I am able to communicate now!

Wow!  What a week!  I am here in Debre Zeyit, Ethiopia and I am loving it.  I have spent the last week getting settled into my room and getting adjusted to life here in Ethiopia.  I have missed my BCI crew so much!  It was so great to see everyone again.  And of course, as soon as I could, I made my way over to the foster home to see Fiker and Rebirra.  They have gotten so big!  As soon as I saw their beautiful faces I remembered why I was back here.  Actually, I saw Fiker earlier that day.  I went to BCI Academy and toured the school with the new team members that are here on a short-term missions trip.  I walked into Fiker’s classroom and from across the room her little face lit up and she ran to me.  I wasn’t sure if she would remember me but she did and it was amazing.  Absolutely amazing.  

So much has happened in this past week I don’t even really know where to start.  I haven’t been in contact much because I have been having communication issues.  I thought the house had Wi-Fi but it doesn’t.  You have to buy some CDMA thingie and use that to access the internet.  Well, it took a day or so to get it, then you have to wait 2 days for it to be active.  I patiently (Mussie would say I waited impatiently) waited 2 days and it didn’t work.  Well, Mussie was out of town so I was really trying not to bother him but I really, really, really wanted it to work so I called him and he said he would do whatever needed to be done but it still didn’t work.  So in the meantime, I get a cell phone and I had originally planned only to use the phone to communicate with my Ethiopian peeps but since I really couldn’t email anyone I tried to call my family.  I didn’t have enough money on my phone so I went to the corner shop to buy minutes and of course they were closed.  So the next day, I bought time and loaded it on my phone but for some reason it will not call the states.  Mussie doesn’t know what is wrong with it so of course I have no idea.  Tonight Mussie and I took my computer to the dude that sold Mussie the CDMA thingamagig and he fixed it.  I wanted to jump across the table and kiss him but I think that would have been extremely inappropriate here.  :)

So, I am back online.  However, I tried Skyping and it didn’t really work so that is just something else that Mussie is going to have to fix.  I really feel bad for him.  He has to deal with crazy, helpless furungies (foreigners) such as myself.  God bless him!

There is a family from New Zealand that is serving here as interns with BCI and they are awesome!  It is a husband, wife, and 5 children.  The husband and wife are about my age and they are wonderful.  I am so happy to have them here.  On Friday, we all went to Nazaret, which is a neighboring town, to some hot springs.  I didn’t pack a bathing suit so I didn’t go swimming.  But it was an awesome day, anyways.  There were monkeys everywhere!  I took a million pictures of them.  They were pretty bold though because they kept stealing food from people and they jumped up on our table and Michelle (New Zealander) was scaring them off and one of them swiped at her!  Also, I used a shintabay for the first time.  A shintabay is pretty much a squatting toilet.  I didn’t plan on using one so early in my trip but that is what was available to the time and I really had to go.  I need to work on my shintabay skills because I peed on my shoe a little bit!

On Sunday, I went to Addis (capital city) with the New Zealanders and we attended the International Church.  They were celebrating International Day and they had special singing and sermons.  At one point they had everyone stand up and when they called your country name you were to sit down.  They called Ethiopia first and then America next so I guess my country was pretty boring.  But for the next 20 minutes or so they called country names and at the end it was determined that 56 countries were represented there that day!  It was so amazing.  It was kind of like a fore-taste of what I think heaven will be like.  People of all nations, color, ethnicities, and economic statuses praying and worshipping God together.  It was wonderful to hear songs that I know sung with many different accents.  

After the church service they had tents set up outside and they had food from many different parts of the world.  It was so crazy and chaotic that I only ended up getting 2 sushi pieces but the food that I saw others had looked amazing.  The North American tent was completely bombarded I couldn’t even tell what they were offering.

There is so much to tell but this blog entry is already so long.  Please pray for me as I find the best areas to be of use here.  I have some ideas and I am working out the specifics with Mussie and Mulugeta (BCI principal).  I start taking Amharic lessons this week so please pray for me as I start this process.  I am excited but I also know that it is going to be a lot of work.

I love and miss everyone!