Sept 30 - Maria

Today is September the 30th my calendar tells me, but I have long since lost track of time which seems to move at a different pace here in Ethiopia. Their calendar is a different one – a couple of weeks ago we entered into year 2001 and the clock does not start at midnight, but at 6 in the morning when the sun rises. That means that I go to school at 2.30 and get home again at around 9. They also have thirteen months in a year, so all in all I’m quite happy that Aske’s laptop is able to tell me what time it is western time. Perhaps even more so because tomorrow, the first of October, is our six months anniversary. We are planning to go to a restaurant which we haven’t yet eaten at and celebrate with a good dinner and some Ethiopian red wine.
At the moment I’ve got more than 40 mosquito bites on my legs and am feeling very sorry for myself. We were out eating with Kidist (the wife of one of the two founders of the school) and some others who work at the school. Unfortunately, Kidist had forgotten that she had to attend some charity-something, and wasn’t able to come until 8 o’clock – three hours later than planned. Apparently it is a part of the Ethiopian culture not to start eating until everyone has arrived, so we were waiting outside the restaurant for 3 hours. At first it was okay, but it gets colder and dark at around 7, so little Maria ended up sitting in a skirt being very cold and (she found out the following day) attacked by more than 40 mosquitoes. Now my legs are almost more red than white and I’ve had allergic reactions to some of the bites so they’ve got disgusting yellow bladders, ew, ew, ew. Both Aske and I have also got a cold, blah.

Maria