Home Sweet Home

1/24/2009
 
Saturday Morning

My New roommate Arielle and I just moved into our new beautiful (Conjo in Amharic) two-bedroom house. Arielle and I are so in Love with each other and so in love with our new home. We went shopping and the grocery store and got stuff for our place and turned on the music and unpacked and talked each others' ears off. We are like two peas in pod we both think it crazy how similar we are.

The Grocery stores are really expensive! A towel is 270 birr/ $27!  Its nuts!  It's because everything is imported, but we can get soymilk, imported cheeses, and things in jars like sun dried tomatoes and olives and things. She is like me and enjoys just walking down the aisles and looking at stuff. We were dancing to the music and having an awesome time. I can't tell you how wonderful she is.

We did not buy much. We ended up getting most of necessities form the shack stores on the street called "Suks". They are on almost every corner and they sell all kinds of stuff like water " waha" and sponges and dish soap and stuff. It looks like a total shack I will have to take pictures so you guys can understand "gabesh".

Did I mention to ya'll that:
•    Every morning at 6 am prayers start over the loud speaker and continue all day long. They sound kind of like chants or songs.
•    Ethiopian time is different than American time. Their 12am is at sunrise and 6am, so 7am is 1, 8am is 2, 12pm is 6, 1pm is 7……gabesh  (you understand?)
•    Ethiopian months and years are different too. They have 13 months the 13th month is about 2 weeks. The years are different too; in Ethiopia the just had their millennium last year. It's 2001 for them.
•    Most houses and establishments have a 24hour guard (I am hiring one because it is standard) they sleep in little huts outside the houses. They have one out side these little shacks and outside the orphanage and everything.
•    We will also be getting a woman who cooks and cleans (the laundry is all done by hand here…. imagine how hard the caregivers work at the orphanage) It is completely standard and expected for us to do this and it cost us 200 birr $20 per month!!! Which is considered good money here.

i love you all thank you so much for the e-mails !
xoxo
T