#7 Birthday Bread

I turned 23 the other day. I don't feel any older but it sounds old to me. When Ilie was here in December she gave me money to take Tefanesh to get a massage. Since all the babies and children have been sick and then Tefanesh was out of town this was the first time we could get away. I asked her if she wanted to go on my birthday and she said yes. I called that morning and made the appointments for two one hour massages. Tefanesh has never had one so I was trying to explain what was goin to happen.When we got to the day spa I was amazed at how beautiful it was. I asked the lady up front if we could have women and she said of course...phew that could have been awkward. They took us down stairs to this dark peaceful lounge with rows of doors on each side. Inside my room there was rose petals all over the floor and candles with soothing music playing softly. The lady washed my feet and then left for me to change out of my cloths. Oh it was so nice and relaxing. Than you Ilie. We both really enjoyed it very very very much! On my way home Alizar and I stopped at the harware store and I bought faucets ffor the jerry cans. I asked the man for some caulking and he said that I didn't need it. Foolishly I trusted him...I should have made him sell me some right then and there. As soon as i got started on the project. Afer the children had their dinner and were in their pj's we sent them back downstairs for my birthday celebration. When I got to the living room there was popcorn, deep fried dough pieces (they are like a hard candy but taste like bread) and the biggest loaf of bread that I have ever seen. They make the bread round and cook it on the injera maker. Meseret put the number 23 in dough on the bread. We had that instead of cake. The boys ( Alemu and Israel) got me a small purse, which has come in handy so far. They all sang the worst rendition of "Happy Birthday" that I have ever heard. They kept singing for a long time. Finally, I had to tell them to all stop because they had sung it around 10 times. I will try to recreate it for you all. "Happy birsday Emily, Happy Birsday Emily, Happy birsday Emily". Over, and over and over again. Oh and they have a really hard time pronouncing the "th" sound. All of the chikdren had a really good time and they loved staying up later than 7:30. Thank you family for the birthday presents. Aunt Tammy-everyone here loves the movies. Thank you Mom and Dad for the cloths...I needed one more skirt for church. Thank you Autumn and Brian for the shirt and picture frame. thank you G-Rams for the card.

#6 180 Degrees

The last couple of days Helina has changed so much. She is laughing and smiling all the time now, whereas before she was sullen and quiet. I don't know what has sparked the change but everyone is really enjoying the new Helina. She came up to me the other day and wanted me to hold her. this is very unusual for her...if she wants to be held she will go to Tesfanesh not me. Tonight she ran up to me and gave me a kiss. She found my hat and put it on all by herself in this photo. I lie I think you will be shocked when you come and pick her up.

#5 In Ethiopia It's Not A Big Deal

I hear that a lot from the Ethiopian nurse that comes to the house once a week. I went to Brook Hospital where she works today to pick up the medication for the children. I told her that I think I might have caught something from the kids. At first when I got it I thought it was a mosquito bite but after two weeks it stillisn't gone and the shape has become more defined. It is on the bridge of my nose where my sunglasses lie so it totally looks like a huge circle of zits but it's not...it itches super bad and is in an oval shape. The same shape that Ayana's face think was. Oh great. I asked her if I could take an anti-fungal medication we have at the house ahd her response was "in Ethiopia it's not a big deal". Heloo- it's on my face and obviously contagious. I told her that much in a nicer way...she said that if I really wanted to than to go ahead. I told her that I did and she just alughted at me and told me to paint my face (I think she meant with make-up). Seriously lady...I think you would to if you had some weird contagious fungal infection on your face...man that sounds horrible. It's not that bad really but it does itch.

#4 Burger King

You know how Burger King commercials have that famous jingle? Have it your way. Well, if I had it my way I would fire the cook. I've never wanted to have someone fired before but I kind of feel like Dwight from The Office who always wants to fire Jim...except I have a good reason. She is late every week...and this is a big deal at this house. She gets 24 hours off from Sat. at 3 pm. until Sunday at 3 pm. All the nannies made a deal that if the cook prepared food in advance for Sunday's lunch (which is injera and wot) than she could have 24 hours off. Most of the nannies don't get even 5 hours off a week so to have 24 hours is amazing. Most sundays she is late only 3 hours....I know that doesn't sound like grounds for firing but it puts tons of stress on the nannies that have to prepare dinner for the children as well as do the job they are being paid for. I have ended up cooking for them for the last three Sundays. Well two weeks ago she calls from her parents house saying she is sick...none of us believed her. Yesterday she called late at night and said that she couldn't find a ride because of the holiday...yeah right. Buze (Lily's mom) answered the phone and was told not to tell Tefanesh or I that she had called...please...everyone was so mad at her that they told Tefanesh she had mentioned Saturday, before she left, that she might not be able to find a ride home...I think they were suppose to keep it a secret. The kids didn't have dinner until 8 pm. lst night...they usually have it at 6:30 and are in bed by 7:30. She didn't come until 8 am Monday morning. One Saturday she refused to make injera before she left and Zoudie had to Sunday morning...but Zoudie was cunning and only made enought for that meal (if you make all the injera in one batch it wil last us three days). If I had it my way I would find a new cook. She is a sweet lady but come on enough is enough.

#3 The Results Are In

Sunday late afternoon (when I got home from church and lunch) I looked at the lab results from the stool samples. Tesfanesh still couldn't get Temesgen to poop so we have to go back again...luckily this hospital is very close to the house. There is only one child who doesn't have anything which surprises me because he was the one with really bad diarrhea for a couple of days. Four children have yeast in their stools whicg indicates a fungal infection, five have giardia and two have both. When I read the results I decided right then and there that things were going to be done differently around here concerning water. I told Tefanesh that we needed to go to Alembank to get some supplies. I bought one large (60L) plastic water tank and three medium (40L) water tanks. As soon as the store opens up tomorrow I am going to buy four facets for wach of the tanks. The large one is going to be for the children and boiled clean water in it...this way they will be able to have water whenever they want. Hopefully having this available for them will reduce the number of times they drink unclean water. The medium sized tanks are for wach of the nannies in their rooms. I think it will be easier to fill bottles using a faucet tan using a huge water bottle. We'll see if this works..I'll keep you posted.

#2 I Wish He Hadn't Been Sick

Temesgen had a fever for three nights stright-it would only start at 6 pm. and would quickly go down with children'd tylenol. Last night he had a fever of 101.5-not too bad but I gave him a sponge bath and tylenol anyways. I called Simegne and she said not to worry and that she would come by the next day. I checked it again 30 mins. later and it had risen to 104.2! Holy smokes that's high...dangerously high. I called Habtamu to come and take us to Brook Hospital right away. I gave him some children's ibuprofen...it wasn't working at all. He was just moaning the whole time especially when I would change the washcloths and it would be cold. We finally made it to Brook and there were an unusual amount of men in the waiting room. Then one man passed through the waiting room with a small read and gold casket. Habtamu asked the nurse when it was our turn about it and this is what he told me. A two year old little boy was playing in the living room on the third floor of his house when the ball went down the stairs...the little boy followed it down all three flights. He had a skull fracture and was bleeding with spinal fluid out of his ears. An hour later about ten grown men came out of the room carrying the casket. The father was crying so hard and so was another man. I covered Temesgen's eyes as they were passing us. I know he probably wouldn't have understood but no four year old needs to see that. All of the paretns that were in the waiting room with the children got this empathetic/horrified look on their faces. I couldn't look at the men as they left- all I could look at was the little casket. Outside of the waiting room I could hear the mother wailing as the little box was brought to her. Simegne told me today that the boy died right away but the parent's didn't know that and brought him anyways. I wish Temesgen hadn't benn sick because I can't get the picture of the little casket or the sound of his mother out of my head. Temesgen is on antibiotics and didn't have a fever tonight!!!

#1 Those Who Poop Together Stay Together

That's my version of "A Family that Prays Together Stays Together", in case anyone didn't get it. Yesterday I was walking upstairs on the balcony to the kid's room and I noticed that Melkamu and Tamirat were sitting next to each other poopoing. (The kid's have little potties that are outside the downstairs bathroom). Tamirat was reading a book and Melkamu was reading a piece of paper. Then Tamirat showed Melkamu something in his book. Iwent to my room and grabbed my camera but when I got back Tamirat was through with the book. Too funny. Today I took all the older kids to Bethel Hospital to get stool samples. Since they have been sick I decided that it was worth paying $1 USD per child to know if they have a parasite or bacterial infection. After explaining to the lab technician what I needed he gave me 12 little cups with each's child name on it and 12 little sticks. When it was Tamirat's turn he couldn't go so I moved him to the side of the toliet and Helina joined him on it. She was terrified of falling in so it was hard for her to relax and go. I moved her to the other side and Temesgen sat in the middle part of the seat. I was impressed that three little butts could fit on one toliet. After what seemed like forever none of them could go so they all got down. Tesfanesh had Helina squat on the ground to try and go and she did. We tried that with Tamirat but he still couldn't go. I even got out my ipod to distract him but that didn't work either. I had to bribe some of them to push hard and try to go and they would get candy! It worked. We got 9 out of 12 children to poop. We are going back tomorrow for the other three.