Out of the mouths of babes #1

On Sunday mornings I get the privilege to teach 3 & 4 years olds. I gotta tell you, I love this age! They are talking well now, are so curious and have not quite learned yet just what is appropriate and perhaps what is inappropriate. I have decided to start a series called: Out of the mouths of babes. I will list quotes each week from what my crazy kiddos say. To start it off…here you go:

1) One of the kids told their mom I went to Africa to see a whale (we went to Africa to see the clean water well we had raised money for).

2) little girl: This morning, I couldn’t poop.

me: I hate when that happens.

little girl: So mommy gave me a book. pause And that helped

3) little girl: “You are black today” (I was wearing a black shirt).

That’s all for now. I am sure I will have plenty more for you each week

Ethiopia: ESL training

What is ESL you might ask…

English Standard Language. That was the main thing we did while there. A lot of the people there want to learn or practice their English. We were able to work with a local church to teach people English.

Our one large team ended up splitting into two different teams. The other team had 500 people register for their classes!! We actually only had about 75 register in our group. I got to work with the more advanced group. Which kind of ranged from knowing English really well, to only knowing a little. I had a lot of fun with that group. We taught them things (while I was there, a lot more was taught after I left) about family, food and greetings. The last day I was there we practiced English just through conversation.

Tim was sick pretty much the whole time we were there. We found out after the trip that if you have a cold or sinus infection before you travel like we did, apparently you have good chances of coming down with another sinus infection. Who knew?! We didn’t. Tim had a sinus infection two weeks before we left. By the third day of being there, he came down with another. He has at least 2 to 3 of them a year, and they lay him out. He lost his voice, coughed  A LOT, had no energy and slept all of the time. He stayed at the hotel for the majority of the time. Well, he finally got better the last day we were at the church teaching English.

He got to come for one day to the classes. He helped me out. That was actually the first time he and I got to serve like that together. I loved it! He was so much better than I thought he would be. I mean, I knew he would do a good job, but he did so great! The day he helped was the day we just had conversation with the students. In the middle of the conversation, one of the guys looked at me and asked, “What is it that makes you happy all through your day?”. I said, “well, let me tell you. Jesus Christ.” We then, together, shared the Gospel with this group of college students. It was so neat. I loved every minute of it

One thing I learned about ESL training is it really matters what part of the world/country the teachers are from. I would say something, and pronounce it different from how they learned it, and they would totally not understand what I was saying. We really had to work on that one with me being a southern girl.

Ethiopia: Food

I am falling behind on telling you about my trip to Ethiopia. Sorry!

Next, I’ll tell you about the food. To be honest, there were some things we just could not eat. Any fruits or vegetables that would have to be washed we could not eat (because we could not drink their water, and the food would have been washed with their water). We ate in a lot of restaurants. There were some that were really good, and some…not so great. The restaurant in our hotel was actually my favorite, when it had electricity.

Because they are in a drought (spelling?) they can only afford to give half the city electricity for half the day, and the other half of the city electricity for the other half of the day. The half of the city we were in rarely had electricity at night. A lot of places had generators, but our hotel was pretty large so the generator could not keep everything up and running. So, every night for dinner, the first question always was, “grill?”. If there was no grill, our choices diminished substantially. We were left to (and grateful for!) soup, salad (which we couldn’t eat), and spaghetti. They actually have some pretty good spaghetti.

Just to be safe a lot of times (b/c apparently I can be a picky eater at times) I would just order a toasted cheese sandwich. Or as we call it in the states, a grilled cheese sandwich. Of course, I could only have this when there was electricity, but it was so good One funny moment that happened was the fourth or fifth time I had ordered the toasted cheese sandwich, I randomly ended up with a cheese burger. I just thought it was funny, and illustrated very well how inconsistent things are there. You just kind of have to go with the flow.

Ask just about any  (I say just about just in case there is that one Ethiopian with whom this does not apply) Ethiopian what their favorite food is, and they will instantly tell you injera. Injera is a type of bread that comes with pretty much all of their meals. It is kind of like a spongy, sour, flat bread. They will use injera instead of forks. They will just pick up their food with a piece of injera and eat it all. Some times we would see pieces delivered to tables that was bigger than a large pizza. Personally, I did not enjoy, nor did anyone else on my team I don’t think. But Ethiopians sure do love it!

There was also something called a “coffee ceremony”. This usually happens when guests are over. The guests will be served 3 cups of coffee and popcorn. I was kind of nervous about this because I am NOT a coffee drinker, but knew I couldn’t really say no. Well, they were gracious and only served one cup of coffee, which was the size of what we would consider to be a shot at Starbucks. At one of the ceremonies the caffeine actually had kind of a bad effect on me. I hardly ever drink/eat things with caffeine…besides chocolate. So, when I had two cups of strong coffee with LOTS of sugar in them, I got a little wild. I sang someone’s name over and over. I actually recruited two guys to sing with me. (Pretty sure there is a video out there of that one). I was all over the place. Thankfully, my new friends just thought I was funny, and not crazy…hopefully.

Eating Healthy

I have decided I need to stop avoiding my blog. As I believe I have mentioned before, I love to read other blogs but don’t always love to blog. So, if there is anyone still reading (haven’t I said that before…) thank you!!

I have decided…since my jeans are getting a little too snug… that I need to start eating healthy. I told my half asleep husband this morning that I am putting us on a diet!

It turns out, my wonderful younger brother is actually a health nut. So I just asked him to whip up a diet plan for me. I got it today. It doesn’t look too bad. I am actually excited about hopefully getting healthy.

He told me to go over to Women’s Health Magazine to learn some cooking tips and recipes. There are also a lot of exercises (not that I will do many of them on there too that are great.

So, hopefully I will report back to ya and let you know how things are going.

Oh, and btw, I had written a post a long time ago about not drinking soft drinks anymore but drink more water. Well, I don’t totally not (sorry for the double negative!) drink soft drinks anymore, but i am down to about 4 or 5 a week. I think that is pretty stinkin good for me at least! Usually it is either a Diet Coke or a Sprite. Mostly, I drink water.

Here is an example of my diet plan Josh sent over to me:

Sample Daily Eating Plan 1
Breakfast:
Oatmeal with a Heaping Tablespoon of Peanut Butter and a banana ( all in a bowl together)
Morning Snack:
Whatever Fruit or Vegetable you like and a cup of low fat yogurt
Lunch:
Salad with as much vegetables that you want in it with some type of lean meat (chicken, tuna, most any fish) and a small serving of shredded cheese
I throw lettuce, tomatoes, onions, bell peppers, avocado sometimes, and spicy peppers sometimes all in mine.  I don’t use dressing but you can use as much oil and balsamic vinegar you want, or any type of light dressing but watch the amount you use.
Afternoon Snack:
As many celery sticks as you want with 2 tbsp of peanut butter on them.
Dinner:
Any lean meat with some steamed vegetables
6 oz Chicken Breast
Steamed Broccoli
Sample Daily Eating Plan 2
Breakfast:
1 Egg Fried on 2 pieces of whole wheat toast and any tomatoes or lettuce or onions or peppers you want and a piece of cheese
Small glass of juice
Morning Snack:
Handful of unsalted almonds and Large Apple or Orange
Lunch:
Sandwich on whole wheat toast with turkey, roast beef, or ham and as many vegetables as you want on it and any mustard or light dressing.
Afternoon Snack:
Small serving of cottage cheese and whatever fruit and veggie you want
Dinner:
Whole wheat pasta with chicken and a red sauce or garlic and olive oil sauce
The garlic and olive oil sauce can be made by just putting some olive oil and minced garlic in a pan together and throwing the noodles and chicken in there with them after you have cooked the noodles and chicken and just letting it finish in there for a few minutes.

Starbucks Coffee Raffle

My friend Laura and her husband are adopting from Ethiopia! They are finally at their very last fundraiser for their adoption. If you want your chance to win 10 BAGS OF STARBUCKS COFFEE for just $5, head over to Laura’s blog. That is such a great deal

Here is Laura’s description of the raffle:

“”This is our last and final fundraiser and in my opinion it’s a good one.  My sweet, sweet sister-in-law Becky, worked at one of the Starbucks in Memphis before they moved back to Nashville and on our last visit down there to see them, she made me go by her work before we headed back to Nashville.  To my surprise, when I went in they had a big box of coffee that the employees had donated for our adoption.  They even wrote cute little comments on the bags.  One even says, “Kyle Loves Babies”.  I was so taken back by their generosity.  So this raffle is for 10 bags of Starbucks coffee.  When I went tonight to write down all the flavors I realized that there were 9 bags instead of 10 (no, we didn’t borrow a bag for breakfast).  So I went to our Starbucks to purchase one last bag to make it 10.  I talked to one of the employees and he said they have 3 brand new flavors coming out Tuesday, so instead of buying a flavor they already had, I am going to head back on Tuesday and get a brand new flavor to add to the raffle.  So here is the list of flavors:

* Ethiopia Sidoma Bold Africa/Arabia

* Breakfast Blend Mild Latin America

* Caffe Verona Bold Mulit-Region Blend (Three bags)

* Komodo Dragon Bold Asia/Pacific

* Gold Coast Extra Bold Multi-Region Blend

* Decaf Sumatra Extra Bold Asia/Pacific

* French Roast Extra Bold Dark Roast Blend

* NEW FLAVOR RELEASED ON TUESDAY

So there you go.  Tickets are $5 and as usual buy 2 tickets get a third free and so on and so on.  Use the donate button on the right side and please spread the word.  The raffle will end Friday, July 3rd at noon.  We will post the winner soon after that.  Thanks everyone and thanks Becky.”

Go HERE to participate in the raffle.

P/S: Laura is a really great artist as well. Check out her work. I think she is taking a break in July (she is going to get her new kiddo!), but go ahead and get your orders ready for August!

Ethiopia: Transportation

Transportation in Ethiopia is very similar to other 3rd world countries. We traveled mostly in buses. The roads are really bumpy and the drivers take chances I would prefer they did not. They also have little motor cabs that can fit at most 5 people (you will see a picture of it in the “Pictures” post). Pedestrians are not shown any attention by the driver. I was terrified SO many times thinking someone would be ran over. But neither the driver nor the pedestrians flinched.

Three times our bus was stopped for a routine inspection. It was almost comical though b/c a really intimidating (i.e. holding a very large gun, decked out in camo and a bandanna over their face) policeman would get on our bus, see that we were white, say, “hi”, and then get back off the bus w/o inspecting anything.

Of course, the travel was a lot different than what were accustomed to. And we did a lot of it. But it was fun getting to travel together and getting know each other.

Back in the States…

We are back in the States from our trip to Ethiopia. I promise I have some posts coming about our time spent there.

I will leave you for now with a picture. For all of you photography people, I know the lighting is horrible, but I like it

2 More Days!!

We leave Sunday! I cannot believe it is this close! We will arrive in Ethiopia Tuesday early in the morning. Guess what we will be doing immediately…visiting an orphanage. Lord give me strength!

I am going to try my hardest to post updates while on the trip. I will definitely be posting pictures when I get back!

Keep up the prayers! And THANK YOU!!!

Memorial Day Weekend

This weekend was good. I really don’t remember much about Friday, Saturday or Sunday. They were normal weekend days. But yesterday was a lot of fun, I think maybe it was simply that I had the day off from work. We slept late, played tennis, hung out with friends, and then played dominoes and ate pizza for several hours. I am very sore today from all of the tennis.

After our friends went home last night, Tim and I wrestled on the front porch for awhile. He woke up this morning with a big bruise on his wrist!  The only explanation we could think of was…me. I felt so bad. He doesn’t seem to mind. But I really don’t remember hitting him while we wrestled.

Today is back to normal…except I am sore.

What did you do for your Memorial Day Weekend?

Update: We figured out that I DID NOT leave a bruise on Tim. It was from his racket after playing tennis all day.

I may not have the sweetest husband in the world…but he is the sweetest one I have ever had

I love Tim so much. I was laying in bed last night thinking how truly blessed I am to have him. The Lord is using him to heal my old wounds.

Tim has been sick for the past couple of days. After him being asleep every time I have seen him for the past 5 days, yesterday he was feeling a lot better. I was sitting on the couch when he leaned over me. He looked me straight in the face and kind of breathed a laugh. I asked why he was laughing and he said that my face had been a blur in the past couple of days. He had forgotten how beautiful I was and it caught him by surprise. I love that man