Roll With the Punches.

One of the things that Peace Corps has really reiterated in my life is that you really just have to roll with the punches. When you let Ethiopia take you for ride you never know what will happen. Thursday of this week was one of the strangest and best days that I have had so far while being here.  I warn you now this post is a little wordy. It's a day that I feel for me is good to look back and reflect upon.  One thing to know about Peace Corps is that the saying "what goes up must come down" is very much applicable. For every good day I have here I may have one or two or a week of bad days.

I went to the office in the morning just like every other weekday morning. Shortly after being there my community liaison told me that today the office would be mostly gone due to a training in a rural kebele and that I could go home if I wanted to.   So of course I jumped up and said see ya monday.  I had almost reached my house when I stopped to say hello to a woman who was leaving the cooperative office.  She was instantly impressed that I could speak Oromifa and invited me to buna at what I thought was her house. ( Mind you this entire conversation and the rest with her were in Oromifa).  I dont always say yes when people invite me to their homes but she seemed very genuine in wanting to talk to me. I followed her for about 10 minutes until we reached a rather large compound. She knocked on the large metal gate and lead me inside. I realized as soon as we got inside the gate that this was not an average compound. She is the head of a orphanage here in Chitu. An orphanage that I didnt know existed until I was there. We sat down and she feed me 5 cups of buna while I played with two absolutely adorable babies who were recent orphans.  She explained to me that most of the children are adopted to parents in America though multiple organizations.  After leaving here I was almost home again when I ran into my friend Deebi who was concerned that he had not seen me in one day. This is very common in Ethiopia. If your friends or coworkers  do not see you for one day they all tell you that you have disappeared. I then followed him to his house where I got feed lunch and 3 more cups of  buna.

When it was time to leave I received a text  saying that PC might be here the following day. That means there is a good chance that I am getting a G11!  ( Another vol in my site). I returned home to clean up my house when my landlords called me, for ya you guessed it more buna. And of course in Ethiopia you cant have buna without eating first. My landlady turns a corner and is holding a bowl of melted butter with have a sheeps rip cage floating in it, a plate with two rolls of injera, and a glass full of farso. Farso is local beer that literally looks like the most disgusting thing ever.  I began to eat this bowl of butter and meat but after a few bites it was just too much. They handed me a spoon and told me to drink it. That it was good for my health. I drank about 3 spoonfuls of butter meat juice and just couldn't handle anymore.  The farso, besides looking utterly disgusting, actually isn't too bad. They began by telling me it was only 3% alcohol a claim they have no way of knowing since it is home made. After a cup or two my landlady told me she was to intoxicated to go to the market and that it was stronger than she thought.

After a few glasses I went home to make dinner. It started raining really hard, to the point my roof sounded like it might break, so I peaked outside.  Holy hail, it was hailing.

I will say it again. I really do love my community and this crazy adventure I am on. That is not to say that there aren't day when I hate the world. Those often happen too.

So it goes.