Every morning I wake up around 6:04AM (yes, I set my alarm for 6:04…I do not snooze until 6:04) and hop in the shower. Since we are not yet in our apartments, I do not leave my stuff in the bathroom. I also do not like carrying a lot of things so I pretty much bring either my shampoo (2-in-1) or my face wash. Even in the States I only wash my hair every other day, so it works pretty well. Also, my acne has amazingly gotten better while here (not that it was terrible to begin with…just annoying) and I am using my face wash half as much. In the last few months I think my face has become accustomed to face wash and just compensates for it by becoming oilier. So perhaps if I stop using face wash so much, it will just disappear!
After I shower, I get ready in my room and then head to the kitchen for a small breakfast and chai. Yes, they call tea “chai” here…I feel so at home! Also, I have become accustomed to mucho mucho sugar. Delicious. I think I have more sugar in one week here than I do in two months in the States; it’s also raw sugar. Breakfast consists of either bread or pancakes. I’m pretty sure when we move into our apartments, I will just stop having breakfast. It is not worth it to wake up at 6:04AM when I don’t have to be at school until 7:45am. Yuck. I might also begin showering in the evenings when I have my own apartment; my hair has been doing some pretty crazy things for the past week and a half. I don’t really understand what is going on because some days it is perfect and others it is super poofy.
At breakfast, Zelalem and Kyle (and Gail sometimes) eventually come downstairs and grab some chai and food. All the kids are eating in the living room and getting ready to head out. Kyle and I have been riding with either Zelalem or Gail, depending on the day. Since Zelalem is the principal, he gets there at the same time we should be there so it works out nicely. For the record: when we ride to school, we have 7 or 8 people (depending on if Dagm comes) in a car with 5 seats. Of course, four of them are smaller children and we fit comfortably with people on our laps, but it is still a lot of people.
When we arrive at school, the teachers have to be on the field (basically the area with the basketball hoop and a small area of grass) watching the children. 8:15AM begins Morning Assembly. This did not actually start until a few days ago and yesterday Mr. Deresse and I were in charge of it. There are different activities we will do each morning. Mr. Deresse and I are in charge of “stories”. This could be telling a story, having the kids act out a story, or playing story-telling games. I am not looking forward to organizing these activities because I have zero creativity. If you have advice, please comment!
[Quick note: I receive your comments in my email even though I cannot access Blogger. Sorry for not responding to any comments but please know that I greatly appreciate them! Also, I know who most of you are but a Steven commented and I know several Stevens and cannot figure out who you are, but thanks anyways!!! I will try to respond to any questions or comments in blog posts, so please keep them coming!]
My schedule is as follows: M/T/Th grade 1A reading 2nd period, grade 3 reading 5th period, grade 1B reading 6th period. Wednesday grade 1A reading 2nd period, grade 4 music 3rd period, grade 3 reading 5th period, grade 1B reading 6th period. Fridays are filled with Virtues classes and I can’t remember which grade is at which time, but I know 5th period is my only free period. This means I teach 18 classes, which is the lightest course load (I think) and I am very thankful. Not only do I not particularly enjoy teaching all the time, but I really want to work on the Virtues curriculum and the way the school uses the Virtues Project. With all of the free class periods I have, I should be able to get a lot of work done and have my lesson plans done early.
At 3PM it is “home time” and all of the students line up outside. There is a rope that the parents must stay behind (so no one is “snatched”, or “kidnapped” as we like to say in the States) and the students much watch for their parents to come. Pretty much every day (except today) I have played “Down by the Banks of the Hanky Panky”; I am ridiculously good at this game and almost always win, and thus I am really bored of it and wish they wouldn’t ask me to play (I can’t resist!). Luckily, Mr. Zelalem told me today that at home time the students are supposed to be sitting and not playing (which I did not realize) so today I had the pleasure of ruining everyone’s fun by asking them to all sit down and watch for their parents. At 3:15PM, even if students are still there (which there always are) the teachers are allowed to leave the field and work on lesson plans or whatever they need to do. Sometimes my day ends around 3:45pm and others it ends around 5 or 6pm.
From there, Kyle and I either ride home with Zelalem (very rare, he usually has a meeting to go to or stuff to do at the school) or take a taxi. Sometimes we take a contract taxi and other times we take the taxi vans, it basically depends on our mood. It also depends on if we’re going to stop at Kaldi’s or not. We have been there three days this past week! On Tuesday (September 22) I experienced my first “power off” day. The power went out in the morning while I was in the shower (which just meant I couldn’t iron my pants, so I had to wear the same pants I wore the day before) and hadn’t come back when we got back from school. Apparently it stays off until around 7 or 8? I can’t remember what Kyle said. Anyways, Kyle and I were bored and realized we couldn’t watch a movie on our computers because they did not have enough battery left. So we decided to catch a contract taxi to Kaldi’s (25 birr, approximately 2USD total…for two people). I got a delicious caramel macchiato and Kyle got a not-so-delicious chai latte (they basically gave him steamed milk and a tea bag – do it yourself style). We then checked out some import stores along the strip and ate din-din at Raizel’s. I just realized I briefly mentioned this in another post; sorry for being redundant.
On Wednesday we stopped at Kaldi’s on our way home from school (10 birr from Meganegna; less than a dollar for 2 people) but the power was out. We stopped at another import store to check what they carried and then headed home. Oh, I forgot to mention that Tuesday when we were on that strip a guy selling DVDS talked to us. Kyle checked out a copy of The Proposal (I saw it 4 times in the States; if anyone sends a care package, that movie better be included!!!) and decided not to buy it. On Wednesday, we saw another guy and Kyle asked about The Proposal. The guy’s friend had it (I could see from 30 feet away) and so Kyle ended up buying it. It was 25 birr. That means 2USD for The Proposal. Obviously we knew it wasn’t a real copy, but Kyle had decided it didn’t really matter. I haven’t seen it yet but Kyle said it’s basically a recording from inside a theater – and a really bad recording at that. It’s ok, though; I feel like we helped the economy in some way.
Today on our way home we stopped at Kaldi’s. I got a caramel mocha and Kyle got some cinnamon latte/mocha (I don’t remember). Mine was (again) good and Kyle’s was (again) not so great. I’m having better luck than him at specialty drinks. We then headed to Bilo’s for pastries (and both got macchiatos). SO DELICIOUS! Our cakes each had a small strawberry on it. DELICIOUS. I don’t care if I get sick from that itty bitty strawberry. It was definitely worth it! We then started looking for a taxi and kept walking towards home. We actually ended up walking almost the entire way home (what is usually a 25 birr cab ride) and checked out some more import stores and cell phones on the way. Kyle doesn’t like his cell phone and is going to buy a new one (we still don’t have SIM cards). He said I can have his if I can’t get mine unlocked. I think it’s funny that he’s going to give me a phone he doesn’t like. If he doesn’t like it, why would I? But I like simple phones so I’m pretty sure I’ll be fine with it. The only thing I don’t like about it is that it is bulky.
As you can see, I’ve settled into a pretty good routine. Last week I was going to bed around midnight, but for the past few days I’ve been going to bed between 10 and 11PM. Getting a full night’s sleep feels amazing. One thing that still throws me for a loop is the setting sun. It feels like summer all the time, so my mind automatically assumes the sun will set between 9 and 10PM, just like in the summer at home. So when it’s dark outside, I am already exhausted from the day’s work and I think “well, bedtime is in a couple hours, I’ll be fine”. Bedtime is NOT in a few hours, though. It is pitch black around 7PM. So when I’m thinking “I’m sleepy” it’s really 7PM, not 9PM. Therefore, bedtime is in many hours. I still have not gotten used to it, but hopefully that will come in the next month or so.
Through everything I have experienced, I am not quite so “shocked” about anything. I came to Ethiopia with a very open mind and no preconceived ideas of what it would be like. I don’t mind that sometimes there is not running water (the water tank at the Amare’s gets refilled every Wednesday night, so if you run out of water before that – you just don’t have water); I don’t mind that there is not always power. I have been content with staying home instead of going out exploring (contrary to my nature, I know). I am adapting well to my surroundings and I enjoy the food. Although I am having a hard time remembering the Amharic words I know, I hope that in the next few months (after things become more routine at school and with the Baha’i community) I will begin to speak or at least understand a lot more.
For those reading at home: remember how parents sometimes tell you to finish your food at the dinner table because there are children starving in Africa? I’m in Africa. When Kyle and I went to Bilo’s for pastries, I could not finish the whipped cream topping (it is literally whipped cream – very thick cream with sugar). Immediately my mind thought of the saying and I felt terrible. I tried to eat it. However, as Kyle and I discussed, no starving child in Africa will ever eat that whipped cream topping. Even if they could, it would not be healthy for them. Once we get our apartments, I might start carrying small things of food for when we go out in public, just in case we encounter a child begging. It pains my heart to see small children on the streets; the least I can do is give them some bread.
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