The First Day

I made it safely to Ethiopia. It was a long trip, including the 12 hours I spent at O'Hare before boarding the plane. The 14-hour flight was good. I caught up on some movies I hadn't seen, ate well and caught a few hours of sleep. It was gray and rainy when I finally found my bag and left the airport to meet Bruce and Rose, who have been living in Addis Ababa for three years as country reps for Mennonite Central Committee. Bruce and I lived together my first year in Alaska. It's always good to see them.

After injera and wat for lunch, the lack of sleep the past two nights was catching up to me and I had to take a nap. I only let myself sleep for an hour. But I did that three times in the afternoon! And still went to bed at 9 and slept until 7 (except from 3-4, when the local mosque started broadcasting).

That night the power went off, so we played Ticket to Ride by lantern-light.

The New Year's Steer

This steer was tied up in the MCC compound when I arrived. But not for long. I arrived on New Year's Eve; the next day, the steer would be butchered and portioned out to the 10 families who had purchased the steer. It is traditional for families to celebrate holidays with fresh meat. Several families pool their money to buy a steer or a sheep. A butcher is hired to come and divide the animal into equal portions in a tradition called kircha. The portions are then given to each family randomly. You can see the end result in the photo below. I missed the slaughter, which was fine with me, but watched as they portioned out the steer. The men are enjoying some of the fresh raw liver and lungs dipped in horseradish or awaze, a paste made with berbere. I had corn flakes for breakfast.

Since today is New Year's Day, we are relaxing at home. After kircha and breakfast, I went back to bed for another two-hour nap. I still have some catching up to do.

Kircha: butchering a cow and separating the family portions