Amharic lessons and Freezer Food

Okay...so call me a nerd. I openly admit that I tend to be an over-achiever in some aspects of my life. When I started seriously looking at adoption, I first picked the agency I wanted to work with and then decided on the country. Needless to say, I knew nothing about Ethiopia before I started this journey. As I started to learn more, I bought an Ethiopian Amharic phrasebook, determined to learn a little of the language before I went. Amharic is a very difficult language...it has over 200 characters (and by characters I really do mean characters...they are not letters, more like some of the Asian/Arabic languages). It is also very hard to learn to speak a language that you have never heard a spoken word of--how do you learn cadence and intonation if you've never heard it? So I gave up, figuring that between my agency's workers and the fact that Ethiopia does speak some English...I would be okay.

Well, I have changed my mind. I really want to be able to converse a tiny bit. I want to know my numbers so I can barter in the markets, I want to be able to say thank you to Amari's mom if the opportunity arises. So I pulled the phrase book out (thanks Maria for helping with the pronunciations somewhat--Maria went to Ethiopia this past spring so she was able to help with a couple basics). I was very excited to find that I could quickly count to 10 but then I disappointed myself when I realized that I could not think of an individual number without counting up to it. Like if you asked me what 7 was, I would have to count 1-6 to get there. So I decided to make flashcards (that's where the nerd in me came out!!). So I made up 30 flashcards (used business card paper in my printer) and over the weekend, my co-workers quizzed me. I am very excited to say that I know my numbers 1-10 (all individually), I can say hi and goodbye and how are you and mother and father and grandmother and grandfather and daughter and baby and "Where's the bathroom???" (that's the most important!), and sorry and thank you. So it is on to more flashcards...bigger numbers (luckily they do 10+1, 10+2, etc.), some foods, etc. I am very excited about this. And now I have something new to do on the airplane--Dad get ready to throw away your Swahili words and learn a new language!!
In other baby prep areas, I made some wildberry muffins and some pumpkin-walnut bread tonight to freeze for after I come home. Here are pix of my casseroles I did last week and then vacuum-sealed (the BEST gadget in the world--I even vacuum-seal marshmallows, they are so fun to open and watch pop back up!).




Nothing new on the adoption yet...just waiting. Everyone at work is as antsy as I am...at least I understand the process, it is hard for those who have not been exposed to adoption processes to know what all is involved. One of the doctors sat down with me last night and was very interested in my trip and all about Ethiopia (I impressed myself by how much I actually knew!!--I've come a long way in a few months)...he asked me if I would take a lot of pix and develop a slide show to present after I get home! Too cool! So I want to try to keep that in mind while I'm over there (along with the 500 million other things I need to remember while I'm over there--would it be too nerdy to make a list of what I need to THINK while I'm in Ethiopia?????).