Meie siinoldud aeg hakkab lõpule jõudma.
Oma õpetajaameti vahetasime esimese kuu möödumisel ehitamise vastu. See oli lihtsalt suurem väljakutse sest kooli ehitamist oli alustatud 5 aastat tagasi ja siiani oli poole kooli sisetööd tegemata. Materjal selleks oli osaliselt olemas ja kuna meie võimed tundusid Etioopia ehitajatega vähemalt võrdsed kui mitte....siis otsustasime kooli ehituse lõpule viia. Loomulikult oli see ka omaniku suur soov ja ega ta seda mitte eeldanud.
Mina sain ehitusele vahelduseks lastele pärast kooli 1,5h maalitunde anda. See oli uue jõu ammutamiseks väga tõhus. kuna päevad olid pikad, siis saime 10 päevaga valmis saali, õpetajate ruumid ja raamatukogu. Esimesed 2 päeva nühkisime roostetama läinud aknaid, mis olid ka kohalike ehitusmeeste poolt kinni tsemenditud sest igal järgmisel töötegijal on eelmise tööst rohkem kui ükskõik. Viiendal päeval me enam ennast häirida ei lasknud teiste eksimustest. Mõtlesime lõpule ja koolile, sest üks eriline nädalavahetus oli meil, mis ajas väga kihelema ja kodu poole mõtlema.
Veetsime laupäeva hommikust kuni pühapäeva hommikuni Damota mäe otsas. See on kõige ilusam siin Sodos ja olime seal juba teist korda.
Mäe otsa jõudmiseks on vaja ületada 7 mäge. See teekond on kõige ehtsam muinasjutt.
Seitsmenda mäe otsas, üle 3200m on õigeusu kirik. Preester tahtis meid väga enda koju ööbima panna.Jäime lõpuks nõusse, kuigi meil oli telk ja soovisime metsas ööbida.
Magasime koos kukkede ja kanadega ning metsiku hulga kirpudega. Mina ei maganudki vaid lihtsalt sügelesin. Ma ei osanud arvata, mis toimub, enne kui koju jõudsin järgmisel päeval ja oma kehal üle 1000 punni leidsin. Olen siiani kui leeprahaige.
Lõpetan sellega ja peatse kohtumiseni
Merle

Dunno the date of today...

My laptop has died a bit. Will see if it will arouse again but until then, the chance of me blogging is low.

So to put it short:
Previous week we started building. Scrubbing the windows from rust and paint. Today finally the contractor, supervisor and some builders came so maybe we can finish it a bit faster...we'll do our best at least to finish some rooms.
Since the blogging stuff is in my laptop i haven't got a slightest clue if I've written about the sheep buying day. Anyway, last Thursday we went to the market and got 3 sheep for 280 birr. i have never been so tired after shopping. (Well, apart from shopping with 2 certain friends in Pradamark! :P) Such negotiations...the people said to the man i was with: " why don't u pay 20 birr more?!?! it's not your money!it's hers!"
Will probably go there again since we have another 320 birr for the sheep. Just waiting now for God to send us to the right family like last time.
So...will see how much i can blog if my laptop is not working..
L.

12.04.10



Blue Monday. School day was tiring:) Made tests in different grades and the results are not nearly satisfying (at least not for me)

We thought of buying the goats now but seems that no market today, but we are active to get them :) Depending of the price i think one family will have another goat as well.

Yesterday we went to Ajora. There are 2 amazing waterfalls which were worth the 2h ride on a motorcycle(the way is actually a bit less than 60km) :) One waterfall is 170, the other 210 meters. A couple of days before we got a warning 2h lecture of how dangerous it’s to go down to the falls, but we decided to see if it is true what they said.

We started going down with a guide and climbed down 2 rock cliffs which were going straight down. After that there was one ladder which was not so strong but luckily didn’t break. Then we asked the guide how many places like that will come again and he told us that this was the hardest part :) The rest of the way was smooth and we really enjoyed it.

We even did it less than 3hr! :)

Only funny thing was that everybody was amazed and told us we’re really strong.

We want to go back and go to the bigger fall as well.

Have a nice week :)

10.04.10



The Sabbath is over and I'm now in bed.

Our day began around 7am leaving the house. We went to town and had breakfast, after 8am we reached the church. Soon we left to a place quite close to Sodo. Maybe 1 hr walk. In that area there were two small rivers which both looked like the valley of Enock. It was peaceful and quiet.

After the Sabbath school we couldn’t sit any longer so we left for a walk. Many children came with us. Soon we forced them to go back so the parents wouldn’t get mad :)

Some local children and one boy from our church stayed.

Being alone in the nature African style - at least 20 children surrounding you:)

About the goats we’ve planned to buy so long…We can see God’s leading all the way. The boy who came with us (unfortunately don’t remember the name) comes from a poor family, but he’s an outstanding student+ his English is very good. He’s smart and very polite. We think he’s family will be the one getting goat(s). Supposedly we could get 3 baby goats with 600 birr:)

Tomorrow is the school principal’s birthday. Even though he’s not celebrating it, we are :)

Cooked food for him the traditional way:)

Also we plan to visit Ajora tomorrow( no idea how to spell…). There are big waterfalls there and we’ll go there with motorcycles.

But for now…Have a good night;)

L.

Laura's new Ethiopian hair-do! :)

Merle with Ethiopian Albino

07.04.10



Yesterday the pastor’s family came here with bread and praising. They showed us traditional African dances and gave Merle a new name for her birthday. I suggested Yebelai or feminine form of it Belaynesh(that means dominant in amharic) but they named her Mari. Comes out that it means honey in amharic. So we have even the same traditional names:)



Today we had an extra art lesson with some students. Yesterday we did it with 4th grade and today with the 3rd. Some children were practically crying when Merle didn’t choose them for the extra lesson. But they are also good manipulators. Still, they are in a massive need of attention.

Because the 3rd grade was so intensive and way too active, we left them with the art teacher and went to the other class with 2 boys from grade 8. Both are real talents and enjoy art, just don’t have needed supplies. Some others joined also and we enjoyed.



After that spent 2h with the geography teacher Zerihun talking about different stuff. It’s so nice too see a person who is so intelligent but doesn’t acknowledge it himself and is humble.

Got to know many many new things about Ethiopia, it’s politics, geography and history.

Now have to see what to teach for the grade 7 tomorrow.

L.

06.04.10



Today the school owner Bereket and executive director Nigusse came to Sodo. We were discussing what to buy with the money we took with us from est. For three thousand we are probably buying English books for all the students in the school. After discussing with them we thought that this is the most urgent. Also, we are hoping to buy the goats. Because of the Easter they cost at least double more (the fasting time ended) so in a few days the prices will drop again.

3.04.10



For Sabbath service we went to the biggest church in Awassa. The program was around 3,5 h. After that we went to the lake and ate all together 6 fish.

After 6pm we went to different gold shops and got something for one special person.

We were laughing all the time that doing nothing is so exhausting:)

On Sunday Adane and Merle went swimming in a pool. I was eating (the most disgusting) ice-cream and looking at the monkeys who were quite close to us. They didn’t like me as much as I liked them, showed their teeth most of the time.

In the afternoon we thought of catching a bus and getting back to Sodo. Went to the bus station, there were about 10 other people also wanting to go to Sodo but because of the holiday no buses were going. So we went to Tiringo’s brothers apartment. 2 of his brothers and her sister are living there. We spent a nice evening with the guys.

Easter is a big holiday here so there were many goats on the street. They all looked very sad - they knew that it’s not so good holiday for them. On Sunday there were many goat skins on the streets and also chicken guts. Everywhere we went, they offered us goat or chicken wot for lunch.

We finally left Awassa on Monday morning. Asking what time the bus leaves we got an answer: „It might come around 5am and leave maybe at 6am” Actually we got to the station after 6am and it left 6.30. Here they wait until the bus is full so it might even take 2h:)

150 km trip took us 3h. Half of the road was ok but the other half was 1km of asphalt and 1km of gravel taking turns…

I hurried to school to find out that there was only 1 more lesson left and afternoon the holiday continued - no classes.

In the evening i went to the internet place. Of course there were several problems :) There was one man called Chu Chu who is also a frequent client. He asked me for soft drinks (we hoped the server to be fixed but of course that did not happen:) ). So we chatted and found out that Ethiopia is small - we already found out we have some people we both know.

Merle bought a lot of pottery for…30 or 40 birr:) Only problem is getting it back :)

2.04.10



We’re in Awassa. In a hotel, just lying.

Out here after a 3,5 h bus journey. It’s a big city and quite different from Sodo. Here are more cacti and it’s not so hilly.

The city is nice, looks like Sotchi. We also went to the lake. I think an ornithologist would have enjoyed it very much :) So many different birds. There are many marabous here.

31.03.2010


Eile õhtul olime naabrite poole kohvile kutsutud. Sinna juurde oli ka kohalik roog mida pidi peoga võtma ja siis rusikas junniks pigistama ja otsast hammustama. See roog oli maitsev aga kohviga läks teisiti…. Lõhn oli väga meeldiv aga jooki juues selgus, et kohvi asemel oli midagi mis okserefleksi tekitas. Vaatasin Laura tassi peale ja ta oli seda joonud? Proovisin omale juues sisendada, et see on midagi kanapuljongi sarnast aga ma ei allunud sellele ja ei suutnud juua kohvi mis oli tehtud kohvipuu lehtedest ja soolaga segatud. See ei olnud hea…

Magama minnes selgus, et ka Laura oli ainult minu tassi jälginud. Me ei joonud seda kumbki üle poole.

Täna käisime linna kõrgeima maja (4 korrust) katusel kohvikus. Sõime riisi kanaga mis meenutas siga. Siga see aga olla ei saa, sest terve Etioopia siga ei söö. Kana see ei olnudJ

Reede hommikul sõidame 100 km kaugusel olevasse linna Avasasse. Seal on järv ja krokotillid. Läheme ujuma J Sõit sinna kestab 3h.

Pühapäeva õhtuks kutsus kooli direktori naine meid õhtusöögile. Kui õhtusöögilt tagasi proovin Avassa reisist kirjutada. Inimesed on siin endiselt vapustavad. Ka nende naljad on sellised mida eestlane mõistab ja tundub, et ka neil pole meie mõistmisega probleemi.



Merle

30.03.10


Yesterday i made a test for the 5th grade. When they saw me taking out the papers, they got excited and when i went home from school, one boy from the same grade told me: "Thank you for the test, it was really good!". Today all of them were excited to get them back. In Estonia the tests are the most hated part of school :)

Here the students just crave attention. After i gave them an assignment and told them to write it in the notebook, they were basically running me over to get their dialogues checked.

One thing i still don’t understand is the time…it just doesn’t make sense to me that it's no longer March. It's already the 7th or 8th of April!

I think we’re 6h ahead of them, but why is it that when it’s 8 European time then in Ethiopian time that’s 2….

L

29.03.10


Yesterday went to sleep around 8.30pm. I woke up at 11pm and was sure it was morning. Not too pleasant to find out that it wasn’t :)

It’s 8pm now and we’re both yawning. Merle asked a hairdresser to come to our house and she should be here already but we both would prefer to go to sleep :)

Today after school we went to the town with Adane, Melese and Wonde. I got some pictures printed, unfortunately he deleted all of them from my camera so some went missing.

Then we went to the pastry . We ordered some fresh fruit juice (will see if it was a good idea or not…So far nothing happened but…) Ate too much pastry but since there are no other sweets here it’s ok :) Here a glass of fresh juice is 4 birr…We thought that if it’s not going to kill our digestion, we can drink only this.

Me and Merle were the only women in the café. It turned out that traditionally it’s forbidden for women to eat outside, but it changed about 20 years ago. Now it’s tolerated.

The taxi home was crazy :) It was dark and the road is narrow, but he still went going really fast. Also the door opened while traveling! Merle was holding my hand and complaining there were no seat-belts.

L

28.03.10



It’s Sunday. At 6am the noise started. Someone was preaching through the loudspeakers quite close here and all of this plus the songs weren’t too silent :)

Merle couldn’t sleep the whole night because of the malaria prophylaxis medicine.

We were supposed to go and visit our school’s secretary but we were hoping to get some stuff sorted before that. We had just started our breakfast when her husband knocked on the door. So we finished breakfast quickly and went with him. They live in the opposite side of the town, on the slope of the mountain.

They live in the best area of city, it’s quiet there and they don’t have too many neighbours. The air is much clearer and cooler. The shame is that they only have 200sqm of land. It’s the government policy not to give out more land. They give you a bigger piece of land only for an investment.

Today I realized that some people do think of us as walking banks. So many have asked outright for money, telling us about their condition and asking for our support. Today we were asked to fund the building of a church. We explained that even though we do get payed 10x more than, we also have to pay 10x in the shops.

L

Photos from the past few days

27.03.10


It’s Sabbath afternoon and Merle’s taking a Sabbath nap. Just finished washing the floor.

The whole night it rained so i woke up several times, and around 6am got out of the bed. There is only a tin plate on the roof so even if it’s not raining heavily, it sounds like there's a storm. Hard to even hear your own thoughts.

At 9.30 the church started. In Sabbath school we were outside and half the divine service was held by children. They sang a lot and read different Bible promises.

After that it was the time for witnesses. 2 women talked about their experiences and gave thanks to God. One was without a job for a long time and praised the Lord for getting a job in Addis. The other one told of how she had given birth to stillborn twins, as a result of the doctor giving her the wrong medicine. After she sang a song, that made Merle cry. So for the rest of the sermon she was weeping and trying to hold her tears back.

The sermon’s main point was the verse John 15:1. We are the branches of Christ and without His and the Father’s support we would be nothing. Like a vine tree needs something to support to and a gardener to take care of it.

Before 1pm the service ended and we went to Joseph’s house. He lives just behind the church. We spent a couple of hours there and then returned home.

Merle just woke up so i’ll give her the laptop. Maybe she has some bright ideas :)



It’s just unbelievable what kind of snobbery i’ve seen here. The people who are living better than average and are wealthy, can be huge snobs. Of course they’re not saying it out loud, but their whole attitude tells that they’re better than you. They have pride for things which make me laugh. It’s so true that for a rich person it’s hard to get to heaven. Sometimes seems even easier to get the camel through a pinhole...

Visiting or talking to a person who is not wealthy is more enjoyable (like that’s a surprise:D). It’s just awful what money does to people. Of course with some exceptions :)

L.

26.03.10


Can’t believe it’s just 8pm and i’m in bed, about to go to sleep :)

I guess it’s no wonder if you wake up 5am. It was raining the whole night and after 5am i just couldn’t sleep.

Funny that even though i don’t like/know grammar, i like teaching it :D Here it’s not hard to be a teacher, students still value education, not like in Europe. The students are so open and active.

Even though it was cloudy in the morning and i thought it was going to rain the whole day, but it turned out to be a beautiful day :)

After school i went to the big market with Adane to just see around and buy some stuff. We were sitting in a cafe and saw two white people. Then i understood what people see if they look at us. They did look like aliens :) A shame we couldn’t catch them and ask why they were there.

Merle went to the hairdressers to make her hair curly. She wanted to look like an Ethiopian woman :)

When we got back we went to Adane’s place, Wonde also joined us. We made wat from potatoes and tomatoes and enjoyed the evening. I also got some cakes from the bakers :)

Of course the electricity went away and now we’re in dark and the laptop’s battery is empty.

Tomorrow will have a church day, last time the 3 hours in church was just too much and i hope tomorrow we can be in children’s Sabbath school. We already have guest invitations for several days ahead and finding it hard to remember them all! :P Wonde’s wife promised us to show how to make engera (no idea how to spell…)

One of the best things so far is that if on the first days here i wanted to get to the internet, but now i don’t care and seeing a TV somewhere makes me rather sick! :)

Good night ;)

24.03.10

I’m on my break and have come back home. Sitting outside in a shadow with the laptop. No movement in the garden, probably they’re doing something inside or having a siesta :)

Our morning began before seven - cleaning and washing. Since I had a longer break I thought i’d come back here to spray the rooms with the bug-spray. The whole week we’ve been thinking of doing it but somehow never managed.

I wouldn’t say that mosquitoes are a big issue here, or the diseases. Surely there are cases of malaria and some diseases tend to spread when you're not careful, but people here are tidy. They have really clean homes. Of course, the children are messy. Since there’s no asphalt.



Around here and it’s still the dry season, it’s dusty and the dust gets everywhere. Normal that the children are not shining :)

As i’ve already had a bit of a chance to get to know the school system here, i see there’s a lot to do yet. I personally would prefer private teaching for a couple of students - that would show the results better and the progress would be bigger. Unfortunately that’s not possible.

It’s hard to adjust to 40, 50 or even 60 and 70 students' needs and level. The smallest class here has 30 students, the others are at least twice as big.

The saddest thing is that they all use the same textbooks for English from grades 5-8. In older grades they’re supposed to study the subject just deeper. No one else except the teacher has the book. Even if only the teacher had the textbook, but a different one for each grade, the lessons would be much more diverse, interesting and built-up.

Will see now if i can continue the cleaning :)

Huggles;)



Some hours later…



Kell on 22 aegu õhtul ja lõpetasime just kirpude uputamise. See on päris lõbus, sest muidu oleks siin lihtsalt liiga hea elu. Uputasime koos kooli direktori, tema naise ja Adanega, kes eile meil oma vennaga õhtustamas käis.

Nüüd saame veel paremini aru, et siinsetel inimestel polekski aega teleri või interneti jaoks: )

Kuna eile passisime terve päeva kodus, siis mõtlesime, et täna lähme linnapeale. Läksime koos Adene ja amhaariku(kohaliku keele) õpetaja Tiringo poja Natiga. Käisime ära postkontoris ning kauplesime turul. Väga kaua seal aega ei veetnudki, vaid läksime edasi koolidirektorile Wondele külla. Ma ei suuda siiani ära imestada, kui hea naine tal on: )

Milil on jälle kunstiline hetk. Täna oleme ühes voodis, vaidleme. Hiiglaslik ööliblikas pläterdab mööda tuba ringi. Lükkasime voodi keset tuba ja minu moskiitovõrk on ka laes. Mitte küll meie pea kohal, vaid hoopis väga kunstiliselt kägaras ja nutsakuna laest rippumas. Mida hetkel veel tahta oskaks?: )



It’s around 10pm now and we just finished with drowning the flees. It’s quite fun, otherwise the life here would be too good. We dined with the school’s principal, his wife and Adene, who had supper at our house last night.

Now we understand better, that people here wouldn’t even have time for television or the internet. :)

Since yesterday we spent the whole day at home, we wanted to go to the city today. We went with the amharics (local language) teacher’s son Nati and Adene. We went to the post office and to the market. We didn’t spend too much there, went to the principal’s house. I still admire how good his wife is :)

Mil has an artistic moment again. Tonight we’re in the same bed, also arguing. A gigantic moth is flying around. We pushed the bed in the middle of the room and we have the mosquito net hanging from the ceiling. Above us, it looks rather artistic : )

What more could we want now?: )

L.

23.03.10

Kell on 19.05 istume laua taga enda kõhud täis söönud aga külalised tulevad äkki homme?

Ootame külla bioloogia õpetajat Adane’t koos oma vennaga kes veel õpib. Adane on meid terved päevad kõikjal saatnud. Ull on hetkel minu voodis koos oma kirpudega keda ma veel kohanud pole. Loodan kogu südamest, et see on hoois allergia, sest muidu pole meist midagi järgi. Ullist on juba pool söödud : ), tal on kirpudega enne tegemist olnud Rumeenias.

Külalised siiski tulid seega pean lõpetama.



It’s 19.05, we’re sitting at the table, full and waiting for the guests. Maybe they’ll be here tomorrow?

Adane, the biology teacher is supposed to come here with his brother, who’s still studying. Adane has been our faithful companion almost everyday. Ull is now in my bed with her flees, whom i still haven’t met. I hope from the bottom of my heart that it’s an allergy, because otherwise there won’t be anything left of us. They have already eaten half of Ull :), she’s dealt with flees before also, in Romania.

The guests came so i need to finish.

Mil

22.03.10

Funny how time flies here. Still I feel like not much is done. Only the evenings seem to be long. After 7pm it’s totally dark and with that our day ends.

We were just looking at the pics we’ve taken so far. If only we could also upload some. Europeans have a 'hidden' addiction-internet. Does it make us happy? I don’t think so. Without all the media we save so much time and even if something worth mentioning happens, we will probably hear of it. Simple as that :)

Merle is drawing some pictures of vegetables to use in school and i’m thinking of possibly having a long night's sleep.

Otherwise i don’t think we’re too lazy here but when it comes to cooking we’re taking it easy. For 40 birr we got a supper for three. So why bother cooking? I think so far our favourites are kita (corn bread) and wat (meat and cabbage mixture). In Estonia we would never raise our hand to buy a coke but here it’s just perfect. When you eat as healthy as we do, then this is just the right thing to pump your blood-sugar up.

Plus, in a Christian school you would assume that the morning begins with a prayer, but somehow it was still surprising. That just shows how atheistic the world has turned.

Good night ;)

Ps. Merle needs some medical consulting. She’s being artistic. At least that’s what she says :D Drawing the green peas and talking to herself.

L.

19.03.10
The internet here is a real test of patience. In the morning Merle
tried to send 2 letters. Took her 2 hours and about 7 attempts each. I
didn’t even bother trying.
Last time in the internet office all was ok but this time the
connection only failed. It ate all my nerves. Local people who don’t
have the 'addiction' are lucky (: Guess our only excuse is that we’re
about 7000 km away from home (:

Have you ever tried arguing with black people? They are so hostile and
generous here that there is no point arguing. They’re gonna win the
arguement anyway :D
We tried to tell them that we were able to put the bed together on our
own and etc but they insisted on helping. We, estonians are used to doing
everything on our own!!!
Can u believe it?!?! The principal of the school just came here to get us another matress! He was all wet because it was raining.
We really feel like parasites for them having to go to all this trouble.

To continue with the price comparison. We went to a lil' hut where
they sell pottery. All the things were really nice and then we asked
for the price. One pot to make coffee cost 10 birr. It was handmade.
The juice was 25 birr.


Reede 19.03
Meie päevad lõppevad koos kohalikega kella 18 aegu, sest inimesed
pimedas ei liigu. Kolisime täna oma alalisse kahe toalisse majja kus
elas ka Andres. See on nelipühi pastori hoovi maja. Juba paaril õhtul
järjest on sadanud, hetkel on vihm nii kõva, et tahab koos katusega
kaela sadada. Elektri katkestused on igapäevane teema. Arvuti
ühendusest kirjutas Laura juba eespool, seda on raske kirjeldada. Olen
kahe tunniga saanud saata 2 kirja ja seega olen kogu oma kannatuse
proovile pannud. Kohalikel pole mingit huvi interneti vastu, sest nad
ei liigu oma pere juurest eemale ja kui keegi juhtub minema võõrsile
elama siis interneti teel ei suhelda vaid telefoniga.
Saime täna kirja oma tunniplaani. Mina hakkan õpetama kunstiajalugu ja
kunsti 6-14 aastastele. Klassis on kuni 70 õpilast, väikesemad klassid
47 õpilast. Õnneks on ka kohalik õpetaja väikestega koos ja äkki koos
suurematega ka esimene nädal. Esmaspäeval loodan olla vaatleja koos
kohlikuga ja vaatan kuidas asi käib, õhtul valmistan ette materjale.
Ull tuli teisest toast piiblit lugemast ja ütles, et vihm on selline,
et oma mõtteid ka ei kuule. Tal on taskulamp peas, sest elektrit ka
pole. Siin joovad ka adventistid kohvi. Kooli omanik ei söö liha ja
kohvi ka ei joo. Meie laual on hommikul mangod 2 tk näkku ja banaanid
ananassi maitsega ja eesti must šokolaad mida mu hea sõber 10 tahvlit
kaasa pani. Lõunal oleme väljas söönud.

Kõik magus on siin luksus ja lastel hambad terved. Ka vanadel 70
naistel on hambad kui pärlid. Ma pole veel aru saanud millesse nad
surevad kui keskmine eluiga on 50. Eks iga päev saab teada midagi uut,
sest meid saadavad alati kaks õpetajat. Täna olid nendeks kooli
direktor, keemia õpetaja ja bioloogia õpetaja. Tunne on natuke kehv,
et meil on alati saatjad aga nad ütlesid, et teevad seda rõõmuga
oodates meid ka interneti punktis 1h aega. Kahjuks polnud ka täna
võimalik midagi saata :)
Homme on kirik mis kestab 3-4 h.
Adventistid pole Etioopias karismaatilised nagu Ghanas, pidid laulma
tõsiste nägudega ja käed kõrval nagu meie.
Lõpetan tänase jutu, sai liiga pikk juba. Soojad kallistused!

Mil

People stay in the house during the evening, so our days end about
6pm. Now we moved into our permanent house, where Andres also lived.
It’s a little hut behind a pentacost pastor’s house. Already a few
nights her it has been raining. It’s raining so heavily that the roof
might fall in(: The electricity is disconected quite often. Laura already wrote about the computer connection here, it’s hard to
describe. I sent 2 letters in 2 hours.
The local people have no interest for internet, because most of the
time they’re with their family and even if they’re not, they use
phones not internet.
We got our schedules today. I will teach the history of art and art to
children at the age of 6-14. There might be up to 70 children in one
class, in smaller ones there are around 47 students. Luckily the local
teacher is with us the first week. On Monday i hope to see how the
lesson is and in the evening prepare for the lessons.
Ull came from the other room, where she read the Bible and said the
rain is so noisy that she can’t hear her own thoughts. She has the
flashlight attached to her forehead, because the electricity is gone
now.
The schoolowner doesn’t eat meat or drink coffee. But adventists here
drink coffee. Our breakfast is 2 mangos each and bananas tasting like
pineapple, plus we have 10 tablets of black chocolate, which a friend
of mine gave me before the trip. We have eaten supper only outside in
some restaurants.
All the sweets are a luxury here and children’s teeth are beautiful.
Even 70 year old women have teeth like pearls. I still haven’t
understood why they die so young, because the average age here is
around 50. We’ll learn much here, because we always have 2 teachers
sending us everywhere. Today the school principal and the biology
teacher were with us. We feel a bit bad that someone always has to be
with us, but they said they’re happy to do it, even if we’re in the
internet-point.
Tomorrow we’ll be in church for 3-4 hours. I heard adentists here are
not as charismatical as in Ghana, they’re more like Estonians.
I’ll finish for today, already wrote too much. Warmest hugs!

Mil

18.03.10
Naljakas kuidas siin asjad risti vastupidi on. Taksoga sõitmise eest
maksad u 1 birri(kurss eesti rahaga on praktiliselt üks ühele), kuid
liiter mango mahla maksis 25 birri. Odavam oli osta 10 birri eest 12
mangot: ). Ka vesi oli üllatavalt kallis- 8 birri, aga taksoga Eestis
sõites maksame end vaeseks. Ka Addisist siia tulek maksis u 60 birri
ning restorani menüüs on lõunahinnad madalamad, kui meil joogid(:
Uurisime ja saime teada, et korralik ehitusmees võib teenida u kuni 40
birri päevas. Õpetajad teenivad u 1000 birri kuus. Pensionid on väga
madalad, kuid kui palju lapsi, siis ei jää ka vanurid hätta, sest
pered hoiavad kokku ja väärtustavad üksteist.
Väiksed mustad lapsed jooksid järele ning hüüdsid kohalikus keeles:
„Valged, valged”. Isiklikul tasandil inimestega suheldes õnneks ei
peegeldu arvamust, et oleme sinna selleks läinud, et kõik kinni
maksta, kuid tänaval pakutakse ikkagi kõiksugu kraami naeruväärselt
kõrge hinnaga.
Sodo poole sõites arutasid osad inimesed meie taga, et oleme
teistsugused valged kui need, keda nad enne näinud olid. Me ei
suitsetanud ja paistsime rahulikena(: Kas sellistes oludes saaks üldse
mitte-rahulik olla?
Jah, on momente, mil me end turvaliselt ei tundnud, kuid seda on ju
kõikjal. Selle külalistemaja ümbrus, kus praegu elame, paistab vaikne
olevat, kuid kui elekter natuke aega ära oli ja tagasi tuli, tundsime,
nagu terve hõim oleks ukse taga. Kõva häälega rõõmustati.


It’s funny how things here are vice versa. A taxi ride costs about 1
birr(estonian kroon’s and birr’s value is basically one to one), but a
litre of mango juice cost 25 birr. It was cheaper to get 12 mangos for
10 birr(: Also, coming here from Addis cost around 60 birr and the
prices for restaurants are lower than drinks in Estonia(:
We found out that a good builder might earn 40 birr a day. Teachers
get about 1000 a month. The pensions are very low, but if you have
many children, you won’t be in trouble because families stick
together.
Little black children were running behind us an yelling: „White, white!”.
When you talk to someone personally, you don’t get the feeling that
they might expect you to pay off everything but still, on the streets,
if they see you are white try to sell you everything and not with a
low price.
On our way to Sodo in the bus some people behind us were discussing
that we’re different to those white people who they had seen
previously. We didn’t smoke and seemed to be calm (: Could you be not
calm in these conditions?
Yes, there are moments when we don’t feel secure, but you sometimes feel that
anywhere.
It’s quite quiet around the guest house we’re currently staying at, but
after the electricity came back we felt like a whole tribe was behind
the door. They expressed their happiness in a loud way! (:
L.

18.03.10
Esimene päev on eriliselt tähendusrikas! Proovin kirjutada lühidalt,sest sõbra reisist filmi vaadata on tavaliselt igav! Seega teenpingutust, et seda erilisust siit etioopiast edasi anda nii, etviitsite lõpuni lugeda. Hämmastav on see, et inimese süda peab alatiolema täidetud. Tihti avastame, et täitsime oma südame millegagi, misei tee meid õnnelikuks. Etiooplased aga on väga rõõmsad ja õnnelikud.Etiooplase süda on täidetud austusega kõige tundmatu vastu, eriliseltaga võõramaalase vastu. Nad usaldavad ja on väga väärikad. Algselttundub, et selles hoolimises mängib rolli nahavärv aga austusegavoetakse vastu igat inimest kes uksest sisse astub. Aeg ei tähendasiin „raha” vaid aega siin ei loeta! Arvamus Etioopiast kui mustast javaesest maast on minu ja Laura poolt täielikult ümber kummutatud. Maasei vedel prügi ja kõikjal on rohelus. Suurim puudus on siin vesi.Hämmastamapanev on see, et rohkelt sajab aga vett ei korjata. Selleleküsimusele saime vastuseks, et korjamine vajab investeeringut Eks täpsemad selgitused saame edaspidi. Hetkel on veel keerukas pidadasammu ajaga mis eest ei kao.Küsimused mis siin tekkivadmiks me kiirustame aga ei tea kuhu?miks meil on alalõpmata aega vähe ?miks me elame selleks, et korjata ja kõrvale panna millegi jaoks?miks me toodame prügi ja töötame selleks, et prügi osta?miks meil on igatsus rohkema järele kui nii vähe vaja, et olla õnnelik? Loodetavasti saab juba järgneval korral kirjutada kooli ehitamiseplaanist, sest homme on kooli omanikuga selleteemaline koosolek. Kitseostmisega pole sel nädalal veel aega tegeleda aga juba järgmiselnädalal võtame ette äkki ka mõne eesli ostu.

The first day is special! I’ll try to write short, because it’s alwaysboring to see your friend’s videos from a trip. So i’ll try hard topass on the the special feeling from Ethiopia, maybe you’ll evenbother to read. It’s amazing that a person’s heart has to be filledalways. Quite often we discover that we’ve filled our hearts withsomething that doesn’t make us happy. But Ethiopians are very happy.Ethiopians heart is filled with respect, especially to foreigners. Atfirst you might think it is because of skin tone but actually theyhonour everybody coming to their house. Time doesn’t mean „money”here, they don’t count time. The opinion of Ethiopia as a black andpoor land is overturned by me and Laura. There’s no trash andeveryhing is green. The greatest need here is water. It’s astonishingthat there’s a lot of rain but it’s not gathered. To this question igo an answer: To gather you need investments.We’ll probably get to know about the situation more.The questions we have here:Why do we rush, without knowing where?Why don’t we have enough time?Why do we live to gather and save up for something?Why do we produce trash and save up to buy trash?Why do we miss something more eventhough we don’t need much? Hopefully the next time we can write about the plan of building thehigh school. Tomorrow we have a meeting discussing it with the ownerof the school. This week we don’t have time to buy the goat but maybenext week we can even get a donkey.
Milvy

A relaxed thursday

We have no idea what day it is here and nobody seems to rush. No stress and loads of time.
Today we finally went to see the school. On our way there lil children were shouting "what are you?what are you?". Seems to be a lot of attention.
The school has 8 grades and around 500 students. Children were exited and the teachers were really nice as well:)I only wonder when i'm actually gonna remember all of their faces and names:P
For lunch we went to one family. Met even more people and had a nice time together. It's so nice how in this culture you don't need to call your friend that you're coming. You just go:)
The weather hasn't been too hot. Like a typical July day in Estonia. Now it's cloudy and maybe gonna rain.
Since we didn't get the access to the internet in the school, we are in a public internet place. The internet is really slow and testing our patience.
Hope in the future we don't need to get to the other end of the city to get to the internet:)
If it's not too much for me, i'll try to upload some pics but i already guess it'll push my patience-limits into extreeeeeme:D
As it seems gettin a few pics up is not an utter torture, so here are a few:
Merle and me with the school owner's children, Me on the main street and then Merle with the school owner and executive director on our way to Sodo

L.

17.03

Finally, around 2-3am we reached the airport. While standing in the queue we started to chat with a couple. It came out they had been in Sodo(the place we now are) for 1,5 years, working in a christian hospital. Now they came back to stay in Addis and learn the language.
We also met Bereket and Niguse and they took us to the hotel. At some point Nelson Mandela had been in the same hotel There we slept around 3h got a shower and were ready to move on.
There was a weird man behind the door who kept knocking and wanted to get in and the mosquitos loved me from the first sight. It was kind of an express sleep:)
In the breakfast table we tried one of their main dishes.
Then we thought, we’ll catch a bus right away and get going, but we waited, waited and waited more.Over 2h we were just sitting outside and chatted. Me and M wondered if that is their going right after breakfast. Turned out that the bus driver had had some trouble or smth but finally he came.
We didn’t go more than 20 minutes when he already stopped the bus and we went to get the lunch. We laughed and joked that this will be our whole trip to Sodo. We ate all together from one dish and with our hands. It was smth like a pancake and different fillings.
The toilet was washed before we entered it. A man took a bucket and wetted the floor and walls. The soap was made of ox’s fat and it’s bone powder.
The trip to Sodo took ca 6h.
The landscape was wonderful enough not to describe it here. I think this is something worth seeing by yourself:)
M thought that it would look more like India but it’s way better. Very clean, green and cosy. We both would probabably prefer living the traditional mud hut because it just looks nice:) Now we are in a guest house which looks like a Soviet time Sotchi guest house.
Btw, there are now snakes here.
L.

Thoughts from the plane

Mingi tundmatu jõud on aju halvanud ja mõttes polegi midagi. Lennukis on igale reisijale 3 kohta, üks valge beebi nutab kõvasti, aimab vist, et jõuab peagi riiki kus on inimesi 80 miljonit. Reisijate järgi võiks otsustada, et tegemist on leeduga, sest etiooplasi pole peale ühe, näha uks paistab siiski veel olevat. Lendame tunnise hilinemisega lootes, et see ohus kiirust ületades tagasi tehakse. Raadiost tuleb kankaani muss ja telekast action-film.

Some dark force has invaded my mind and there’s nothing else in my mind. There are 3 seats for each passenger, one baby is crying very loud, suppose he’s feeling that he’s reaching a country with 80 million people. You wouldn’t say we are flying to Ethiopia, it might be as well Lithuania. We’ve seen only 1 or 2 ethiopians here. The flight was an hour late, lets hope the pilot is speeding. Cancaan music on the radio and a action movie from the TV.
M. 16.03

Esimene hommik/the 1st morning

inimese patune loomus! väljudes heaolu keskonnast ja proovides jätta maha kõik halvad mõtted, tegeledes oma tegude analüüsiga, jõudsime järldusele, et tegelema poole ärkvel oleku ajast mõtetustega. Sööme üle, me ei taju kõige lihtsamaidiki väärtusi, raiskame vett ennast ule pestes, et seejärel ennast nahakuivuse pärast kreemitada. proovime koik ned motetused jätta rootsi ja astudes maale nimega etioopia elada natke teistsorti elu koos sealsete inimestega kelle vajadused on natuke väiksemad kui mei lolid eestis!


Man's sinful nature! Getting out of the wealthy society and trying to leave behind all the bad thoughts we analyzed our actions and came to the conclusion, that half of the time we spend on nonsense. We eat too much(esp. now-we're sitting in the buffet and stuffing ourselves), we don't apprehend even the most simple values. We waste water with over-washing so we could put moisturing cream after that.
We'll try to leave all this nonsense to Sweden and getting to Ethiopia live a bit different life. With people there, who have a bit smaller demands than we stupid Estonians have:)
Merle

So far so good:)

So i did a little counting on how much money ppl have donated so far. About 7600 EEK which is a lil less than 500 €.
I think that's pretty good in 2 weeks:)
Thanks to all and all the further help is also regarded;)
L.

The last bit of Est

The first picture from the series before and after:)