Julie Gumm - Author

Another Family System

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So it we’ve added another “family system” to our repitore that includes color coding – the van seating chart. For the last six weeks EVERY time we get in the car there is a lengthy discussion over who is sitting where. At first it was just the boys arguing over who got to sit by the door (in our 3 door van). Then the girls decided they wanted their turn in the middle seat.

And this momma got FED UP!

So yesterday I told them “No More!” and that from now on there would be a seating chart that would change every Monday morning.

Last night I came up with this:

seatingchart

It ain’t pretty, but it works. There is a five week rotation – for two weeks we sit boy/boy & girl/girl (but not in the same spot) and after that we rotate so they get to sit with each person but in different spots. So two of the five weeks they are sitting by the same person and somewhere in there they repeat their “seat”.  I printed them up, stapled them together and they will stay in the van. I have plans to make them look a little nicer, laminate them and put them on a key ring to leave in the car.

Dad took the kids to school this morning so I haven’t heard how the implementation went, but I am hoping that it will cause a lot less problems.

More from Ethiopia

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I had a good six straight hours of sleep last night and it felt good to wake up at 6:30 a.m. Breakfast was eggs and a orange smoothie. Their oranges taste different here. Not bad, just different.
We were waiting to hear back from Getachew about meeting the kids grandmother so we really did not have any plans for the morning. So we kind of took it easy. I got on the guest house computer to check email and post to the blog – took me 2 hours to accomplish really very little. We made contact with both Getachew and a family friend of Grandmas – we think perhaps the same friend that brought the AWOP representative to the kids house over a year ago. They are going to pick us up at 3 p.m. tomorrow and take us to go meet the family. (We’re not sure who that is besides Grandma.)
We decided that since we had no other pressing needs for today to see if we could go back to Hope for the Hopeless, even if it was just to play. (We had already made plans to have a party and Bible lesson on Saturday.) We arranged it with Fekadu for 3 p.m. when the kids are back from school.
One of the other adoptive families, Krista, Jeff and little Eli, were leaving today to return home and so the guest house did a traditional coffee ceremony for them. They spread long grass on the floor and bring out a small table, small coal burning stove and incense. They also make popcorn out of maize and serve that in a basket. It is very good – sweet and salty – a little like American kettle corn but not quite as sweet. Over the stove they    first roast the fresh coffee beans for 5- 7 minutes. They then take some of the coals and start to burn the incense. The coffee is ground (they actually take it and do it in the kitchen in an electric grinder 🙂 The grounds are put in the pot/pitcher w/ water and it is put on the little stove until it boils. The coffee is then poured out for each of the guests. They had sugar but no milk and so I wasn’t sure how I would like it, but it was REALLY good.
Jen was feeling a little queasy today – not sure if it was something she ate or perhaps still the altitude adjustment. So they decided to stay behind so just Mark and I went. First we picked up Fekadu at the Drop in Center and we saw my friend Mary that I told you about yesterday. There is another amazing story that evolved out of our short 10 minutes but I will have to share that another day when I have fully processed it. We got to the orphanage about the time the kids were getting home from school. We dug into the big black bag and brought out the games we had brought – Memory, Connect Four, Battleship and a couple of puzzles.
Akki helped us explain the concept of Memory to them and then I took the Connect Four and set it up. They know Tic-Tac-Toe so they caught on pretty quickly to that. Once I had them going in that I went over and helped one of the older girls who was working on a puzzle. That quickly grew into a crowd and they were so excited when it was finally done. There was much cheering and clapping.
Even though we only had about 90 minutes to spend there, we had such a blast. The kids all asked about Dustin and Jen and then learned “See you tomorrow” when we had to leave. Coming and going is quite an ordeal as you get a handshake and hug from each of the 36 children. Some kisses and “I love yous” too.
Tomorrow, besides the Bible lesson and party we had planned to play football (soccer) with the kids. They team up the kids from the orphanage against the kids in the drop in center. Akki talked to a few of the older boys and they told him that they have the footballs but their air pump is broken so they asked if we could get them a new pump – and also gloves for the soccer goalies. So we started our shopping list. Akki suggested a couple of volleyballs for the girls.
We asked Fekadu what would be the best thing to do for the kids – pizza or something else. We wanted to do something that would be a treat, but would also be a wise use of the money that everyone so generously donated. He explained that Ethiopian Christmas is coming up in two weeks and it is customary to have meat and so he would like to use some of the money for that. They also try to buy each of the kids one new complete outfit at Christmas. Clothes and shoes are expensive here – mostly because they are imported. It costs $30 to buy an outfit for the kids with shoes being the most expensive part. To buy one new outfit for each child they need $1410. We have about $800 of that to give him, as well as some clothes that we brought over.
So the final decision was to do cake and sodas as a treat for the kids tomorrow, as well as the sports stuff. We can’t wait!
Update: The internet was not working Friday night or Saturday morning, so I realize a whole day has gone by since this post that I still need to write about. I will tell you that we meet Grandma today and it was a wonderful visit – we learned a lot about the kids. More to come!!!
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Coffee Ceremony

Ethiopian Sales Techniques

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We ended our 1st day in Ethiopia rather early with me finally crawling in bed around 2:30. Dustin and Jen woke up for dinner and said they knocked on our door several times but with the combination of ear plugs and fatigue we were OUT.

Mark woke me up at one point to ask me something, I have no idea what, and the next thing I remember it was 9 p.m. While still tired I was worried I wouldn’t sleep very much longer so Mark and I both took a sleeping pill. I remember waking up around 2 and then I think I fell back asleep. The next time I looked at the clock it was 2:40 a.m. I felt rested and actually had a “I slept too long” headache. When I got up to use the bathroom Mark was in the living room and he asked me if I had reset the bedside clock because his watch actually said 5:30. We realized that the power must have gone off at some point and it was actually 5:30 in the morning which was a great relief. With 15 hours of sleep we were feeling pretty good.

Dustin and Jen were up and actually on the computer downstairs. Later we came back up and had a great time of just devotionals and prayer together before breakfast. Breakfast was something like Cream of Wheat which has to be one of my least favorite things so when I saw it I was not jazzed. But, with some sugar it was actually not bad. One of the other families also had some peanut butter and jelly which we put on the bread provided.

At about 9:30 Akki, our driver arrived and we headed out for a morning of shopping in the area by the post office. For transportation we have a driver and another man (not sure what his job is besides helping the driver park) and Akki, who acts as translator. Either the driver or the other man stays with the vehicle at all times so you can leave your packages inside if you want. We went in four or five shops and bought several things. Some of the shop owners spoke English (everyone understood “How much?”) and Akki helped with any translations. You can bargain a bit and they will usually come down a couple of dollars. Dustin got his shoes shined and they tried to convince Mark to get his sneakers shined but he decided to pass. However after about an hour or so Jen started to not feel well at all and so we headed back to the guest house. We suspect that it was a combination of the side effects of her medicine (dizziness), travel and perhaps some altitude adjustment. While driving you’re also getting exposed to a lot of exhaust which I know made me nauseous as well.

We had lunch and then adjusted our plans a bit. We had originally planned to go to Hope for the Hopeless this afternoon but with Jen not feeling well we decided to postpone a day and instead went out to finish some shopping with one of the other adoptive couples at the guest house. We were able to cross much of our shopping list off including coffee and a mesob. When we were finished at the coffee shop we got back in the van but then Akki said the driver wasn’t back yet because he was having a cup of coffee. While we were waiting a man came up to Mark’s window and he was selling small traditional coffee pots. He started at 20 birr (about $2) and finally came down to 10. I decided why not. I gave him the money and he handed us the coffee pot. Then he said “do you want the stand? – 5 birr” which was a round flat piece (sort of like an ashtray size/shape). I kind of waved him off and then he said “It will not stand up without it.” Ha! Ethiopian sales technique. So he got my extra 5 birr and we got a good laugh. Still only $1.50 for the coffee pot – which will be mostly decorative.

The other adoptive couple we were with asked about seeing Akki’s church on the way back to the guest house so we stopped there as well. Akki is Protestant and attends Gospel Light Church. We had no idea what to expect and were really amazed at his church. It is a long building made out of aluminum siding (green). Inside are rows and rows of wood benches – probably seats about 2,000 people. The have some sort of fabric padding on the ceiling for acoustical purposes and speakers set up. He showed us outside a grassy area that is their “overflow” area. Next door is some more land were they have a small cafe, a bookstore and then a four story building that is going to be a Bible college. I was amazed in that the idea of it is so similar to what our church in Phoenix plans but yet it looks so different.

We asked if we could accompany him to church on Sunday and he said we could – they even provide English translation through headphones.

While we were there we got a call that Dustin had decided to take Jen to see a doctor because she was feeling worse. We met them at the Korean hospital but they did not have a cardiologist there and so they sent us to the Addis Heart Hospital. We stayed with them there while they did an EKG and ran some blood work. They told her that she was okay and that it was probably just a combination of her already known heart issue, traveling and adjusting to the altitude. She was feeling much better by the time we left.

The guest house staff had saved some dinner for us – chicken soup and bread – which we ate and then headed up to our rooms.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Mark, Akki and I in front of his church.

 

This was going to be the end of my post but since internet wasn’t working yesterday I did not get this posted. I have much to write about today’s activities (Thurs) but they will take some more time to process. We spent most of the day with Fekadu and the Hope for the Hopeless kids – they are incredible. Look for more, hopefully tomorrow. (Jen is feeling MUCH better today and was out all day with us.)