Sunday-Tuesday, during which we walk to town, and become two.

Sunday was awesome. Our only commitment was Christmas pageant practice at 3 in the afternoon, so Cameron and I decided to walk to town after breakfast! It took about a half hour to get to the main road, and then maybe 10 more to get to the produce stand. We looked and looked and looked for a soccer ball, but alas, we could not find one. We stopped and Cameron had some buna at a bira bet, and as we were leaving, a man with impeccable English stopped us and asked us where we were from, and when we had gotten here and when we were leaving etc. He said he lives across the street, and that if we needed anything just to ask him. At least we know where to find him when he needs a pint. Then we bought our produce and headed back. I FINALLY paid the guy back (we had accidentally paid him 10 birr less than we owed him) and he was very thankful. Cameron bought some super spicy peppers from some super sketchy stand (an older lady on the side of the back road). We were about halfway home when we saw a familiar striped shirt and green pants and a familiar pair of green corduroy overalls walking ahead. Temmy and Tomu! Temesgen^2. We caught up with them, and they said that they had gone into town to get haircuts. We got back and made lunch and sewed for the rest of the afternoon. I started making Christmas stockings!!! They are pretty cool. No one tell Anisha—it is a surprise! We used the red fabric left over from Girma’s Joseph costume. I am going to decorate them with green thread designs. Cameron wanted to sew his, so I did mine and Anisha’s. We waited around a while for people to get here for our 300 practice. Meskeram was the only one “on time,” and I had to go back and get her. We finally got through to Amanuel, and he said that he was coming. We collected some kids (we caught Alemayo as he was coming back from his haircut (ah, Sundays)), and Gezahang came, and Samson rounded up China, of all people. Fantu and Meseret showed up, and I tied to give them a stern talking-to about coming on Saturdays. We went through Joy to the World and Silent night (both of which will be sung in Amharic), and I blocked the final scene and we ran through it twice. Soccer after rehearsal went well until the end. It was too dark for me to see, so I went to hang out with Meskeram and China until everyone went inside. China kept throwing things at me, so I took it from him. He started throwing the biggest hissy fit ever. He was kicking at me and stuff. Everyone playing soccer was like, “What’s wrong with him this time?” I explained that he had thrown something at me so I took it from him, and would give it back if/when he was sorry. He was a little monster. Yobe said he never said sorry. I said, well, tough, he will not get his thing back. It turned out to be a little rubber…. thing. Like a cross something you would put on the bottom of a chair leg and the tennis balls you put on the bottom of walkers. Anyway, I felt absolutely horrible about the whole thing, but he is not getting it back until he apologizes. The dogs have been fighting a lot at night. Last Thursday night Rocky got into a big fight and hurt his muzzle. Sunday night, he hurt his paw. I feel so bad for him! Poor Rocky!

Monday. We helped Amanuel in the pharmacy. I showed him how to work the program I created for him. While we were working, Cameron got a phone call. It was Anisha. Long story short, she went back to America. She was still on and off sick, and so her neighbors decided that they were taking her home. She sent back some more stuff they had brought for us, though, including a chopper and lots of clothes and stuff. She will only be in America until she is better, though, and then she is coming back. Daniel stopped by and told us to go get measured for our white jackets! All of the teachers (and nurses and pharmacist…) wear white coats. We went and saw Edgegayo for that. We also met with Kinfe and told him that Anisha would not be here for awhile. Class went super well. After class, Helen and Mek’des accompanied me back to the house. I showed Helen what I was doing with the information I got from her interview (Kalaala Chronicles). Soccer again! I tried to make up with China, but he was mean again. Tough luck for him.

Tuesday: We needed to get some groceries, and Jay and Jeremy (two of the people from Gimbi) were in town, so we asked Abebe to drop us off at their hotel so we could hang out with them/get lunch/groceries. Jay leaves tonight, and Jeremy was here for… emotional support? Anyway. As we were leaving, Hareg suggested that we just have Abebe drop us off somewhere. Great minds think alike. We exchanged money for Jeremy, found an ATM (Cameron and I were out of money), walked to a restaurant for lunch, decided we did not want to eat there, did our grocery shopping, and then walked to Yeshi. Yeshi is a very cool Ethiopian restaurant. The waiters have authentic Ethiopian outfits for their uniform, and the walls have really neat decorations (sorry, no smoking or cameras allowed). They also have very good food. Jay and Jeremy decided that they wanted to go back to the first restaurant, so we ate, then met back up with them. We got leftovers too! We walked to Bambis, a really upscale supermarket, that has “everything.” “Everything,” that is except sauerkraut. Poopy. Maybe Meredith and Curtis can bring me some. I want to make pierogis. I got some Christmas presents for Cameron and Anisha. Then we walked toward their hotel, but stopped at Bilo’s Bakery. The guys got ice cream, and I got bottled water. I decided that I would make sure Cameron did not get sick before eating the ice cream. But boy, did it look good. The four of us hung out there until Jay and Jeremy decided they had better go if they wanted to do other things (Jay had some things that he wanted to buy before he left). So Cameron and I hung out for the rest of the time at Bilo’s, until Dr. Gemechu and Abebe and Hulu came. We missed class :-( :-(. I really want to just finish family with 2B. Dr. Gemechu and crew had been shopping as well. They got a computer, monitor, printer, a machine for the lab, and some other stuff. We dropped it and Dr. Gemechu off at Hareg’s house. Yared came out and gave Cameron and I each a letter (and one for Anisha), and I apparently have TWO packages to get picked up, and Anisha has one. Whoever sent it, Don’t worry, the post office will hold it a month. I took a nap when we got back because I had a migraine (darn pollution). After dinner, we walked down to the clinic to get Amanuel’s labtop. I have more computer programming to do tonight!