Another Update

More about life in Soddo 

On transportation and technology...the local public transportation "system" includes mostly motorcycles and bijajes. A bijaj is a very small blue and white motorized vehicle that has 3 or 4 wheels. Approximately between 2 and 4 people, plus driver, can ride in one at a time. They cost a few Birr (local currency) to ride in. 100 Birr = about $5-6 U.S. money

 

Shops...the shops around town are very small and mostly sell clothes or are cafes. The other day, I stopped by and bought a huge chocolate doughnut (recommended by Paula) - it was delicious!

We eat a lot of bananas!  All different kinds and sizes, too.  I never knew so many different kinds of bananas even existed.  I think I've really started something here - I ask nearly everyone who comes to visit if they have tried bananas with peanut butter (so thankful for having peanut butter here).  Just recently  Fr. Guillermo Basañes, our Regional Superior (basically head of all Salesians in Africa), came to visit for a few days.  He had never tried a banana with peanut butter, but he tried one here!  You know what that means...not only am I sharing this delicacy with Ethiopia, but with all of Africa!  This is a picture of our banana stash right outside the kitchen (there are banana trees all over the place here).

These are pictures I took right outside our compound.  The first is from the road that runs along side our compound.  The rain water has created deep ravines that run down the road.  The second picture is of a river that is just across the road from our compound...people wash their clothes (as you can see) and trucks in it.

Our compound is on the left                                                                                                       

Oratory

Here are a couple of pictures at Oratory.  Kids from town and surrounding areas come to play on our compound each day.  Kids come to play volleyball, soccer (football), ping pong (table tennis), basketball, and fooseball.  Monday through Friday there are tutoring classes available to older students.  At the end, the kids gather together for a prayer.  On regular days, approx. 200 kids come to Oratory.  On Sundays, approx. 2,000 kids come.



 

Prayer after typical Oratory (Can you spot Paula?)

We occasionally host a show of various performances during Sunday Oratory (this is the audience). 

Fr. Basañes Came for a Visit 

After Oratory each day some of the older kids that help stay to pray the Rosary.  When Fr. Basañes came, they handed out ponchos.  It took some time for the kids to figure out what to do with them and how they operate...but we got it figured out :)

Fr. Basañes, as a good shepherd and father, gave each kid a hug as they were leaving - it was really nice.

Some other priests came to accompany Fr. Basañes on his journey from Soddo to Addis Ababa.  We had a great dinner with all of them, involving much laughter.  We noted that between all of us, we represented five continents!

Left to Right: Fr. Samala, Paula, Br. Desta, Fr. Basañes, Deacon Temesgen, Fr. Larcher, Ondemogen (discerning becoming a Salesian-staying with us until the end of the school year), Me

Sophie's Clinic
One of our American friends here, Sophie, is a nurse and has a clinic in another rural town near Soddo.  This week, I got to go out to the clinic with her and another friend of ours…it's about an hour and a half drive from Soddo.  The clinic is in a small mud/stick "building" (really it's just a room).  All of the patients that come are pregnant women (side note: pregnant women might be the most beautiful women in the whole world...but African ones are especially beautiful).  We got to help Sophie by taking the women's blood pressure prior to their visit with her.  My main job was to find, count, and record the babies’ heartbeats on the women’s medical cards.  I probably found/listened to 40 baby heartbeats!...All the while, I was trying my best to muster whatever amount of Wolaitana I know/learned in the car on the way there (when you get that far out in the country, not many people speak Amharic)…It was a beautiful and humbling experience.

Sophie is sitting in the middle of the women, meeting with each of them.

Mesfin provides brief health care instruction, medication, and a hard boiled egg to each women before they leave the clinic.

Pictures on the way back to Soddo...

Kids walking in the road - once they saw that we were foreigners, they would wave and shout "Foreignee!" Notice the animals grazing in the rear view mirror.  There are cows, chickens, goats, and donkeys everywhere we go.

On our way back in to Soddo



Teaching

We've started our second semester as English teachers with the kindergarten teacher training program.  This is a picture of us with our students there:



 

I have been playing card games with a few of my Don Bosco students after school.  It's been fun to talk with them as we play.  They call the town "the village" and call each other by the "name they are called in the village."  I told them that I needed a name for the village - they said I can be Miss Jen-o.  They were more invested in playing the game than in taking a good picture - haha!  Thanks for teaching me how to play King's Corner, Mom :)

Grading my midterm tests by candlelight, when the power was out... 

 Some of my 6th grade students decided to draw a picture of me while I was teaching their Math Tutorial class-haha!  I have to say, I'm pretty impressed - they even drew my Chaco sandals and rolled-up pant legs (I'm tired of them dragging on the ground, in the dirt).