First Days in Ethiopia

It feels like I unearthed a relic. I mean, when I click through the links on the sidebar of this thing, I am brought to blogs which are either nonexistent or have been frozen in time. It's like life stopped 10+ years ago. I still see the smiling toddler faces of Rose's old friends--kids who are now her age. I wonder what they're doing nowadays. In some cases, I forget I was friends with some of these people. I mean no offense, of course. It's just strange how time swirls us around in its eddies and takes us to places and circumstances that are so different from where we once were. 

Like now. Ethiopia, during a civil war and pandemic. Here are a few initial sights and sounds, which are very limited and very Tsaturyan-centric, as we must quarantine inside the gates of our house/yard.

 

First leg of our journey, from SLC to DCA.

Second leg, from Dulles to Addis Ababa. Love this picture just because of the light shining on Jasmine, causing a strange ghost-face effect. :)

Prior to leaving Utah, I bought a couple of "Poppin' Cookin'" kits at an Asian market. Zinnia had fun making one on the plane. 

When I travel to a new place via airplane, I love getting little previews of the destination, such as Amharic labels on Coca Cola bottles.

Just landed. Kids were nervous about taking a picture, so as not to hold up the shuttle (edit: Jasmine said she wasn't nervous, just fatigued). 

When we got to the airport we made it through immigration without a hitch, and somehow evaded a health screening (unintentional, of course). There was an expeditor from the embassy named Yonas who helped the kids and me get our luggage and go through customs, and Sevak greeted us in the parking lot (I forgot to mention, he had been here for two weeks already). The ride to our house was interesting. Always a lot to take in when you are jet lagged and riding through a strange new town for the first time. 

Yuka was very happy to see us when we arrived.

I also love this video for the hilarity of Jasmine getting sucker punched in the face by Yuka, because I was totally unaware it happened until I watched it back. Haha. Sorry, Jasmine.

The first day was spent blissfully playing with Daddy and Yuka. And napping. 

You’re not properly initiated into your new home until you lock yourself in the bathroom. Luckily there’s a window opening onto a balcony and Mom can pass you pizza through the bars. Sevak tried to remove the lock for like a half hour until she was finally able to turn the key with her little fingers (her interpretation was that the cucumber slices she ate gave her the strength to do it).

Speaking of pizza, "fasting pizza" is a thing. Hilarious, because my religious background taught me that fasting = total abstinence from food. Here it usually means abstaining from meat, which was also a thing in Guyana. 

The following are some ideas of what to do during quarantine when you're in a new country and have next to no toys or entertainment.

Make a robot costume out of an Amazon box. 

Play hangman. Obviously at least one round has to have the word "poop" in it.

Cook some food using the crappy knife, pot, and plastic spatula you were allotted in your "welcome kit." Side note: the feta-style cheese here is pretty good. 

Gather around the computer to watch stuff.

Make paper dolls.

Extract aloe gel from some clippings you found in the yard.

Marvel at the oddities of nature.

Bask in the sun.

December 6th was St. Nikolaus Tag (German friends on Facebook reminded me). Luckily I had packed some Christmas gifts in our luggage, because I'm doubtful any of our stuff will get here before the 25th. Each kid got a couple of treats in their shoe. We really need to figure out how to keep the Christmasy feeling here in an empty home. Maybe we can figure out how to rig up a makeshift tree.

For the past couple of days Sevak has gone into work, so it gets a little lonely and tedious. The kids continue to do online school, so that keeps us sort of busy. Our big thrill is when Sevak comes home and we order delivery takeout (we don't have our car yet, either). We also have a maid and gardener, so they provide some contact with the outside world. The maid is also Yuka's big thrill because she takes her on a little walk when she arrives in the morning. :) 

That's all for now! Here's a picture of dinner last night for Swati. It was pretty good! Check out https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g293791-d14792763-Reviews-OM_Indian_Bistro-Addis_Ababa.html.