First Day of English Class (and wild hair)

This morning we woke up early and headed to Destiny for our first day of English class. Jessica and I taught the first graders and Rachel and Lori taught the second graders. There were five boy in my class. They were enthusiastic and loved to run up to the chalk board even when we told them to sit down. I hope they will remember most of what we went over. We all have a lot more respect for teachers now. Rachel says that she is pretty sure she can cross that occupation off of her list. No matter how crazy the kids can be, we love to be with them, maybe not teaching though. Once class was over, I decided to take out my braids because I was tired of them hurting my head. I don't think I've ever had so much volume in my life! Rachel and Lori took their's out too and we looked like we were from the 80s. We have tons of pictures to show you. If people thought we looked funny with braided hair, then I'm sure they think we look ridiculous now! Emma

The Joy Home

Hey!Today we went to the Joy Girl's Home and had a blast. The home is run by Konjit, a lady who stayed at our house last summer. There are twelve girls between the ages of 14 and 19 living there. We gave each girl a bag of gifts which they seemed to really appreciate. Also, we made bandanna bracelets. Some of the girls braided the bracelets and then decided to braid our hair too. The girls did a great job considering how slick and thick our hair is. Now we feel bald because every bit of our hair is braided. While our hair was being done, we talked to the girls and they tried to teach us Amharic. Unfortunately, I've forgotten pretty much everything that they taught me except that Rachel is an aile (turtle) haha. They are so loving, accepting, and full of joy. I hope we can spend a lot more time with them. Emma

Happy Fourth of July everyone! Sorry we haven’t been able to update our blog very often! We haven’t been able to get on the internet much…but it’s Africa…you never know. The weekend was relaxing but we also got to do a lot. We made dinner one night, went to watch a soccer game, shopped a little, went to church, ate some good burgers (but not as good as the clubhouse), ran a little, and much more! We wrote the following blog on Friday and haven’t had the chance to post it until now.

7/2/10

Alright, I’m going to try to update you all about what we’ve been doing if I can remember. We’ve kind of gotten behind on our blogging, so we need to catch you up on what has been going on.
On Wednesday morning we woke up around 8, ate breakfast, and went to Destiny School for the first time. It is about a 30 minute drive from our house. Jessica worked there when she was in Ethiopia 3 years ago so we were excited to see it and get to play with the kids. We arrived around 9:30 and took a tour of the school. I was very impressed with the children and teachers. They were all so polite and friendly. Thankfully they can speak some English because we are having major trouble with Amharic! I thought it was funny that one of the first things the girls said to me was what a nice president we have. It is very difficult to pronounce their names, but they are patient with us and just laugh when we say something wrong. We will be teaching an English class staring next week with some of the students. I’m sure that will be interesting! Just like in Guatemala, the kids love having their pictures taken! They like to make poses and funny faces…just like us! They are beautiful kids and we have already had tons of fun with them. We left the school around 3, went home to change, and then went to the Lime Tree. Emma wasn’t feeling the best so she ate soup and the rest of us had pasta. I wasn’t expecting to eat so much Italian food in Africa!! After eating and trying to get online but having no success, we went home and went to bed.
Thursday we went back to Destiny. The kids weren’t there because they are out for summer break so we organized books and graduation gowns. For lunch we went to a restaurant down the street called Esti’s. Once again we ate pasta, but it was delicious! It was spaghetti with meat sauce and vegetables. The bread there was also very good. After working a while longer we headed back to the house to get ready for dinner with Tsegaye. He picked us up at 6 and gave us a tour of the city. We went in several jewelry stores and saw all kinds of crosses and other things. Then we went to Yod Abyssinia, an authentic Ethiopian restaurant, for dinner. What an experience! Tsegaye ordered for us and we ended up with a ton of food…we had no idea what most of it was. The food wasn’t our favorite, but it was fun to try some of it. We sat at little tables and watched people dance while we ate. We had a good time and it was a great experience. We got home around 11, did some exercises, and went to bed very tired after a full day.
This morning we came back to Destiny and the kids were here to practice for their graduation. We had tons of fun trying to talk to the kids and taking more pictures. We are extremely glad that they can speak some English. We would be completely lost if they couldn’t understand some of what we say. Some of the girls decided to play with our hair. It probably looks and feel quite odd to them. There was one little girl named Eyersalem that we talked to for a long time. She taught us some words in Amharic… I hope we can remember them all. She will be coming to the English class we are going to teach the next two weeks so hopefully we can spend more time with her. For lunch we went back to Esti’s, but we just got bread and made peanut butter sandwiches. While we were waiting for the bread, a lady did the coffee ceremony for us. I like it black, but Lori and Emma prefer sugar in their coffee. Lori bought a Miranda (a really good orange soda) at a local store and she wants to keep the bottle, but in Ethiopia you are supposed to return it. She will just have to pay for it I guess. Right now we are sitting in the office at Destiny. Lori is putting grade on the computer and Emma is grading papers. This morning was one of the prettiest so far, but it is raining and cloudy now. Storms almost always come in the afternoon here. Tonight we are probably going to buy some broccoli, rice, and stuff to make chocolate chip cookies. We want to make an American meal because we miss our food. The food here is good, but it’s not the same.
We hope to get some internet access soon so we can post this blog. Chao!
Rachel (and Emma)

Wifi to the rescue!

Hey everybody! So we just got home for the evening and we are pretty tired…really hoping we will sleep good tonight. We started our day off with a big breakfast consisting of muffins, fruit, pancakes, cereal, tea and coffee. The cook is wonderful. After breakfast we ventured out onto the streets for the first time. First we went to a couple different cafes in search of an internet connection. We tried at Munch, the German bakery and then we tried at the Swiss Café. We tried…and failed. So we decided to return home and see what was going on here. We finally got an internet connection at the house! Which means that now, hopefully, we’ll be keeping up with our blogs. No promises though haha. Abraham has arranged a driver for us while we stay here with them and today he took us on a tour of the city. It was a great experience. We ate lunch at Blue Tops restaurant, saw some awesome animals [and big lions!] at a small zoo, visited the Sheraton Hotel and just drove around to simply get a feel for Addis. The contrast between rich and poor here is very extreme. For instance the very elaborate Sheraton Hotel, the nicest hotel in Africa, is surrounded by poverty and homes covered with tin roofs. It’s crazy though because it seems as if the people who are out on the streets, the people with no food and no home, hold the most joy, love and happiness. The people living in luxury are missing that happiness and that joy in their lives. Happiness, joy and love don’t come from anything the world has to offer. It’s like we talked about on Monday night during the Bible study. It’s all about fellowship, being together with one another and relying upon God. We had our first official Ethiopian meal tonight at the Cherokee House and we met many more friends from different places. We felt a little more at home being round people from North Carolina haha. We also had a lot of fun talking to Abraham’s son after dinner. We had a lot of fun today. Tomorrow we go to Destiny school! It’s ten o clock here so we’re going to be getting ready for bed soon. Goodnight everyone! Hopefully more updates tomorrow!

Hello everyone! Our severe jet lag has hindered our ability to blog the last couple of days, but we have had a great time. The plane ride was extremely long. When we finally made it to Ethiopia there were four people waiting for us t the airport. Tsegaye, Konjit, Ermias, and Abraham welcomed us to the country. The morning after we arrived, we accidentally slept until 1:30 P.M. Ethiopian time! (That’s 6:30 A.M. for all you Americans back home.) Currently, we are sitting in the Swiss Café trying to connect to blogger. We all four got a drink for less than two dollars. We drink tea or coffee a lot throughout the day. We have made lots of new friends the last couple of days. All the people here are so beautiful! They are all so friendly and sweet. Last night we went with Abraham to the Monday night Bible study with all of the ministry leaders. It was an amazing experience to listen in on their study of fellowship. Their love and joy for God and one another was very evident in all that they did. The Bible study was at the girl’s home an we were able to meet a few of the girl’s, but we didn’t get to spend time with them. Today, we are exploring the area and getting used to life here in Addis. Tomorrow, we will go to Destiny, the school Jessica worked at during her last visit. We'll update more later! Miss you all!

FIrst Blog: Airport in Cinci!

Hey! This is Lori typing! Emma and I are currently watching Rachel chase a bird around the Cincinnati airport. We are rather bored, but we're doing okay...because Rae is very entertaining. Rachel says "Emma says hey!" Hahaha. We're kind of tired and slap happy at the moment, but we'll have plenty of time to sleep with our glorious neck pillows! Rachel's is hand-quilted!! I can't wait for that cranapple juice and we like Luna bars. They make us feel happy. We're going to find Zebra's in Africa, but that will be tomorrow...because we are not getting there today. We can't wait to meet everyone and get out of airports! However, we made a new friend! We don't know his name, but he let us check a 60 lb. bag with no extra charge! He was fun and we miss him because they won't let us go back where we came from, but we'll see him at our next family gathering! Hahaha, funny? Are you laughing yet? By the way, this is not just Lori. Rachel came up with most of it. Hahaha. So we'll leave you with something fun to think about: are zebras black with white stripes, or white with black stripes?(: Haha? Our next post will be more serious...maybe. Haha.