Farewell orthodox church, and a cross cultural fun night

Last weekend was our last visit to the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. Our last service where we couldn't understand a word being said, stood for over 2 hours and wore white headscarves. It was a classic service - the lilly flower arrangement caught alight up the front, I was placed up the front wedged between about 7 devout old mamas, none of whom sat for one minute, a small boy gagged on communion bread and his parents pushed it down his throat  (exactly the way we used to administer a tablet to our cat) and then when we left,  Lucy's shoe had gone missing in the huge collection of shoes outside (i would guess there were about 350 shoes). Someone had accidently kicked it inside and it took about 15 mins of searching to find!! But after all of this, I met two beautiful new girls.They came here 4 yrs ago as refugees alone and with no family, but they have such a resilient attitude, and don't complain. It was a privilege to chat with them, and we have planned to meet again this week for coffee which I'm really looking forward to. We may have been uncomfortable in the new surroundings, but the people at church were warm, welcoming and gracious. We are now looking forward to seeing some more of them outside of church, and learning more from them, about what we may be heading in to. If they are anything to go by, we will have a wonderful time with the people in Addis.
Later in the week we held a cross cultural fun night where we (the MIT's here at St Andrews) all invited new friends we've made from another culture. Seven of our Ethiopian friends came and saw where we live and we fed them Middle Eastern food and played a game involving sayings and what they actually mean. For some reason the single girls we invited thought the saying "the way to a man's heart is through his stomach" was hilarious (once we explained its meaning). I think they had pictures in their head of cutting up men!! We also told stories of times we were happy, embarrased, sad etc and some of them were very funny. The Chinese student who went and especially bought a bottle opener for his new bottle of Aussie wine, only to discover they have screw top lids here was quite amusing. Then my friend shared a time she was frightened..... which she said was all the time. She lives in a council unit (they have huge high rises of them here like something off the Bill on TV) and her neighbours fight, take drugs and keep her awake all night. She has had blood on her doorstep in the morning, and she won't go home alone in the dark. It was so sad to hear her speak - I had tears in my eyes. Our safety is something we take for granted, and having a big strong husband in my life is such a blessing.My trials in life seem so minimal when I talk to her.

Fun with our new friends at the cross cultural fun night