Late April Blogs

Happy Fasika (Easter)
So my Easter was very low-key because Ethiopians don’t celebrate
Easter until the following week. The following day (Monday) we started
planning our Easter celebration. Some money was donated to me and I
wasn’t sure how to use it but when I found out we weren’t going to get
any extra money for special food I knew exactly how to use it. So we
bought two chickens (the price of meat increased over night because
Easter is their big holiday) and a medium sized sheep. Senaidt, the
cook, didn’t take a day off that week because she was preparing for
the feast of the century. Church was cancelled because they had been
up all night praying and singing, so we had church at home. The kids
sang and danced and then Bellatu read the story of Christ’s
crucifixion and resurrection. We took a group photo everyone but the
babies were in it – and me because I had to take the pictures. For
lunch there was duro wat (chicken) and three different kinds of beg
wats (sheep). We invited Senaidt’s family and Philipa and her family
over. Everyone really enjoyed everything. I didn’t eat the meat…I just
couldn’t after watching be killed. There were 19 kids, 12 babies (they
didn’t feast per-say but they were at the house) and 11 adults who
feasted on Easter afternoon. Coffee was served four times that day – I
only had it twice. My sister sent me Mamba’s and so I opened a pack
and shared it with a select few – well really only those that were in
the room. I was shocked when the Easter bunny didn’t show up in
Ethiopia…I guess I’ll live through one Easter without an Easter basket
and an Easter egg hunt.

Hyena
Although I haven’t seen a hyena I know they are in Addis. The dog that
lives outside our gate had puppies a couple weeks ago. They live in
the storm drain under our driveway – right now there is re-bar on top
so it makes it pretty hard to get in and out. Tonight all seven of
them are barking for some reason and Tesfanesh said that maybe a hyena
was outside trying to get them. I told her that I think the mom would
put up a pretty good fight. But now every time they bark I want to get
up and look out my window just to make sure. I did shine my flashlight
out there and didn’t see anything except the puppies and the mamma
dog.
*Update – they are all still alive.

She Has Struck Yet Again
The tooth fairy has come to Ethiopia twice now since I have been here.
Yesterday Kenasa came upstairs half way through eating his snack of
roasted then boiled chickpeas and showed me that his tooth was loose.
I was once again picking lice out of Sentayhu’s hair so I put on some
latex gloves and wiggled it. Sure enough it was really loose. So I
pulled it out. It only bled for a minute or so and he didn’t cry which
surprised me. I showed him his tooth and he just grinned, then I took
his picture and he loved staring at it. I think he forgot about his
tooth until this morning when he found 1 birr under his pillow. I then
tried to explain to everyone who the tooth fairy was. When Keyase saw
that Kenasa got 1 birr for his tooth she showed me that two of her
bottom teeth are loose.

Phone Bill
So we paid the phone bill yesterday. My part was $1980 birr plus tax,
which equals roughly $200 USD. Yikes! Since we are completely out of
formula I am just going to buy some with the money that I owe.