mangos. The corn, which I was so excited about, however, was a different story. I boiled and boiled and boiled it. For about two hours. And it was STILL hard. So I tried to take a few bites, then I gave up and had some chocolate chips. Then the power went out. All night. And all of Monday. And Monday night. Any my computer ran out of battery, Cameron’s ran out of battery, and something else ran out of battery. Oh, my ipod. So Monday night I went over to eat an orange while Meske, Baybe, and China were playing. But then my legs started itching like CRAZY, so I went inside, applied … that whose name escapes my mind. Cata… the stuff you put on chicken pox. Then they itched so much that I had a Benadryl and put hydrocortisone ointment ALL over my legs. I played Rummikub and UNO against myself (I beat invisible Cameron in the former by 40-some points), then the Benadryl took effect and I went to bed because I was so tired. The power was on for seven minutes when I woke up Tuesday morning. Then it went off again while I showered and ate breakfast. But finally it stayed on during the day so my stuff could charge. We had lunch at the clinic. Tsigue and Tsinat made patties and omelet sandwiches. Bayise and I helped too. It was good. Class went okay. Better than Monday anyway. I hope they are ready for the test next week. There is no school tomorrow. I broke out the hula hoop that Aida brought, and everyone liked playing with it. They liked grabbing it too, which I did not like. Pup came, and one of the girls played “bite the pen” and fetch with him, which was sweet. And super awesome because he is such the clever boy playing fetch. Then there was stuff to sell at the pharmacy. Then Tsigue gave me my spatula back. Then I made Baybe and China try the hula hoop. Then I made dinner and watched House. Then the power went out and I played Rummikub against invisible Cameron again. He beat me by 23 points. Mmm cough drops. I sound sick, but I’m not sick because I do not get sick. I do get itchy though.
I suppose things happened on Wednesday and Thursday. I know that the power was out most of the time. I went grocery shopping on Thursday and got over 100 birr in produce. Papaya, mangos that do not taste like mangos, pineapple, broccoli, okra, bananas, peppers, and strawberries. Yayness. Thursday night, though, there was power! And about a thousand million times better than having power, Tsigue came and taught me cooking! Meskeram came too. She asked what I wanted to make, and I said, “Eh, miser wat or green miser wat or green beans and carrots…” So we started cooking. It took me about an hour to realize she was teaching me how to make TWOOOOOOOOOO wats! She taught me miser wat and carrots and green beans. We finished around 730, but I was not even hungry by then. I had a little bit of it, and made me firfir for breakfast. Oh, and that firfir was SOOOOOOO good (might have had something to do with the fact that Tsigue made the wats. I make good firfir. The other thing that tied with best awesomest thing that happened on Thursday, was Dr. Fekede told me that Cameron had called him and HE AND AUSTIN WERE COMING HOME EARLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Instead of coming home Saturday afternoon, they came home Friday MORNING! The whole school went on a field trip, but Dureti did not go because her dad was worried the bus would crash or she would get lost or beat up or something. So she hung around until Abebe and I left. We got to the airport around the time Cameron said he would arrive: 930. Well, Cameron said he should arrive around 930, anyway. We waited and waited and waited. I read a book. I finished a book. I waited and waited and waited. Abebe and I talked, and waited. Around 1115, Abebe said that he was only waiting 15 more minutes. He FINALLY got there around 1130. I WAS SOOOO happy to see them! They were wind-burnt. I think they napped some and we played UNO. We went to Vespers, but only the kids were there, so Austin said something and we prayed and left. We had burritos for dinner yum. Sabbath was good. Austin was happy he was there for pot luck. For Pathfinders we made flowers out of paper and vases out of paper-covered toilet paper rolls. They had fun. Saturday night we watched Star Trek. The projector kept going off so we watched half of it on the projector and half crowded around the computer. Sunday Bereket got married! So me in my nice dress, Cameron in his suit, and Austin with his camera had to hike to Sefara through the MUD. Cameron looked awesome with his pants hiked up and tucked into his socks, and I looked awesome with a big backpack and sandals and a shiney silver dress. We FINALLY got there and saw Asrebeb, and then we sat there for two hours waiting. We said hello to Ato Kinfe and saw Adungya from afar. Finally Kibret arrived and at least told us where to sit. I sat in a tree. Then I switched with Cameron and he had to deal with a branch in his face. The bathrooms there were… very ripe. We sat, watched, then it started to rain so we went under a roof because I had my flute. But then, everyone went under a roof because they are afraid of rain. We ate before we played. It was only decent Ethiopian food. Then we played our songs, but our seats got taken so we got stuck on the music platform. Eventually, they started singing and dancing and so we clapped along. Then we got squished so the bridal party could join us. Then we got kicked off so they could cut the cake. They had doves on their heads (Bereket and his new wife, Meraf). We had asked/told Daniel if he would bring us home, and he said yes. But he left, so we eventually used Adungya’s phone to call him to tell him to pick us up. Austin and I wanted cake so we left Cameron and got cake. Austin elbowed my cake, so I licked his elbow clean because he stole my frosting. We walked some and met Daniel, and got a lovely ride all the way to the gate. We watched two episodes of House, and maybe something else. Monday we went shopping. Lots of stuff to buy. Scarfs, baskets, Cameron got a triton sword for Peter, etc. We were supposed to be picked up in an hour at the Union, but we did not have a phone, and we were late so we just sat there for 20ish minutes. Hareg and Dr. Fekede and Abebe got there and had been worried, but we said we had said that we did not have a phone. They took us to lunch at a wonderful restaurant. It was really cool—there were different sections built like different landmarks in Ethiopia—Gonder, Axum, Blue Nile Falls, etc. Hareg gave both of the guys a shirt and me a dress. They have been so so so wonderful to us. That afternoon I had had to give a test, but since I was not there, I asked 2A teacher to do it. Wonderful she is, and she put them under my door after class. Helen got 24/24 (two wrong, but both extra credits). On Tuesday, Cameron and Austin slept in and refused to come to work. Class was okay. The first half went okay. I had five kids who had to take the test, so 2B teacher took them to do that. I showed them half of a Boy Meets World episode but had to censor the kissing scenes. They went giggle-crazy. Then I said that this was my last class with them and that I had something with them and I would give it to them as they left. Well, that worked for about two kids, and then they mobbed. I kept pushing them back and telling them to get in a straight line. No luck. NO luck! I eventually had to get all the kids back in the classroom and told them to sit down. These kids do NOT understand “get in one, straight line.” I yelled a lot because they were bad and were ruining the sweet part of the bittersweet “last class.” Hmm. Then the three of us crowded with 14 OTHER people into the ambulance and went to drop off of Austin at the airport. We went inside with him and said our goodbyes. At least I will get to see him next year at Southern, but he is still a poor replacement for Cameron. WILL MISS CAMEZOL!