Friday, February 18, 2011

Today was the day to head further into Dahley and set up for the

largest distribution of shoes. It took no time to get all the sizes

lined up considering we’ve been doing it all week, so we spent the

rest of the morning playing soccer, hackey sack and sitting around

with the kids. It’s kind of amazing that even after hours of being

around, they still can be mesmerized by staring at us. Dahley is in

the Oromo region of Ethiopia which means a new language apart from

Amharic for us. We learned basic Oromo words from some of the children

and teachers and now Nick is beginning to get the two languages mixed

up when he’s trying to think about them.

Tom drove us outside of Tafo, away from the city to a small line of

pottery stands next to the street. Between the five of us, we bought

something from each family because it was so cheap and we just wanted

to evenly distribute the income if we can. Nick picked up something he

really likes and we also have something we have no idea what we’ll do

with, but it was more of the principle for us. One of you lucky

readers may just be inheriting a lovely piece of clay pottery when we

get back home! :)

Dinner tonight was at the purple restaurant and although we had a hard

time ordering, we got for the most part what we ordered. Nick and I

both had scrambled eggs and mine came with bread while his came with

injera. The eggs seem to have more flavor than ours in the States and

I’m not sure why.

It’s weird to think that tonight is our last night here. Our lives out

here have been completely different than they will be once we’re in

the city. Our guest house is, as I’ve said before, in my old

neighborhood so it shouldn’t take me long to pick things back up of

how to get where we need to. The biggest thing is figuring out how

much it should cost us per taxi ride because I know taxi drivers are

sometimes looking to take advantage of us since we don’t speak Amharic

well, so as long as I get that down, we should be okay. I’ve enjoyed

the quieter side of live in Ethiopia but am looking forward to getting

some of the Kebebtsehay projects going. My first mission is just

really to check out the environments and kids themselves to see where

things are today so I have a good idea of what the needs are. Tomorrow

Tom is taking us into town and we’re heading to Kechene, Kebebtsehay

and the Merkato for a few supplies. It will likely be a pretty busy

day and something I’ve been looking forward to since I left Ethiopia

in 2009. I really don’t know what to expect because from what I’ve

heard, things have significantly changed. There is a new building at

Kebebtsehay, a lot more kids at each orphanage and most of the kids I

knew have gone to different places. I’m not sure how I’ll process it

all once I’m in the environment, but I’m excited either way.

Since we’re checking into the guest house tomorrow, we should

theoretically have internet! Who knows how reliable it will be, but at

least internet will be much more accessible once we’re in the city. If

you are still reading this (by the way, 8 pages later), I commend your

endurance to get all the way through! I realize I haven’t put a lot of

emotion into anything yet but I’ve felt more like this was just to

keep up with what we’ve been doing. Perhaps as I’m able to post more

frequently I’ll be able to better describe what I’m feeling as opposed

to just what we’ve been doing. Time is going quickly but we’re not

close to the end, so it’s not something I’ve thought too much about

yet. Next time you hear from me, I will be set up in the city. Looking

forward to it!