Happy Ethiopian new year!!!

It’s been a while but luckily I got to see so many people during summer! Thanks to all for making my holiday unforgettable.
I arrived with 10kg bodyweight extra but did, for a change, manage to pack correctly and had (to great relief of Dries again my companion at the airport) no problems checking in. I slept most of the flight seeing as Ethiopian airlines don’t offer you your private tv screen like KLM did on my way to Brussels which is actually quite fabulous. How I longed to go to Belgium in June and now I’m satisfied back in my nest in Addis.
Coming home on Sunday and starting work on that very same Monday wasn’t exactly ideal although otherwise I would have missed the huge great flea market which supplied me with a lot of games to play during the power cuts. Luckily the first workweek was meetings and setting up.
I am still somewhat tired and seem too long to go to bed at the same time my 4 year olds do, meaning around nine. I’ll get to a more normal rhythm at some point I hope.
It was nice to see the people here again, especially my boyfriend off course but I have also met some other cool people. It took Mika and me some time to find our balance back but that’s also coming along now.
As it turns out I have 14 kids in my class, really nice. The first weeks weren’t easy though, many of these kids have never been in an English spoken environment and are thus scared shitless. 1 of them bit me really hard and wouldn’t even let go!!! I was completely at loss for words by the whole thing and now, a full 2 weeks later, still bear the small teeth marks on my underarm. War wounds I suppose. It was scary and exciting to start off my very own nursery class for the first time. I was fortunate, I could actually prepare for it whereas my new nursery colleague’s classroom wasn’t ready until the Saturday night before the students came!
I have good hopes for this to become a fun year.
The other day it was saint Rafael’s day, people want it to rain that day because they say it’s holy water and their prayers were answered not only did it poor it even hailed holy water! I was in a minibus at the time and the driver had no visibility whatsoever no decent ventilation system nor working windshield wipers, without a doubt my scariest 10 minutes in Addis so far! The imam didn’t see Eid on a Thursday which meant 1 day of holiday less for me, darn, however I had fun things planned amongst which making popcorns so it wasn’t too bad.
The new year’s eve (10 September) was quite ok, I went out with some of Mika’s friends and we had a nice time, watched sheik Al Amudi’s firework and went to bed shortly after because I managed to get a severe cold including throat ache, congestion and as a result of that head ache Yahoo= (New year’s day was spent resting on the couch.
Nonetheless I wish you all the very best in this Ethiopian 2003!