Just another Sunday

I went to a different church today. It's called Beza, and is similar to Willow Creek in the early 90's but more african. It was a lot of fun. Different than the more traditional church we have been attending, although that is a much church too! A couple times this week we went to services at KCC (kore Christian center). It is a pretty basic African church. Metal walls, a tarp roof, holes for a toilet. The worship part lasts forever, an you dance, jump, and praise however you please. Deanna and I of course got in on this, and my legs are still sore from all that jumping! Church is totes fun!

I am feeling a lot better, and sound less like a man, so thats nice. No big plans yet this week, you know, the usual, trying to convince little babies to come home with me. (not really. That's illegal here too. At least I think).

Yesterday we spent the morning at our American friend Kaela's house (Kaela...shoutout!) we were helping her roommate with lesson plans for a kids church program she is writing. Yeah, an entire program! That's insane! But she is doing a pretty fantastic job!

The other night Amare's sisters decided to braid out hair, Ethiopian style. People here just love to touch my hair, and they had a great time! I liked it too ;) it did not last the night, but we took pics!

Also big news, we were sitting I'm a field yesterday, and out of the bushes popped a giant turtle! Or maybe it was a tortoise! Either way, I spotted it, and was yelling with excitement! The big guy was cruising straight for us. For a turtle, he was surprisingly speedy. Apparently people feed them, so they come to humans for food. I was a little apprehensive, and sat on a wall until he left. But wait. What? A giant turtle in the middle of the city? From the way the people around is were laughing at my antics, it is not uncommon. Seriously. Turtles are common in Africa? Who knew! This place gets crazier and crazier!

Sick, and a broken toilet.

So, remember how I told you we bought a hair straightener? Great investment! I don't believe that I mentioned that the outlets are unimaginably high. So high in fact, that all of my 4feet 11inches is unable to reach the one in our bathroom. But it has not been a major problem, since the outlet is right above the toilet! So, when I wanted to straighten my hair, I climbed onto the toilet, straightener in hand, and fell in the toilet! What? The whole dang seat came off the cheap African toilet! Luckily a piece of toilet seat landed under my foot, and I did not actually get any contents of the toilet on myself. Deanna, who was washing her hair in the sink, thought it was the best thing that had ever happened. I think she is still laughing about it.

I woke up sick this morning. Not even good sick (like from eating weird food or something) I have a very sore throat, and no energy. I don't think pepto will help me with this one. Doesn't my body know that we are going to teach the kids to make paper airplanes today? I need allll of my energy! Apparently not.

Dundee and Amare's mom invited us to her house for dinner last night. Apparently she is a "farenje food specialist". She made pasta!!!!!! And shiro!!!!!! And meatballs ;) it was the best meal I have had here by far. Sooooo goooood! Woot!

Dear Tigist, how I miss you.

I have written about Tigist before... She cooks, cleans, does our laundry, makes our bed, and let's me love her baby. She is pretty much amazing. Well for some reason she got transferred from the guest house to the school. Yesterday was our first day with our new housekeeper. She seemed very nice, but did not have a baby for me to love. -1 point. When we went to eat lunch it was weirredd. Deanna and I are not very picky. We typically eat what we are served, and eat it happily. So, we ate the food. Poor Deanna got so sick. She had to take some pepto, and take a nap, and even still, she was not feeling 100%. Amare even asked her if she had diarrhea. HA! Ummmm weird question to ask someone! She of course said no, she would not have told him, even if she did! Anyway... When dinner came around, I tried a tiny bite of it, and it was oatmeal with salt in it. Gross. So we went out for dinner. D got pasta, to help her tummy, and I got a sandwich. The other volunteers went out too, and the food at home was untouched. I think the workers got the message... Today we have a new "cooker"! We get to sample the first meal at lunch (in 40 mins) and hopefully it is good! Apparently she has a degree in cooking, and even can cook faranje food! Exciting.

On the minibus on the way here to kings hotel, Deanna and I were sitting next to each other, and I pointed out a white man walking down the street. We are not used to seeing them, especially in our community. Well, he stopped the bus, and the only open seat was next to us! 3 faranjes all in a row... It was crazy!

We bought a hair straightener. I almost feel like I look like I am in America! It is amazing. The kids touch my hair even more now. Deanna and I have been checking each other for lice daily. Not because we think we have lice, but the kids are all up in our hair, and you never know... So far our findings have been very satisfactory!

No matter where we go, we see people we know. Just walking from the minibus stop to here, we saw a friend from church, Tiba. Very exciting. Also exciting when you leave your house, and any child that is outside will yell "Deanna! Kendra!" we are popular with the mini peeps. We love it!

Best night of my life

Last night (friday) was not shaping up to be a very exciting night. We had an Amharic lesson planned, and that was about it. Fun stuff. 

During our exciting lesson (really, it is fun! Ready is basically the best teacher, equal to Amare, of course!) Amare came inside, and said, "sorry to interrupt, but my mom is making injera". I was quite relieved, because these lessons are getting more and more difficult. With permission from Ready, and forcing him to come along to be our camera man, we headed across the dirt path to make some injera! Amare's mom, whom everyone refers to as Mother, was in the injera making room, and in it was an electric injera grill. It is basically a large electric round skillet. Hard to explain… but she had already prepared the teff (batter)  and was going at it! You have to pour the teff in a spiral on the maker, from the outside in. It is hard because the teff is very thin, and you can't leave holes, or make it to thick. Deanna went first, and did a really good job! She had one thick spot, and was pretty much a circle shape. I was impressed! Then it was my turn… And mine was shaped like Australia. I obviously did it on purpose, as a homage to all of my favorite Australians that I miss in NJ! (Meg, email me!!) 

When we had finished, we were invited inside for some shie. (tea) and we ate my injera. It was very delicious. Probably the best I have ever had. We had some cinnamon tea, and cookies. They were dry, so pretty good, compared to the other desserts i have tried here. 

We then came home, and started a game of frisbee. It was us, Ready, Desta, and Amare's brother, Amen. We played some normal catch, monkey in the middle, and then taught the Ethiopians 500. It was a lot of fun. Then something amazing happened. There was a power outage. A city wide power outage! Deanna and I looked at each other, and said "ghost in the graveyard!!!!" We explained how to play, and got to it. Everyone was just as excited as we were. They are all in their 20's, and for some reason play along with Deanna and my antics. I love them. So we played GITGY for a while, and then switched to regular old hide-and-seek. The best part of this is that the minibus was back in our driveway. When Desta was it, Deanna and I both crawled into the back of the bus, and hid on the floor, between the seats. It took Desta around 20 mins to find us, and apparently he was getting very worried about us. Us Americans are the best hiders! We played until 10pm, and then the power came back on. I can't remember the last time I had so much fun. 

While we were having tea after making injera, deanna commented that her contacts were bothering her. Ready sort-of freaked out, and said "what!? You have them in your eyes!? NOW? Can I see!?" After inspecting her eyes, he said "wow, i've only seen those in movies!" Ha! We laughed. A lot. 

Also, he asked us how old we were, Deanna told him that she was 22, and  I said I was 24. He was surprised (like everyone else) that I am older. Then he looked at me, and said "I like older!" He said it very creepily, but did not mean it that way. He was meaning since he is 27, that he is glad that we are both not super young. But it was really funny. Deanna and I cracked up, and he had no idea why. Poor Ready. I think we are making him worry about his english skillz. 

Written entirely by yours truly.

Where to start...

I have been having dreams about spiders. (Elissa, please come kill them all!) Two nights ago, I had a dream (or it could have been real, I am not exactly sure yet) that there was a massive black spider in the corner above my bed. I sat up, and asked Deanna to turn on the light. I think that is when I woke up. I was sitting, and knew that I had seen a spider, but it was so dark in our room that it really would have been impossible to see one. And Deanna was still asleep. If I had really told her that I had seen a spider, home girl would not have been asleep. So I laid back down, and after what felt like hours of trying to look into the dark abyss of my room, convinced myself that I was really dreaming and to go back to sleep. Then last night, I woke up again, and saw a not so massive spider on my wall. So I reached for my shoe, and killed it. I went back to sleep feeling accomplished, and brave. When I woke up this morning I proudly told Deanna about it, and went to show her the spider who was smashed on the wall. It was gone. Or maybe never was there. The shoe was next to my bed, where I had left it.... But I think it was a dream. And I killed a fake spider. Seriously Kendra. There are bigger worries in your life. Case and point, as I type, a giant african killer bee is flying around my flavored Ambo. This is horrifying for 2 reasons. 1, if it is in fact a killer bee, which I doubt it is, because the guy behind the desk of the hotel is laughing at us... it would be a bad way to die. And 2, flavored Ambo is the best thing ever. It is made here in Ethiopia, and sooooooo good. I think I will have an entire suitcase full of it when I come home. I can't imagine life without it. If the bee touches m Ambo, I am gonna be MAAADDDD.

Our house had water!! Not running water... don't get crazy over there... but a bucket of water. Which when your daily shower is consisting of a water bottle, a bucket is like luxury. We even used the electric tea pot, and boiled some water, and added it to the bucket. VOILA! Warm water! WHAT?!?! I am clean, and happy, and am going to do it again. TONIGHT! Woah. Now this is living large. Going back to America is going to be crazy. Getting water from a sink. BATHS! Brushing your teeth with as much water as you want. Unfathomable. Really though, Deanna and I talk all the time how weird it is that we just totally adjusted to living like this. As much as I like to complain... it really is not a problem. So what if I am a little dirty. I see kids here who I am sure have never had a bath in their lives. Or know what a toothbrush is. Why did I get to be born in America? Maybe I did not have everything growing up... but I had a lot. I may have had to share a bed with my sister, who puked on me, but I had a bed. People here are always sleeping in the streets. Babies, curled up next to their moms, trying to stay warm. Its not fair.

I want to help every single person, especially the kids... and I can't. It is killing me. The amount of abundance we have in America... and don't even think about is insane. My favorite thing to do is not finish my food while at a restaurant, and give the leftovers to someone on the street. They are always so grateful, and surprised that I don't want to keep it. It makes me wonder how many times I brought leftovers home in America, and ended up throwing them out.

Speaking of leftovers... Deanna has a sweet tooth. She is on a mission to eat dessert. So we orderd some very good looking cake! I went to take a bite, and literally almost vomited. It was horrible. It was wet. Like they soak it in water. I don't understand. if you push on it water leaks out of the cake. It is not natural. So We complained to Dundee. He took us to Kaldi's to try their cake, which is apparently good. He promised I would like it, and I was doubtful. Give me a box of cheezeits over cake any day. So he ordered white cake. One bite of the liquid nastiness and I declared I did not like it. So he ordered the tiramisu... which I knew I would not like. "just try" he said. So I did... and it was DRY! YAY! Buuuttt... tasted like tiramisu. Eww. Then he ordered the chocolate cake... and I was hopeful. I love me a good chocolate cake! But once I pushed my fork into the soggy, soggy cake I knew the outcome was failure. Someone made out good on leftover nasty cake that night. The hunt for good cake is still on. Or just boxed cake I can make myself. Or even better... brownies! YUUMMMM!!!!!

Afterthoughts:

I forgot to mention... I peed in a hole today! At the lake, there were bathrooms. But not bathrooms that you would think of. You know, a toilet and all. It was a very tiny room with two raised platforms for your feet, and a hole between them. A small hole, so no worries about falling in. Although by the time I was desperate enough to use the hole, falling in was not really on my mind.

There are some epic stories on Deanna's blog, and since she is a great writer, and I am more into posting pics of Facebook, please enjoy this copy and paste from her blog (I don't think this will become a normal thing. I just need to stop being distracted by other things...)

Yesterday Kendra and I made a fantastic investment. While looking around in the "children's toys" section of a supermarket for some entertainment (for ourselves, yes) we came across a couple things that could provide hours of joy at our house. We purchased two badminton rackets and a birdie, and a frisbee. Super exciting. Obviously when we got home, we had to play right away. We went out front and whipped out our brand new frisbee, only to discover that this was no ordinary frisbee. It was, in fact, a flying dick. Right there on the front in nice big letters is "FLYING DICK". What a fabulous English mistake. I mean that's just kind of epic. Soon, I'll have a picture up on Facebook for you.

Anyways, we had a wonderful time with our flying dick. Amare and Desta joined right in, though they weren't so good at it. Desta may have never thrown a frisbee in his life, I'm not sure. But he's getting better. What he is really good at it getting the frisbee when we accidentally throw it over a giant concrete wall or on top of his "house" (see the sheep blog post for a description of where Desta lives - we're big fans of his place). After some frisbee, we busted out the badminton rackets and started playing. We only have two rackets, but Desta decided to use the frisbee as a third. This is why we are fans of Desta - he just jumps in at random times and when we're doing stupid stuff (i.e. sheep stealing?), no questions asked. Not that he could ask questions if he wanted to, because he doesn't really speak English. Like at all. We use a lot of sign language, broken English, and the few Amharic phrases that we know to try to explain things (okay, but really Kendra and I know a lot of Amharic. Soon we'll be fluent, thanks to Amare and Ready!). So, long story short, we're very happy with out badminton and flying dick. In fact, tonight we played a mean game of Monkey in the Middle with Ready and Amare and our flying dick. It got intense. I may have some injuries.

And now for the megabus story. Mom and Dad, I know hitchhiking is bad. And please remember that I'm a smart girl, and I don't do stupid things (not dangerous-stupid, at least). Remember the minibuses that Kendra and I take everywhere? Well, sometimes, just on the rare occasion, a minibus is actually a megabus. Meaning sometimes the minibus comes in a slightly larger size. Hence, "mega", according to Kendra and I. You ride these the same way, but they hold a few more people. So, Kendra and I were leaving the hotel we've been frequenting to steal wifi from (by "frequenting" I mean often enough that all the employees know, love, and get excited to see us) a couple nights ago and we walked across the street to find a minibus. At night, when it's getting later, it's sometimes harder to catch one and it's times like these that we've come across the megabuses. We cross the street and there's a megabus with about five or six guys getting on. They ask us where we're going, and we say Mekanisa. They tell us to come on. We listen. This is how the minibus works - you wait, a guy either shouts the destination or asks you where you're going and then when you answer he tells you if his bus is the right one. Okay, so we hop on the megabus and commence talking about many really important girly things in English like two American girls would. The Ethiopian guys kept speaking in Amharic, turning around, looking at us and laughing. We noticed, but weren't surprised because this happens a lot. We also noticed the bus wasn't stopping anywhere to let people on and off. But, no worries, we knew we were going the right way. And we have a cell phone, and Pat taught me how to punch. So, If something happened, Kendra could call 911 and I could beat people up. Just kidding, just kidding. When the bus arrived in Mekanisa, Kendra and I said "Wadach!" because that's what you say to stop a bus when you want to get off. All the guys turned around at once, looking shocked. One said, "You speak Amharic?!" and they all started laughing. They pulled over and we asked how much we needed to pay. They laughed some more and said, "This isn't a minibus, you don't have to pay us." Whoops! Not a minibus. Or a real megabus. It turns out it was not a running megabus, and those guys were all friends. They decided to give us a ride, which is very common around here. Hitchhiking happens all the time, and it's like, legit. People just do it to be nice. Kendra and I never do it...except this one time on accident. We figure the guys pulled away, cracking up about the stupid American girls who thought they were a minibus. I really hope this isn't one of those "had-to-be-there" stories... 

Week of rest?

This week has been an odd week. Since our normal school kids are off, we have bee teaching the street kids instead. They usually have an after school program for them, but this week they are able to go during the day. The kids love school! The smell in the small classrooms is not pretty. Thank God for windows, and beautiful, sweet kids who make all the hand holding, and dirty kisses not only worth it, but that much more special. I can wash my hands and face later. Also since Deanna and I found that catching a minibus at 7am is impossible, we have not been able to make it to the orphanage this week :( I miss my babies! Even Amare came with us this morning to see if he could get us a bus... no luck.

Good thing though! He invited is to go with the Strong Hearts youth group (teens) to a retreat an hour outside of the city. It was a ton of fun. Amharic worship song battles, lots of joking, and making fun of the Americans... whats not to like? We went to a big lake, and just explored, and breathed in fresh air for the first time in weeks! The lake was so beautiful! I loved it, and it made me excited for our trip to Southern Ethiopia!

People here decorate their cars/minibuses. Pimp my ride style, but usually with religious items. On the bus today was a very large picture of Jesus. Deanna whispered to me:
D-That man on the sticker... is it Jesus?
Me-yeah...
D-So he's white, even here?

I died. And then explained that Jesus was Jewish, and we have pretty legit proof that he was, in fact white.

I posted more pics on FB! Check them out!
That is my quick update for today. For more Ethiopian goodness, read Deanna's blog too!
Deannasadventureofalifetime@blogspot.com!