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