We stopped at a stationary store en route and treated ourselves to new spiral notebooks and I splurged and bought a new pen. First day of school with the excitement and tiniest anxiety to boot!!
In our first lesson we focused on basic greetings and practiced every time the waiter came over to our table. Every time I addressed him, I looked at Fitz to make sure I didn’t embarrass or insult anyone. (Nerve-racking!!)
The problem? The response. Too fast and if it didn’t fit into our 10 vocabulary words, we were left dumbfounded. In any case, as always with a foreign tongue it is fascinating and fun to see the culture in the language. For example, G-d is used often. The standard response to ‘how are you,’ is ‘Thank G-d, I am fine.’ A common greeting to use with anyone and anytime of day is “May G-d give you health.” And another: “May G-d provide for you.” Apparently, you cannot speak Amharic and be an atheist.
We had a total blast with Fitz and then practicing the rest of the day. You can see that Ms. J. Mo took her studies very seriously.
When we got back to the baby ranch, the usual cuteness was astounding. J. Mo pointed to Bami and I on the floor in the following position...
and taught Azeb and Rahel an important English word:
CHILLAX
And, of course, we HAD to play African-Princess-Dress-Up once again.
This is one of my favorite pictures of Azeb and the boys.
Ezgaber yest te leen (May G-d Provide for you).
Love from Addis,
--Jen and Princess Bamlak
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