Chickens and Updates

It appears that my Dad is not the only smart ass at the guesthouse in Ethiopia. I received this email and photos today from one of their roomates:

Hi Sherry,

I am a friend of your parents. They asked me to tell you that these chickens will be coming for you UPS. Please be sure to put them in the warm barn, as they are live chickens.

I hope that I get to meet you when I visit your parents in Minnesota.

Kind Regards

Kristin




Here is an update from my Dad. Not sure if I mentioned that he advocated heavily to be moved to a school (still funded by CHS) that had lost its building and would soon lose its teacher. He felt he could be much more useful there, but was frustrated that the powers didn't seem to care. I've edited quite a bit of this email so I could post it without getting into any privacy issues.

"After talking with you about the Bereket school kids I went to CHA (my school) on Monday. There to greet me was the principal and the grand whiz bang. I went to reading but was soon summoned by an obviously upset principal, but having spent 20 years with Ev I was not quaking. Actually I felt bad for the principal who was worried he would lose his third volunteer in 4 months. The powers must have been on his ass since I met with them yesterday. Anyway, I was embarrassed that I had stirred up such a hornets nest by simply caring about how they were treating kids. Also, Sherry had sent the most reasoned argument for acceptance that I have read in years. The little turd can write. So the best I could hope for was a half day at CHA and a half day at Bereket. That was more work than this old man could handle. I suppose I left them all off the hook by choosing to stay at CHA. Their response to my original request seemed strange at best. They seemed to want to keep from disappointing the principal more than helping kids.

Yesterday we started writing letters to Bemidji kids. They are quite good if you can decipher the spelling. Today I took each kid's picture and had them developed. I asked for passport size so of course I got 6 pictures of each kid. That is 130 pictures. 145 birr. Big spender - that is a little over $10 at the current exchange. I won't be able to get back to CHA until Monday since we are going to Hosanna this week end. I should get the first batch mailed by Tuesday. I say first batch because now the other second grade wants to write and both 1st grades are interested as is a 3rd grade class. I go flat out from 8:30 til l:00 and then hop 3 different mini buses home. I usually get home around 3:00 and then Ma and the roomies want to go out to eat and suck wine. It would be easier if I could escape the cement mixer at night but I guess I will be assumed into heaven.

Hope this doesn't sound too whiny - on balance this is one of the greatest times I've had in a life filled with good times. I miss the snow and the kids and you all but we are half way through and I haven't started counting down yet.

Jimmy the wimp"