Our alarm buzzes right as the sun begins to rise. But our “first alarm” happens about 20 minutes prior to our actual alarm as the chanting and singing begins at the local churches. While the days are warm, the nights are chilly and we all want to stay cozy in bed for “just 5 more minutes.” We dress is layers, knowing that the walk to carpool will be cold, but by the time Charlotte returns from school her sweater and socks will be in her backpack and the legs of her leggings will be pulled as high as she can get them. And yes, as you can imagine, returning sweaty and sockless makes for some very stinky shoes.
After a quick breakfast (usually toast or oatmeal), while listening to Keys for Kids and our current favorite Cedarmont Kids playlist on Spotify, Charlotte and Than are out the door at 7:05 am to get to the carpool meet up spot.
On his way home from carpool Than often stops to buy bonbolino. Bonbolino is basically fried dough – like a savory donut. A LARGE savory donut I should add. We limit ourselves to having it about once a week and coming in at only 7 birr each (around 20 cents) it’s a nice break from our usual bowl of oatmeal. Fried dough comes in various, delicious forms here. Our other favorite is called “fetira.” It’s served with honey and we often will eat it on Saturday mornings at a local cafe.
While Than and Charlotte are on their way to carpool, I try to get some exercise. I go for a walk around our compound (well, a few times around) while listening to my Amharic recordings. I return home and throw a load of laundry in, make coffee and get ready for the day.
Amharic tutoring begins at 8 am for me. Thankfully it’s just about a 5 minute walk from our home. Than heads out around the same time for his office at the Ethiopian Graduate School of Theology. More on his days coming in a future post!
When I return home from tutoring, I hang our laundry out to dry (this is SO much easier during the dry season which we’re in right now), catch up on emails and projects, tidy up, work on my Bible study, listen to my Amharic recordings (yes, again) and do food prep. I could write a whole post on food prep and cooking here (and perhaps someday I will) but let’s just say it consumes significantly more time than it did in the US. Thankfully I (mostly) enjoy cooking.
Charlotte arrives home from school between 1-1:30 pm (KG1 is only half days) and we have lunch together. We fill our afternoons with playdates, trips to the Zoma Museum (very near our home), rest, reading, grocery shopping and baking. On Mondays we have lunch with friends which is great fun for the Moms and kids. We take turns hosting – I’m so grateful for the friendship of the women I’ve been able to meet through these lunches.
On Friday’s I attend a women’s Bible study – mostly with other expat women who live here in Ethiopia.
Of course, many days are far from ordinary. Sometimes the water goes when you’ve just shampoo’d your hair, while other days a monkey will come into your kitchen and knock your pizza dough off the counter. Inevitably things take longer than planned but we are getting used to that.
On the weekends we enjoy time together as a family. We are getting more and more involved in our church – Ruthina helps teach Sunday School to the younger kids and Than occasionally preaches and helps lead the service.
Every month we settle more and more into our life here. Our responsibilities and relationships continue to increase. We grow in our understanding of the culture and the needs here. The things that were once so unusual to us are becoming more normal. On the best of days and the worst of days and all the in between ones, we end the day writing in our family gratitude journal, an exercise grounds us, changes our perspective and points our eyes back to our Provider.
The Veltman's 