We paid for our meals and left because Su had a meeting to go to and we needed to get back to work on some more painting. By the way.... They don't do seperate checks... and won't, even at coffee shops if you order along someone you are with. ok.... whatever..... AFRICA! As we were driving back, our bus driver got in a road fight with one of the cars next to us... or in front of us....something. They fought. Traffic here reminds me somewhat.... ok a LOT... of bumper cars. I'm pretty sure we hit the car. Whatever... he deserved it. He was being an ass. Don't mess with the buses around here, we WILL hit you!
Heres little clip from a bus ride....
Another thing I notice here in Addis is that they seem to be stuck in the 80's/early 90's.... sometimes 70's with the vehicles you see being driven around. And on top of that, looking out the window like I'm looking through a pair of glasses that makes me see everything in 70's film version. Not that the window is dusty and dirty (because it is), but the entire city it's self. VW Beetle's are everywhere around here. The old ones of course, but in my opinion that's the better version. Christy and I have taken up the punch buggy game. We saw the first one here not even a week ago and now we see them everywhere!
Also, I've noticed while on the bus, are guards/military in blue cameo outfits carrying guns. Bast amounts of beggars coming up to our bus's windows because they see white people in it. And countless homeless asleep in the medians of the streets and highways. Some... most of them motionless looking dead and lifeless. It's a real sad and pitiful thing to see, but I've noticed that I have become jaded from it as more time goes on as I am here. I don't know if I am comfortable with that fact. I wonder if the citizens here who are well off in their own living are jaded to the amounts of homeless and beggars that it's just a way of life and they are hopeless of that ever being reduced or eliminated? Maybe it's just not a priority here to help or eliminate that area of need. Even our homeless look better than the homeless here... and even better than the poverty stricken people of Korah. How do people get to this point? How does a government or country allow this? Not just the government, but the citizen's themselves. How is all this allowed or ever get to this point? We are not only responsible for ourselves but also to care and love those around us. Does this show the love we have for each other.... because to me, it shows the lack there of.
When we all got back to the factory we got to working on the black wall again (it's huge) filling in gaps and such. I was the monkey for the "Dangerous" areas :). I've got some mad monkey skills haha... After being the monkey when needed I started to work on the mirror mosaic wall, Hammering mirror into smaller chunks and then wrapping edges with wire. I did all that outside with the warm sun beating down. It got pretty hot actually, but no complaints over here! With the amount of times I've been cold, I was quite okay with it being a bit hot.
While out there, I could hear the other girls taking and laughing. It made my heart smile just listening to some of their conversations and giggling. I went to get my ipod while working with the mirror, but then decided I still wanted to hear what the other girls were saying, so I put one earbud in and left it on the classical genre to where I could zone out and still listen to their convos. I got a good bit of the mirror "done" and some of the girls started to do a second coat on the furniture pieces from yesterday. I could see the sky turning dark grey and blue. It didn't look like whatever was coming in was going to be pretty. A storm was definitely brewing. Soon it started to thunder and lightening. Julia told me that I should probably hurry and come in. What a sweetie, totally a mom in the making. She was right. The wind picked up a bit and I got that "oh crap! I need to hurry and put stuff up before it starts pouring" feeling. Almost the same feeling that comes over me when something erie happens or looks, and I lose my breath for a short split second. Yeah, that feeling.
I got everything in in time before the rain. Christy, Julia, and Alex got all washed up including the brushes. Their hands were covered in black tar paint. Now they smelt of gasoline from getting the paint off. What a horrible smell. I'm sure they felt miserable smelling it on themselves. I use to LOVE the smell of gasoline when I was little, sticking my head out the window to get a big whiff whenever my parents stopped to full the car with gas.
This is Me, Christy, Julia, and Alex... after painting. sticky and smelly.
By the time we finished up for the day and finished up cleaning, the bus was supposed to be on it;s way. The bus left us to go get the others at the school where we were having the VBS for the W.A.R children. Eventually a lot of time went by and we were sitting with anticipation for the bus to come hearing different horns beep here and there thinking it as our bus coming. Nope. No bus. Sammy eventually talked to Hannah, who was on the bus, and found out that they all went to the store for some groceries and were about 30 min. away. Crap. seriously? ok..... whatever. Sammy and Abi were hungry so we gave them some food we brought for lunch but never ended up eating. Peanut butter and jelly. Let me tell you somethin! I've had enough PB&J sandwiches for lunch, and would be fine if I didn't have anymore this month....or year.
The bus finally arrived and we all came back to the house. Danielle got the best thing at the grocery store yet! BACON! I'm SO excited! I LOVE bacon! That whole wait was totally worth just that alone. As we all got back to the house we all chilled out playing spades, reading, listening to music, or journaling while some others started on dinner for tonight. We had lasagna, fruit, green beans, and rolls. It was just as good as our fourth of July dinner.
Barrett came over for dinner and talked a bit more about how we are doing and asking us how things were going... just checking up on us. It was good to have him over and just chill out with us. Barrett also went into more detail about the scarves industry with Women at Risk and why they are doing projects that help out the women here in Africa. He said that 30% of the man's income is usually spent on beer, women, going out with friends and etc. While as the women spend that 30% on their children, food, education, clothing etc. I wasn't really surprised to hear that because I knew that alcoholism was pretty gig in Korah with the men. Why? Because men are expected to provide and being that poor.... getting drunk is a "way out" or relief from their reality.
After dinner we all sat in the living room with Barrett, and Michael and Emily sang him some songs they had been practicing with Michael playing the guitar. This was also a time that the whoopie cushion skit was going to be brought out again. Just for Barrett. I gave it a good press under my blanket when a good quiet moment arose. Score! "Did somebody just fart or something?"-Barrett "Rachel! Not again" I heard someone say.... I started to laugh and excused myself from the room stating that I'll be right back. I gave it a few more squeezes.... "Good God! Those are powerful! That doesn't even sound real!"-Barrett
I came back in the living room and sat down. Barrett looks over at me and asks "So, what was that?! What's the deal?" I told him I just had really bad intestinal problems. "That's awesome!"-Barrett. HAHA! He loved it! We finally showed him the whoopie cushion and he loved it. He was totally on board with the whole gag. Hilarious! Best reaction yet! Another fart skit success to end the day......
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