Blogs from April

Lucky
The more I get to know about each nanny the more I have come to appreciate my family and the opportunities that the U.S. offers. I don’t know how Tesfanesh and I got talking about her education but what I learned astounded me. When she was eight or nine, she can’t remember exactly, her father died. Her eldest brother was then in charge of supporting his eight siblings and his mother. Since he couldn’t afford to take care of everybody, and her mom couldn’t either, they sent Tesfanesh to live with her uncle on her mother’s side. She was then their servant and was in charge of the kitchen. She went to school for a couple hours every day and then went straight home to cook dinner and would be finished with everything around midnight. Her cousins who were the same age were in school all day and did not have to work. Her aunt did not care about her education and did not treat her fairly. It continued like this for a couple years until she was shipped off to live with a different uncle. Unfortunately the situation didn’t get any better for her. She was their servant as well, always working in the kitchen. Her education was never a priority to the people she was living with. At the end of 10th grade she went to live with her eldest brother who was back from the war. She was still his servant and she raised his oldest son. She did finish her schooling at the age of 23, although she didn’t do as well as she could of.

Still Lookin’
Tonight at dinner I asked Missaye where she was going to go on her day off tomorrow. She said she was going to church. I teased her about having a boyfriend and secretly going to see him instead of going to church. So Tesfanesh chimes in that Missaye was going to see Alazar or Yafet. Missaye then said that she thought one of my brother’s was cute. Hmmm…interesting. So I go and get my photo album and I show her Chuck’s photo…no not him. Then I show her Jake’s photo…not him either. Then I show her Alex’s…yep that’s him. I told her that he is 15 almost 16 and too young for her. She just giggled while everyone else laughed at her for thinking a 15 year old is cute…not that you aren’t Alex.

Round Two
A couple days ago we noticed that some of the kids have lice again. So we took all the boys to the barber and had their heads shaved. We put clean sheets and blankets on all of the boy’s beds that night. Then we looked in the girl’s hair. Helina, Hannah and the new girls are fine but Sentayhu has lice again. So today Tesfanesh washed her hair and picked through it. Then I spent three hours picking through it as well. I hope I got all of them. We gave her new sheets and a new blanket. I am a really good lice-picker-outer by the way. I hope it does not go to round three.

Nope Still Not
Today I hung out with the older girls in my room…just to give them a break from the boys. We looked at everyone’s photos. Sentayhu kept asking me if the picture of her mom was me. Every single picture she would ask me and I would say, ‘nope still not me’…finally I had to tell her that I wasn’t in any of the photos.

Inspection
Every night I have to do a room inspection and check for mosquitoes. Last night I missed one. I have bites all over. Luckily they are non-malaria mosquitoes.

Sandlot
Ever since we have put up the laundry line the grass has been slowly dying. When the laundry would drip it would make everything really muddy so Selam would put cardboard or whatever she could find down to try and reduce the muddiness. To be honest it was really tacky looking. So finally I asked Tesfanesh if we could put a small layer of sand and then a layer of gravel since it had been raining and everything was really muddy. She agreed wholeheartedly. So we asked Seniadt (the new cook) if her husband could help us out since he works in construction. I asked her to ask him if he could find out how much it would cost and that kind of stuff. So the next morning while I am out running an errand I get a call from Hiwot. I had no idea what she was talking about so I handed the phone to Dereje and she told him in Amharic. Senaidt’s husband came and then left to go buy sand and gravel. Oh great. I told her to tell him to just wait until I get back before he does anything. When I got home the project was finished. I was frustrated beyond belief. I asked Hiwot what had happened and she said that she told him to wait but obviously he didn’t. It wasn’t done very good either. There was too much sand and it wasn’t level or packed down and there weren’t enough rocks to cover all the sand. I asked Senaidt if her husband was coming back and she said that he was. Good maybe he could fix it. Nope that wasn’t the case. He just went and bought more gravel. After he spread it all out he poured a little water over everything. Yesterday I noticed that Selam still put a reed mat over the rocks. What a waste of money.

Manna From Heaven
I’m not much for being extremely vocal about my faith but this week God has provided in extraordinary ways. I took the Stirling’s yesterday to visit an orphanage so they could drop off their donations and visit with some children. The director of this small orphanage told me that she was out of formula. So we said that we would find her some and bring it to her the next day. I was really worried as to where we would get this formula. We were out of the stuff that Sue had brought over a month before and getting money for the formula we had was very hard. Later on that night Mindy called me and said that the lady that was staying in her guesthouse would like to donate some formula and some money. Praise God. Today I met up with Maria who is adopting from my sister’s agency. She had brought diapers and wipes that my sister sent. We had been completely out of disposable diapers for a while which if fine usually but some of the babies have diarrhea so it is a huge mess. These diapers are a lifesaver and could not have come at a more crucial time. They are wonderful people (and I love their daughter). Thank you to those of you whom God provided through.

Circle of Life
I have ring worm again, but this time it is in three spots: my face, my leg and my shoulder. Some of the kids have it and it is super contagious so I’m not surprised I got it again. I just wish it wasn’t on my face. But since I know what it is I got some more medicine and I am treating it.

Mexico the Country - not the Square
There is a roundabout in Addis called Mexico Square. The fountain in the middle reminds me of Mexico. Anyways, today Senaidt (the cook) had the day off. She prepared in advance incase Meseret didn’t want to pitch in and help in the kitchen – she even offered to come in if Meseret refused. But Tesfanesh made her help serve the meals. Needless to say there wasn’t enough food for the nannies. Actually there wasn’t any left. So I decided that I would make dinner. I was going to make pancakes since it is easy but Tesfanesh asked me to make refried beans and chicken. So we then decided to make tortillas as well. The only thing is we didn’t have any cornmeal so we improvised and used chickpeas. We quickly sorted through them and picked out the rocks and Tesfanesh was kind enough to pound them using an old mortar shell and rebar. It wasn’t quite the consistency as cornmeal but it was close enough. I cooked one to see if the larger pieces of chickpeas were soft enough…nope. It didn’t taste like tortillas but it wasn’t too bad. So I added some sugar and let the chickpeas soak a little while longer. Much better this time around. So Tesfa continued cooking those while I made the chicken, refried beans, rice and canned peaches. When everything was ready I showed the ladies how to make a burrito, how to hold it and how to eat it. Surprisingly enough it tasted really good. It might be because I haven’t had Mexican food in 6 months, but I think it is because we are awesome cooks.

Punishment
I am being punished – although it really punishes other than me. On Wednesday night Dereje called Tesfanesh and said that she had to take 6 kids to the U.S. Embassy for their blood tests. She told him that Thursday was her day off – his response was “I don’t care, you have to do it no one else.” So she did it. I knew exactly what was happening. So I tried to call him all day Thursday and his phone just rang. So I tried again on Friday – it just rang and rang and rang - same at the office too. So finally I texted him Friday afternoon and asked him to call me back because I wanted to know about the families that were coming in two days. I got a text message at 8:50pm from Dereje saying, “Parents could not tell the history of their child at the embassy. I creats problem on CCI. We decided Yafet to take care of parents in their staying now on wards. We don’t want families to go embassy with out our recognition like Strilings. They creat problem on me and CCI at the Embassy. The coming parents will be assisted by YAFET and me. Thank u.” So then I replied, “And how is that my fault? What time is Yafet coming? We want to have the kids ready.” He didn’t respond. At first I was angry now I just feel bad – not for what I did because I would do it again – but because now it puts a lot of extra work on Tesfanesh and Yafet. Last night when he texted me I called him a coward. Tesfanesh was in the room so then I had to explain what a coward was. It just confirms my suspicions and it also confirms that it is time to move on.