Learn a new language, get a new soul

I decided a few weeks ago I should write every day, somewhere. I already feel all kinds of things slipping away from my memory.

I saw some Ethiopian women in the Denver airport the other day. I just wandered into this little store, just the kind of store that would be in Addis tucked in the Piazza or something. Sure enough, I hear them behind me talking, so I talked to them for a bit. They were cute and complementary, and I felt like I was waking part of my brain up again, it was great.

"Learn a new language, get a new soul..." They loved saying that at the language acquisition workshop I just attended in Colorado. Funny, it is true for me. The Amharic me, the Oromo me, now tucked away, and the American me is sort of floundering.

So I am going to write my stories down, to remember, to validate, to record, in order not to forget...

Vitamin A campaign, was that just a few short months ago??

The Vitamin A campaign back in May out in the bush near Jimma, Ethiopia was great. I wanted to be out, I was sick of being in the clinic. And probably I like working with Yacob best, and I worked with him most of the time. We walked, somedays it felt like far. The first day, Friday, we kept the clinic open but had a lot of the neighboring people bring their kids in in the afternoon. Saturday, clinic closed, we went to Rukensa, Zenebitch and I, and worked there. It was slower than we thought, and we were frustrated that the “mobilization team,” namely Sultan, either hadn’t called people correctly, or he had called them and they just weren’t coming. We talked for a long time during our breaks- I brought Dabo Kolo from Addis, she brought Dabo Kolo that she had made, and she had actually packed tea in a thermos, and little glasses and everything. I loved our little break time. I feel like I always get hungry early on those campaigns. I asked her about Kocho, and she said, oh yes, that is what we Yem people specialize in, and it is so good with eggs, and with this, and with that. She spoke of it with relish. I remember we also talked about discipline in other people’s families, namely, when you disapprove of another parent’s discipline. In Ethiopia they are much less hesistant to discipline someone else’s child, even physically.
Here we are, getting ready to go. From the left, Amed (just along for the ride), then Zenu, me, Desalyn, Mekonnen, and Seraj.

That evening, like every evening during the campaign while the other nurses were away, we had a little conference about what we were going to do the next day. The question was, do we leave the clinic unmanned? Should I go out to Tubena? I thought a nice Sunday in Awanno sounded great, but I didn’t feel like I could justify it, and I didn’t like making Jihad work continuously. (He had been doing the driving, but also apparently helping with the campaign, which made for long days). So I decided to go, took Desalyn and Reyes. It was long driving, and I was so afraid of rain, as we would have never been able to get back, but it worked out.