Selam doe? Dehana Dikum?
I told you this past week was going to be exciting, but even I didn’t expect the awesomeness that was the past 7 or 8 days. I’ve been slowly but surely falling in love with Ethiopia over the past 4 and a half months, and this past week convinced me I am already head over heels!
Things started being awesome last Friday when some volunteers came to visit. They were coming because of the regional Olympics being held in my town that I mentioned last time, and because we would be heading up to the regional capitol later on that weekend to watch the Superbowl. Friday and Saturday were a lot of fun. We hung out, visited the outdoor bazaar that was in my town, went to market, had juice (a drink made from various fruits that’s kind of like a smoothie with no ice), cooked, played games, and had a lot of fun. They were all excited to know that I had seen hyenas in my town, and since all but one hadn’t seen a hyena yet we decided to do something about it: we decided to go hyena hunting. So, on Friday night we took some flashlights and went out in search for the elusive creatures.
Unfortunately or fortunately, we didn’t see any. They had been laying low the few days before, and Friday night was no exception. We gave up after a brief search, and returned home and went to bed with the idea we would try again the next day. Fortunately for us, we never even had to leave my compound the next night to see them! We had been playing a game called Initial Thinking (invented by a lady at my parents’ church) when we got into a huge argument about whether or not “Haile Selassie” counted as “Haile Gebre Selassie” the runner (which was never settled) and whether or not England was a country (we eventually concluded it was a non-sovereign country that was part of a sovereign nation). Because the argument got so loud and intense, we decided to change games to Uker (a card game) to calm down. While we were all quietly playing cards and making “subtle” comments in favor of the arguments we had presented earlier, a hyena began to howl right outside my compound! We all grabbed our flashlights and cameras, tiptoed to the gate, and peered over hoping to catch a glimpse of the animal. We only saw it’s outline before it disappeared in the dark, but we decided to settle in and wait to see what else we could spy. We were heavily rewarded. Over the next 45 minutes we saw not one, not two, but FOUR more hyenas pass by my house. We got great looks at all of them, but they were too far to capture good picture evidence. The flash would only pick up the reflections of their eyes. Check out my wall to see the best picture of the night!
We eventually headed to bed, because we had a big day ahead of us. The next day was Superbowl Sunday and we had managed to secure a venue in Mekele to watch it. We caught a bus the next morning and got to Mekele around 2pm, where we were reunited with the volunteers who lived in other parts of Tigray. We hung out all day, talking, catching up, and eating good ferenji food that we missed in our smaller towns. That evening we watched the Manchester United vs. Arsenal soccer game before heading to the theater to await the Superbowl. The Superbowl didn’t start until 2am our time, and I am sad to say that while I was awake until then, I lost the battle with my eyes right around halfway through the first quarter. I was in and out until right at the start of the fourth quarter when I woke up feeling very refreshed and ready to watch the final minutes. We weren’t actually able to watch whatever channel the Superbowl was shown on in the US, and instead watched it on some sort of international ESPN channel. This meant that we weren’t able to see any of the funny commercials, but it was a great experience nonetheless.
After going back to a friend’s house and trying to crash for a bit, we decided it was time to head back home. On the way out of Mekele, I bought a bike to take back with me to my town. That’s right, yo boy finally got his own wheels again. I was super proud of that. We got back sometime that afternoon and just spent the rest of our day recovering. The next day a couple volunteers came into town to support their friends competing in the Olympics in my town. We spent all day watching various events and supporting our respective towns’ teams. These Olympics are very extensive, and there was everything from, basketball to chess, soccer to Taekwondo, volleyball to badminton and much, much more. But the event of the day had to be the blindfolded race. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, there was indeed a blindfolded race. Several Ethiopians put on blindfolds, grabbed a partners hand who wasn’t blindfolded, and then proceeded to race around the track. The 100m, 200m, and 400m races all went without a hitch, but disaster struck during the 1500m. For some reason, the partners all let go on the home stretch and let the blindfolded ones take it home themselves. Unfortunately, the guy in the lead let go a little too early while he was still on the last part of the curve, and, instead of continuing down the track, he began heading straight towards the crowd and the fence that separated us! Everyone screamed at him to get his attention, but, alas, it was to no avail. There were several hurdles lined up right by the fence, and the guy ran straight into these hurdles at top speed. Somehow, the racer managed to trip over the hurdles by flipping completely over them and landing on his feet and back, and so he was unharmed and back on his feet in a second. Like a true champion, he waited for his partner to come and get him, and he finished the race to the insane cheers and laughter coming from the crowd.
The Olympics here in Maychew will continue well on into next week. And I will probably have many different visitors over that time period coming to see the events. It’s truly an exciting time to be in my city, and I can’t wait for whatever other adventures are still in store. I hope you stay tuned in to find whatever else befalls me!
Dehan wialu!
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