Tenayestaling!
This is one of the many greetings I’ve learned in my Amharic language class. I’m enjoying learning a new language, but I honestly didn’t think it was going to be as labour intensive as its proving to be! I learned French as a child, and it seemed a lot easier than this!! Amharic has a whole different alphabet. There are 33 characters, and each has 7 variations of it each with a different sound. Once you know the characters, its not hard to read, which is nice. The tricky part is memorizing over 230 characters and the sounds that go with them!! Its difficult to train your mind to give a symbol that looks like an ‘m’ the t sound!
I’m highly motivated to learn the language. Its helpful that I’m surrounded by it all the time. I find my understanding grows more every day, and its nice. Even if I can’t always respond, I’m far more aware of conversations and things going on around me than I was before. If I’m going to be working with people here, its important that I know the language. Especially the poor, have not had the opportunity to go to school. So, they don’t know English. Most people who have gone to school know some English, but unless they use it in their work, their English is very basic, and their understanding is poor. Ethiopians have been very gracious to me concerning language. They are always pleased when I make an attempt to converse with them. The lady who sells me bread is one of my biggest fans. She always tries to get me to say more when I go into her shop. She always has a big smile, and encourages me a lot. Sometimes though, I try out my new sentences and people give me a very strange look. I’ll keep trying!
I’ve taken a bit of a break from my volunteering at the sisters. I’ll only be there once or twice a week until my Amharic class is over. I was finding I wasn’t paying enough attention to my class work and I was falling behind. The class moves quite fast, and you don’t want to be left behind. I’m not much of a student, so I find being away from my patients very challenging. I like working at the sisters’ and seeing the patients every day. Whenever I get frustrated with my Amharic, I’m motivated by the idea of getting to talk with my patients and understand better what they are telling me. Its been a while since I’ve been in school, so I’m learning to learn all over again! Some things don’t change, I still hate homework.
My mom was here visiting for the past few weeks. It was nice to have her here. We had originally planned to go out of Addis to do some traveling, but we ended up staying pretty close by. There was so much for her to see and experience here, it would have been very rushed for us to take a trip as well. Maybe next time she comes! Despite not traveling, she DID get to experience quite a bit. She had the pleasure of meeting my four legged friends that live in my kitchen. She learned to push her way onto a crowded mini bus, unfortunately getting pick pocketed in the process, but she got on! She got locked in the bathroom (partly because I forgot to tell her that the door only opens from the outside!). She even got to find out how it feels to sleep with bed bugs! I honestly didn’t know I had bed bugs in my bed because they don’t bother me, they must like her better! She enjoyed playing with the babies at the sisters’ and they enjoyed having her hug and cuddle them. We went on a field trip with some of the street boys Hailu works with, so she got to meet them and see a smaller community with some beautiful lakes called Debre Zeit. All in all, I think she had a good visit and I hope she comes back again.
Now that all my visitors are gone, I will have to get back to my normal life. Honestly, I will be glad not to have to go shopping as much, and to stay in my own little area of town, where most things are within walking distance. I’m still working on getting my visa sorted out, so if you could keep that in your prayers, it would be very appreciated!
This is one of the many greetings I’ve learned in my Amharic language class. I’m enjoying learning a new language, but I honestly didn’t think it was going to be as labour intensive as its proving to be! I learned French as a child, and it seemed a lot easier than this!! Amharic has a whole different alphabet. There are 33 characters, and each has 7 variations of it each with a different sound. Once you know the characters, its not hard to read, which is nice. The tricky part is memorizing over 230 characters and the sounds that go with them!! Its difficult to train your mind to give a symbol that looks like an ‘m’ the t sound!
I’m highly motivated to learn the language. Its helpful that I’m surrounded by it all the time. I find my understanding grows more every day, and its nice. Even if I can’t always respond, I’m far more aware of conversations and things going on around me than I was before. If I’m going to be working with people here, its important that I know the language. Especially the poor, have not had the opportunity to go to school. So, they don’t know English. Most people who have gone to school know some English, but unless they use it in their work, their English is very basic, and their understanding is poor. Ethiopians have been very gracious to me concerning language. They are always pleased when I make an attempt to converse with them. The lady who sells me bread is one of my biggest fans. She always tries to get me to say more when I go into her shop. She always has a big smile, and encourages me a lot. Sometimes though, I try out my new sentences and people give me a very strange look. I’ll keep trying!
I’ve taken a bit of a break from my volunteering at the sisters. I’ll only be there once or twice a week until my Amharic class is over. I was finding I wasn’t paying enough attention to my class work and I was falling behind. The class moves quite fast, and you don’t want to be left behind. I’m not much of a student, so I find being away from my patients very challenging. I like working at the sisters’ and seeing the patients every day. Whenever I get frustrated with my Amharic, I’m motivated by the idea of getting to talk with my patients and understand better what they are telling me. Its been a while since I’ve been in school, so I’m learning to learn all over again! Some things don’t change, I still hate homework.
My mom was here visiting for the past few weeks. It was nice to have her here. We had originally planned to go out of Addis to do some traveling, but we ended up staying pretty close by. There was so much for her to see and experience here, it would have been very rushed for us to take a trip as well. Maybe next time she comes! Despite not traveling, she DID get to experience quite a bit. She had the pleasure of meeting my four legged friends that live in my kitchen. She learned to push her way onto a crowded mini bus, unfortunately getting pick pocketed in the process, but she got on! She got locked in the bathroom (partly because I forgot to tell her that the door only opens from the outside!). She even got to find out how it feels to sleep with bed bugs! I honestly didn’t know I had bed bugs in my bed because they don’t bother me, they must like her better! She enjoyed playing with the babies at the sisters’ and they enjoyed having her hug and cuddle them. We went on a field trip with some of the street boys Hailu works with, so she got to meet them and see a smaller community with some beautiful lakes called Debre Zeit. All in all, I think she had a good visit and I hope she comes back again.
Now that all my visitors are gone, I will have to get back to my normal life. Honestly, I will be glad not to have to go shopping as much, and to stay in my own little area of town, where most things are within walking distance. I’m still working on getting my visa sorted out, so if you could keep that in your prayers, it would be very appreciated!
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