Roommates

As you know, I had a beautiful, wonderful Ethiopian roommate named Roza.  She was so great!  We were hardly ever at the apartment at the same time, and we both kept to ourselves most of the time, but she is such a beautiful soul!  Since Jasmine got here, we’ve been trying to figure out how to make the living situation work.  The last I had heard, we were going to partition off a section of the living area into a bedroom for Jasmine.

Sunday evening, I came home to find Roza super cleaning everything.  We had been without water for several days, so I just assumed she was cleaning everything that had accumulated over the past few days.

Monday morning, as I was brushing my teeth, I noticed that she hadn’t put my things back on her table.  I then saw that her shelf in our bookshelf was barren.  She was moving out!  I could just feel it!  I hoped I hadn’t done anything to offend her, and made my way to school.

When I got to school, I found her and asked if she was moving.  She certainly was!  She said “you didn’t know?!”  “No I didn’t know!” was my response.  She said she had been looking for a new place for about 2 weeks.  Why didn’t anyone tell me?!  So I went to find Zelalem and Jemal to ask if they had asked her to leave.  Zelalem was surprised that I was so surprised.  He thought I knew!  Everyone thought I knew!

Apparently after my last meeting with Zelalem about housing, he had talked with Jemal (which I knew was going to happen).  Jemal had a meeting with Roza and discussed partitioning the living room.  She said absolutely not, and so she moved out.  She had free housing from the school in return for helping us (volunteers) with whatever we needed.  It had come to the point that we were self-sufficient and did not need her for this purpose any longer, so she was fine with leaving.  She knew it would happen eventually, but I still feel terrible!  She moved out Tuesday after school and it’s weird being along in the apartment.

Jasmine’s moving in on Saturday, so I only have a few days by myself which is nice.  Jasmine really wants to paint the walls yellow and green, but I have vetoed that idea – she can do it when I leave.  I kept telling Jasmine she should try to live at the Amare’s for as long as she can because the water and power is less consistent here than at their house, but she really wants to stop living out of a suitcase.  Hopefully she’s able to adapt well!

All of this roommate talk has me missing May again.  I’m pretty sure she’s the best roommate I’ve ever had.  She was a literal roommate…bunk beds and all!  Jasmine has her own room in our apartment.  It’s really interesting because in my apartment shopping back home I told my parents I 100% did not want a roommate.  I feel like after 2 years of having a roommate in college and living in Ethiopia for a year, I deserve to be roommate-less.  3.5 more months…