Sunday-Sunday, during which we go to Gimbie

So the reason there is such a gap between this entry and my last is because 1. the internet in Gimbie was down during the time we were there and 2. because I did not bring a computer to type on and using Cassie’s was just too much work (she says sarcastically). Anyway.
We woke up at 305 to meet Abebe at 330 to get to the bus station in time to catch the 600 bus to Gimbie. I slept most of the way to the bus stop, and most of the way to Ambo (about two hours outside of Addis). The city streets were eerily abandoned--so different than from when we usually drive in the city. We ate breakfast at a little restaurant in Ambo. They charged us 26 birr for 5 drinks and biñet (injera with samplings of different fasting (vegetarian) dishes. The toilet there was gross, but we were grateful for the opportunity to relieve ourselves, for we knew there would be no more potty-stops :-(. On the way there, I slept, played a game of cards with Cassie, and pretty much did nothing. The bus stopped again about halfway through, and a lot of people got off (the boys got to go to the bathroom--unfair), and we bought sugarcane! For those of you who do not know what it looks like (I did not, until this trip) it is about an inch and a half in diameter, and were cut into about foot-long pieces. You have to peel off the 3 mm thick “skin” with your teeth, then you chew on the sugar cane (you can rip it off into smaller pieces to chew on). Then, the cool people like us throw it out the window, where it joins all the other sugar cane from the window-seat people, and the people in the aisle seats just throw/spit theirs onto the floor of the bus. That was the most interesting part of our trip on the bus, I think. Anisha felt sick, and wanted the window open, and Ethiopians do not like the windows open on the bus (they think it makes them sick haha), but we kept the window open anyway. The roads were not as bad as we heard they were. But the sporadic Ethiopian jazz they played was too noisy (it would have been awesome if it had been quieter). We walked from the bus station to Gimbie hospital, and it was so weird walking around the city, and Cassie kept saying hello to people she knew. Anisha and I ended up staying with Cassie (well, we stayed in her bed) and one of her house mates, Joyce, was kind enough to lend us her room for Cassie while we were here. She also did it so we could be noisy during the day (she is a night shift nurse). Cassie’s other housemate is Kelsey, the Matron. Cameron stayed at the VD (volunteer dorm) with the boys. Cassie (and Kelsey and Joyce) have a girl, Jolly, who cooks and buys groceries and cleans and does laundry for them. The boys have a lady, Bajigtu, who cooks (with lots and lots and lots of oil) for them, and another lady who cleans and basically tucks them in at night :-). Both Jolly and Bajigtu are awesome cooks. A previous SM gave Jolly some recipes, which she has written down... which I now have written down--YAY PITA BREAD AND PATTIES!!
The soil in Gimbie is a burnt orange color. So different from anywhere else I have seen. It turned my tennis shoes reddish. After dinner that first night, we went to Jimi Juice, a place that has awesome, awesome smoothies. I got guava pineapple. We brought around a few of the orphans from the orphanage, and treated them to a smoothie. Gerata ate his in about 10 seconds—with a spoon, he was very talented. It was sooo good. The hospital is so big. The next day, one of the SMs, Jeremy, gave us a tour of it. They have a pediatric ward, a female ward, and a male ward. On the third floor are a chapel and the administrative offices. The church on the compound is humongous. Apparently people crowd outside on Sabbaths too. Jay hung out with us one night, which was fun, and told us the crazy story of how he and his girlfriend came to be. Cassie, Anisha, and I stayed up late talking. I went to bed around midnight, but they stayed up until two!
Paul and Petra eventually came back from visiting one of the clinics. They had brought a new member of the family. On the side of the road, there was a man holding a small animal. They were going to buy it (for no more than 300 birr) and then let it go. The man said 15 birr, so of course they bought it. As they were pulling away, the man said something about milk! They realized that they had a baby animal! They thought it was a dikdik, but it ended up being a duiker. They named it Tokoma, which means “first one” in Oromifa. We hung out with him one afternoon, trying to get it to go to sleep. He is super cute. He kept slipping on the non-carpeted floor. He got better as the days passed, though.
On Thursday, Thanksgiving, most of the Americans had off work. Cameron and I made pumpkin pie/soup. The recipe called for evaporated milk, so we had to improvise and it was too liquidy. The girls’ oven does not work (and only one of their burners works), so I went to the VD to bake it. It took foreverrrrrrrrrrr. Over twice as long as it was supposed to, but we finally gave up and took it out. It actually solidified quite well by the time we ate. In the afternoon, I invited myself to the VD for lunch, and afterward, convinced the boys to wash the potatoes (Bajigtu kept trying to help, but I kept telling her that the boys were actually able to do some semblance of cooking). Around 230, I convinced them to come inside and peeled and cubed the potatoes. Anisha and Cassie were busy making pumpkin bread, salad, sweet potatoes, and apple pie. While the potatoes were boiling, we played ping pong. I finally beat one of the local boys who hangs around, Chala, when he gave me a 15 point head-start. Jeremy took a mini bus to Jimi Juice and bought 19 smoothies worth of…smoothie… for Thanksgiving. (Apparently we only trusted them with juice and potatoes.) And he got soda. Thanksgiving was a feast! There was cranberry sauce and stuffing-like-stuff, and everything we had made and much, much more. We played some games afterward, and I learned (after afterward, when we had gone over to Paul and Petra’s house) how to play 7 Up, 7 Down. I had a terrible time upon learning that the camera card I thought I had brought with me was merely the ADAPTER! So I am sad. But Mom is sending one to have Janyne bring (Anisha’s neighbors are visiting in a week or so).
On Sabbath, we had Sabbath school/church on the porch of the people upstairs. Paul brought Toko, and he hung out with me. He kept licking/rubbing his teeth/biting me, and then he peed on my/my sweatshirt. Who else can say they have been peed on by a duiker? He still seemed like he needed to go more pee, so I took him outside so he could go on the grass. Then he came back, and curled up in front of me on the towel and slept for the rest of Sabbath school/church. So cute. After potluck, we went on a hike. It seemed not far away, but it totally was. We were sooo tired after hiking up, but I felt bad for Anisha and Cassie, who had to hike and were not feeling well. I had wanted to return to the Learning Village on Friday, but alas, no luck. We were planning to return on Sunday, but then Becky said we had to get the tickets a day in advance, so we would have to return on Monday. I was feeling homesick and just wanted to go back to Addis. On the way back, Jay and Nick waited for Anisha and Cassie, and Cameron and I tried to follow Becky and Petra back, but they left without us and we lost track of them. We ended up… er… going back an untraditional way. But we figure that is the way it is out there…. just make up your own way. On Sunday, Paul called Cassie to have her come learn how to take care of Toko while they were in Addis. We were like… wha?? TAKE US TOO! And so she asked Paul when she was there, and Paul called us and told us that they were leaving in the Land Cruiser at 230 (an hour and half). Anisha wanted to take the Land Cruiser back because she did not want to get sick on the bus. And I wanted to go back as soon as possible, so we were all super happy!! We packed and managed to get some snacks in town before we had to meet Paul and Petra and their driver, Ashiber. Right as we were leaving the hospital to get snacks, we were attacked by a small red ball. Gerata! And Damika. They walked with us and held our hands, and so we got them some food before we left. We left around 300, and I was awake for the whole time. It was much fun. We stopped and bought some roasted corn on the side of the road. It was pretty good. I thought it was our dinner, but we ended up stopping at this restaurant in Ambo. And Ethiopian restaurant. We ordered injera, but they came back about 15 minutes later and said THAT THEY DID NOT HAVE INJERA! Tragic! Petra had ordered orange juice, but it turned out to be tang with some pulp. I ended up getting “mixed vegetables” and they were very good. Paul helped me eat them. They drove us back to the Learning Village, and we had invited them to stay with us, but they had to be back in town for something early in the morning, and so to avoid traffic, they stayed in town. I was SO happy to be back. We had a nice time in Gimbie, but the Learning Village feels like home.