Making Friends

Sorry it's taken a while to post. We are here in Rome now and so the internet connection is a little more reliable. We have been so busy and I feel very far behind but eventually we will share all of our adventures.

We have made so many friends while on the farm. I miss them terribly and so do the girls. Nati, Leah and Lily became quite close. Here they are at our little party outside under the traditional hut eating grilled swiss cheese and ham sandwiches by the fire.

 We've grown quite attached to our Nati! He sure is a good guy, he speaks English better than any other ethiopian I have met. Though he still has a hard time with the word thistle and Thursday. :)

On Sunday we were invited to meet Zakir's family. Zakir is 16 or 17 years old and he took a lot upon himself to invite us forenjees to lunch. We had to travel to Beltu which is about 30 minutes away and on top of a hill. They have no electricity and no culinary water system so everyone has to come down the hilll to fill their jugs of water at the wells that have been built by the government.


  This is one of the wells, you actually have to pass through the hole in that really knobby tree to get to the water. There were several people there with their yellow jugs and donkeys. We were hoping to see some monkeys while there but no such luck.

We picked up Zakir at the bottom there too and he showed us how to get to his house. Unfortunately I didn't have a chance to take a picture of the outside but I did get some pictures of the inside of his "room". He had covered the ground, walls and ceiling with this plastic sheeting stuff which made it very nice. He had two small mattresses covered in really beautiful soft blankets and on the walls were these beautiful quotes:

Zakir was very excited to have us come and we could see all of the preparation. It paid off because everything was so nice. He had all of his family and several friends there to greet us and they all started pouring into the small room. Even Zakir's dad was there, he lives with another wife somewhere else I can't remember but it was a special occasion to have him there.

 Zakir's mother had butchered a goat just for us and had made some delicious tibbs. No injera because Zakir knew it would just be a waste. I think at one point there were 16 of us inside Zakir's little room enjoying tibbs and Fanta. It was a very good experience, I loved being there and seeing Zakir so happy. He told me later, "Today is a very very good day!" I agree with him.

After lunch we all went out to take pictures. I had brought an Ipod over for him and so he was anxious to get some pictures loaded on so that he could have some of his family and all of us.

I didn't mention before but when we first drove up there was a sign (middle picture) that Zakir had made that said "Alan, Shelley, Morgan, Andrew, Leah, Lily Welcome to my home".  I think both mom and I got a little teary eyed when they whipped it out of the hut and hurried and planted it in the dirt. You could tell they were very excited to see us. There were a lot of people there family, some friends, some neighbors and some who just wanted to be in a picture.

 It was such a good day except for the fact that we knew that we had to say goodbye. We weren't going to see Zakir again. I got pretty emotional because I had grown pretty attached to Zakir. He is just the sweetest kid. I don't know of any other 16 year old boy quite like him. We had to say good by and there were many tears but I feel it in my heart that I will see him again.

Mom wanted to buy a scarf like Zakir's father's so we went into the Beltu town center to see if we could find one. We found one but in the process gathered several curious kids wanting a look at the forenjees. They got a little too curious to the point where we had to shove them out of the window and try and not hit one while driving out of town. That was a little too crazy!

 On our way back we saw camels, more knobby trees, beehives and lots of water jugs. Very interesting.

 Back on the farm we the Muslim Holiday had left us with no maids to do our laundry so for the first time ever we had family wash day out on the front porch. Quite exciting! Leah and Lily loved every minute of it. I thought it was hard work and admire Ashreka for all her hard work at getting our clothes clean. She did a way better job than we did and ours took all afternoon!

I think that our lives have changed for the better after being in Ethiopia. We have met people that I can honestly say I love. Even though I have only personally known them for a few days I love them. I admire them for surviving in Ethiopia, for working hard and for being the good people that they are. I love them for treating me and my family so well.