Meki

July 14, 2011 (Hamle 7, 2003)

As I said, I am staying with the Brothers, so I am following their schedule. Morning Prayer is at 6:00 in English, then we walk across the street to the Cathedral for Mass. Mass is in Amheric. Men sit on the left, women on the right. After Mass is breakfast which consists of coffee or tea and bread. We have peanut butter!

Yesterday we had Ingera, the Ethiopia pancake like flat bread made of fermented tiff. It has the sour dough tartness that is like the sour dough bread you get in San Francisco. It is better with other food than it is alone.

Today classes seem to be progressing well. I left Jake and the girls in charge and checked in with the other classrooms. They all have at least 30 kids, if not more. Everyone seems to be doing well.

The other Brothers have been in meetings. The visitor of the District of East Africa, and Ethiopian Brother by the name of Esayas. I have know him for many, many years. He is a very fine person. He is going to be in Meki this afternoon, so I hope the kids get a chance to meet him. We are planning to go to the local market today after lunch.

Meki isn’t much, the market is really a weekly farmers market. Most of the produce is transported to market by a two wheeled cart, drawn by the skinniest horses I have ever seen. The streets are dirt, so the nearly daily rains are keeping some of the dust down or causing huge puddles in the streets. I think I have found a way to post the blogs and have spent the better part of my free time retyping and making smaller files. I know everyone is anxious for news. Let’s have a collective finger crossing.