Merry Ethiopian Christmas

We get two celebrations this year-one in America and one in Ethiopia. They are very different though. In America, we center Christmas around gifts, and in Ethiopia, it's all about God and feasting. There were so many women in either traditional white dresses or white head coverings. We even wore traditional dress out of respect. You wouldn't believe how many animal carcasses we have seen too! Thankfully, Kenneth and I arrived at Hope's place after they had killed the sheep. It was bad enough watching them skin the animal! Disgusting!

Once again we got a big surprise. Hope's nurse said that the doctor wasn't working today, so Kenneth had to get the gastric contents! OKay, I know Kenneth is a doctor, but you just can't do that in a foreign country. Procedures are different. Instruments are different. I can see fear in his face because on the one hand, we know that these tests are needed if there's to be a chance that she returns home with us, but on the other, you just don't play doctor. Anyway, relief came when he saw Maritu. Evidently, the nurse had taken her back to the hospital and had them put in the gastric tube. They did the hard part!

We got the needed stuff, but you ought to see this poor thing with the tube sticking out her nose! She has a nurse dedicated to only her at all times until we've gotten tomorrow's culture. I feel for that nurse. Maritu is strong-willed!

Later, we headed over to where Hope moved the infants. That was where we had our Christmas feast. It was loads of fun! First, the kids performed some games for us and also danced. You ought to have seen them. They either had on Ethiopian t-shirts or traditional dress, and all the girl's hair was fixed. We were given Ethiopian shirts too! Then came the feast... We didn't do sheep! Even Dawit didn't eat sheep, so that made me feel better!