A house tour!

Here's the long awaited photos of our house! I forgot to take pictures of the kitchen, so you'll have to see that another time!

First up: My room

This is the bathroom

I'm standing in Malenes room taking the picture below and we got the pictures in hallway for Ethiopian New Years where kids go from door to door selling handmade pictures.

Guestroom

Living room

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We had the kids that we teach help us with the livingroom decor 

This is our screened-in porch that we love very much! 

And last but not least, Elisabeths pet deer!

A shopping trip in Addis

We''re in Addis now while the kids go to an international school here and so they can practice their English and being part of a larger class. The other day I went shopping and it was a pure delight! You can get quite a few more things here than in Hawassa and I can walk around almost completely without being yelled after for being a white girl. I only had to go to two different stores and got both sausages, bell peppers, yogurt, zucchini and quite a few other fruits and vegetables. 

We always have to clean our vegetables in chlorine before eating them. but it's something I've quickly become accustomed to, especially after my Tanzania days. 

 Sausages! From Denmark, this excited me a bit too much and the didn't taste nearly as good as they looked :-) 

I always bring my eggs home in a plastic bag, but this is the first time one of them's broken.

My job here in Addis is mostly to sit outside the room in case someone needs me, so I've been reading lots! I'm so proud of my students though, they are really incredible.

We went to Langano!

Last weekend we had a girls weekend (except for Moses) at Langano. Langano is the only lake in Ethiopia that you can swim in because there’s bilharzias in all the other lakes in Ethiopia. Although the water was brown and the sand wasn’t as white as Zanzibar, I think I enjoyed it just as much as I would’ve enjoyed Zanzibar! It was absolutely wonderful to get away for a weekend and relax. We played a whole lot of games. Especially Settlers of Catan (Settlers for i danskere!) Our last night there Malene and I hardly slept because it was raining so hard and when we got up it was still raining. The kids really wanted to go swimming (and if we’re being honest, so did the the volunteers!) so we ended up driving to the beach, running into the water while it was pouring, taking a quick swim and the running back up to the car to get warmed up again. It was so cold that my face was blue until I started swimming, but it was great fun and we felt like very cool volunteers!    

On another note my grandpa turns 70 years old today! I wanted to send him a video greeting on Skype and found this verse in process. “See, God has come to save me. I will trust in him not be afraid. The Lord God is my strength and my song; he has given me victory.” Is. 12, 2. In many ways I feel like my grandfather has lived his life on the peace and hope that is found in the victory that Jesus gave us, and it is a good reminder for me also. God is my peace, God is my joy and with him I don’t have to be afraid. I am so incredibly thankful to be in Ethiopia and I have truly fallen completely in love with Ethiopia, but that doesn't mean that it's always easy. It’s not always easy to be so far away from my family, to live in a country where everything is so completely different, to always to the center of attention when you’re out and yet still feel alone at times. BUT God is my strength and my song. That is why I can say that although being here is tough, it is worth every minute.    

The other day I went to the post office, that was quite an adventure in itself! Apparently you can easily help 3-4 customers at a time, especially if one of them is a white, quiet girl who hardly speaks any amharic. Turns out it is pretty cheap to post letters though, and they all the stamps necessary. What really made my day though, was walking outside and seeing this sign!

We have power, halleluja! I don't think I've ever loved my oven and frigde more!