Dec. 12, 2010 - A bite of Turkey for Thanksgiving!

Dear Family and Friends,

Salom no? Dananachoo? Andatena? Tenestaling! That’s how we greet Ethiopian’s here. This past month has been full of teaching, coaching, the crazy streets of Addis and expectations for Christmas. I decided to come home, so I will be seeing many of you! The chapels have been full of Advent and what the candle’s represent (hope, preparation, joy and love). The Kindergarten did their Christmas Nativity play which was so darn cute to watch my kids being Shepard’s and angles and Mary and Joseph!

We had ETHIOPIAN DAY at school two weeks ago. It was so much fun. We braided our hair and dressed in traditional Ethiopian clothes. The kids were SO cute and it was great to see how appreciate the Ethiopian’s were for having us show a love for this country. We also had a Gibsha (big party with lots of food) as a way to thank and honor all our Ethiopian staff and workers here at Bingham. It was a great afternoon of sharing food together, pictures and games. The high school Christmas party was last night and the kids did relay races, ate lots of sugar filled food, and sang Christmas carols around a bonfire.

THANKSGIVING was wonderful. We had a group of us youngerish American teachers got together for a potluck Thanksgiving on Thursday night (it was really good and we had chicken instead of turkey since it’s so expensive). And on Friday night had a whole compound Thanksgiving with about 50 people and I put up a map of the US so all the Americans could mark where they are from (and we all got one bite of Turkey!).

And my racing days were brought back to memory twice in one week. We had our cross country finals here at Bingham which included 6 other international schools here in Addis. And secondly, I ended up being the first forengie women (white girl) to finish the GREAT ETHIOPAIN RUN! I ran the slowest 10k of my life by about 10 minutes, but was weaving through thousands of people (35,000 total) for about the first 3k and breathing the lack of oxygen available at 8000ft. It was so fun!

SCHOOL has been good and busy. We wrote report cards/paragraphs for each subject for each student (I have 170 students). We just finished a soccer unit and this last week in PE, and are now playing fun games like capture the flag. I feel so blessed to be being used by the Lord to serve these kids and their families here. I am So grateful for you, your love, prayers and support as I am living and serving here in Addis. I am also reminded this Christmas season of the expectation and hope that we have of the second coming of our Lord and Savior, and am so thankful and confident of the One we can place our trust in!

Chow!

Rachel

Praises and Prayer Requests

-The Lord’s constant protection and provision!

-A good Thanksgiving and Ethiopian Day at School

-For safe travel home, and a good time at home, for Christmas.

-To finish out this last week strong as we wrap up the semester.