Our House: Part 4

In our slow description of our home in Ethiopia, we've saved the best
parts for last! In this update we'll briefly describe the most
important rooms in the house, our bathroom and our kitchen.

We have one of the nicest bathrooms we've seen in the city! The
bathroom is simple but quite large. We have a full-size bathtub,
which we initially planned to turn into a shower. Unfortunately there
is rarely enough water pressure to really have a shower. When we say
there is no pressure, we're serious. The faucet has a shower head
attachment that has perhaps 50 holes that water is supposed to rush
through. Typically about 5 of those holes give a little stream for
us. It takes us 15 minutes to fill the tub a few inches, just enough
to cover the bottom so we don't have to feel the cold sides. So even
though we're technically in the tub we still have to use a pitcher to
wash and clean ourselves. (Attention possible visitors: with a little
patience, say 30 minutes or 60 really, one can have a real bath!)
We're just happy for hot water!

The only interesting thing about the toilet is that instead of having
a handle to flush, there is a knob on top that you pull. We had never
seen that before, but it is standard in all of Ethiopia—as are "squat"
toilets. We are also blessed to have a toilet seat, one of few we
have seen outside of our home. It even has one of those built in
plastic lips that serves as a handle! The sink leaks rather
frequently. Now that the weather is heating up, one highlight of the
bathroom is that it never gets sun, so the tile is nice and cold after
walking home from work in the sun.

So, that's the bathroom…pretty much like any American bathroom, minus
plush rugs and matching towels. One important thing to note: here in
Ethiopia the world is the toilet here – we have yet to go outside and
not see men peeing randomly in the streets. Considering this, we feel
lucky to simply have a bathroom.

Like the bathroom, the kitchen is functional and simple. We have a
medium-sized fridge, a large toaster-type oven, and a
smaller-than-average gas stove. There are two cabinets, one for
storing pots and pans and the other for our small assortment of
dishes. Other than some small glasses (I miss big plastic cups!), all
of our dishes are plastic.

Like every other part of our house, we cannot complain about the
kitchen. We used to spend little time in the kitchen because Tsehei
and Aberash, our cook during the week, did most of the cooking and
dishes. We'll write a post more about the lack of variety for meal
options. Lately, however, we've been getting creative and began
cooking more ourselves. While Aberash is an expert at cinnamon roles,
pasta, and Ethiopian food, we can eat it only so much. When the
internet has worked well enough to provide recipes, and when
ingredients are available, we'll cook our own favorites—tacos,
enchiladas, and grilled cheese. Recently we have even made calzones!
We are very appreciative of the care packages we have recieved from
Keegan's parents! They have helped the food adjustment tremendously!
We have also been able to find a few "American" things at some of the
supermarkets. They have been hard to find but we have BBQ sauce and
Mountain Dew in the fridge (saving them!) as well as Ice Cream in the
freezer. On our shelf of food we have salsa, syrup for pancakes,
coffee, and plenty of the essentials.

Now you know all about our home. As time passes we are slowly making
the house more of a home. In a bedroom we now have pictures up, so we
now have pictures of friends and family spread along the wall. It
only takes a few familiar and loved faces to make us comfortable!

Our Home: part 3

Life in Africa is supposed to have a slower pace. People typically take it easy more often than in the United States. Apparently we either are the exception or at least feel like the exception. Life has felt filled to the top lately, so much so that we have not even made time for updating this here Blog! So, we’re behind a bit and will attempt to catch up in the coming weeks!
Earlier we began giving details about our home. We shared about our compound and our bedroom. We’ll begin our catching up by sharing about our living room. Soon you can look forward to the joys of our bathroom and kitchen!
The living room also serves as our dining room. When we got here we had a separate dining room, a tiny, bare room with an empty echo. So we decided to combine them and moved our small, 4 person table into an open space in the living room…and voila, just like home in the US! The room is dominated by one very long and very low-to-the-ground couch. There is also a matching loveseat and two matching chairs. They are all a dirty gray, not our favorite color. But because we love each other, we sit only in the love seat. The rest serve as “eye candy” to distract you from the remarkably white walls. Above the long couch is our artwork, which we purchased at a price that was 90% less than the original quoted price, yet was likely still too much. It’s a very brightly colored painting that depicts the story of Queen Sheba and King Solomon (Short Synopsis: They fall in love and have a child who eventually returns to Israel and steals/borrows/receives the Arc of the Covenant. Or so the Ethiopian version goes.)
On the floor of the living/dining room is a large rug that is not soft. Actually, it’s more like a mat. We have our first ever glass-topped coffee table and a TV that is the same as our one in the US (Meaning: HUGE!). Along one wall are windows and a door that opens onto the driveway that serves as our patio. Facing these windows is our table with its plastic, green and white checkered table cloth. Other than eating and occasional TV, we don’t spend much time here. But it is nice to have room to host people.
After describing it, our house may not sound like much, but it is exactly what we need. Recently we received a bit of perspective about the house. A young man I (Keegan) had been getting to know from walking around invited me to see his house. We walked less than a block from our house into a field full of shack houses. Danny took me to a tiny room that is his home. It is one room, perhaps five feet square, with a straw mat on the dirt floor that serves as his bed. There is no running water, no bathroom, and one little light bulb. Imagine your closet made out of tin, but without the carpet. Cracks let in the cold night air and the roof doesn’t stop the rain. Beside his “bed”, Danny showed me his possessions—a backpack with one set of clothes and an old walkman. Even Danny is lucky in comparison to the many that sleep with only a plastic sheet covering them. We don’t have to go far to find these clear reminders of how greatly we are blessed.