Pusu saga's

Hi everyone,
Thought I'd drop a quick line to tell you about our cat saga's lately!! For those that don't know we inherited a 7 yr old marmalade cat called Pusu. She belonged to Maggie Crewes (a fellow misso moving to another African country) and even getting him was a saga!! The school gave permission last year to have him but then they were going to change their mind this year. Lucy was heartbroken - she had spent 6 months looking forward to having 'her' pet........so after discussions Pusu was given a temporary visa to stay, but she is the last pet allowed on campus!!!!!

The pussy cat himself.....PUSU

When  Maggie brought him over she locked him in a small travelling bag (he escaped from anything else) and he was so frightened he disgraced himself and pooped in the bag!! He then spent the next 3 days hiding under Max's bed except when he poked his head out to get some food! His food by the way is home made, cooked just for him! Tinned cat food is unavailable, so we have to cook up some mashed potato, carrot and rice, then add raw mince to it. He doesn't seem to eat anything else.....though we have tried with a few other morsels!!
Now don't get me wrong - we're not complaining about him.The kids absolutely love him, and he is now well and truly used to us. He lays on one of them in the evenings and gets patted all the time. He does seem to miaow alot (in fact he is the noisiest cat I have ever come across) but now we know him I think he just thinks he is part human and is talking to us!!
So back to his story.  Last week Pusu had spent the evening lying on Oliver being stroked but occasionally he pricked up his ears and hissed. We were confused about what was happening. By 10 ish we had all retired to bed and lights were out when Shane and I heard an almighty scream and hiss. We jumped out of bed quickly and Shane raced into Tom and Olivers room where the noise had come from. As he opened the door, a white/grey mangy stray cat (of which there are several on campus) came streaking out into the hallway and into the lounge. Meanwhile Pusu was shaking and quuivering on Tom's bed, but ready to defend if needed. Shane had to open both our outside doors, and minutes later the stray streaked out the door to freedom. Now this may sound amusing, but the cats here are known to have rabies, and they are none too small and wild, so we were quite frightened. However what was funny was that the neighbours down-stairs heard the commotion, so did next-doors,..........but neither Tom or Oli heard a thing!!!They remained fast asleep and oblivious to the danger within.!

Cuddles with Pusu every morning!

The second saga happened last night, hence this epistle. Shane went outside to get something around 8pm and Pusu desperate for some night air bolted out the door. We left the door open for about 3/4 hr but he didn't come home. We gave up, and left him to fend for himself overnight. We were a bit worried about fights with other cats, and mongeese who can kill cats, but we left him in God's hands!! Well about 3am he miaows at the door to be let in - goes into the lounge and falls asleep. At 7 he wants feeding but seems to be cagey and hisses every couple of minutes. Suddenly at 7.30 Lucy screams in her bedroom and comes running into mine. She had seen what she thought was a white fluffy toy under Max's bed only to bend down and come face to face with the mangy stray again!!!! He had obviously got in the night before when we were waiting for Pusu and had slept the night on a spare mattress under Max's bed!! He had also in the night marked his territory on the mattress, plus in the lounge on our chairs, and in the bathroom. Yuck yuck. The smell was gross and Pusu could obviously smell it in the lounge hence his cagey behaiour and hissing in the morning!!
Shane threw a shoe at the stray as it raced for the door, but we were wondering......does anyone have a good idea for a cat trap??
Til next time
Naomi.......and Pusu.

New Year News

HI everyone,
Well I thought I should let you know how the New Year went, and how we spent our New Years Day.
Firstly I must apologize for false information about the Pentecostal church next door. Contrary to popular opinion, they did not hold an all night singing service New Years Eve. In fact they didn't meet at all, so we were able to meet here at school in the staff lounge for a BYO dinner with other families, play a few games, then come quietly home to sleep all night long. Bliss!!
Secondly, although I said I would take pictures of the cow slaughter at school, I unfortunately missed the event so couldn't show you the process. IT took place much earlier in the day than expected, to miss the rain in the arvo, so it was done and dusted before anyone knew about it!
However I can tell you about our new years day feast. My teaching assistant Lydia invited us to her family home to celebrate the day. They had bought 2 chickens to celebrate and half a sheep.

Meskel - an Orthodox holiday is next week. This is next weeks Doro wat!!!

 They were cooking all Mon night and then all Tuesday morning in a  tiny tin shed with a fire pit......all to offer us hospitality. True to Ethiopian custom we were served the best of everthing they had, and we ate doro wat,(chicken and egg spicy stew), shiro wat (lentils), and a specialty kitfo (finely minced lamb and spice). We ate at about 1.30 and Lydia and her family didn't eat til about 3.30 when they were convinced we couldn't eat anymore, and we were all done. It is a custom that puts Westerners on the uncomfortable side - hosts not eating with guests, but they see it as a way of honouring us.

Lydia laid fresh grass and flowers for our coffee ceremony!

 The meal itself was delicious, but would have cost them at least a months wages. In a small way we could help out by taking a box of groceries for them, (eg. coffee, sugar, fruit) but it seemed so small in comparison to the love and honour they showed us.
What hit  me most, was the challenge a feast day like that is,when you have no running water, gas and only enough electricity to power a light bulb! They cook over fire in the small shed, carry jerry cans of water from a nearby tap, and wash in buckets. They grind the coffee for our ceremony with a wooden mortar/pestle and pound it.

Lydia's mum cooking in the 'kitchen' for our meal

We were just finished eating and it started to pour (arvo rains are common) and Joel (Lydias husband) was worried our car might get bogged. So he and his brother insisted on pushing it out of the mud while Shane steered in the dry car. They came back soaked to the skin and muddy, but laughed about it, and thought nothing of the kind deed. This act of serving and loving is so common here. The Ethiopian people think nothing of putting themselves out for others. They are such an unselfish people, and we are certainly learning lots from them, and also growing to love them more and more as we spend time with them!
We left their home at about 6pm at night, with lots of kisses, and them telling us we were now part of their family. What a warm way to begin the New Year here in Ethiopia! We thank God for bringing us here, and placing lovely people in our lives.

Lydias family...........Our new family

Happy New Year in Ethiopia

Hi everyone and happy new year (almost) from Ethiopia
Tomorrow it will officially be New Years Eve 2004 and then Tuesday is New Years Day 2005. Where did all that time go?
It means we have school tomorrow but Tuesday is a holiday to mark the occasion. Today we went to church and the streets were packed with people buying goats (we saw one being put into a taxi with his legs tied together!!) sheep and lots of chickens! They are all buying them for the family celerations of New Year when extended families get together and feast! The staff here at school (about 60 in number) bought two cows, fattened them up and plan to slaughter them after school near the back of the oval!! Stay tuned for photos! Then they will share the meat up between them all and take it home for families to cook up!

Kentucky Fried Chickens on the roof racks!!

We have a pentecostal church right next to our apartment and they love to sing loudly and praise God for large amounts of time. We have been told they will probably sing the New Year in by an all night sing-fest and church service! I guess that's quite a good way to begin a new year - in devoting it to God and praising Him........it's just my Western mindset that says, it would be quite nice to get some sleep too!! I'll keep you posted about what happens
The New Year here could see quite a bit happen. With a new Prime Minister and leader the country will definitely see some change! We pray it will be for good. They will also have a new leader of the Orthodox church (the state religion here) which again could change things for all the churches in the country. Please pray that both will mean good things for Ethiopia and its beautiful people!

Guess where these sheep and goats will end up tomorow night!

We feel privileged to be here, and are so thankful to God for sending us, and to so many of you for helping us get here. We love our jobs, and have begun hearing about some of the ministries our kids parents do - makes it extrememly rewarding. For example today we met Anna's parents. Anna is in my yr 1 class and is originally from England. Her Dad works for TEAR in Addis and works with another English lady and 4 Ethiopians. Together they try to help the poor in the city begin small businesses that will be sustainable.They teach them business skills, accounting etc, and investigate ways they can begin small businesses then help them find investors to begin. Anna's mother is a midwife and training young girls at the Fistula Hospital who will then go out to villages in rural Ethiopia to help women giving birth. For those who have read books about Catherine Hamlin it is her organisation and she works at the Desta Mender site out of town! What a privilege to help Anna while her parents are doing this!

So Happy New Year from over here everyone, and I''ll leave you with
 Our top 5 Ethiopian New Years Resolutions for the coming 12 months
1. Learn language, language and more language if possible! We want to feel comfortable out in the community!
2. Remember to use our horns more often when driving (every minute honk at least once!)
3. Wash our hands more to try to avoid the tummy bugs!!!!
4. Learn to go with the flow more and take off our watches....nothing happens on time anyway so why be reminded of this!!
5. Be people orientated instead of task orientated! Things will get done sooner or later if need be, but the relationships around us are what counts!
Happy 2005!

Yummy for our tummy!

Hi friends,
I have had a few people ask what the food is like here, and how is the eating going, so I thought I'd dedicate a blog to that very subject. what can we eat here that is yummy for our tummy!
Well firstly let me say we have been pleasantly surprised at the food we are able to get at the shops and the meals we can make. In fact if you are willing to pay any money, then pretty much anything is available at some time, but unfortunately much of it is out of our budget range! The things we miss are bacon -available sometimes but approx $32 a kilo, so we eat our eggs without bacon! Poor Tom really misses sausages which are about the same as bacon, and I've only seen them as fat frankfurt looking things.
 Cheese here that is yummy and matured is scarce, as is cream cheese, sour cream or light milk. In fact any dairy on the whole is tricky to come by in any reasonably priced form except whole milk which is bought in 500ml plastic bags.......yes, I said plastic bags!You cut a whole in the corner and pour it into a jug. The cheese available is quite tasteless and difficult to melt, with a hard rind on the outside. You can also buy cream in liquid form in a bag! Again its tricky to thicken - takes about 10mins beating and then is like our unthickened back home!! I've learnt to make my own yogurt, which involves milk powder and culture, and then I add mushed up fruit here to flavour it. The kids seem to like it!
That brings me to fruit - the best bit about the food here according to our fruit bat Oli. We have fresh strawberries, mango's, bananas. oranges (a bit average in my opinion) pineapples and watermelon. They are cheap and yummy. The down side is we need to bleach it all before eating because the water and ground here contains sewrage elements, but we don't mind. We've learnt to like papaya, prickle fruit (no idea what it is!!) and salad food like cucumber, tomatos, lettuce, capsicum,avocado are easy to find. Its a pain bleaching lettuce leaves individually but beats being sick. Potatos, onions, zuchinni,garlic, eggplant (haven't got it yet - don't know what to do with it!!!) are all here.
Meat wise things are a bit scarce - we have plenty of minced beef, beef meat (but has to be slow cooked or breaks your jaw its so chewy) and whole chickens (these are pricey - about $8 an  uncooked quite small chook) and did you know Aussies are the only people who call them chooks!! THe Americans here etc have no idea when I use that word!So if you put that meat with the veg available you can cook quite a number of things. Pasta, pizza is common (especially since the Italians lived here and left a legacy of food behind) and of course we eat injera and wat (the local food which we really like) We can order from outide here (like takeaway) and they bring it to our apartment and it costs about $8 for our family to eat that night!! ITs a great deal!

Eating 'local' with our next door neighbours here at Bingham!

 The things I've baked now sugar is back in town, have been lemon slice, cornflake cookies, little cakes and banana caramel tart (I found condensed milk and splurged at $5 a small can! It was worth it, althugh I had no cream to have with it!) I bought two cans, and may try to make icecream with the other if I get brave!

Mango's and lemon slice. Yummy! The kids like helping to cook!

 So there you have a run down of food. Needless to say with all that available we are not wasting away,nor in danger of losing much weight unfortunately!! The sook (small shop) down the road has lovely bread rolls fresh daily (hard and not so good on day 2) and we have jam, peanut butter (a bit runny and average but better than nothing) and we bought our own vegmite so all is good.
If at any time anyone wants to send a love package the things unavailable we would love is
dried fruit or nuts (costs a fortune here), cadbury choc (1 small block of average choc is $10) smiths chips (only have pringles here) and of course any Allens lollies. They have toffees, and wrapped fruit bonbons here but that's it! I did see Mars and Snickers, and Kinder surprise here but didn't buy. Better to stay away from such things!!!

Max has an "icy" mug drink everyday. It was the best thing we packed!!

 So if after reading the list of available things and you have inspiration for meals, then drop me a line or email. I could always do with inspiration - especially for the whole chicken (that comes complete with innards!!). Just chucking it in the oven is about all I do, although my house help can also make a chicken pie which is great.
Happy eating, and watching shows like Master Chef!!!Enjoy your cheese, cold meats and horse dovours, or simply have a sausage sizzle and steak. Oh bliss!