Feeling my age...

... Plus about 20 years.  I think I'm getting old.  Not sure how that suddenly happened, but by the end of the day, I'm pretty wiped out.  This evening, I wandered over to my neighbour's house to borrow a DVD... and found all the "kids" (that is, all the newbies who are under the age of 30) gathered in the house, getting ready to make Christmas ornaments.  Once I turned up at the door, they kindly invited me to stay, so I stayed a few minutes and ate a brownie... but then, I left, because I'm so tired!  I do think it's partly because, well, I actually have a LOT of work to do each day.  So by the end of the day, and the end of the week, my brain and body are tired!

But it does alarm me a little, because I used to want to go out and play all the time!  I used to be the one who wanted to have people over to play games and watch DVDs and have fun with a grand group.  But now... phew, it just sounds like a lot of work to have people over.  I talk with folks all day during the day... and when the sun goes down and the day is done, all I want to do is wash my dishes, sit in my chair under my fan and drink a cup of tea.  If I'm like this at my age, seriously, what on earth am I going to be like in 10 years?!  Or in 20 years!?  It's a bit alarming to think about.

Perhaps the world will look a bit brighter once I've had a holiday at home, as my friend here would say, "In the bosom of my family."  Then I can curl up by the fire, eat a bowl of Cheerios, and enjoy my family and friends, and familiar things of home to restore my soul. 

Have a good weekend everyone.

It is Finished!

Yup, no more teacher training until January :)  Whoot Whoot!  Even though teacher training is one of my favourite parts of my job... I am also glad that this last workshop is over, because, well, it as a bit tiring!  I saw some great teaching happening, and the trainees learned a lot, which I actually think they might take back to their classrooms with them... but it will be good to have a week in the office to do all the other bits that have been piling up on my desk.  I shall try to get as much done as I can this coming week, because the following week, I'm already starting my trip HOME!  Yup, that's right, watch out, North America, I'm coming home!  Well, at least, for a month or so :)  More teacher training awaits me in January in Jbs! 

I just bought my ticket for the first leg of my trip.  And I'm really hoping that tomorrow, the paperwork and approvals from various offices will go through tomorrow so that my ticket for the big leg of the trip will be paid for and issued.  It's coming close to time to travel, but I'm still waiting for various folks to figure out who needs to approve it so that my organizational account can be charged.  When I start to think about it, I get a bit nervous... what if I lose my reservation because someone wasn't in the office, or the internet goes down... or... all sorts of horrible things could happen.  I'm sure it will all work out in the end, it's just that it's coming down to the wire here, and I don't have my ticket issued yet.  Yikes! 

But today is Sunday, a day to rest and relax.  And rest and relax I shall do.  I have already listened to a sermon from my home church - what a wondrous thing the Internet is.  And I have eaten a yummy oven puffed pancake.  And I have plans to wander to the corner restaurant to drink an avocado juice later on.  So, all in all, it's a good day so far.

Only not so perfect thing is that the generator is set to go off in about 2 minutes, and then I shall begin sweating once again.  It's really heating up these past few days.  At the moment, it's a balmy 33C in my living room with the fan going.  Once that fan stops... it might be time for a class of icey water and a nap...

Happy Sunday everyone!

Teacher Training

The training continues!  The participants are doing so well... it seems like all the things we've been trying to teach them for the past year or so are actually starting to stick into their minds, and they are starting to become habit!  It's so encouraging to see!

But it seems like this workshop has been slightly plagued by sickness :(  Several of the participants have been sick with various ailments.  Others have had to leave to attend funerals.  So we haven't really had much of a full house for many days.  It's going to make it hard for those participants to really catch up on what they've missed, as it's only an 8 day workshop... if you miss a whole day or two out of only 8, well, you've missed quite a bit :(  So here's hoping that tomorrow we are all back to full strength!  Even I was feeling rather poorly yesterday - but I had to teach a few hours.  It took a LOT of my energy to be "on" when all I wanted to do was curl up in bed while whatever it is that was in my stomach had a little dance party.  I won't give you all the gory details, but I ended up taking some medicine yesterday afternoon that seems to have shut down the party in my belly.  For that I'm very thankful!

Anyway, I have sent a bunch of handouts for tomorrow to the printer... so I best toddle off to the printer and get my ducks in a row for tomorrow!

Just wanted to let you know that all is well here...

A Wee Break

In the midst of all the worskshopping and keeping myself clothes in clean clothes and eating off clean plates, a girl has to have a bit of a break now and again.  So today, my neighbours dragged my tired little butt out of bed at 7am, and off we went to the "mountain" that sits to the West of town.  It's not a very big mountain - more like a giant pile of rocks, and the town has grown all around it.  Most of the foundations for all the new buildings in town have been built using rocks that have been smashed (usually by hand) off of this mountain.  I kid you not - there are probably a hundred people sitting around with basic tools (a hammer, a chisel...) literally breaking rocks by hand in the shadow of that mountain.  Today we even met several folks who have come from a neighbouring country in order to sit under the sun and bit by bit, piece by piece, chip away at the mountain to sell for building material.

Anyway, there is still plenty of rock to tromp around, so off we went.  By 7:30am I was already sweating, and I believe I have a dehydration induced headache this evening, but it was really nice to just get off my little compound and do something a bit different.  Nature always refreshes the soul, even if it was stupidly hot and humid and rather overgrown!

I don't have too many grand photos because... well... um, well, we never actually made it to the top of any of the pile of rocks!  We were going to go up the highest "peak", but we ended up not being able to find a path... and with thick grass that was about 7 feet tall (seriously, not an exaggeration!), we decided to abort the push to the summit of that one.  So we went back down to the "valley" and went up another side... but we were thwarted on that attempt, too, by some serious rocks.  So, we had a nice walk up and down half the mountains and through the valley.  My attempts at speaking the local language always come in handy in places like that, because there are a ton of people up there, and they never expect a foreigner to greet them in their own language.  So it was good fun to surprise them and to chat a bit about the place... in the local language :)  So fun!

But like I said, it was a sweaty, sweaty affair.  I think the humidity was around 85 - 90% today, with a temperature (according to the car thermometer) of 36C.  How's that for mountain climbing weather?!  I had sweat dripping off my elbow at one point.  Who knew your elbows could sweat?! 

I also got nicely marked up by the grass.  Somehow, I seem to be allergic to whatever grass we were walking through, and I came out of the grass forest with huge red itchy welts on my arms and legs!  They were pretty impressive - I wish I had remembered to take a picture of them.  But you can imagine the sight that we were when we finally got off the mountain and went for a Coke at one of the fancy lodges in town, which just happens to sit at the foot of the mountain.  We were a pretty sad sight - drenched in sweat, muddy, and me with my welts... to top it off, I had forgotten to bring my wallet with me, and my friends had also forgotten to bring money with them!  So between three of us, we dredged up about $3.50... just enough to buy two Cokes, which we shared between the three of us :)  Most people go there and spend rather a lot more than that - the lunch buffet there costs $18... but there we were, with our $3.50 - exactly enough for those two Cokes.  We even walked up the counter to order our own Cokes, because we didn't even have enough to leave as a tip for a waitress!  We were the last of the big spenders today...

... But never fear, I did get a chance to spend some money later in the day.  I had to do my weekly fruits and veggie shopping today, too.  My main diet is veggies and fruits, so the weekly marketing trip is an important one, to say the least.  Unfortunately, prices keep going up.  I went with my other neighbour, though, who is quite the talker, and he got us all sorts of little gifts and discounts!  I was absolutely amazed at how many potatoes he got for $2 - I think he got twice as many as I got from the same potato seller last week!  It's good to go shopping with him, though, as it sharpens my own bargaining skills :)  We did get some beautiful fruits and veggies, though!  I can't wait to make fruit salad tomorrow with the giant passion fruits we found today!

And, I'm sure you are wondering what Zane was doing while I was sweating out under the sun today?

Good thing he was guarding those teaching aids so well...

Still Kickin'...

... albeit slowly!  There's nothing like a bit of good old fashioned hard work to tire a girl out.  And man, this past week has tired me right out!  But it's a fairly good tired, if you know what I mean.  We started a teacher training workshop on Wednesday, and man, by the end of Wednesday, I was SO tired.  I mean, like, so tired I could barely put together a proper sentence tired.  I had used up all my words with some hours of teaching during the day, and just didn't have anything else in me.  Then yesterday, I went straight from workshop to Zumba to hosting 10 people in my house to start up a new Bible study series.  I didn't realize my house could hold that many people, but it did... barely.  I'm not sure how I feel about 10 people being in our "small group" for the Bible study... but that's a post for another time!

Today, we had another full day of workshopping.  But I am encouraged to see that the teachers we're training are really starting to "get" it. I  mean, we've been working with the same teachers for some years now, and old habits are finally dying :)  They are really starting to teach with kids in mind, and kids are actually starting to learn to read!  So it's really exciting to see the teachers learning new methods and being able to practice and apply them.  Plus, as tiring as it is, I really do love to teach! 

But, that being said, I haven't been turning my computer on hardly at all - except to prepare my plans for the coming days.  I'm just excited and pleased that I cooked some supper for myself and got my dishes washed this evening :) The rains are continuing here, for some crazy reason.  Which makes for some very humid, very sweaty days in front of the class.  And unfortunately, there was no water this morning, as something happened with the water pump over night... which means I am ripe for a shower... so, I'm off to the shower, then under the mossy net to hide from the flocks of mosquitoes in my house.  Sorry to not be more entertaining these days. Hopefully once the workshop is over, I'll have more energy to be entertaining online, instead of expending all my energy to be entertaining in the classroom...

Had a Fabulous Post All Planned...

... and then I could barely keep my eyes open.  Seriously, it's 10:05pm and I am already under my mosquito net with the lights off.  Why am I so tired?  I will probably never know.  All I know is I want to sleep.  So sleep I shall.  Good night.  Maybe the fabulous post will come tomorrow...

More Holiday Photos

Because it was just so gorgeous, how can I not share more photos?

We got up pretty early the day after touring Middle Earth, and drove in our red van to see some more amazing sights.  The drive was beautiful - lots of quaint pastoralist scenes of folks doing their farming.  I think our driver thought we were nuts, because my friend is fluent in Amharic, and we've both lived in Africa for several years, so I think we were different than the typical tourists that they see in those parts.  Surprisingly enough, most of the tourists around were my parent's age, and wearing zip-off pants.  Neither my friend or I were wearing zip off pants, you can be sure of that!

 We drove for a few hours from Gondar in our trusty van, stopping to take some photos, and examine the teff growing in the fields.  Once we got to Debark, we stopped at the Simien Mountains National Park office to pick up our guide and our scout!  After the all important macchiato, we toured the little market, and picked up some bananas, toilet paper and even a couple of Snickers bars! Imagine, Snickers bars!

But it was really the garlic that was amazing.  Fresh garlic EVERYWHERE.  You can imagine the aroma.  I've never seen garlic like that before, and you can bet that had I been coming straight back home, I would have had a bunch of garlic to surprise the customs folks with :)  But, I didn't think any of my travel companions for the next 3 weeks would want my suitcase smelling like garlic... so, I took a photo instead of some garlic.

Mengistu, our guide, and Ato Berhane, a wizened old man with a wizened old rifle, piled into our van, and we started up the mountain.  You are not allowed to go anywhere in the park without a "scout", and he was a jovial old man, so it was fun to have him along, but it did feel a bit odd to have him sitting in the back seat of the van with his gun the whole time!  He was pretty happy to share our snacks with us, though, and was quite amused by our continuous stopping of the van to take more pictures...

We arrived at "home" to our Lodge just as the fog was rolling in!  But that's ok, because it was definitely lunch time!  While we ate our lunch, someone else carried our suitcases up the mountain to our room... which was just fine with me, because, well, at over 10,000 ft, just walking up the mountain was making me huff and puff!

After lunch, though, the fog rolled away, and we went for a little walk with Mengistu and Ato Berhane.  Good enough, we started out walking downhill :)  And I had to stop a lot to take pictures.

See how much fun I was having, hiking?  Seriously, it was amazing to be in the mountains, to wander through the hills, to breath the fresh air (that is, when I could catch my breath!) and just enjoy creation and its Creator.  I've really, really missed that living in Jb.

We borrowed Ato Berhane's blanket and pretended to be shepherds and scouts, much to his amusement.

Really, though, we were hunting for the endemic baboon, found no where else in the world!  I'm a bit wary of baboons - never having had any good experiences with them in East Africa.  But, I was assured that these ones were friendly, and not only that, but they are the world's only herbivore baboons.  They just sit on their butts all day, eating grass, and smiling for photos from the tourists.

The van came down the hill to pick us up... but we were like, "nah, we're still young, we can walk back up..."  After falling in a stream and worrying dear Ato Berhane... I have to admit that we were pretty happy to see the van waiting for us half-way up the mountain :) 

Some photos of the last few weeks

Zane was all packed and ready to go the night before.  Unfortunately, he couldn't find his passport in time, so he had to stay home :(

 

My friend and I flew from Addis Ababa to Gonder, in the Northern part of the country.  Amazing!  It really was sort of like being in Middle Earth.  I mean, I've seen more impressive castles in Europe, but the fact that these are African castles, and have such an interesting history of their own, it was really amazing to wander around and try to imagine what life was like back at the height of these empires.  The castles were pretty well preserved, and we took lots of pictures of the details of the various castles and ruins in the Royal Enclosure.  But I'll spare you too many photos...

 After touring the Royal Enclosure, we drove up to one of the famous churches - this one is famous for all the icons and paintings inside.  The ceiling paintings were the most impressive!  Row upon row of Ethiopian angels looking down at you.  You're supposed to try to count all the angels... but I just spent my time enjoying the scene and taking photos.  We learned a ton of the history, and learned a lot about the Orthodox Church, as well, but I'll spare you the details - if you're interested, you can look it up in Lonely Planet :)  We had a good guide, though, which made for an enjoyable day in Gondar.  After an avocado juice and a nice dinner overlooking the statue of Emporor Tewodros, we went early to bed in our very nice hotel, ready for a drive up the Simien Mountains the following day...

I'm Home!

I'm sitting in my favourite chair, under my favourite fan (though it's only on "1" speed at the moment, since it's pretty cool this evening), and listening to my favourite BBC radio station.  I don't even have to share my chair with Zane, because he's currently curled up inside my suitcase, which is sitting on the floor, under the fan, drying out.

Yes, I said "drying out".  I had a grand entrance into Jb today.  First, I was a bit shakey, because wow, we had a bit of a rough landing!  Ethiopian Airlines has a great safety record, and I have flown on them a TON in the past years... but today, wow, a bit rough.  You could hear everyone let out a bit of a sigh of relief when our plane came to stop on the runway, so I wasn't the only one who was feeling like it had been a bit of a rough landing...

Anyway, after the landing, everyone exited the plane.  Of course, there are none of those nice walk-way things that bring you directly into the airport.  Here, the flight crew opens the door of the plane, which turns into a handy-dandy little stair case, which you walk down, onto the runway, and find your way across the runway to the terminal.  Today, when I got off the plane, I looked across the runway and could literally see the rain coming.  The far end of the runway was soaked, and you could see the rain quickly moving our way.  Unfortunately, a plane carrying some VIP just arrived in front of us, and as soon as I saw the rain and was about the make a run for it to the terminal, we were all stopped in our tracks by the security detail for this VIP.  And we all had to stand there, watching the rain come, with a rather large, well, security contingent between us and the terminal.  Nothing to be done but stand there and get soaked.  The very second the VIP passed and we were allowed to go, we all made a mad dash for the door!  I think this is one of the only times I've ever seen anyone running in this town!

Of course, then by the time our luggage made it to the terminal, it was completely soaked through, as well.  As soon as I got home, I unpacked, and hung all my dirty laundry all over the house, making sure that it dried a little before throwing it in the dirty clothes hamper!  What a nice welcome home, eh?  At least Zane was sitting on the porch, awaiting my arrival.  He sure was happy to see me, and promptly plopped himself in my wet suitcase, and has only moved from the wet suitcase long enough to scarf down some pumpkin for supper!

But, it's good to be home, to be in my own space, to get back to "normal", after a wonderful trip to Ethiopia.