Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Friday-Sunday, during which we eat injera four days in a row, and participate in the health fair

Well, tonight (Saturday) is movie night and the power is out. I used my computer today during Pathfinders, so I … just kidding, the power is back on. I was going to say I hope it came on so my computer could charge for movie night. Tonight is actually movie, popcorn, and candy night (popcorn because Anisha’s aunt sent us some, and candy because it is Halloween). Exciting, right?
Back to Friday. Friday was actually quite a busy day for us. We called Dr. Gemechu, who said that he would call us right back. We called him again over an hour later (he had been in a meeting). He said to go down to the clinic and meet the people there for the health fair on Sunday. Well, we went down, walked around with Mack’onay, and only saw two people we did not know (who seemed not to understand if we asked if they were here for the health fair.) So we went back to the room. Dr. Gemechu called at 1145, and said to go down again. I hoped it would not take long, because I was planning to have lunch at 12. There were 8 nurses there (plus Ado and Hulu; Dr. Gemechu’s wife, Azeb; Emmanuel; Daniel; Hareg and Yared; and the guy whose name I forgot…I know he does youth stuff). We met everyone, and were about to go inside for the meeting, but instead we all washed our hands and went inside. They had gotten pizza and soda! “Just as a snack.” Haha—lunch for me! The meeting was mostly Emmanuel talking about NEWSTART: Nutrition, Exercise, Water, Sunshine, Temperance, Air, Rest, and Trust. Azeb left early, but gave us a bag with cookies and something else in it (Anisha would not let rude little me look while we were there). It was so nice of her! Hareg called after she left and told us to take the whole pizza that was left. We eventually left, but by now it was getting late, and we were supposed to go grocery shopping because we were probably not going to be able to on Sunday. (Azeb had also given us Twix, Mars bars, and Snickers.) We went to Dr. Gemechu’s room to talk to them, and it was eventually decided that they would take us to town then. Cameron could not go, because he has a class from 3-345, but Anisha and I went with Abebe, Dr. Gemechu, and Azeb, then were picked up by Yared, and we went to the grocery shop where we usually go, got stuff we needed (except a peeler/grater, baking soda, and vegetable shortening). Then we went to the same produce stand as last time, and they gave us a free orange to try and a free banana. We like this produce stand! (Well, we will have to go somewhere else for okra and peppers.) AND WE GOT A PUMPKIN. Now, as soon as someone sends Anisha how, we can make canned pumpkin out of it so we can make cookies and bread and pie and yum. We also got mangos! Then Yared brought us back. We ended up giving into Stephanos’s cries of “Jenney-fehrr!” but before soccer, there was a music fest. Y-ob and Samson had us listen to some of their stuff, then I brought out my ipod and made them listen to Christian music, Spanish music, and country. The first song they put on was “That Don’t Impress Me Much,” which made me laugh. After I finished making them listen to a Spanish song, the guy who was looking at it asked if I had any country. I showed him my scores of songs, and he listened quite contently until we started playing soccer :-). I love how so many people here like country music! Dinner was the leftover injera and pizza. Yum. After dinner, we opened the cookies and practiced for special music.
Today I woke up, showered, and poured a bowl of cereal before I realized, “Shoot—Sabbath is pancakes for breakfast day!” I had to put the cereal back and whip up a batch of pancake mix. This time, we had eggs and baking powder, so this was the best batch yet. We then just waited around until someone came to get the piano and us for Sabbath School. Anisha and I sang “As the Deer,” with Cameron on piano, then listened to the Sabbath School (not that we understood much). Then was church, and I played “Shine, Jesus, Shine” on flute with Cameron on piano after the sermon. Hareg asked if we heard what the pastor had said, and I responded that yes, we did, but that does not mean we understood it. She laughed. Potluck time! Very first thing I noticed was the presence of BANANA FRITTERS! I was super excited. Why does food make me so excited? The injera and whateverelse we put on top of it was good, filling, and satisfying. Hareg now knows that we want to know how to make injera and the accompanying dishes, and plans to be present to translate when S’ike teaches us. Whoot. She also said she will teach us how to make banana fritters. Dr. Gemechu showed us the tree Cameron’s dad planted while he was here, and we said we want to plant ours by the clinic. We vegged out before Pathfinders, and during it we taught them three songs. Emmanuel used my computer to show the DVD (you cannot get a virus from a DVD, right?). It was a movie called “The Ten Commandments,” and was Amharic dubbed over English, so we could understand when the Amharic guy was not talking :-). We want to watch the Veggie Tales Jonah movie that Anisha brought. After Pathfinders, we came back home and read and napped.
We ate leftovers for dinner, and decided to make the guacamole pasta sauce thing for tomorrow for dinner and just put it in the fridge. Good decision, because the avocados were super old. We popped popcorn and ate Reece’s Pieces while watching Stranger than Fiction (Hanna, if you are reading this, I thought you of through the whole thing). I dressed up as a Nudist on Strike (MLIA) and Cameron was a superhero. Anisha was lamelederhosen and decided to be and Indian Giver. About halfway through, she decided to be pillow girl. Cameron sided with me on the fact that Anisha was lame. Anyway.
Sunday was the health fair. We were waiting at the clinic when Yared, Hareg, and Azeb arrived. We were suppppposed to be at the school. It did not matter, because the rest of the nurses and whoever did not arrive for over an hour. After we ripped pamphlets in half, Anisha took pictures and video while Cameron and I waited for people to go through the rotations. The people went into classrooms in groups of 10 and the different “teachers” rotated, I think. Then they went to the station where they took height, weight, blood pressures, heart rates, etc. After they did that, they came to me, Cameron, and Bereket, and we put their information into some computer program which told them what they should do to improve their health. The suggestions were like, “get more sleep,” “stop drinking alcohol,” and “stop snacking.” Near the end, about a zillion kids came in, wanting us to do theirs. They were waiting lunch for us, so we stopped at one o’clock and said that we would come back at two. They provided lunch for us (injera!) so that was exciting. Most of the people had not come back at two, so we wrapped that up pretty quickly and then came back to our room. Anisha and Cameron slept and I hemmed three pairs of scrubs.

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