Right now I'm sitting against a wall connecting to a guest house's wifi because we haven't gotten internet yet but hey... third world problems. It's pretty cool - there's a team worshipping and praying in the guest house so it's some solid background music. And they have nice accents.
ANYWHO... We're in Ethiopia! It's been a crazy couple of days trying to get settled, but we finally found a house a couple hours ago (yes, we came to Ethiopia not knowing where we were going to stay) and we move in on Saturday! It was a huge answer to prayer because not only was it UNDER our budget, it also has MORE than enough space (which sounds like excess, but when you're traveling with 4 kids under the age of 7 it's kind of nice to have a place to retreat every once in a while) and is in the PERFECT location (15 minutes from the school the kids will go to, right next to the supermarket, and ~30 minutes from where we'll be working most of the time). I don't really know how to structure blogs, so here's my attempt at giving an overlay of what's been going on the past couple days:
- The flight was long, but we got here safely. One of my biggest pet peeves about traveling is sticking out as a tourist, but I was broken of that pretty quickly. We brought 14 checked bags and 12 carry-ons:
it took us 3 rolly carts at the airport to load all the luggage, and then as we were walking out of the airport 2 of the carts fell over and blocked car AND people traffic. Way to go Americanos. We got on the road and it didn't get any easier to blend in - we're traveling in this big silver van with all 14 bags piled on top - I don't think you can scream "tourist" any louder. BESIDES all that, my skin is too light to pretend like I'm an Ethiopian. BOO.
- Once we got to the guest house, we unloaded and then went out to lunch. My first meal in Ethiopia was OATMEAL (I know, I'm so cultural). But I had to compare! Momma, I like yours better.
Ethiopia lesson #1: There is zero sense of urgency about time. We waited 45 minutes for our receipt the other day - I said we should Dine and Dash and teach them a lesson, but nobody else thought that would be respectful :[ I guess travel companions are good for my morality.
Things I've learned:
1. I have a lot to learn
2. I'm not gonna be running this summer
3. Ethiopia needs an irrigation system. Their economy depends on the rain, which means that 85% of the population's physical lives are dependent on something that is unpredictable. Yuck. Come on all you civil/environmental engineers.
The BEAUTIFUL girls I'm traveling with: Isabelle is on the bottom left, Brooklyn is on the bottom right. I don't know who the white girl wrecking the picture is.
ANYWHO... We're in Ethiopia! It's been a crazy couple of days trying to get settled, but we finally found a house a couple hours ago (yes, we came to Ethiopia not knowing where we were going to stay) and we move in on Saturday! It was a huge answer to prayer because not only was it UNDER our budget, it also has MORE than enough space (which sounds like excess, but when you're traveling with 4 kids under the age of 7 it's kind of nice to have a place to retreat every once in a while) and is in the PERFECT location (15 minutes from the school the kids will go to, right next to the supermarket, and ~30 minutes from where we'll be working most of the time). I don't really know how to structure blogs, so here's my attempt at giving an overlay of what's been going on the past couple days:
- The flight was long, but we got here safely. One of my biggest pet peeves about traveling is sticking out as a tourist, but I was broken of that pretty quickly. We brought 14 checked bags and 12 carry-ons:
- Once we got to the guest house, we unloaded and then went out to lunch. My first meal in Ethiopia was OATMEAL (I know, I'm so cultural). But I had to compare! Momma, I like yours better.
Ethiopia lesson #1: There is zero sense of urgency about time. We waited 45 minutes for our receipt the other day - I said we should Dine and Dash and teach them a lesson, but nobody else thought that would be respectful :[ I guess travel companions are good for my morality.
Things I've learned:
1. I have a lot to learn
2. I'm not gonna be running this summer
3. Ethiopia needs an irrigation system. Their economy depends on the rain, which means that 85% of the population's physical lives are dependent on something that is unpredictable. Yuck. Come on all you civil/environmental engineers.
The BEAUTIFUL girls I'm traveling with: Isabelle is on the bottom left, Brooklyn is on the bottom right. I don't know who the white girl wrecking the picture is.
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