Melkam Addis Amet!

or Happy New Year to those of you not so fluent in Amharic :-)

The Ethiopian calender has 12 months of 30 days plus a 13th month of 5 or 6 days. Today Ethiopia enters the year 2005. We (actually just Tommy) heard cannons fired at 6am this morning as the new day starts at 6am here, rather than midnight.

Ethiopian New Year is a big celebration for people , involving family gatherings and plenty of food from what we have heard. We celebrated with cinnamon rolls for breakfast, given we don't really know what is traditional, and are enjoying a day off school :-)

Pictures from Tommy (one for Roger)

It has been really fun taking pictures of the various different plants and birds that we have seen here. Am happy to spring for Coffee for any positive identifications of species!

Some flowers from our weekend in Bobagaya:

View from the apartment

 From our lounge balcony you can see the chicken house. To the right between the bamboo fence and the wall is the cross country running track which goes around the school grounds.

 If you look the other way you can see a few buildings beyond some big trees. 

Our bedroom balcony overlooks a small garden area (below). 

Our apartment

 I have tried to take some photos of our apartment, it is rainy season so a little dark in this first one, but they should give you an idea. Firstly our lounge - complete with tree!You can just make out the small balcony area outside too. Next to the tree is the wood burner, from which we nearly set fire to the apartment, but that is another story.

 From the other side of the room you can see our dining area and computer desk. So if you skype us, this is where we'll be sat as the internet only works in this exact spot!

 Tom and Josh's room. They have a decent play space and what you can't see is a couple of double wardrobes behind where Josh is sitting. We have been excited to collect a new (highly attractive) toy box each time we grocery shop so that the toys now live in cardboard boxes rather than zip-lock bags!

 Our bedroom, there are wardrobes to the right of the picture you can't really see, a chest of drawers in the bottom left and a window with a small balcony area in the corner (the same as the lounge) to the left of the drawers.

Not much to say about this picture! Except that it is quite exciting to have a bath and a shower after being on the ship 3 years - and no water restrictions!

There is a smaller third bedroom, which the baby will eventually have, which is currently where we throw our shoes until we get a shoe-rack built, so maybe a photo will follow another day!

Oh and a kitchen with a pantry that I still haven't taken a photo of. I probably need to give up the plan of waiting until there is no washing up on the side and take one anyway ;-)

It feels pretty spacious, most of the cupboards are empty as we only came with our suitcases and some of the walls still need pictures, but I'm sure in time we'll make it more homely :-)

Rescuing the projector

When we arrived on 2nd August our projector was held in customs as we didn't have the cash to pay the customs charge. In fact we spent most of the rest of the month deciding whether it was worth going back for it, but after finding the four year old invoice and recalculating the fee, plus Tommy starting teaching and deciding it would be pretty useful to have, we decided we should go and bring it home. We meaning I, Sarah, as for some reason unbeknown to me they had taken my passport details on arrival so I had to collect it. Important note to self, don't ever make that mistake again. Tommy certainly should experience the fun of trying to retrieve something from customs if the need ever arises again.