Well, here we are folks, we’ve made it to the 6-month mark. Overall, this experience has been truly challenging but beneficial. I feel I have been learning A LOT about myself, the world, God, the human experience, and another culture, to name a few. I’m not sure what to post at this point, so I thought I’d just provide a rundown of recent stories and pictures…Here goes:
Some of my jotanee girls painted my nails...they were black…only on my left hand, though...and also polka dots on my toes…I just feel like, in America I would never walk around with only one hand of nails painted!...That's just how they roll here...they tell me it's because we eat with our right hand (and here people literally eat with their hands)...but I'm still unclear on the exact correlation between having painted nails and eating with that hand…As they were painting my nails, I realized I don’t have any nail polish remover - nor do I have any other nail polish to paint over - haha - oh geez!
February 10 – Sunday Mass was in a different town (kind of a big pilgrimage and huge Mass celebration for the anticipation of the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes). Deacon got us set up to ride with the Missionaries of Charity (Mother Teresa’s sisters) and the Bishop. Once we got there, Mass was under a tent just outside the church with A LOT of people and the Bishop presided along with probably approx. 15-20 other priests. We just stuck with the sisters so we wouldn't get lost. In my head I was constantly like, "Blue and white stripes, blue and white stripes." Missionaries of Charity are just soooo cute; I can't even get over it. Then there was a big lunch for all of the religious who were there, so we ate with them - the usual: injera, wat, pepsi, some fried deliciousness of some sort, pasta, spinach cheese. I'm still not quite used to everyone just eating with their hand, but I think my skills are improving.
One day one of my students asked me, “Are those tights or just your skin”…referring to my legs. I had rolled my pant legs up because I’m tired of them dragging on the ground! My pants constantly feel like they’re falling down because 1) pretty sure I’ve lost weight and 2) clothes don’t shrink when they are hand-washed and line-dried.
This last weekend was pretty eventful. On Friday, I finally mustered up the motivation it took to figure out how to cut a new hole in my belt, which was successful! After that I walked up to town to visit the tailor with Becka, one of our friends from the hospital. We had bought moo-moos from a lady in the market to use as material and had taken it and pictures to the tailor for a dress and skirt. Friday, we picked them up! I’m pretty excited, I don’t think I ever had anything made by a tailor before, and since they are a lot less expensive here than in America, I figured “Why not?!” (A phrase used quite often here)...After that, I ventured to the post office all by myself! Successfully picked up a package and then found a bijaj (also, all on my own!). (Note: bijajes are very small motorized vehicles with either 3 wheels and handlebars for the driver or 4 wheels with a steering wheel. They are all painted blue and white and are basically the taxi service.) I took the bijaj out to Sophie’s house for a relaxing American evening and returned via my first ever “taxi” motorcycle ride.
I told some of my 3rd grade students that my brother is from China. To which they responded, “Wow! Does he know kung-foo?!” I said, “Well, no - he’s only two years old”…Later, we were talking about “films” and I found out this question must have been a reference to “Kung Foo Panda.”
I had a skirt and dress made at the tailor with fabric from a couple of moo-moos we picked up at the market. I took some pictures and the material in to our friend Becka's tailor shop and voila! (the tailor is way less expensive here than in America...what a fun thing!)
Some notes about an eventful Oratory the other day:
1) One of my 3rd grade students came up to me and said in perfect English, "Miss Jenna, What are you doing?"...To which I responded, "I am waiting in line to play jotanee, what are you doing?"...She had been reading in the library. I was so excited because I have been teaching them the questions, "Where is...?" "What are they doing?" "Where are they going?"...and she, in real life, used the question perfectly!
2) Some of the older girls started talking to me. They were saying, "copy? copy?" and I was like, "copy what?" Then they just looked at me like we were clearly not understanding each other, and the same conversation started over. After about 15 min. of talking with them about other things, they began talking about "copy and tea." And suddenly I realized they had been talking about COFFEE before - aha! The mystery was solved. Hahaha! ..."Copy what?!"...haha… Deacon explained to me that in Wolaitana, the "p" sounds like an "f", and the "f" makes a "p" sound...that could get confusing!
3) I've started getting creative on the language learning front. I will ask questions I already know the answer to in order to determine what the missing word in my vocabulary is, plus it usually doubles as a successful joke - this has become a real win-win strategy. For example, today I asked two of my jotanee girls if they were brothers (I know they aren't brothers, but I was trying to remember the word for "sister")...to which the girl responded just as I had hoped, after laughing really hard saying, "no, no! ehid!" Aha! sister = ehid. That's right, now I remember...Excellent work, Sherlock!
4) One of the older guys (I just assume they're all maybe around 20 years old) came up to me when I was standing in front of the crowd, waiting to pray after Oratory. This is how the conversation went:
Him: What is your name?
Me: My name is Jenna. What is your name?
Him: My name is Abnet...Where are you from?
Me: I am from America. Where are you from?
Him: I am from here in Soddo.
Me: Ok, that makes sense.
Him: You are very beautiful.
Me: (with a smile) Thank you, that is very kind.
Then that was the end of the conversation, and I was really impressed. That is the nicest thing any of those boys has said to me since we got here - usually they just stare.
Things I’ve learned about myself (some of which I already knew, but have been reconfirmed):
1) I’m too hard on myself
2) I require a lot of food and water
3) When it comes to cooking, playing/singing music, and probably many other things I’m a lot better at following instructions or a recipe than not
4) I need clear expectations
5) I’m not very good at accepting, much less embracing, my human condition
6) I don’t make a very good historian when it comes to taking pictures or documenting
7) I don't have a very thick skin, and I internalize things pretty deeply
8) I can be pretty creative sometimes
9) I should probably be a professional fashion designer
10) Did I say I like to eat?
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| Some of our older Oratory kids having lunch celebrating Don Bosco Day. On the left is a plate of injera and on the right are different kinds of wat. |
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| Some of our girls from Oratory. We all have the shirts they are wearing - they say "Don Bosco Soddo Youth Center". |
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| The boys eating. I specifically asked to take a picture mid-bite to show the "injera-wat-hand-mouth" method. |
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| Sunday Mass at the Cathedral. The kids wearing pink and green robs are part of the choir. Paula used her skills to discover that the words along the ceiling say, "Father Son Holy Spirit One God." |
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| The monkey who lives on our compound. I have taken it upon myself to name him "Clarence." |
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| The skirt I had made at the tailor - complete with pockets! |
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| The dress I had made at the tailor |
