July 13th-17th

On July 13^th, I arrived in Butajira, which is about 2.5-3 hours southwest of Addis Ababa. I will be here until mid-September. Upon arrival I was immediately introduced to my host mom. PC had drinks and snacks available to us. After snack, PC took us to our homes. My host family consists of my father Tekalegn (Techaling), mother Kelemwa (Kelemua), siblings Tsiyon (Sion-18), Besrat (Bisrat-14), Etsub (Esub-13) and Mechale (Michael-8), and a relative Mekides (Mekdas-23), all the children and relative are students. My host father works as a supervisor in the Education office and my host mother is an accountant. There has also been another guest staying in the house. Here name is Ruth, she is from Addis Ababa and speaks really good English. My father speaks good English, while Besrat and Etsub speak a little. I have yet to meet Tsiyon. She is out of town or something. I forget what they told me. Our compound consists of the main house, the shower, sintbet (toilet), and a few other rooms connected to the sintbet. I have yet to find out what these rooms are for. I believe one is for cooking and another is for food storage. The front of the compound has an avocado tree and coffee bean plant. There are chickens in the compound; also they pretty much run free during the day, even in the house at times. My room is located at the back of the main house. All I have to do is open my door take a right and I’ll be out back in a matter of a few steps.

The last two days have been interesting in some of the things I’ve done. Yesterday morning I took a bucket bath, my first but not my last that’s for sure. I was going to take a shower on Monday after dinner, but my father said I had to wait 30 minutes after eating. By the time I wanted to shower, the water was turned off. I was hoping the water would be back on by Tuesday morning, but that was not the case and my father was concerned I had not yet showered, so I really needed to shower. This morning was another milestone. I pooped in a hole. I know some of you may be thinking gross or you’ve been there two weeks and you’re just now pooping in a hole. I have not been constipated, I promise. It’s just that I’ve had Western toilets available to be in other circumstances, this morning was not one of them. I found this to me a huge milestone thus far.

Here are some things I have realized since being in my host home:

·         I have very little privacy, unless I’m in my room

·         I consistently feel lost or like I don’t know what to do, once I leave my room

·         My host father tells me “techewash” all the time, which means talk

·         My host family eats a very late dinner, I don’t even see them eat dinner

·         I am feed dinner (irat) between 6:45-7:00

·         I feel like a spectacle, everyone is always watching me eat or checking on me every few seconds to make sure I’m doing okay or getting enough food

·         They eat a lot, they are always asking me if I want more

·         I have learned many new games

·         My host father gets home late

·         My host mother speaks very little English, so I can’t communicate very well

·         Children do what they are told, when they are told (huge sign of RESPECT)

·         I am consistently being treated as a guest and I can’t wait for it to stop: I am trying to stop it by doing some things for myself, such as washing my own hands instead of having one of the children bring me water and soap and taking my dirty dish to the bucket

Over time I hope to feel more like family and less like a guest. I want to learn how to cook, wash my clothes, and whatever else it is I can learn from them. I’m excited, because this morning my father said one day I will learn to make whatever it was I was eating for breakfast (k’oars).

Besides this I’ve just been going to trainings and language class. Language class is going good. My language group consists of Joel, Kat and myself. Our teacher’s name is Helen and she lives right around the corner. Kat lives like 2 compounds to the right of mine and Joel lives behind both Kat and I. We are part of Kebele (community) 2. It is just the 3 of us in this Kebele, the other 4 Kebele’s have many more PCTs. I feel this just means, the 3 of us will become really close, but it’s not like Butajira is a huge city (I believe like 30,000), but it doesn’t feel like that many. All the PCTs seem to be close.

Until next time, I hope you enjoy learning about my family and my home stay. Pictures to come, I have yet to take any of my family and compound.