Day 201 - Lunch with Ethiopian Family
Sunday, January 20th, 2019.
Today we got invited to have lunch with a Rotarian that Gregory met last week. She was going to come and pick us up at 1:30pm but because some roads were closed, we ended up taking a taxi. Actually, it wasn’t a taxi, Gregory found the Ethiopian Uber app called Ride, which means you don't have to haggle with a driver. The bummer is that drivers often cancel, so it works about 25% of the time. The driver drove in different streets to get us to the CMS area where they were going to pick us up.
Dawit, Sebele's brother ended up picking us up. He drove us to his house where we received a very warm welcome from the extended family. Everyone gave us a big hug and three kisses. After we got settled, they showed us a big table full of traditional dishes and told us to serve ourselves because they had eaten already. The food was delicious. We had seconds and answered questions about our trip and about California and the US.
Sebele's family definitely were well-off and well educated. All of them spoke English and some of the children spoke French as a second language. Later in the afternoon, we all went outside to sing Happy Birthday to one of the girls and eat cake. The father threw candy from the balcony and all the children were thrilled.
Around 5:30pm, it got chilly and we all went inside. We met more people, among them a guy from Los Angeles and another from Connecticut whose parents were from Venezuela so we spoke Spanish. His name was Carlos and we were so happy to meet him because he gave us a lot of useful information for our next destination, Arba Minch, where he is working with the Peace Corps. He told us we could stay at the Catholic mission which was cheap and included 3 meals a day.
We truly had a great time at Dawit’s home. The kids were playing upstairs with the rest of the kids -- without electronics! They didn’t want to leave.
Finally, around 7:00pm we told them that it was time to go home because Seblele was giving us a ride. We felt so happy, welcome and blessed. I really want to go back home and open my door to all visitors!
Today we got invited to have lunch with a Rotarian that Gregory met last week. She was going to come and pick us up at 1:30pm but because some roads were closed, we ended up taking a taxi. Actually, it wasn’t a taxi, Gregory found the Ethiopian Uber app called Ride, which means you don't have to haggle with a driver. The bummer is that drivers often cancel, so it works about 25% of the time. The driver drove in different streets to get us to the CMS area where they were going to pick us up.
Dawit, Sebele's brother ended up picking us up. He drove us to his house where we received a very warm welcome from the extended family. Everyone gave us a big hug and three kisses. After we got settled, they showed us a big table full of traditional dishes and told us to serve ourselves because they had eaten already. The food was delicious. We had seconds and answered questions about our trip and about California and the US.
Sebele's family definitely were well-off and well educated. All of them spoke English and some of the children spoke French as a second language. Later in the afternoon, we all went outside to sing Happy Birthday to one of the girls and eat cake. The father threw candy from the balcony and all the children were thrilled.
Around 5:30pm, it got chilly and we all went inside. We met more people, among them a guy from Los Angeles and another from Connecticut whose parents were from Venezuela so we spoke Spanish. His name was Carlos and we were so happy to meet him because he gave us a lot of useful information for our next destination, Arba Minch, where he is working with the Peace Corps. He told us we could stay at the Catholic mission which was cheap and included 3 meals a day.
We truly had a great time at Dawit’s home. The kids were playing upstairs with the rest of the kids -- without electronics! They didn’t want to leave.
Finally, around 7:00pm we told them that it was time to go home because Seblele was giving us a ride. We felt so happy, welcome and blessed. I really want to go back home and open my door to all visitors!
For pictures please click here
https://photos.app.goo.gl/XSmSC2RgE2pssmma7
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