Week 3

This week was really fun. On Monday, Alan and I went to Naseret (a town a couple hours away) to pick up 2 abandoned babies at the hospital there. It was nice to get out of Addis and the countryside on the way there was beautiful. We had a pretty good time in the car, and on the way back I was holding a little boy that was only a few days old. Cutest. Alan got a cute little 1 month old girl. She looked like she is (hopefully)HIV-, because she was so chubby. It takes a while for them to figure out with babies under 3 months.

The rest of the week the other volunteers and I got things ready for the upcoming class awards ceremony and the two feild trips. On Tuesday night we went with the group 4 kids to Yod Abasiniya, an Ethiopian resteraunt with cultural music and dancing. I have never seen such popping in my life. The guy dancers were straight from StepUp2. The kids enjoyed it, however, several very religious kids were upset by the dancing and started passing a bible around. Some of the kids at Layla believe that secular music and dancing is against God. The teachers at Layla told us that once the kids go to Amercia, this changes. I tried tej for the first time. It is a fermented honey wine, definately an aquired taste. Speaking of the kids changing when they go to America, there is a documentary crew at Layla this week filming a girl that was adopted from there 2 years ago. She has been in America, and came back to visit with her family. Wow, she is all peirced and has this crazy alternative haircut and hipster clothes. The older kids that have been there for awhile and have seen kids come back to visit says that they all change a lot.

Thursday night we did another feild trip, this time with group 1A. The kids are all divided into groups based on Academic level. There is 1A, 1B, 2A, 2B, 3, 4, and 5. The kids in the higher groups are older for the most part, but not always. For 1A's felid trip, we did a sleep over at Ivy's house (the volunteer coordinator). The kids were so excited! None of them speak any English, they understand some. I made them a giant nest on the floor, but they were up at all hours. All of them were facinated that you would use "soft" (toliet paper) to wipe with. The were all jabbering in Amharic and taking turns teaching us clapping games. I was exhasted the next day and came in late. That Friday was the awards ceremony and the top 3 kids in each group got a certificate, gift bag, and were bumped up to the next group. It was fun seeing them so excited about the little things we put in there gift bags.

This weekend we went to mercado. We were all a little nervous because it is not the safest place, and it was recently bombed. White people are huge targets and even more people were staring and yelling "ferenge!" at us than usual. The mercado in Addis is the largest open air market in Africa, so it was insanity. We were there for several hours and I got some really sweet stuff for people back in America. You have to bargain with them, and you are still going to get charged a lot more because you are white. Alan was definaltely the best at bartering and it was hilarious to watch him with the Ethiopian men arguing (He is from Indiana and just graduated from high school and is hysterical to watch). Only one person tried to pick pocket me and it was in a herd of donkeys. They were unsuccessful (of course). I was most ready to leave after 4 hours and had my fair share of men with their junk out, peeing near us.

Saturday was also a day when my worst fear of working with 150 kids was realized; I contracted lice. Apparently, this is standard for living and working here, according to the hodgepodge Nix and Rid bottles that are generously left behind, partially used, from past parents and volunteers. So I sucked it up, Nixed my head, and went on to help others check their heads for signs of an infestation. I helped treat Nicole's (my roomate) head as well since we have been sharing one large pillow back and forth. Probably not the wisest.

Its Sunday, and I always am a little homesick on Sundays because there's not a lot going on. Somehow, it has become standard on Sundays, for me to crave a meal from Taylors and a trip to Safeway for something frivolous, such as fly tape. What I wouldnt give for some double sided scotch tape to trap the hundreds of bugs that crawl aross our wall each night, impervious to multiple sprays of OFF. Miss everyone. Post on my blog if you are bored or grow tired of surfing facebook.

Love,

Anna