Thanksgiving in Boranaland

Hi Everyone! Happy Thanksgiving! Here’s a quick synopsis of my thanksgiving: I wonder if yours was just as exciting.

 

Amber & I were in several “Thanksgiving parades” in the last few days. We were staying in a neighboring town and 2 white people and one german shepherd dog walking along a road draws a crowd, and so we provided our own little parade—and even walked down the middle of the main road (everyone else does that anyway). Then later while eating lunch we saw a boy with a mattress on his head (we decided he must have chosen a mattress when he didn’t have a big helium balloon), then a goat followed by a donkey pulling the nicest water cart I’ve ever seen here. –so that was the TG parade we got to watch (oh, and it took approximately 9 people to disconnect the donkey from its cart). We had some lovely tibs (roasted/fried thinly chopped meat served over charcoal) for lunch. Yum! It was even tender, and we invited a church guy to eat with us. The lunch excitement was the dog lunging at a cat under the table which spilled some coke and ended our nearly finished meal. Miaa had been doing good laying under the table until that point but the cat snuck up pretty close to her and was just too tempting. (We were sitting outside on the porch and of course EVERYONE had to comment on how awful my dog was.) TG evening we had French toast (after all there was no leftover turkey). Oh, and on thanksgiving eve we roasted some marshmallows over my camp stove.

 

My first couple weeks at home in Yabello have been nice. I’ve been catching up with everyone here. A few of my Ethiopian friends thought that I would have came back married since I was away so long. I thought that was pretty funny. The first week was spent getting settled back into my home. The friends that stayed in it kept good care of the house and my helper also kept my dog and cats looking healthy too. Last week was spent preparing for some veterinary meetings with the healers. And this week we (Daniel, Baharnish, Amber & I) went out to visit them. We had sent messages, but in true African fashion we found 1 out of the 6 guys we were looking for during the week, so instead of having the meetings that I wanted to have we made appointments for meetings next week instead. I actually had a nasty cold this week and could barely talk, and so I was kind of happy not to have to do as much talking, and it was still a worthwhile time of visiting people. They were happy to receive us as guests and gave us fermented and fresh milk to drink (at separate places). The short rains seem to have stopped, but it seems that most people have received rains and their cattle are pretty healthy and giving milk. We got to pray together with one village/family of Christians, and during our visits I got to collect one of the plants that I wanted to identify.

 

My guard was happy to see me, too. I have been treating his sheep if they get sick and he let me choose a lamb from his flock. I also bought a pregnant nanny goat at the market a couple weeks ago. With my 2 dogs, 2 cats, 7 chickens, goat & sheep I feel like I have a lovely little farm here, and will have some nice animals to give away as gifts when I leave.

 

Thanks for your prayers. I have been thankful to be here and for the home I have and people I get to work with. Please continue to pray for me in the next couple weeks that I can meet with the healers, have a fruitful time with them and that I remain safe & healthy in His hands.