Sunday morning, 24th march I went to Mass at 9 o'clock in the morning. There were not so much people, because on Sunday, most of the people go to the big market in Haro Bake, which is about two hours walking. But the main part of the market, especially the selling of the animals is in the morning, so the people have to go early, and if they come to mass they are too late. But of course there are also a lot of people which go to the market not for the animals. After finishing I started playing with some kids and youth and I didn't stop until the late afternoon. In between I went for some lunch and to drink some water, but mostly I was running around and trying to catch them or to run away. After that, I was so dirty that I took a shower and that I decided to wash my clothes, together with some I had already prepared to wash. During the night, it rained again. Recently, it is really raining a lot and the whole country is changing. The environment is starting to get green and you see a lot of people outside farming. Also there are a lot of fields overflowed by water and the lakes are getting bigger again. Besides that, we have a lot, but really a lot of insects in our house, especially in the evening when the light is on. You sit there and every few minutes when not even more there is an insect which thinks that he has to land on you. And they are all flying against the glass wall, but from outside, so it sounds like it is raining. But the good thing is, there are no mosquitoes, or at least not much in Dhadim.

On Monday I didn't do much at all, or at least not much things I can tell. In the morning I was in the kindergarten, where I taught and in the afternoon I played with some kids again. In the evening I packed for going to Addis Ababa the next day to pick up my parents. Sister Ancia and Sister Annie went to pick Sister Shirley in Haro Bake. There was actually a driver, a new driver from Awassa, who should have picked Sr. Shirley and who went at about 12 o'clock. But he never came back till the evening, so the other Sisters went. As they were in Haro Bake, they got a call that their driver had an accident because of a lot of mud. Haro Bake is just 15min by car, but the diver is from Awassa and had no idea where that was so he drove way too far to another city. He was not hurt, just the car is quite damaged.

On Thursday, 26th of March we started as usual at 5 o'clock in the morning, driving towards Addis Ababa. I slept the first few hours until around 8 o'clock. I hardly felt that we stopped for almost one hour somewhere besides the road to talk to the driver of the sisters, who stayed with the car the whole night.
After another stop in Morjo, where we left Warqe, our cook, we only stopped once in Awassa for Lunch and some office work and went straight to Addis.

My parent's plane landed on Wednesday one hour late, because they had to stop in Rom for leaving a sick passenger there. Boniface and I waited for about 3 hours at the airport. But finally they came and we brought their luggage to the house and left the car there to be repaired. Then we went for some breakfast in a hotel and after Lunch in the house, we went on to Awassa. Between Breakfast and Lunch we did some shopping in the city, so we did some more things than only eating that morning.
Because of a lot of traffic jam, way more than usually we arrived quite late in Awassa, so we didn't do anything else than eating supper and going to bed.

28th of March we reached Dhadim in the afternoon. We had to stop again in Morojo to pick our cook again and once to eat. As we arrived, there were a lot of youth and kids coming to greet us, most of them knew my father from his last visit. The rest of the day was kind of separate, I played with the kids, what my father did, I don't know and my mother went to rest, because she was not feeling well.

The following morning my mother was sick. She stayed more or less the whole day in her room on her bed. I went to the kindergarten to teach and my father came shortly to visit. In the afternoon I played soccer with the youth from school. During the whole day there were coming people from different places and Boniface drove to Yabello several times to get some people. They all came because of the celebration of Iede the next day. In the afternoon there was the blessing of the cross again, but this time Boniface wasn't there and there were not a lot of people.

Saturday, the 30th of March was the big celebration for Abba Iede, for his 40 years in Ethiopia. We already celebrated that on January, but this time all the local people were there to. It should have started at 9 o'clock but I wasn't much surprised that it started late. The celebration started with a Mass, but because there were so many people, mass was not celebrated in Church but somewhere in the school area. The altar was built on the veranda of the school Mensa and the people were sitting on benches out of the school Mensa and the church. I went in the middle of the mass to get my mother, who was still lying in bed. She wanted to see the blessing of the coffee, which was immediately after mass. Then there were a lot of speeches in Orominia and some gifts for Iede until the food was distributed. They served rice with meat and Coca for drinking. I went several times to the kitchen to get a new plate for the kids, because they were still hungry. Like always, we ate with our hands and a lot of people eat from one plate.
In the afternoon I helped again. I found some kids which were willing to carry the benches from School back to the church, but after two benches each they were tired. So I promised them one balloon for every child if they would carry one more bench. After distributing the balloons, they wanted some more, so I said two more benches each and you will get another balloon. After finishing, I played with them.

On Sunday we decided to experience the same thing the Borana people experience every Sunday. After mass, we walked to Haro Bake, the market. We took about one hour and 20 minutes and for walking back we walked 20 minutes longer. The people were surprised that we were able to walk so fast. Just before reaching, we had to cross a river, which means jumping. In Haro Bake itself we ate some goat meat and walked around a bit, before we started the way home again. We arrived in the mission in the late afternoon, where I baked Pancakes with my mother and washed some clothes.

The first of April, was a funny day. Or, there was one funny joke my father did to Boniface. We climbed the sleepy lion, about 35min fast walking and the whole time it went up. As we were on top, the view was really nice. Some kids accompanied us and by walking down, we left my father and Boniface behind. Boniface had a lot of work to do, so as we were back in the house, my father came in and told Boniface, that he lost his wallet on top of the mountain. Boniface's reaction was really funny, even as my father the big calendar in the house from 2012 tock and said they have to set the date first, Boniface still didn't think of the day of jokes. But as soon as he recognized the date, he started really laughing.
After the Kindergarten and lunch we went to Yabello, to see the town and to purchase some things. We came back quite early, because Boniface and my mother were afraid of the rainfall in Dhadim.
When it rains heavily like that, the roads get spoiled and sometimes there is a river which we can't cross by car.
So I played again soccer with some kids from the school, but after some of them started fighting, I took the ball and went.

Tuesday my parents came to the kindergarten, my mother was there already on Monday, but she felt even better that day, so we all went. One of the kids, Roba Damballa, had a speech prepared. I stayed also after the break; my parents went to visit school. Later Sister Ancia told me that exactly that boy worked for his being in Kindergarten. I knew that the family is really poor, one of the poorest ones in Dhadim. All kids had to bring 25 Birr to the Kindergarten in the beginning of the year. Roba's mother had not even that much, so he went to Boniface, who said I will give you a bit of money, but not all of the 25 Birr. So Roba went on Sunday to Haro Bake and started collecting the corn which fell down while selling. He collected quite an amount and went with it to Boniface, which gave him the rest of the needed money. That boy is, like all the other kids too, around 6 years old.
In the afternoon Boniface disappeared and as we found him again, he was shuffling sand for a wall together with some youth. The wall is against the rain, other ways our house will be flooded. My father and I helped a bit too. Even my mother came to take some pictures.
Suddenly, we remember the time and we had to rush back because at 4 in the afternoon, Elizabeth would come and show us how to make Ethiopian coffee. That means roasting the beans, making them to powder and then cooking the coffee itself. The coffee was strong but really good.
I promised to play soccer again with the kids so I went, but doubtfully, the ball fell into some thorns and now it is broken.

On the 3th of April, we drove from Dhadim back to Awassa. In Dilla, we stopped to buy some coffee and some was 6 kilo. We reached quite in time in Awassa, so we were able to visit the market. The market is big, but not too big, so it is really nice. There are sections, sections with clothes, with spices, with pans and cups and sections with fruits and vegetables. Sometimes it is funny, you start coughing and sneezing because of some spices or you see some wonderful colored clothes. Somewhere there were some men playing dam, I didn't play for a lot of years, so I lost bad. But it was still funny; the stones were drops from beer bottles and soft drink bottles. Boniface went to do some things and wash his car so my parents and I took a bagaje to go back to the mission but we didn't know the way and the first one had no idea either. The second one knew, but he brought us to another entrance, so we were confused and thought it was the wrong one. In the end, we found it and we went to eat dinner.

The next morning we drove on to Addis Ababa. The environment between Dhadim and Addis is really changing because of the rain and we saw a lot of for us funny things on the streets. For the people here it is quite normal I guess. But it is difficult to explain, I guess it is easier when you look at the pictures.

On Saturday morning, the 5th of April we drove our parent s to the airport. Later I got a message that there were some troubles with the flight and in the end they were allowed to fly business class and they left 30 minutes earlier.
Boniface and I went to the town. He was looking the whole day for a sink and myself, I went to do some Shopping in Bambies. That's a supermarket more for foreigners. There are a lot of foreign articles which you can't get in normal shops and mostly, they are also a bit more expensive.
For lunch, we went to eat in a small restaurant somewhere I don't know where but we got a whole fish. It was really good, nothing but fish, but an excellent fish. After lunch, we went on searching for the sink and finally we got one. It was second hand and they had to clean it, but it is exactly the same as before.
After going back to the mission, we went out again. This time we walked a lot, we wanted to change the batteries of his watch and calculator, but the man in the shop was already gone. The other plan was to eat something, but both of us were not hungry, so we skipped that.

The following day was Sunday. I didn't do much except working on the computer most of the time. For once, I had really fast internet, because we used wireless of another building.
For dinner Boniface and I went out. This time the place we wanted to go the day before. Just as we wanted to pay and go, one priest from our mission came in and wanted to eat something, so we waited for him. After paying, we went home. Partly we took the bus and partly we walked, because walking alone would have taken a few hours. The buses by the way are funny. You can stop them where ever you want but they have their routines. Normally about 12 people can drive with it, besides the driver and a conductor, but mostly they fill them more. The conductor is taking the money from the people and he's telling the driver to stop or to drive. Often he knocks on the door, so the driver knows.