I almost started this post with “January was a whirlwind,” but that implies that it was chaotic and went by really quickly. As chaotic as it was for my life, it wasn’t so much on the day to day basis here in Addis, and I cannot honestly say that it went by very quickly. What a month, though. I don’t need to recap on that. I’d rather just talk about the exciting things that are coming up for month two.

Tomorrow will be my first CURE clinic all by myself; that’s where the new cases come in to get evaluated, and from there we get our “CUREkids.” Last week I had to take a walk to relax myself and re-focus since it was so hectic, and that was WITH the help of my master teacher, Jenny England. I accidentally (because I was not assertive) let two of the kids walk out without getting their stories, and that’s a shame because that’s the main point of their CUREkid page. Thankfully, God saw that I needed a hand. When we were getting ready to walk to lunch, I saw the two kids whose stories I needed sitting by the parking lot, and that resulted in our very first CUREkid for Ethiopia being put into the system! Now there are several more, and I’m beginning to really get the hang of things with the exception of a few mistakes here and there.

(Side note: there is a donkey making funny donkey noises outside. And that’s why I keep the window open… other than the fact that every day is so beautiful here.)

What else? We’ve found a church that we really enjoy on Sundays, and we’ve begun the tradition of going to Kaldi’s after each service, which is basically the Ethiopian Starbucks. Speaking of coffee, my addiction is getting out of hand now. I have to talk myself out of a third cup every night.

I plan to get better at shopping. I HATE haggling. Oh man, that’s the worst. But apparently they’ll just think I’m an idiot American if I don’t even attempt, so I may as well try. I got super ripped off by the first guy that I bought souvenirs from. He said 100 birr, and I pulled out 90, yeah 90. I was told before we left to halve the amount they initially say, but I was afraid he’d be offended, so I pulled out 90, and he said 10 more, and I said, Yes sir. I’m such a wuss. The next guy was trying to sell me the same thing for 25 birr. The exchange rate is 17 birr for 1 American dollar so it’s not like I spent a ton of money, but the principle of the matter is the point. I’m also going to keep working on learning Amharic. I’ve got about six good words down so far. My accent must be terrible, though, because anytime I say something in that language I get laughed at by the nurses. What can I do? I grew up in Louisiana.

Well, that’s what I’ve got for now. If you’re interested in checking out some of the kids’ stories, click the link for CUREkids at the top of this page. From there you can narrow your search to Ethiopia and see the kids here at this hospital. But there are thousands of stories to read from the other hospitals, so check those out, too.

“Amasegunalo! Buna.” That’s my phonetic spelling of “Thank you! Coffee.” (I would have said bye, but I don’t know that word yet.)

Originally posted at: http://bridigiacomo.wordpress.com/2012/02/02/february-plans/.