Whew.
It's 2:20 pm (or 8ish am, Ethiopian time, long story) on the LAST day before we travel home. After a brief excursion this morning around 11, we are back, Ebba is sleeping (thank God), we are packing, and preparing to leave for the airport at 3:35 am tomorrow (ugh). It's been a LONG week, to say the least, after a whirlwind 5 days before that, and I think we will all be grateful to be in our own homes, withour own stuff and food and routines, and our families around us.
After a particularly dramatic day yesterday (from Ebba's perspective), Allison opted out of the cultural evening, - it didn't start til 7:30,and once Ebba passed out just as she finished her dinner around 6:30, there was no way on God's green earth either of us were going to risk waking her by dragging her out of her crib, strapping her into the Ergo, and schlepping her off to watch us eat Ethiopian food and listento very nice (but loud for sleeping young ears) Ethiopian music (tho if she wasn't screaming her head off, she might have enjoyed the dancing). It was very interesting. The tables are very small and circular, with smaller regular wooden tables to supplement them.
We started the evening with a beverage, and most of us wanted to try tej, a wine made from honey, water, and hops. It came in flasks (think chemistry sets, and the round bottomed flasks, not the triangular bottomed Eherlenmyer [sp?} flasks). I asked if there were glasses coming, and I was told, no, you drink out of the flask. Solomon gave us a demonstration of how to told it, and we all gave it a try (and I don't think anyonespilled, tho my fingers did end up kind of sticky). It has a veryinteresting odour and flavour - I can't quite describe the initial flavour, but it has a very nutty aftertaste (so much so that I asked exactly WHAT the ingredients were). I think I managed to drink about 1" of the flask contents before I decided I did not like the first taste at all.
Then, a man came with what looked like a silver teapot (a large one) and a silver basin with a perforated silver screen on top - this was to wash our hands prior to eating. At this point, they transferred the beverages off the round tables to the smaller rectangular ones, and brought out dinner - large round platters (that JUST fit into thetable tops) with giant injera lining them, and baskets of rolls oflarge sliced injera [injera is the bread they make which is used inplace of utensils - it is flat, spongy and kind of sour] to eat with. Then they brought out charcoal "braziers" (for lack of a better word) with tibs (cubes of cooked meat), a bowl of cooked ground meat (which apparently is usually uncooked, but they cooked it for us faranji), a bowl of some kind of bean/chick pea/lentil paste, some spicy chicken stew, some tangy cheese (sort of like a crem cheese consistency) and a meat with spinach dish. These were all placed in spoonfuls on the giant injera - the spicy chicken stew in the centre, with "spokes" ofeverything else around the edges.And then, we ate. You tear off some injera from a roll and, using your right hand only, grab/scoop/dab up various combinations of the various stuff. I avoided the poorly defined paste, but the rest of it was very good (tho apart from the chicken, I have no idea what species the other ingredients came from).
As there were no other vegetables available, I ate rather a lot of the spinach. Solomon (our contact for the adoption agency) went 'round feeding us mouthfulls of injera and everything else. After stuffing ourselves, we relaxed and listened to the Ethiopian music that was being played, with intermittent singing, and enjoyed the dancing. Solomon tells me the music/songs/dancing were primarily Amharic, but also from other local ethnicities (sp?), like the Oromo. The dancing is very different - some very fast, short, choppy movements.
And, once the babies started to become restive, a few of us had coffee (espresso-like, very strong, and in tiny cups with sugar), and a smallbrazier with chunks of incense was brought. It was nice.
Ah, Ebba is awake, and she and Allison have joined me in the "business centre" here in the lobby. We should settle our bill, and get back to organizing for departure. Assuming we have no delays, and all runs well, we should be back at Allison's tomorrow evening, and I should be home a day later.
Once I've recovered from the trip/flight/timechange, I'll post the pix to Picasa (a Google feature), and send you all an invitation to view. Until then, I wish you all the very best of the holidays.
A
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