Half Way Point

Well here we are at the half way mark of our time here in Melbourne. The time has gone so quickly, i am amazed. The weather is beginning to get much warmer, and the daffodils at the Uni down the road are out in bloom. So are the spectacular magnolia trees, and princes park is a picture of blossom. This place is really quite lovely and there are often times when I feel like I'm in a movie - living near the parks in New York or something similar. People are out and about running, walking, cycling, sitting on benches for lunch, and wearing clothes way too summery for the weather but obviously make them feel better after the grey bleak Melbourne winter!!
Yesterday the girls here and I went out for lunch for a half way treat then saw the movie The Help. It was excellent and I highly recommend it for anyone to see. Just beware, from a mothers perspective I definitely needed a few tissues. There is something to be said for equal rights and respecting others. The actors were fantastic, and I was completely engrossed for the 2 hours it ran. Inspiring, moving, unexpected - you can see I enjoyed it hey!!
Today I spent lunch and the afternoon with my Ethiopian friend at her house. She gave me a lovely home cooked meal of injera and spicy wat (the chilli made my nose run - why does that happen??) plus fresh salad and afterwards orange bread (cooked in banana leaf) and a coffee ceremony. She gave me great advice about honouring Ethiopians, for example don't stand up or  leave a table until everyone has completely finished the meal and been allowed to sit for awhile, offer guests in your home more food and more coffee at least 3 times, and make conversation with the host - otherwise they will think you are a 'dumb animal' (her words)!! It is really polite to drink at least 2 cups of coffee, and the 3rd if you can manage, after that you are free to go, but should return the favour to them soon after! With a full teaspoon of sugar in the espresso sized coffee I actually really enjoy it...................and so will my dentist if I keep going like this! She did warn me that if the coffee is too strong it makes your heart boom, boom, so that's something to avoid!!
She then answered lots of my interview questions for me, because I have to write an assignment on what I've learnt about the Ethiopian culture and also Orthodox church. Without wanting to give away her secrets or betray her trust, I did learn something really surprising. They never pray together aloud with others. They pray through chanting at church but besides this all prayer is done privately, alone in quietness. Parents don't pray aloud to their kids, friends etc don't pray with one another. You can ask someone to pray for you and they will go home and do it. They won't tell you what they prayed, you just trust they'll do it. They say all prayer is private. She also explained the Mary thing to me in an excellent way I could understand. To them, Mary is the receptionist you see when you walk into a company. Jesus is the manager you see next up the chain, and God is the boss who owns the whole company. That's why you can pray through Mary to get to Jesus! Definitely shed new light on it for me!! So overall it was a great afternoon, but I was exhausted afterwards because I had to concentrate so hard to understand her, and we used lots of charades movements. Imagine doing it all day in the country - trying to understand and be understood!! I'll be a wreck!

Happy Ethiopian New Year

For those of you who don't know it, Ethiopia works on a different calender year than most of the world! It's called a Julian Calender and the first day of the year is Sept 12th. They also have 13 months in a year, that all vary in days. So there goes the 30 days has September, April, June and Nov ditty!! Their days also begin at sunset (I think) so the time on their watches will also be different. But I'm sure there will be more on that when we move there!
What I wanted to share with you was the Ethiopian festival we went to for New Year. Our friends invited us to Footscray Mall where the community had set up a big stage and sound system. They began at 10am in the morning and sang, danced and acted their way through to 4pm. They had practiced for months and old and young alike, and mostly Orthodox church groups all got up and sang in Amharic, and danced traditional dances, and also had a few dramas about needing Jesus in your life. It really reinforced to us the way religion and culture go together for them. It was natural that for a cultural festival it all involved christian involvement.
Our friends little girl Hannah who is 4 had all her hair braided into little plaits with beads.It took her Mum so long to do, they missed her dance on stage because they were late!! The crowd was a sea of white (their national colour to dress in) and we were definitely the minority again being white faced!!We had my (naomi's) Mum and Dad with us so it was lovely to share with them, such an Ethiopian occasion. I think they felt quite daunted at first being part of that crowd, but they managed wonderfully!
On Tuesday we also had Tom's 11th birthday. Time flies when you're having fun!! He had a party here with all our fellow MITs and it was great fun. Adults and children alike joined in with games like eat the doughnuts off the string, chocolate game, pass the parcel and musical chairs. The kids were suitably
impressed when Grandma won the last one!! Our cook here made Tom an icecream cake with Mint choc chip icecream, choc mudcake, vanilla icecream,and all of this was coated in a dark choc and cream combo with M&Ms on top. AWESOME but half a slice was ample!!
Well thats our highlights from this week!!

Happy New Year in Footscray Mall

Pass the parcel with friends

Stay tuned
Rubies
xxxxxx