September 2005
Market day
Hello Friends and Family,
It is so hard to think of how to begin telling you about our
time here in Dembi Dollo. We’ve been here now for a week
and a half. I (Janelle) started teaching my four eleventh- and
twelfth-grade classes last week. I think we’re finally starting
to feel settled into our home. We are all quite healthy. We think
we’ve decided on how much house help we can hire for. Also,
today Adanuu will come with her 3-year-old daughter Loewmee to
watch Carolee for the day (Mike will be here all day, also). We’ve
become friends with the other four forenjis (foreigners)
here and are getting to know the other teachers and staff here
at the school quite well.
Those are the main accomplishments since we arrived. On top of
that, there is so much that I want to write home about. Where
do I begin? If I begin I know I can’t end, so here is one
day in our life, Saturday, September 17, 2005.
6:00 a.m. Wake up because it’s getting
light and Carolee (who sleeps between us until we get our crib,
which is being made by Watgari, a local carpenter) wakes us up
to read her a book.
7:00 a.m. We sit down to a relaxing breakfast
of French toast. The eggs are easy to get in the market, the bread
was made by Adanuu (a woman who comes to help us and will be watching
Carolee), and the cinnamon and maple flavoring was left here by
JoAnn (our predecessor who taught here for more than 35 years.
We had to cook over a gas stove, since the electricity was out.
8:00 a.m. Debela arrives and wants to keep working
(he has been cutting the grass around our house). We tell him
that usually we don’t want anyone to work on Saturday morning
because we want one quiet morning a week, but since he is here
we ask him to work for an hour or so.
10:00 a.m. Abosi, one of my twelfth-grade students,
arrives to help us at the market. We hang the diapers and other
clothes that didn’t dry the other day since it started raining.
10:30 a.m. Abosi, Mike, Carolee, myself, and
Colleen (the other English teacher from America at BESS) piled
in for the bumpy, muddy road to town.
11:00 a.m. We meet Francheska (the English teacher
at Brihane Yesus Elementary School, who is from Germany) and her
neighbor, Debela (who is in one of my eleventh-grade classes)
at Mana Keke (“House of Cakes”). We all eat a donut-like
thing and drink a machiatto (a coffee with milk powder and sugar).
This little café is small, and we choose to sit outside
because the inside has quite a few bees swarming around the cakes.
Francheska and I discuss her predicament: her biggest class is
sixth grade with 80 (yes, eighty!) students. We talk about ways
to get students away from the lecture style that they are used
to.
11:30 a.m. We set out for the phone company
to request a phone line to our house. The man there says that
he thinks the capacity is at its maximum. We left that office
with heavy hearts. It is really difficult to adjust to the isolation
that comes from not having a phone, Internet connection, radio,
etc. Michel and Elke (the German couple also living at BESS) are
willing for us to use theirs, but we feel bad about staying there
for a long time to look on the Internet.
12:00 p.m. We divide to go to the market. Colleen
joins Carolee and I. Mike and Abosi go to buy more paint for the
house and fill the Ambo (water), Pepsi and Mirindi bottles. I’m
carrying Carolee in the baby backpack. Everyone always points
at us when we walk by and many say “forenji.” We try
to carefully walk through the mud and navigate through the many,
many mats with commodities from the nearby farms laid out on the
ground. We bought bananas, bread, lemons, corn off the cob, corn
on the cob, eggs, and tomatoes. At one point it was getting hot
for Carolee in the sun, so we told Colleen that we would wait
for her in the shade. As soon as I took Carolee off my back and
set her down there were 30 or so people surrounding us. I asked
one to find me some bananas. There was also a very nice girl who
wanted to speak to me in English. When I looked for Colleen I
couldn’t see through the crowds, so I decided to head back
to the truck. We got a little lost, but everyone was very helpful
in giving directions.
1:00 p.m. At the truck, about seven boys were
sitting in the back just waiting to talk with us. So I asked them
to teach Carolee the words for the face (nose, eyes, etc.). It
was fun talking with them. I guess Colleen and I missed each other
at the truck because she was still out looking for me. Our family
had to leave with the truck to get it back to BESS because the
truck was needed for something else.
3:00 p.m. Carolee is happily napping back in
her room. Abosi and Colleen arrive safely back at BESS. The walk
from town is about a half hour, and it is more pleasant to walk
than to drive, in my opinion. We ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches
for lunch and then finished unpacking what we got at the market
and general cleaning.
4:00 p.m. We had coffee with Michel and Elke
and Genetti (who teaches vocational training with Michel) on Michel
and Elke’s front veranda.
4:30 p.m. We heard that the phone wasn’t
working for people to call to Dembi Dollo, so we decided to call
Mom and Dad McCarty (they were planning to phone us at that time).
We woke up Mom McCarty (it was 7:30 a.m. their time), but then
had a very nice time talking. We’re homesick at times, so
any news from home is so nice.
6:00 p.m. Can’t remember what we had for
dinner, probably hard-boiled eggs or ramen or something a bit
lame.
8:00 p.m. Carolee falls asleep and we spend
the evening writing my lesson plans, and Mike made chocolate pudding.
JoAnn left some wonderful supplies for sweets.
10:00 p.m. To sleep.
Anyway, that is a general idea of one of our days. We’d
love for any of you to come and visit and get a full picture of
life here!
In His Love,
Mike, Janelle, and Carolee
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