We
moved into our new home on Saturday. We followed about twelve Ethiopian men and
women into our compound, each of them carrying a mattress or a piece of our
bed. Entering the blue gate, we were overwhelmed anew at how spacious our yard
is—not even noticing until later that the yard descends into a second yard with
a garage, and a driveway and greenway leading to our second gate. We could play
baseball catch at several different angles and not exhaust the possibilities
for quite some time.
The
house itself is also a size we’ll probably not be able to duplicate for our
lives in the states anytime soon. Here are a few other differences between “our
Ethiopian villa” and a house we may someday own in the U.S.:
-Unless
we get a fixer-upper someday, we will likely not see this much dirt caked on so
many different things. We’ve got some serious cleaning to do.
-Upon
doing such cleaning, we will likely never again ask each other, “Is this
salamander in the door handle dead or alive?” (It was alive).
-Upon
washing new dishes, I will likely never again have to scrape off bird poop with
my fingernails. God willing.
-Most
importantly, in the states, anything and everything is so darn easy to get. So decorating is easy. America would do so
well with just one store like Target, and one like Lowe’s. But that’s not
enough—there’s Wal-Mart too, and The Home Depot, in case you want a different
color uniform to look at, or slightly different products. But here? If we want
shelving, we will go to the carpenter with a sketch we’ll draw. If we want
curtains, we will go to the fabric shop and then to the tailor. If we want
lamps or clothes hangers—well, we still haven’t figured these ones out. If it
is possible to buy a lamp or a hanger in Adwa, we’ll let you know.
Sunday
night we called our host family to check in. When I dialed the number, I still
didn’t know how to check in or chit-chat
with people I saw the previous week, and especially when they know very little
English. But Gebre told us we should; he says familial relationships in
Ethiopia are based on quantity, not quality. Not keeping in regular touch with
your relatives is disgraceful. When I asked him how often we should keep in
touch with our host relatives, he said to call at least every two weeks. Sounds
excessive. But when Fikadu answered the phone, all fears of not being able to
carry on a phone conversation dissipated. I believe we’ve already told you how
incredibly lengthy the greetings are in this culture. In America, I’m so embarrassed
if I accidentally say, “How are you?” more than once in a greeting; this
implies I wasn’t listening the first time. This happens to me often. Well,
praise God, there is a place for people like me; and it’s Ethiopia. As we said
before, the rule of thumb is to repeat every different version of “how are
you?” as many times as you can stomach. I am banking on, whenever people come
to visit us, their believing we’re fluent after witnessing a few greetings.
Because so many words are said, to the untrained ear, we could be discussing
philosophy in so many minutes. No joke, this is how our conversation went (and
yes, I laughed through much of it). Feel free to skim to get the general gist:
FIKADU:
Hello?
DANIELLE:
Fikadu! Dehna neh? (How are you? [male, 2nd person])
FIKADU:
Dehna, dehna nesh? (I am well, how
are you? [female, 2nd pers])
DANIELLE:
Dehna, igzyaber meskin. Dehna neh? (I am well, thanks be to God. How are you?
[male, 2nd pers])
FIKADU:
Dehna. Dehna no? (I am well. Is he well?)
DANIELLE:
Danny? Dehna, dehna. (Danny? He’s well, he’s well).
FIKADU:
Dehna nachu? (How are you? [plural, 2nd pers])
DANIELLE:
Awo. Dehna. (Yes, we are well).
FIKADU:
Igzyaber meskin. Salam no? (Thanks be to God. Is there peace?)
DANIELLE:
Awo, alla. Salam no? (Yes, there is. Is there peace?)
FIKADU:
Awo. Adwa waym Addis Ababa? (Yes. Adwa or Addis?)
DANIELLE:
Ahun, Adwa. (Now, Adwa).
FIKADU:
Konjo no? (Is it beautiful?)
DANIELLE:
Awo, konjo. Tell Selam, Timkat, and Elsabet we say hello. (Yes, beautiful).
FIKADU:
Awo. Mimi? (Yes. Mimi=nickname for Selamawit)
DANIELLE:
Iwa, I mean, awo, Mimi. (Yes [Tigrignia],
I mean, yes [Amharic]).
MIMI:
Hello?
DANIELLE:
Mimi! Dehna nesh? (How are you? [female 2nd pers])
MIMI:
(sound of delight) Dehna. Dehna nesh? (I’m well. How are you? [female 2nd
pers])
DANIELLE:
Dehna. (I’m well)
MIMI:
Dehna nesh. (How are you? [you female 2nd pers…again])
DANIELLE:
Dehna. Dehna nachu? (I’m well. How are you all?)
MIMI:
Dehna. Danny, dehna no? (We’re well. Danny, how is he?)
DANIELLE:
Danny dehna. (Danny is well).
MIMI:
Dehna nachu? (How are you all?)
DANIELLE:
Dehna, dehna. (Well, well).
MIMI:
Adwa?
DANIELLE:
Iwa, awo, Adwa. Igzyaber meskin. (Yes [Tigrignia], yes [Amharic]…thanks
be to God).
MIMI:
Izosh, izosh. Adwa. Izosh. (Be strong [female 2nd pers], be
strong)—what I take to mean, “you poor thing.”
DANIELLE:
Chigga yelem. Konjo no. (No problem, it’s beautiful).
MIMI:
Ishy, c’iao. (Okay, bye).
DANIELLE:
C’iao.
FIKADU:
Dehna nesh?
DANIELLE:
Dehna. We miss you guys. Betasabacin iwadalo. (….We like our family).
FIKADU:
Dehna idaru. (Goodnight [plural 2nd pers]).
DANIELLE:
Dehna idaru. C’iao.
Intensive,
right? So little is said in so many words, but at least it makes for a lengthy
conversation, where otherwise, our mutual vocab would be exhausted much
earlier. I’d like to point out a theme during our stay in Sagure: Selam telling
Daniel and me “Izo, izosh,” respectively, for having to move to Tigray, a place
most Oromians would rather not visit. What they don’t know is how beautiful
Tigray is, how incredible the food is, etc. (in the meantime they tell us,
“There is no injera in Tigray, only bread. There are no trees). Both are
actually rampant here, injera and trees. Our way of countering the “be strong,
you poor thing,” is our reply: “We’re going to Tigray, igzyaber meskin. Thanks
be to God.”
The
college continues to be far too generous to us. They’ve already helped us save
so much money by providing a kitchen table and four chairs, four loungey
couches/chairs, three nightstands, our bed, an extra mattress, and a kitchen
storage cabinet—but our next major expense, a propane stove, they wouldn’t even
allow us to buy. Instead, we were escorted to the college’s chemistry lab, and
a man in a white jacket handed us a full propane tank. As we protested, Getnet
explained, “This is excess. No problem, they have two.” Daniel commented on
later: “We just depleted the science department’s resources by 50%.” But Getnet
assures us we can “repay” them by returning it to them in two years, as a full
tank. Far too generous. But we are so grateful. And at this moment our bellies
are full with minestrone, thanks to the propane tank that brings cheap ferenji
food to our fingertips. What a joy and relief to finally cook for ourselves
again, after almost 3 months of eating whatever is set in front of us, which
was usually saturated in oil.
We’ve
been in and out of countless suks the past few days, acquiring the foods and
soaps and cooking utensils we’ll need. A suk (suk=Amharic, shuk=Tigrignia) is about
the size of the smallest country gas station you’ve ever been in. But, without
fail, each time we step into one, an average of 8 children follow in behind us.
This in addition to the other customers already in line, or trying to squeeze
past the children. The kids want to listen to and giggle at the ferenjis going
shopping in their language. While endearing, it’s also frustrating to be trying
to barter and calculate a total price in another language of numbers, when
Hanna and Lela are pulling on your skirt and pants: “Give me money! Biscuit!
Give me biscuit! Danayit! Daniel!” The most humorous instance was our first
purchase, when the group that followed us were all females. The oldest, about
preteen age, indicated Daniel with her eyebrows and told the others, “He is
beautiful.” We all laughed. “Iwa, ifalit iya. Sibuk iyu. Sabayay iyu,” I
said—“Yes, I know. He is beautiful. He is my husband.” And they laughed some
more.
In
case you covet a larger Tigrignia sample, for a taste of the language, have at
this classroom assignment from a few weeks ago, in which Gebre asked us about
our previous evening:
Timali
mishat innoyay dawila. Ni isra dakika awirina. Haftay hishuni, illa. Kas’ilu,
host haftay ni Daniel safiato. Host haftay baaligay iya. Nissa idmi’a salasta
iyu immo hadagana iya. Kas’ilu, dirar balia. Dihiri’u, dakisa mikniyatum
k’iris’at nayiruni.
Translation:
Last night my mom called. We talked for twenty minutes. My sister is feeling
better, she said. Then, my host sister hit Daniel. My host sister is rude. She
is three and is dangerous. Then, I ate dinner. After that, I went to sleep
because I had a stomach ache.
That
account actually seems to summarize the main themes from our time in
Sagure—with the exception of the stomach ache.
One
of the surprises since our move-in is our limited privacy, when we thought it
would be abounding. While
we technically have a spacious yard to ourselves, it seems that a young man is
living in one of the outdoor rooms on our compound—no biggy, except at first we
weren’t sure whether or not the house-owners were aware of this arrangement. At
this point, we’re assuming someone knows he’s living there. A neighbor, Samuel,
about 12-14 maybe, guards our yard by sitting in it. Today we came home to him
sitting on our stairs with a pigeon on each of his knees. Daniel says Nathaniel
Hawthorne would not only love Samuel, but would give him his own short story.
After
making a deposit in the bank today, we finally felt comfortable to leave all
six grand windows open. What breezes and smells and views! [Adwa may be the
first place where, while indoors, I feel like I’m camping. From inside our
living room, or while cooking, it smells like I’m in the woods of Hidden Falls
Salvation Army Camp, and there is very little lovelier than this]. This was
going to be our first night sleeping with the windows open. (You see, the
massive bolted shutters are a pain to open and close—so you’re either all in,
or you’re not). Following an after-dinner rainstorm, though, Samuel knocked on
our kitchen door and told me to shut our kitchen window. Confused, we did as he
said. But he then walked around the entire house and closed all the shutters
for us. “Okay,” we said to each other. “We'll open them again before we sleep.”
An hour later, Samuel returned with his old father to knock on our door. They
had noticed that our shutters were only closed shut—not bolted. So, they on the
outside, Daniel on the inside, they went window and window together, ensuring
we bolted them. Really? We can’t open and close our windows when we want to? At
this point, we’re unsure if this was a friendly, neighborly suggestion
implying, “We want you to be safe”—or if these are the rules of this compound. What’s perplexing is that these
neighbors live in a different compound; and if our gate had a proper door
handle and keyhole, it wouldn’t be an issue. Or would it? Samuel’s dad told us
that he has been guarding this yard his whole life—before him, his
grandfather—and now to Samuel, his son. While we do want the freedom of evening
breezes, on the other hand, this event was not only humorous, but indicative of
a romantic family career history that I don’t necessarily want to stand in the
way of. So, we shall see.
If
you were ever looking for a reason to come to Ethiopia, today we bought 2
pounds of avocados for the equivalent of 90 cents. What makes it even better:
yesterday we went to the market to no avail. No one had avocados. But today,
while standing in the same spot we were the previous day when we asked for
avocados, a tall Ethiopian woman stood behind me while I was getting prices for
carrots. “Do you want avocados?” she said quietly. After my repeating “Avocados
abay iyu? Avocados allaki doe?”—“Where are the avocados? Do you have avocados?”
several times, (because the only response was shifty eyes), she then led me to
an abandoned “market cubicle” with no avocados in sight. But then she pulled
away all the burlap sacks that were hiding them. If she had been in an Italian
man’s body, offering me anything other than avocados, it would have been the
perfect scene for a mafia movie—I mean, she even gave me change from a pouch
she retrieved from inside her dress top. Toting our goods away from the market,
Daniel asked, “How did she know we wanted avocados?” My point exactly.
P.S. Maybe the craziest thing we heard this week is that
Adwa has weekly trash pick-up. We were deciding between burning and composting,
when someone throws in this wild card. We’ll believe it when we see it. But
maybe Tigray really is that rich and favored.
Daniel’s token additions:
1.
Danielle is downplaying our guards to make us sound less rich,
but I won’t. Sure one is old and blind and the other one is a twelve-year-old
with a mystical connection to nature who probably wouldn’t hurt a fly, but I’m
sure they’d do in a pinch. The main point is we have a huge house with guards.
You should visit!
2.
I felt like a real Ethiopian yesterday when I asked a bajaj
driver in Tigrinia if he was a thief. He tried to charge us 15 birr (about
$0.90 US) for a taxi ride all the way across town. We talked him down to 8
birr, but I still feel like we got ripped off.
3.
I started reading John Calvin’s Institutes yesterday (which is not to say that I will finish it),
and I’m surprised at what a great writer he is. His preface to the king reads
like someone mixed the Bible, Thomas Jefferson, and the early fathers in a
blender and then poured it into a book.
4.
People are chanting things outside accompanied by what sounds
like those awful instruments from the last World Cup. Danielle won’t let me
investigate.