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!