LEAVING FOR MEKELLE

It is Tuesday, and we leave for Mekelle tomorrow morning very early. Our flight leaves at 0730 and we will be in Mekelle before 9am. We will stay at the Axum Hotel for a couple of nights while we look for a home to move into with our 19 bags. We did receive our final bag last night, and are grateful to have ALL of our items here without having any other problems. We attended a music and dancing dinner last night with local food and the kids absolutely loved it. They all danced, but especially Lydia, who was asleep in the car before we made it to our guest home. I have done my first batch of laundry by hand, figured out the gas burners, gotten used to brushing teeth with bottled water, killed a few roaches, and have figured out how to get by with basic greetings, courtesy words, and a few phrases here. The people are wonderful, very friendly, respectful, and beautiful. We are looking forward to being out of the big city of 6 million with smog and traffic and heading to the small city of 200,000. Our trip to Muger on Friday was wonderful, as we saw the beautiful rolling green countryside of Ethiopia with beautiful trees and small bamboo huts with thatched roofs surrounded by nice fences made from trees and mud. The kids were quite the novelty when we stopped, with many children chasing the car, touching them and running their fingers through their soft hair. Our children have made us so proud, the way they are tackling language and dealing with the changes. The funniest thing we have seen was a schoolteacher coralling several children who were all trying to wave at us into a small building using a large whip like stick, literally herding them in like cattle. The kids also laughed at a couple of adventurous toddler boys trying to pass their time sheperding in the hills by riding on the side of their donkey slumped over the middle on their bellies...they rode, they fell, they tried to get back on...very funny. The main adjustment so far has been getting used to the Type B culture and slow pace. We head out with an agenda and 4 hours later all we have accomplished are a few unplanned stops, usually at least one coffee ceremony, and possibly one of the many errands. Coffee here is anything but instant. It involves the host laying out green leaves as a floor covering, then having a stand with coals and incense. She roasts the coffee beans for awhile, then goes to work grinding them by hand. She then begins to make the coffee, after she has carried the roasted beans around for all to smell the aroma and smoke, as this is a "blessing" on the guests. Then...after maybe 30-45 minutes, you are served a small cup of coffee. It is delicious. It is rude here to not eat a bit of everything you are offered, so we feel so overstuffed and are looking forward to having some small meals in our own home soon. The food, thankfully, is excellent, and we have gotten used to FirFir (spicy crumbled injera bread) and eggs for breakfast every morning. We have enjoyed many local dishes and the kids love the orange sodas we can find for 3 birr (about 40cents). No sicknesses yet, but lots of rumblings down below...we think our stomachs will adjust soon. The next time we email, it will be from Mekelle, after we get converters and a power regulator for our laptops and after we get signed up for dial-up in our new home. So...not sure how long it will take. Off for more adventures...we are so indebted to all for the prayers. We sense them in those times when we all we can do is trust that God is working great things through our time here.