Some New Ones

Monday Madness

Monday (September 28^th) night Tesfanesh came home in a very weird mood. I asked her what was wrong and her reply was, “It will make you angry.” So of course my curiosity got the better of me and I asked her what was wrong again. She finally answered – and I was angry. Not that I had any right to be angry, but I was on her behalf. She was demoted for no reason and told that she would have to move back to the transition house and work 24 hours a day. So, she decided to quit. She told them on Wednesday so that night we went out to dinner and I bought a cake to celebrate.

 

Employment Opportunities

When I got back to Ethiopia in August I called Zoudie to see if she wanted to come and work for me. She said yes but said she had to tell her boss. Long story short, she never did come and work for me so Tesfanesh called her sister who was working in construction and asked her if she wanted to come work for me. Two days later she showed up. I was expecting a sturdier looking woman, but an older looking version of Tesfanesh came. She is probably 5’5” and weighs maybe 95 pounds. I can’t imagine her doing construction work. Her name is Aynalem and she doesn’t speak English at all. It’s been a little frustrating trying to talk to her, but with hand motions we’ve been able to get by.

 

Finders Keepers – Losers Weepers

Friday (October 2^nd) Tesfanesh, her sister Aynalem and I went to look at houses to rent. We first asked the storeowner near our apartment, he also happens to be a broker; he had two houses for us to look at. He called the owner of the first house and we found out that it is very, very far from where we were looking. He then called the owner of the second house who just happened to move to an apartment. He said that instead of taking a minibus to look at the house he wanted me to rent a contract taxi. So I did and we went to look at the house. It was surprisingly nice and met almost all of my requirements (running water, three bedrooms, etc.). The owner even said that I could pay every month instead of three months in advance, which is nice. The only bad thing is that there is a dog. I don’t really like dogs at all in fact especially dirty ugly ones. I told the owner that I didn’t want the dog and he said he would find a home for it. So we moved houses Saturday and looked at used furniture in the morning. I found a buffet side-table that I am refinishing, a bed and an armoire. Sunday we found mattresses and supplies to refinish the table. They don’t use stain here in Ethiopia – but they do stain their furniture. I asked the guy at the little hardware store what they use and he handed me a little plastic bag with powder in it. He told me to mix it with water and use it like stain. Hmmm…we’ll see how it turned out.

*They just moved the dog to a different house. I guess this morning when Aynalem woke up there was poop all over the place. She cleaned it up with bleach water – I think she’s glad to get rid if it too.

 

Debre Zeit

I finally made it back to Debre Zeit…this time there were children there – 50 to be exact. I met with each one to take their picture and give them their tote bag of school supplies. The social worker told me that there was a mentally challenged girl (as if she should be sent home without anything). I said, “So, she still needs to go to school.” When I asked her what her name was – yes she was slow to answer, but when she smiled nothing else mattered. She has the best smile. A mother came into the office with two babies (one tied to her back and one in her arms), when she started telling us her story she started crying. I can totally empathize with her – when I get worked up I cry too. Anyways, when her twin girls were 3 months old her husband left her. He just took off and she has never heard from him again. Well, her girls are a year old right now and she is struggling to make it. She makes and sells injera but it is not a very profitable business. I asked her what is her greatest need – rent money. I asked her now much is rent – $100 birr ($8USD). I told Hiwot #2 that I would like to sponsor her and pay for rent every month. Hiwot then translated to the lady to come back every month and collect rent money. She was so relieved to have that burden lifted that she almost started crying again. I played with one of the twins and fed her a piece of bread. I wish I had brought clothes with me, but I wasn’t expecting such little kids to come.

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