Ethiopia, Here We Come!

The kids and I are embarking on another trip together.

This time will be very different than the last time.

Dinbit has just began walking

Watch out!

She is looking for trouble!

And she loves exploring her surroundings.

She is definitely not going to just sit on my lap like she did during the last trip.

I am anticipating a somewhat difficult adjustment when we get there too.

For one thing, the electricity is on every other day. Sitting in candle light doing... I donno what... will take some getting used to.

Buchela will be going to summer school.

I look forward for him to have school experience in Ethiopia with kids whose language he understands.

I plan to hunt down all the kid friendly places to stave off potential boredom.

We will see how it all goes.

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There are many things I love about Ethiopia and Ethiopians in general.

One of those is our ability to laugh at ourselves.

I really think it would have been a very depressed place without this crucial skill.

I love Ethiopian jokes.

A good deal of them are down right silly. And then there are those that pack humor, cutting sarcasm, and social commentary all in one.

Most don't translate well to English. Stuff gets lost along the way.

Anyway, here is one for the road.

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A man died and goes to hell. There he finds that there is a different hell for each country and decides he'll pick the least painful to spend his eternity.

He goes to the German hell and asks, "What do they do here?"

He was told "first they put you in an electric chair for an hour. Then they lay you on a bed of nails for another hour. Then the German devil comes in and beats you for the rest of the day."

The man does not like the sound of that at all so he moves on. He checks out the USA hell as well as the Russian hell and many more. He discovers that they are all similar to the German hell.

Then he comes to the Ethiopian hell and finds that there is a long queue of people waiting to get in!

Amazed, he asks, "What do they do here?"

He was told "first they put you in an electric chair for an hour, and then they lay you on a bed of nails for another hour. The Ethiopian devil comes in & beats you for the rest of the day".

Surprised, he asks again "but that is exactly the same as all the other hells! Why are there so many people waiting to get in?"

A concerned fellow calls him aside and says, "Because there is never any electricity so the electric chair doesn't work, the nails were paid for but were never supplied by the contractor, so the bed is comfortable to sleep on. And the Ethiopian devil used to be a civil servant so he comes in, signs his time sheet and goes back home for other business!!"

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Very timely one ----- with the electricity going off every other day!

I can't wait to go home and hear more quintessentially Ethiopian jokes!