Friday, 11/22. Another day at SLTSSA and another
Sign Language Class! I'm really enjoying my time taking class and trying to
communicate with the men and women in the class. Most of them are repeats so by
now they've seen me a few times. It's been cool to see them interact. The
teacher was really nice and wanted to be inclusive again, and wrote out a few
lists in English on the board. I learned all sorts of fun words today like:
lazy (lazy boy, lazy girl), selfish, far, improvement, park, deaf, blind, mute,
open, close, long/tall, and a lot of other ones. Not sure I remember them all,
but I definitely added to my current dictionary.
After class, I pretty much got an Amharic lesson from from Wondiamagn.
Literally, I learned so much about the language. I also learned how to type
Amharic using a Standard English keyboard, if you have the special program. But
really, Amharic would take me forever to learn!!!!
And I learned about the Ethiopian Calendar versus the Gregorian Calendar (which
we are on). So today for us would be 11/22/13 (November 22, 2013) but in
Ethiopia today is 13/3/2006 (November 13, 2006). I’m guessing you are a bit
confused. Let me explain. First, they put the day first, then the month and the
year. Second, as I mentioned earlier, Ethiopia is 6 years behind us. Third, November
is actually their 3rd month (Sept. is their first month). Fourth, they are also
behind on the day of the month as well.
And (as I’ve mentioned before) time of the day starts when the sun rises, which
is around 6 am our time, but for them 6 am would be 0 am or 12, so... a normal
work day is from 2 am - 11 am which would be 8 am - 5 pm for us... so yes, it's
been a bit confusing to schedule things.
After my long but really insightful conversation with Wondiamagn (which
included a lot more information), I went to meet Nicole at Jupiter Hotel. We
hung out, got some work done and then ventured to find a post office. When,
Danny, our driver brought us there, he brought us to the main post office in
Addis, which was huge AND a training post office. And WOW. It was large.
Also, today Dean Weber (the Dean of Pepperdine's Graduate School of Education
and Psychology came!) She is doing work with Mindi and trying to establish some
relationships between Pepperdine and Addis. It's pretty great (and rare) to
have your professor of your class and the Dean of the school share the
experience with you. So I'm looking forward to having her here (to our home,
because that's what it feels like, my new home).
To be honest, I'm feeling sad to be leaving. I've just started to build
relationships with people and get comfortable here, and it's sad to think that
I might not see some of these people ever again (even when I come back in 2015,
they might not be here). I can't even believe that in 4 days I will be gone, that
this experience will have come and gone already.. just like that. I pray I can
keep of piece of this experience with me forever, and I really do hope I can
come back to Ethiopia. (God willing of course.) Maybe I'll get to coordinate a
Missions Trip here OR start a summer International Program here or both! Or
something else, but I really do hope to come back (and bring some friends!)...
maybe you?!
Think about it. #ethiopia2015 is sounding pretty good, don't you think?
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