Ethiopia by E-mail
Subject: Hello from Addis and hoping you are having a good new year
Date: Sun, 8 Jan 2006 11:58:12 -0500
From: Pat Rollin parollin9923@hotmail.com
Good day from Addis. Melcam Gena which is Happy Christmas in Ethiopia.
We have been really busy. Nathan arrived on Wednesday night with all his luggage which is a first time in a long time. He is now getting adjusted to Addis and the time difference. Nathan has a Fulbright fellowsihp. He has been working on the Graduate School of Social Work SWEEP project for about 4 years. He will teach a class and conduct his research and supervise some student thesis projects. He will be looking at a house soon and getting ready to move and settle into his new life in Addis and his research. We are happy to have Nathan with us.
On Thursday I went to Gemini to see the Christmas program for the
preschoolers. They sang and had a drama about the birth of Jesus. They had
two students taking the money and names for the census and then Jesus is
born and they had Angels, the shepherds and kings coming to see Jesus. It
was interesting even though it was in Amharic. I got the message. All of
the children wore crowns and were very good in their roles. I am off from
Gemini because they are closed until Tuesday. So I will go back to Gemini
on Wednesday.
On Christmas (Saturday) in Ethiopia we were surprised that the stores were
open and then we went to Serkalem's one of Jim's students house to have
dinner with her family. She has a daughter who is 4 1/2 Rediet and a son
named Ebenezer who is 2 1/2. They have a beautiful new home near us. We
had Ethiopian Meal which was really good. We were very thankful to have
an invitation to Christmas dinner because Christmas is usually spent with
your family so we were honored guests. We are including a picture of our
Christmas day.
Jim will start teaching next week again. So he is really busy. The second year students are all busy trying to get their thesis proposals in and approved. The first year students are getting used to the way classes are done here.
Last week some of the students at Gemini went to Debre Birhan to do a program there. While they were there they went to visit an ancient church so I am looking into seeing if Jim and I can go. It was a walk of an hour off the main road no transportation can reach it. They brought pictures back and it was really interesting looking.
We have not been doing any extra things just the normal everyday stuff. The banana lady and the cheese man are asking where Jim is because I have been shopping by myself. So I told him he had to go with me soon. I went to the laundry and they had trouble finding some of the laundry then finally figured out some of the laundry had not been done so Monday I will go pick up the sheets. So I have paid for the laundry and have a slip to pick up the sheets. I did not take Jim's clothes because he did not get them ready to take so I will do that on Monday.
Jim & Pat