Forward Movement!!

Paperwork

Finally, a break in the waiting!!!! The home study is done!!!!!!! Well, not 100%--it still has to be reviewed by Lindsay at CHI and my social worker Beth is still waiting on 2 references letters to arrive (I've been told they are in the mail) but it is written and ready to go. Hopefully I'll have that in my hands by the end of next week. Then I can send one on to the Immigration people. After they receive that, they can do my immigration clearance and issue me my magic 171H form. That will be that last piece of paper I need. I still have some things to get notarized and a couple more things to come to me (like my State Police clearance) but those are easy and quick things. So at least things are happening again! Still looking at a couple months to finish the dossier because the Immigration clearance will take a couple months (hopefully not that long but I'm being realistic). That is the paperwork update.

Culture Update

Today, my friend Maria and I went to the Ethiopian restaurant in Harrisonburg. Interesting...very interesting. I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt on this one...we went during the last 45 minutes of the lunch buffet and they are closing on Sunday for the entire summer (they are moving to a bigger, more central location). I have a feeling that the food wasn't up to their usual quality...everyone says it is really good, including my sister-in-law Diana (although she has a much more experienced palate than I do). So........it wasn't great. There were a lot of spices I'm not used to (of course, most people do use more than salt and pepper in their food!) and I found it very different. A lot of the food is just things that I'm not used to and need to try a few times to develop a taste for them. I really liked the rice mixture they had and the chicken was very good. Doro tibs is basically cubed chicken breast mixed with some other veggies...really good and tender. The doro wat is a chicken stew that had full drumsticks in it...this was also very good but very spicy. Not a hot spicy, but a make-you-drink-a-lot-of-Dr.Pepper spicy. I was really looking forward to the himbasha bread (honey and sweet spices) but there wasn't any on the buffet.

I have to discuss the injera. If anyone out there has tried this and would like to comment--please do. Injera is a bread-like pancake thing that you are actually supposed to use to eat everything with instead of utensils (although they did have silverware)...I found it pretty inedible. I have texture issues and soggy flat bread just didn't do it. Maria said that she didn't like it either. Maria went to Ethiopia this spring (her brother is a missionary there) and she felt like the food today was a pretty good representation of what I'll find in-country although she actually found it quite a bit more flavorful today. This might be a good thing because I found the spices a little overpowering...I actually prefer bland foods. It's all what you get used to and are exposed to. So hopefully, when they reopen, I'll try again and find a few more things I like (but I have never gone wrong with chicken!).

After eating, I spent time with Maria looking at all her pix of Ethiopia and some of the "curiosities" she brought home. Very beautiful country, beautiful people. Her brother is coming home in a few months and hopefully I'll get to meet him and be able to learn more before we go.

So, back to more waiting. I'll keep everyone posted.