OCTOBER ARCHIVE
POSTED: October 31, 2007 Abby was sick yesterday, so we decided to take her to a clinic in our town. We’ve always driven into the Capital when we’re sick to see a Dr., but since Abby had a pretty common stomach bug we took her to one of the clinics here in town. We were amazed by the service. Our entire visit took a total of 15 minutes (and that included waiting for the lab results) and cost us 55 cents. Yes, a total of 55 cents to see the Dr. and have lab tests run. We were amazed !! The Dr. wrote her a prescription and we took it over to the local pharmacy and got Abby’s medicine for $2.70. Talk about affordable health care !! Abby’s feeling much better today, so her $3.25 Dr. visit and prescription were well worth every penny we spent !! On another note . . . we finally figured out what is living in our ceiling. We thought it was rats, but it’s actually mongoose (how do you make that plural . . . mongeese ??). We heard them moving around in our ceiling this evening, so we went outside to see if we could see them when they came out. Sure enough, we saw two mongooses. Abby’s been walking around the house all evening saying, “Mongoose alla ?” (Is there a Mongoose?) POSTED: October 30, 2007 One of the things I will miss the most when we move are the beautiful mountains that we have in our current town. Our new town has some smaller mountains, but they aren’t as beautiful as the mountains in our current town. This is the view from right outside our front gate. If you look closely you can see the moon right on top of the mountains. Abby’s learning to eat all kinds of new foods. She LOVES ice cream ! We don’t have a privacy fence in our yard. Our fence is made of sticks, so you can see right through into the next door neighbors yard. It’s actually kind of fun. We’ve had lots of conversations with our neighbors through the fence. Our next door neighbors have a little boy named Enoch. The first thing Abby does when she goes outside is to go over to the next door neighbors fence, look through it & call for Enoch to come and play with her. After Enoch came home from school, he and Abby had fun playing in Abby’s pool. Abby’s been a little under the weather yesterday and today. Last night when she was going to bed, she wanted her baby, a book and a pillow to sleep with. Of course, Mommy and Daddy gave in since she wasn’t feeling all that well. It’s starting to get down into the low 50’s here at night. We don’t have a heater, so it’s pretty chilly when we wake up in the morning. Abby was still a little bit sick this morning, so we let her wrap up in a gabi ( a local blanket) and watch Barney on TV. We spent the weekend in the Capital. The area we live in doesn’t have any other foreigners around, so it’s nice to go into the Capital every once in a while and hang out with other American’s !! This weekend we went to a NGO Bazaar where they sell all kinds of handicraft things & then we went swimming at the Hilton Hotel pool. It was a GREAT weekend !! Abby (and Andy) had a great time playing with the other kids at the NGO Bazaar. After that, we went swimming. Abby was all decked out in her swimming gear. I “sink” I found a new chair Abby’s Grandparents sent her a backpack in the mail. She loves to put it on and play outside ! POSTED: October 22, 2007 Abby hanging out on the couch We went over to a friend’s house for dinner on Saturday night. We were celebrating their son’s 14^th Birthday. If Abby’s around, people always want her in their family picture. I spent the weekend sanding and varnishing the kitchen shelves that Andy’s Dad made me. We can’t have cabinets because they are too heavy to hang on the mud walls. These shelves have helped us so much with storage !! It was kind of fun to learn how to do something new. I never thought I’d add “woodworking” to the list of things I wanted to learn how to do. We go into the Capital every couple of weeks to stock up on groceries. We came back home last week & Abby had a great time playing in the ice chest. We’ve totally worn Abby out this past week. She’s been going & going & going !! She’s been staying up late & taking random naps. As a result, she’s been taking a nap every chance she can get. This week she wants her blanket, baby & book to sleep with. She finished lunch yesterday & fell asleep in Daddy’s arms as soon as he picked her up She also fell sound asleep on her changing table. Poor girl !! Hopefully we can get her back on her regular schedule again this week. We’ve always known that Abby doesn’t like stickers & that she cries when the Doctor tries to put a Band-Aid on Barney in one of her Barney videos. This week, she fell and cut her hand on her bedroom door. I cleaned it up and tried to put a band-aid on it. It was definitely a lost cause !! She was not a happy camper until we finally took the band-aid off her hand. Hamming it up This is Abby and our guard Sherifa. We have two guards that rotate shifts. They stay for 3-4 days at a time. They live in a little mud house in our front yard. I guess they work kind of like security guards. Abby loves to play with them. Abby and her best friend Molly !! POSTED: October 14, 2007 Abby playing with her buddies This past week we had a goat clinic. We vaccinated all the goats in our project. First we weigh the goats and then we give them their vaccinations. This week we had a Millennium Celebration in our town. The Millennium was over a month ago, but for some reason our town celebrated this week. We had a police marching band in town, a parade & a big festival. It was lots of fun !! This is the parade of horse carts going down the street to the festival There was lots of dancing and singing at the festival The President of Ethiopia came for the festivities Abby enjoyed the celebration Tef is one of the major crops around here. It is indigenous to this area. It is a grain & they make a spongy bread called injera out of it. The tef is almost ready for harvest. The fields are beautiful this time of year. Here are some neat birds that we’ve seen this past week. This is the Abyssinian Ground Hornbill. Silvery-Cheeked Hornbill Sacred Ibis Northern Red Bishop One of the problems you deal with when you have a mud house is termites. Here’s a big termite mound that grew in our house this week. You can see the gray cement sections on the bottom. That’s were we’ve previously had termites and we’ve had to cement the wall. We got a package in the mail this week & there were some goldfish crackers inside. Abby sure has enjoyed eating her “fish.” Abby dressed in traditional dress Abby’s growing up so fast. She is getting so tall & her hair is growing so long. She looks like a little girl now instead of our little baby. POSTED: October 8, 2007 We always enjoy the wildlife that we see when we drive around. Here is a group of Baboons that we saw crossing the road. Abby’s already on her way to becoming a Gymnast. Here she is trying to stand on her head. We have mice in our ceiling. One of Abby and Andy’s favorite pastimes is to “meow” at the mice and then listen to them run across the ceiling. Abby loves to play with her dolls. The other day she wanted to sleep with her baby. Andy loves rocks. We were driving to a town about 2 hours South of us & Andy saw these rocks on the side of the road. He stopped to pick up 1 & I think we ended up with about 15. Peek-A-Boo One of Abby’s FAVORITE things to do . . . read a book. Picking Flowers POSTED: October 4, 2007 This past weekend the Orthodox celebrated the Meskel Holiday (finding of the true cross). Everybody sets up a bonfire outside their gate & they sing and dance while the fire burns. Here are our next door neighbors setting up their bonfire. It’s all ready for the celebration later in the evening Once it gets dark, everybody lights their sticks and then they take them over and light the bonfire. Once the bonfire is lit, they run in a circle around the bonfire and sing and dance. It’s a lot of fun for everyone involved. This time of year, these beautiful yellow flowers pop up all over the countryside We went into the Capital last week and stayed at a friend’s house. They had a recliner & Andy really enjoyed sitting in it. He said life can’t get much better than this . . . sitting in a recliner, Abby laying on his lap & watching Mission Impossible 3. Abby and Daddy playing computer games Abby and Molly tackling Daddy Dancing with Mommy Hanging out with Daddy Playing outside Playing with the neighbors sheep Abby loves to walk in Daddy’s shoes