Team 'Beyonce' Update

Selam,

We are safe and settled in Mekelle! Mindy and Megan (the WSU team) are headed home tomorrow but we had a great time with them before they left. We are also working with Mike and Kenny (the guys from Northern Ireland, pronounced Norn Iron) and they will be here for the majority of the time we are. We are slowly adjusting to everything from the taste of filtered water, gross, to the way people tell time (it is a 12 hour clock which starts at our 6 am; e.g. our 8 am is their 2 am). We also learned of an elite list of Short Term Associates that didn’t get sick while here in Ethiopia. Matt has fallen short of it by being the first of us to get sick, he had a bit too much injera (the common food here) and it didn’t agree with him, if you know what we mean. But it wasn’t too bad and he is feeling much better now. It is highly unlikely that the rest of us will make that list but we are hoping to. In other words we could use prayer for good health and lots of energy bec! ause there are tons of kids that yell our names and want to play constantly.

Our first experience with the kids was humorous. Joey introduced himself and they thought he said Joro, meaning ear in Tigrinya, and since then he has been struggling to get them to call him by his actual name and to get them to stop laughing at him, the rest of us of course have been no help to him we think it’s just as funny. Everything has been great so far and has kept us smiling. When we are playing catch with a frisbee or football every kid comes up to you with the biggest eyes and cutest faces and basically begs for you to throw it to them next. The kids love attention and we love giving it, we’re hoping it won’t get too overwhelming.

The guys (Joey, Matt, Kenny, Mike) are going to buy a goat in the next week and work on fattening in order to have good food for an end of the summer celebration. The guys are also excited to buy some live chickens to kill and eat as well. They also have a dog (the guard’s dog) named Gorat who is the skinniest dog we have ever seen. He is very cute and is becoming happier and friendlier the more they feed him.

The girls are settling in well and are having a good time looking at potential meal ideas. It’s a little difficult with the limited range of food but they’re looking forward to being mad scientists in the kitchen by planning food experiments. They went with Megan and Mindy and some of the older girls from MYC to the blind school last Friday and played games with the kids. Daniel one of the kids sang Rihanna’s song Umbrella for them; it was super cute…all the kids were super cute.

Currently we are making our weekly schedule for our time here, so life here is tentative at the moment. As far as we know we will be having English classes with all age groups on a daily basis, planning tournaments of table tennis and other sports, and playing lots of Uno and bingo, no we are not working at a old folks home they are just obsessed with that game. We are all having tons of fun and laughing a lot! In fact the guys have been walking around town wearing cowboy hats and aviators. We all bought Beyonce t-shirts and have now officially changed our name from Team Ethiopia to Team Beyonce. We also found some sweet lighters that project a picture of Osama bin Laden, of course we bought those as well. Let’s just say life is fun.

We thank all of you, we appreciate your prayers. It is very comforting to knowing half way across the world people are praying for us and that God is ultimately in control.

Chow Chow!
Team Beyonce (a.k.a. Annalise, Joey, Matt, Mikayla)