8 weeks. 8 weeks until depart for Ethiopia as a Peace
Corps Volunteer.
It is such a short
amount of time; 2 months, 8 weeks, 60 days… These last 8 weeks will be full of
studying, but more importantly spending time with my family and friends across
the US, and of course eating lots of injera and working on my impossible
packing list! If you have not had
injera, it is a “spongy pancake” that is eaten practically with every meal in
Ethiopia. Injera is made out of teff
flour and the injera acts as the utensil to scoop up the food with. No silverware means less dishes though—and everyone
eats off of one platter in Ethiopia. So if you are looking to cut back on
dishwasher cycles per week you may want to try out this technique… J The restaurant
Nyala Ethiopian Cuisine in Fort Collins is an authentic Ethiopian restaurant,
owned by a very sweet woman from Ethiopia who I had the pleasure of meeting and talking with just yesterday evening—if you have never tried Ethiopian
food I would highly encourage it!
My departure for the
Peace Corps has been such a “far off in the future” event that I have been
thinking of and planning for and talking about for so many months that I cannot
believe it is practically here. I am
feeling excited, nervous, scared, anxious, and practically every other emotion
as the departure date gets closer and closer.
I am reading books, talking
to people in the community who have worked and still work in Ethiopia, am
trying to learn bits and pieces of the language, and each time I talk to
someone I get more and more excited, as it slowly becomes more real.
As I am reading about
Ethiopia and talking to people who work there, I have found out some very
fascinating information. Here are two
examples that you might find interesting:
- 1. The Queen of Sheba and King Solomon had a son, Menelik, who was the first emperor of Ethiopia.
- 2. It is said that the Ark of the Covenant is in Ethiopia, and is guarded 24 hours a day.
I eagerly await the
email I should receive in a few weeks that will tell me where our group will
fly to in the US for our 2 day “staging” event before flying to Addis Ababa,
the capital of Ethiopia.
I want to truly thank you all for your
support, love, and encouragement the past weeks and months. I will look forward
to keeping you posted with my adventures!
