Sunday-Tuesday, during which we learn to make injera!!!!

OW my arms hurt. If they bruised, they would be black and blue and purple and green and all those good bruise colors. Sunday was pretty boring. We did go grocery shopping, and to Bole Mini to get baked goods. YAY. I read through and took notes on the Boxcar Children to read to class once we finish family. I made pumpkin cookies that night, but I had a tummy ache so went to bed in the middle of that endeavor. We did, however, finish the first season of Big Bang Theory.
On Monday, we went to staff worship, and then played hangman while Dr. Gemechu had meetings with the rest of the peoples. They hired a lab tech today—a lady named Genet. The dogs (Rocky and Pup) come when I call to them, and Pup goes all wiggly. So adorable. Class was fun today. I had to take a picture of Anisha with her class for her family’s Christmas letter dealio, and I tried to be back far enough to get everyone in the picture, but they kept getting all near the camera, so I had to make them all go back (and even then, they came forward, gah). The picture turned out horrible. All the kids were waving their hands at the camera. Fourth grade is scary, man. I happily returned to my quiet second grade class. The best part of the class was when they had to answer “husband.” “Eleanor is Harold’s wife. Harold is Eleanor’s __________.” I knew “husband” in Amharic, so I eventually went to that hint, and the teacher was talking the whole time, and they still did not understand. I wrote “h” on the board. No luck. So I put “hu.” Helen (my smartest 2A girl), said “Hunny!” I cracked up and was laughing so hard. I told them that they didn’t know it, but that that was very funny. Then, someone else pipes up with, “Hunk!” So Grandpa, if you read this (which… you probably will not…), you are Grandma’s hunny and hunk. I eventually did give them the correct answer, though. After class, I asked Helen if I could interview her for the Student Profile part of the newsletter, and she obliged. She is so cute. And it turns out that she is smarter than American second graders—she is only 6. To read more on Helen, stay tuned for the third volume of the Kalaala Chronicles. Haha. We played volleyball in the evening again, until the guard took the ball away. We really need to buy a new soccer ball. (Cameron left his with Samson while we went to Gimbie, and it popped one night…). Well, this is SUPER frustrating. Word just went bonkers, and I have to rewrite all the new stuff I just spent the last 20 minutes writing. Anyway. Ahem. Whatever, nothing else is important. Oh, we started SoM (Sound of Music that CRH did in 06), and I even promised not to talk about backstage stuff while it was playing. I miss it.

Tuesday: Anisha was going to film flag raising today, so we left the house around 750. It was pretty cool. All the kids lined up in their blue and yellow and green. After that, there was a special program. Today, all over Ethiopia, it is Tribe Day… or something. There were songs and some kids danced and wore their traditional outfits. There was also a drama. Hareg came today, and there was no work at the clinic, so Sinke came over and taught us how to make injera!!! It is very simple so far, but we have to let the dough ferment for 3 days. Friday we will cook it. I worked it out with Daniel so that the lady who works in the sewing room can come with us on Thursday to buy fabric for the Christmas pageant. We get to go to Mercato! It is the biggest open air market, with a reputation for having a lot of very talented pick-pockets. Class went… well, I had 2B today, enough said. According to the teacher, they do not understand the advantages to learning a foreign language (well, English). So I have to tell them why next week. How can they be so far behind 2A and 3rd grade when they get a word bank? I think all but one kid from 2B will fail the test they are going to have on family. What else can I do—they do not even understand in Amharic. We had mentioned to Dr. Gemechu that we needed to buy more internet minutes, and he said just to give the money to Abebe and he would do it. Well, Abebe showed up this evening with 400 birr worth of phone minutes! They will only work for our phone (not Cameron’s) but I suppose this means we will not run out soon. We need to go to a bank tomorrow, in order to pay him back and to buy fabric. When we went to the Hilton on Sunday, the one ATM was out of money, and the other one was not on at all. Around 5, I saw Temmy outside our window, so I waved, and I found out that they were going to play football! So I rushed outside, but there was no one on the field. Someone down by the clinic waved, and I waved back, then went to see who it was. It was Meseret (she is in 3rd grade, and comes to Pathfinders). She said to go with her, and I said that I was going to play soccer. But she insisted that I go with her. We went to a house on our property, and she borrowed a big bucket thing and two big platters. She took my hair out of its pony tail and tried to redo it, but could not. It was funny. She told me to go with her to her house, and I said that, no, I was playing soccer. But then I went anyway. We picked up Anisha on the way, and went to her house. She has 6 siblings. And a television. Her mother was very nice. Then we played soccer. Gah I am terrible. We had dinner theater tonight, meaning we ate dinner while finishing SoM. I tried to take a shower, but we have no water. I am going to go try again now. Well, the water pressure was worse than that in Rachel’s house in Manchester, and I kept having to switch between scalding hot and cold, but hey, not the worst shower I’ve had since getting here.