Texas Culture Food

Our students asked us to cook them TRADITIONAL TEXAS FOOD, so tonight (Wednesday, June 21st) they got what they asked for! As traditional as we could make it in Africa.

Me, Esete, Mekda, Ginger, Marta, Lemlem, Bete, Yemisrah, Ashley, Selam, Frey, Hiwot, Nesria
- The back row of girls and Selam and Hiwot are in me and Ginger's class
- The other three girls on the front row are Ashley's best friends

TEXAS TRADITIONAL FOOD includes: Chicken Fried Steaks, Black Beans, Corn, Mashed Potatos, Gravy, Sweet Tea, and Dump Cake for dessert. The Chicken Fried Steak was almost as good as Grammies and the sweet tea didn't come anywhere close - Ashley says her mom's is way better too, but it was good enough :)

We ran out of room at the table so we spread out in the livingroom. For most of you mommies, you know that this is the way we college students "traditionally" eat in America.

We feed fourteen girls "traditional texas food"... you can see their reactions are mixed, but they liked pretty much everything (minus the gravy and sweet tea)

Ashley and I love Nesria... she is Ashley's favorite, but I cannot pick a favorite yet ;)

Sait Bait

This is the Sait Bait (girl house) Mustard yellow, looks like something out of the 70's to me.

This is our top of the line security system. I dont know about you, but I would be scared to jump this thing. Notice the cool african tree in the neighbors yard.
We have a cute little guaden, our guard cuts us fresh flowers out of it to put on our kitchen table, he is actually pretty good at making flower arrangements.
We have a nice view of AA from our front pourch. We really are in a beautiful place up here in the mountains. The vegitation is crazy, there are so many green things and flowers all over the place.

Are you as overwhelmed as we are? This is our city of around 7 million! It's beautiful, despite the fact that you can't see it clearly due to pollution.

Mark loves lil kids (insert sarcasm here). But when the stick their hand out for money, he sticks his hand right back. This lil boy held on for a good 5 minutes.

This is our Africa Beza College football team! They're stickin good!

The epidemy of "snotty nose lil kids" but Ashley huged and touched and loved each one of them, then ate 30 min. later without washing her hands. Two weeks till that ameba starts taking over.

Mark and Ashley went to Yasen's (left) house for lunch and ended up dancing, talking, eatting, drinkin coffee, and playing dress up for SEVEN hours. They loved it! Does anyone else think this resembles the manger scene?

Home sweet home

Fun Culture here in E
The eyebrow lift- so part of the culture here active listening; but instead of nodding or saying uh-hu the lift their eyebrows. If a male is doing it, it feels like he is hitting on you. The guy pinching my cheek is Dave. Our first day in country we had a meeting at the college to introduce ourselves to all of the students. He did the eyebrow thing to us the whole time. We were all freaked out. When he walked into my class Monday morning, I thought I was going to have a problem with one of my students hitting on me. He later explained to me what it meant. He is one of my favorite students. We had show-and-tell on Friday and he brought me a cool beaded bracelet with the country flag on it. Maybe he was sucking up for a good grade, but it worked.

Last week was so cool! We all went to my friend Yetanite’s house! It was a blast. We had lots of good food at lunch(and the best lemonade I have ever drank), got to have the traditional coffee ceremony, but Yetanite made me do it. I roasted the bean, crushed them, and then boiled the water and made coffee for everyone. It was really cool. After coffee we had a dance party. They taught us the “iskista” which is a dance in which you mainly just move your shoulders. I was good at it when I was sitting down, but when I stood up, my bottom half felt the need to move too. Hahaha. I also learned an Arabic dance from another friend of mine Amenia, she is studying a lot about arab culture. She know I am interested so she teaches me a lot. My friends laughed at me because I have no rhythm. Pouring the coffee is a delicate art, you have to make sure to not get any coffee grounds in the cup. My friend Amenia was watching closely making sure i did it right.
This is the beautiful Yetanite and I having coffee on morning.
Having discuessions in class is fun, except they put me in the mush pot!

These are 7 of my girls who i am getting really close to. They had us over last week for Esets house for a coffee ceremony, it was my first. Today they are takeing me shopping for one of there dresses i am wereing.


Other random things about AA
We have noticed while driving that the lines painted on the road are purely for decoration, no on actually uses them. People drive in two lanes, and at some times I have seen three cars with at least some part of them in the same lane.
The air pollution here is crazy. We all have black boggers, and every time a car or bus passes I feel like we may have lung cancer because of all the junk in the air.

Welcome to the Third World

“Welcome to the third world,” an American friend of mine who lives here said as I lay next to her in a cab vomiting into a plastic bag. So I have been sick for the past few days. PTL I am better now, I am about sick of lying in bed. We think it was something I ate, so now worries, I feel great and are very rested. I got a funny and encouraging note from two of my students:

Dear Teacher Crista,
I’m so sorry, Ginger told us you are sick today. I think you guys are not comfort in E, I know, it is difficult to handle a pain. We have a Japanese friend in AA who are basket ball coach of Solomon, and he was also sick when he came in E, but he adopte it. I think you guys will be familiar with E foods. We pr for your pains.
Dave and Solomon
PS We know you sick because American’s were defeated by Chec (Czech) on Monday.

For those of you who are American’s, you probably don’t know what the rest of the world is doing right now. The World Cup (it’s like the Super Bowl of soccer, except everyone in the World, except America watches) is being played in Germany. On Monday America played the Czech Republic and got slaughtered 0-3, which in soccer terms is bad. Our students have been giving us a hard time about it; we just ask them who the E. team is doing. That gets them quite real fast, because E does not have a team playing in the World Cup

My crazy new friends

This is me and Yetanite one morning last week when we went to get coffee. She works at the ERC, one of the places I teach at. Yesterday was so cool! We all went to my friend Yetanite’s house! It was a blast. We had lots of good food at lunch(and the best lemonade I have ever drank), got to have the traditional coffee ceremony, but Yetanite made me do it. I roasted the beans, crushed them, and then boiled the water and made coffee for everyone. It was really cool. After coffee we had a dance party. They taught us the “iskista” which is a dance in which you mainly just move your shoulders. I was good at it when I was sitting down, but when I stood up, my bottom half felt the need to move too. Hahaha. I also learned an Arabic dance. My friends laughed at me because I have no rhythm. These are some of my students at ABCollege. This is on thursday morning last week when they had me over for a coffee ceremony. I got to get all dressed up in the cultural clothes. These girls are so much fun and so crazy.
Fun Culture
The eyebrow lift- so part of the culture here is active listening; but instead of nodding or saying uh-hu the lift their eyebrows. If a male is doing it, it feels like he is hitting on you. The guy pinching my cheek is Dave. Our first day in country we had a meeting at the college to introduce ourselves to all of the students. He did the eyebrow thing to us the whole time. We were all freaked out. When he walked into my class Monday morning, I thought I was going to have a problem with one of my students hitting on me. He later explained to me what it meant. He is one of my favorite students. We had show-and-tell on Friday and he brought me a cool beaded bracelet with the country flag on it. Maybe he was sucking up for a good grade, but it worked. I have also tried to do the eyebrow lift as part of my active listening, it might be somthing I bring back to the states with me.

Other random things about AA
We have noticed while driving that the lines painted on the road are purely for decoration, no on actually uses them. People drive in two lanes, and at some times I have seen three cars with at least some part of them in the same lane next to each other.
The air pollution here is crazy. We all have black boggers, and every time a car or bus passes I feel like we may have lung cancer because of all the junk in the air.
This is a cute little African baby that I want to take home with me, but i cant so i just took his picture.

In the city

It has been a little over a week since I have been in the city and I can honestly say I’m a bit overwhelmed by all the contrasts I see. The rich and the poverty-stricken live side-by-side. Businessmen and beggars share the crowded polluted streets. I will try to upload more pictures, but this is just one fo the few sights that fills our eyes as we attempt to move about the city. These are the dwelling places of some of the local people here. It make sharing my tiny apartment with 3 other girls seem like paradise.
The is on my second day of class with few of my students. I asked to take a pictue of their discuession group, but they made ginger take it a put me in the mushpot! They are great!

A few of my girl students had me over to there home for a traditional coffee ceremony. I got to put on her dress and headcovering and pour some coffee. The coffee is so good here!
This is the view of the city out of my 5th story classroom window. This is a good view of what the crazy yet beautiful city of AA looks like. And no the is not fog of haze, it is just a bunch of pollution.

Now this is Ethiopia

I took this while driving down the "interstate" near my house. Someone make sure my grandaddy sees this, I am sure he will get a kick out of it.
This is an everyday Ethiopian meal. The grayish stuff that looks like a cloth is the injeta. It is actually very good, but kinda difficult to eat, because you use you hands.

Our group sat around and ate on these littl stools. We all shared two serving of the above picture

We are HERE!

This place is indescribable, but I will try to attempt it. It is like two worlds have collided here. The rural roots of the country villages mixed with a modern western façade. It is a bit like an overgrown farming village. The very first thing I laid my eyes on as we pulled out of our house the first day was a man herding his goats down the interstate in the middle of town. We almost got rammed by two cattle crossing near a big intersection on our way to the Hilton hotel where we exchanged out money. Outside the Hilton was a Hummer, several Mercedes along with men and women dressed in suits and evening gowns. What a sight to see all of this in one place.
So I found out that I am officially a college English professor, yikes! I went to my school today, Africa Baza College and met some of the administration because classes start Monday. The building this college is in looks like the one at the fireman training place out by the airport in Lubbock. It is six stories tall and maybe 100ft x 100ft around. I will be teaching two classes there a MWF and TTH every afternoon for about 2 hours. Then I will teach one class of English at a different place called the ERC. It is a place business and market people come to improve there English skills.
Tonight we had our first Ethiopian meal. Again I will try to attempt to describe it, but it is difficult. I will start with the injeta. It is a large flat gray pancake/crape that tastes like old sourdough bread. This is the base. On top of it they put wat, it can be many different things in little piles. O yeah the like there stuff spicy! For example wat can be ground beef, spinch, spicy bean gravy, chicken sauce, hot spicy meat and some stuff that is like fajita beef. Everyone eats with there hands. You grab some injeta and pick up the wat and eat it with your fingers. It is fun and messy.
Hopefully pictures will come… a pictures says a 1000 words, so all of this will make more sense with them. The internet is just slow so uploading pictures takes a long time.

Crista

O yeah… leave me comments, it makes me sad to think people don’t read my blog!