In 4 Months...

In Four Months...
China has grown 2 shoe sizes, 3 cm, and 4 kg.
Mitike has grown 1 shoe size, 6 cm, and 2 kg.
No wonder they're eating us out of house and home!

The Year of the Water Dragon INDEED! (Happy Chinese New Year!)

I woke up at four to the sound of running water--not a little water, but torrents! It sounded like a waterfall. The whole kitchen floor was covered in water. As had happened before in the bathroom an old hose had burst under the sink. (What do people do that can't fix anything? No plumber would be available!) Matt hurriedly got his wrench to shut off the water while I pushed as much towards the drains as possible. It took us a while to get the floor cleaned up and then we went back to bed (with Ana who had heard it too). When we got back up at 7:00 the cabinet was full of water again! Yikes!

Dragon Dance at the mall.

The local mall had some of the gods walking around on stilts. The middle one is the god of prosperity. (phone photo)

Happenings

1. Trips to the dentist had some interesting surprises that will need a lot of orthodontic work later! (Ethiopians often have their baby canines removed which greatly affects how the adult teeth come in.)

2. My dad had surgery for cancer and is recovering--hopefully going home today.

3. School has been a great blessing!

4. School has been hectic for Matt with all the scheduling changes.

5. We completed our second post placement report--one more to go!

6. We added three new team members for India--the group is getting close to 30. We leave in less than two months!

Hope things are going well for all of you!

Universal Studios

Create a scrapbook design

Chinatown Visit

This year Chinese New Year is just three weeks after Jan. 1st. There has been a lot of activity in Chinatown (and elsewhere! Our little grocery store had the Christmas stuff down the day afterwards!) So, we headed down to take a look. Here's all the bamboo.

Here we are posing in the hot, hot sun!

Here's where we bought our red packets!

Here's the most interesting stall to me. Most of it is different types of sausages, but they also carry dried fish, and other parts of the pig!