Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Two Months to Go

Dear Friends and Family,

Hair: So last week Amber and I went and got our hair done again. We decided to get different styles since MOST people think we are twins anyways. Amber got her hair braided down in little braids using a lot of fake hair...she sort of looks like a Rasta! It looks good on her. : ) I got my hair in a traditional Tigringna (one tribe in Ethiopia) style. It's super hard to explain, but I'll try....ok, the front part is a corn-rows....but then about half way back they added fake curly hair that sticks out everywhere....it's all fake hair that can be seen...the rest of my hair was attached in the back (by sewing) and is covered by the fake fro. Usually I wear a head band over the top braided part and let my fake fro stick out...seriously, I have a white girls fro...it's pretty sweet. I'm enjoying it! Oh and the fake hair they added is brown...so right now I have a brown fro! Haha don't worry, I've taken a lot of pictures. Overall it took them about 5 hours to do our hair!

Friends: Last week Amber threw me a "surprise" birthday party. It wasn't quite a surprise though...haha she did a good job at hiding it, BUT this is Africa...so everyone showed up super late....by the time most of them arrived, Amber had already told me what was going on. Haha it was fun to hang out with our friends once they got there!! It was so sweet of Amber to do that for me. I also got many e-mails and wishes...thank you all!)

Holidays: Ethiopians like to celebrate! Last Friday was Meskel- an Orthodox holiday to celebrate how they found the true cross- the cross that Jesus died on. Amber and I went with our friend Hirut. We went to a BIG square, where there was literally thousands of people gathered. We got a decent spot to see the ceremony. In the middle of the square all the priests put on a dancing performance....they were dressed in the colors of the flag and they formed into a big circle and did some dances with a small cross. The prime minister and president were there. It was a nice ceremony of faith but it seemed very political. Some people did some speeches, and once it started to get dark everyone lit candles....it was beautiful. Then they had a fire works show and they lit a HUGE bon-fire. It was interesting to experience it and be among such a HUGE crowd of people. Also, on Tuesday it was Eid- a holiday for Muslims for the breaking of their fast- Ramadan. Ethiopia is about 50% Muslim...so it's a national holiday. Everyone had school and work off. The streets seemed empty. Early in the morning they gathered in a stadium and had a service. I saw some of it on the news, it was crazy to see THOUSANDS of Ethiopians doing the prayer in-sync. Amber and I wanted to go...but we heard they wouldn't let us in since we aren't Muslim...and I would have a hard time covering my fro....)
Voting: We voted for president on Thursday!!! It's exciting to me that we got to vote before everyone else!)

Life: Things are still hard. City life is so draining. I've always, always, wanted to live in the city. I grew up in the city and LA term confirmed that I'm definitely a city girl, but after being here, all I wanna do is live in a little village or town out in the country (overseas OR in the US)...away from all the people, away from the cars/busses, the big buildings, the exhaust, away from the surface friendships, away from the beggars...when I go home I feel like I'm gonna need to go somewhere in the wilderness and stay there to re-coup from city life. Luckily Amber and I are planning a few trips to go outside of Addis Ababa. We need it! God is good, he's getting me through. Right now finding the importance of surrendering EVERYDAY to God and asking him to show me how to love...just for that day. Cause it's too overwhelming to think about doing it for two more months. So that's some things that are going on. Thank you for your continued prayers. Much love -dana

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