Here are some promised photos from the church service we attended Sunday with a group of Arouak people, a minority tribe here in Ethiopia, many of them refugees from south Sudan. They are, we understand, discriminated against here in Ethiopia because of their dark skin. But people of great kindness and joy. We see the drummers who played during the service, then one of the drums, beautifully decorated, which they used.  Also a photo of the choir, which sang with the drum accompaniment and in unison (no parts), but loudly and with joy. I took a video and wanted to put it on this blog, but when I tried this morning, I found that the internet reception is too slow, and it would probably take all day to load, according to my office colleague. So I'll post that once I am back in the states.

Our cook made us pancakes for lunch today, with European syrup (imagine--such a Western treat for us, though we do like Ethiopian cooking too!) plus papaya and mango.  Virtually every day we have tropical fruit and avocado to eat.  Here is a little sample of our typical meal, partly eaten though, kale, carrots and beans, wat (Ethiopian spicy meat sauce) and injera, the rolled "bread" used instead of silverware to wrap everything up and eat a bite at a time.

I am having a good time with my English students.  They ask for practice with prepositions, adverbs, negatives, verb tenses, etc. What a good exercise for me too.  So many things you just have to memorize in English, I think, which aren't obvious, or easily guessed.

I heard there is more snow in Minnesota. Everyday the weather here is the same.  Sunny, blue sky, about 50 in the morning, about 80 when the sun is fully above us, then again back to 50 when the sun goes down.Enjoy the snow! We are enjoying the warmth!