And the tradition continues. Unfortunately I am uploading this blog from the Dubai Airport and YouTube is blocked so I am unable to add a fun song at the end :/ Here are all of our “sometimes” moments from month three 🙂
-Sometimes the driver of your van does not properly secure your hiking packs to the roof and one of the bags comes flying off as you travel down a bumpy street.
-Sometimes you travel three hours one way for 30 minutes of ministry.
-Sometimes you eat so fast that by the time your host walks in she believe you have not actually eaten a thing and she badgers your about needing to put food on your plate.
-Sometimes you and your team mate get sick…one can’t keep it in and the other can’t get it out.
-Sometimes you mention you love the rosemary in the potatoes and every dish from there on out contains copious amounts of rosemary.
-Sometimes you and your team begin an inadvertent toilet paper and water fast because your host did not realize how quickly your team would go through both items.
-Sometimes there is only one handle for all the car doors and one window crank for all the windows and each must be taken off and passed around to each individual door and window in order to open them.
-Sometimes your taxi driver parks and turns off the engine while he and a passenger get into a yelling match.
-Sometimes you are sitting around in the living room waiting for your team so y’all can leave for ministry but your team has already left and is standing outside waiting for you.
-Sometimes you come home from a run and are greeted by the sight of a sheep being butchered in the front yard.
-Sometimes your taxi blows past your stop for home so you just start walking towards home and have to call your host to come get your team.
-Sometimes all the girls at your ministry want to braid and cornrow the white girl hair, making your male ministry host have to sit and wait for at least an hour past when you are supposed to leave for the day.
-Sometimes your host brings home the strangest foods, telling you they’re national foods or special cultural dishes, just to watch your face.
-Sometimes your host brings home one of the said cultural dishes, which is beef that is normally eaten completely raw, and your team politely informs him you cannot eat raw beef due to World Race policies.
-Sometimes you cut out hundreds of paper poker chips for team time and one of your team mates cannot stop laughing during the game, sending the faux chips flying everywhere.
-Sometimes livestock create traffic jams.
-Sometimes navigating massive intersections is like a game of frogger because Addis does not believe in traffic lights.
-Sometimes your American friend who is working in Addis offers to pick you up with his car and not having to wait on public transportation is the single most exciting occurrence since departing the U.S.
-Sometimes you haggle, negotiate, and beg people for wifi passwords in the Addis Hilton to no avail.
-Sometimes during non-tutoring hours your students turn the tables on you by bringing out an Amharic alphabet chart and a very large stick and repeating “No English” over and over while swinging the stick awfully close to your face.
-Sometimes tent tape is used to patch holes in jeans.
-Sometimes soup is served on a plate…again.
-Sometimes you eat four slices of bread at one meal just to fill up because you are scared to eat the food with the Ethiopian spices due to the fact that it messes with your stomach on a regular basis.
-Sometimes there’s a spider that lives directly above your head where you sleep at night and your team mate knew for days before but didn’t bother to tell you.
-Sometimes you beg team mates to switch sleeping positions because the two team mates you’re rooming with are both sick, coughing all night, and snoring.
-Sometimes you trip and fall outside of the internet cafe, landing flat on your face. To make matters worse a local approaches asking if you are okay and proceeds to conduct a full physical.
-Sometimes the Ethiopian version of Maverick from Top Gun, aviators and bomber jacket included, decides to flirt with you from another taxi and you oblige, smiling back and loving it for a couple of minutes.
-Sometimes your taxi driver does not want to drive to the destination so he stops in the middle of the road, does a U-turn but does not complete it, and is parked perpendicular across the entire road so cars cannot pass by on either side, creating a traffic jam.
And a new section…the best, most memorable quotes of the month. These are not team specific and can include any quote from any member of the squad.
“I have a tan line on my face from the paint.”
“Holes isn’t stupid. You’re stupid.”
“I am going to have to surrender these mashed potatoes to the Lord.”
“I couldn’t eat dairy for a month! When I went to McDonald’s I would have to get my burger without cheese. Don’t tell me I don’t know suffering.”
“I just washed my feet and they smell like fruit loops.”
“When I cough while walking my DivaCup dislodges.”
(While eating barley, a snack here in Ethiopia): “If I were a bird I would be in heaven right now.”
(Melody of Joy to the World) “Heaven and angels sing/Heaven and angels sing…”
(Said to the person singing) “Ummm it’s heaven and nature sing.”
