Home Sweet Home

Before coming to Ethiopia, I was nervous about my accommodation.
Ahope has a guest house for its volunteers, but I had no idea what to
expect. Honestly, I pictured really tiny rooms and a squat toilet.
Thankfully, the guest house is really nice! There are 2 bedrooms
with Queen beds, a small kitchen, a dining room, a living room, 2
western toilets, and a washing machine! We even have a satellite dish
and receive about 10 English channels on tv (by the way, MTV Arabia is
hilarious). The whole compound is gated and we have 3 guards that
keep an eye on things.
Behind the actual house are a few individual rooms. Last week the
3rd volunteer arrived, so I moved out of the house and in to one of
these rooms. My little room is actually pretty nice! It is maybe 8
ft. by 10 ft. and has a twin bed and a night stand. The only
negatives are that there really isn't any storage space (I live out of
my suitcase) and my window doesn't latch shut. We don't have window
screens and one time I saw a feral cat jump into an empty room. I now
duct tape my window shut each night.
Like I said, there are 3 volunteers living in the guest house.
Besides me, there is a social worker from Chicago and a teacher from
D.C. who spent 7 months volunteering here last year! Everyone gets
along really well! We also have 2 dogs that always sleep against our
gate. The older dog is very shaggy and has dreadlocks. We call him
Bob after Bob Marley. The second dog is a very hyper puppy that looks
similar to a yellow lab. We named him Marley to go along with Bob and
also after the movie Marley and Me.
Our housekeeper, Selam, comes every day to make us breakfast. She
makes amazing things like french toast, crepes, oats, and pizza (yes,
homemade pizza for breakfast). She also insists on doing our laundry,
scrubbing our shoes clean, and making our beds. She is very sweet. I
always try to speak a little Amharic with her. Selam also makes life
easier by filling buckets with water when we run out of it in the
house.
In speaking of which, we do not always have water and electricity.
We typically have electricity every other day. Whether or not we have
water depends on a few variables like electricity and how full our
water tank is. The longest we have gone without water so far is 3
days I think.
I didn't know what to expect, but I have been positively surprised
with my living arrangements. Ethiopia is beginning to feel like home
sweet home.