The problem with this blog entry is that I
have no idea what I wrote in the last one and do not have the Internet to
check. I am currently writing this while at my site in Eteya, which is roughly
30 minutes from any sort of Internet. I’ll save this to my flash drive and
presto! I’ll save myself time, birr and stares by not having to sit in an
Internet café for a while typing this. So I am just going to assume that I did
not update the blog when I found out my pre-service training (PST) site. If I
did and you have read this before, cut me some slack; I’m 9,000 miles away.
Anyways, I was placed in Eteya, which for
those keeping score at home is about 3.5 hours from Addis in the Oramefa
region. It is a smallish town of about
24,000 people. The weather has been fantastic. It is about 65-75 degrees
everyday and though it is the rainy season, it only rains for an hour or two at
a time. Although, last night it did pour. I cannot be sure if it was the amount
of rain or the tin roof, but it sounded pretty awesome (up until I put ear
plugs in- thanks Adam!)
My host family is very nice. It is a
father, who owns a hotel/bar/restaurant/social hang out/catch all, a mother,
and their 6 children. The ages’ of the kids range from 20 to 4. All of them are
students so it is quite a busy household. On top of that, Ethiopia is a very
family-first orientated country, which means while there are 8 technical family
members, there always seems to be 15 people on the compound. I try to hang out
with the family for a few hours a day. This consists of me staring
blankly/nodding, coloring with kids or playing futbol. Since I have been here,
the Euro Cup has been going. It is really fun to be in a country that deeply
cares about soccer. At the time of this, Germany is still in it and due to my
allegiance to Amy and co. I have been rooting for them. There is also the
biggest Manchester United following here. Every third car has a ManU sticker
and I think it may be a country requirment to have at least one article of ManU
clothing. But yeah, I have my own room and share a latrine (or shint bet as we
call it here).
In my room, I have taped pictures on the
wall so I can feel a little at home. This turned out to be one of my favorite
games here. There are 9 pictures on the wall and I happen to be in 6 of them.
In the pictures, there is only one other female with brown hair. The rest are
blonde or redheads. When my host family comes in my room, they like to look at
the pictures. I LOVE playing “where is Laura?” I give them as much time as they
need and all they have to do is point out where I am in the pictures. I am
standing in front of them in case they need a reminder of what I look like.
Simple, right? Oh no. No one has managed to point out more than four correctly.
I guess all us American folk really do look the same. Which reminds me…
I was sitting at an Internet café a few
days ago and a group of LCFs walk in. (LCFs are the language coaches hired by
Peace Corps. While they are most certainly Ethiopian, they hang out and work
with American enough that it is easy to forgot the cultural barrier that
exists) When they see me, one walks up excitedly. I greet him and we start
talking. This is literally what he told me, “I didn’t want to say anything the
first few times we met but now that we have seen each other many time, I just
wanted to tell you, you really look like Michael Jackson. Especially when you
have your sunglasses on. In fact, I told one of the other LCFs [he points to
another man who is nodding empathically] and he agree that you look just like
Michael Jackson”. I have never been more
confused. In one moment, I was a little offended, a bit flattered (he is the
king of pop) but mostly more amused than I ever thought possible. My only possible
respond was to make a silly face and give my best, most high pitched MJ “ah
hehe” impression. This may add to my folklore…
But any who, my family does not speak
English. One of the son’s speaks a bit but otherwise, it is a silly silly game
to try and communicate. They have a lot of animals so I would walk around
making the animal noises and then asking “min” or what. Once they stopped
laughing, they would tell me. This worked well until we got to the chickens.
Apparently, in Ethiopia they have a different sound for chicken. So
cock-a-doodle-do as I may, it did not work. I could only think of Arrested
Development where every family member thinks a chicken makes a different noise.
So along those lines, a family friend came
over for dinner tonight. We greeted each other (seriously, greetings are huge
here) and then he asked me if I was Korean or Chinese. He had pretty much
pinpointed it to be one of those two. When I told him I was America, he got
very excited. He started pointing to a Jesus poster on the wall and kept asking
me something in Amharic. He then started bowing to it and asking “America?” I
don’t know if he was asking if I was religious or if America was religious, but
either way, I felt the best answer was yes. He also went through animals’ sounds
asking if we had those in America. Don’t worry, I did America justice. He now
thinks all Americans are super religious and eat nothing but meat. As long as
he goes to the South if he ever makes it to the states, I should be set. He
then started to explain that he was a butcher. Although I know enough words
where we could have communicated this properly, he acted it out for me. I think
I cried a little I was laugh so hard. His (expert) game of charades started
with him making a “moooo” noise and was a 20 second display of how to properly
kill and butcher an imaginary cow. I cannot compete with that level of mastery.
He blew any charades I have done out of the water. It also made me glad that I
didn’t have meat to eat today.
I would say that is 95% of people here in a
nutshell. They are extremely outgoing and just curious about American culture.
They only want to take up your time to get to know you. Whether it is a
hilarious butcher or a waiter who wants to play banana grams with the
“forengis” everyday, most people are great. And when I am well rested and in a
positive mindset, this country is so fun.
Next week, I am going to be back in Addis
so I will try to load pictures since I will likely have Internets. I also find
out my site (where I will send the next two years) on Saturday, so stay tuned.
It’s time for me to kill some bugs and then go to sleep!
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