rice and glitter.

So much has happened this week, and it is only Tuesday evening. A lot gets crammed into twenty-four hours around here.

Starting with Sunday: our bus was late picking us up from church, and as we were all quite hungry, a few people in our group decided it would be a good idea for all of us to walk to our favorite Chinese restaurant, which is (I think) in Bole. It ended up being around a two mile walk, we had to ask directions several times, and a few people lost their spirit of adventure and hopped in a taxi halfway there. Actually, I don't blame them: I'm surprised we made it okay. Lauren nearly got hit by a bus, we had to walk past the most disgusting dumpster I've ever seen in my life (complete with a hunk of something's leg on the sidewalk nearby), and we walked under the awning of the restaurant literally right as the rain started coming down.

But the part that made it all worth it: we walked through the nice part of the city and finally found the Lion of Judah statue, which I've been dying to see since we landed in Addis! I screamed and startled a few people when I saw it. It's amazing.

At the Chinese restaurant, my table made the mistake of ordering five bowls of rice, thinking that they were individual-sized servings. To give you a good picture of our situation, all eight of us could probably have been happy with one bowl for the table, maybe two if we were very hungry. So much rice. Five platters of rice. It was a plethora of rice.

Catching a taxi back to the hotel was another adventure. They wanted to charge us 250 Birr for all of us, and when we countered with 200 (which is still more than we normally pay) they tried to tell us that the driver was with the Ethiopian mafia. Mathison said, "Two hundred or pull over now," and they kept going. Oh, and the driver was listening to an Amharic soap opera on the radio that had the most dramatic transition music every two minutes; it was fabulous.

After dinner everyone went up to the fifth floor to watch The Lion King, which was a perfect ending to a perfect day. The hotel has been so kind, letting us have our parties and late-night game sessions in the conference room up there, in addition to the classes and prayer sessions that go on during the day.

We began editing yesterday, and after that was Women's Night (and Men's Night, separately). We went to one of the nicest places I've ever been to in my life; the first floor was a hair salon, the third floor did manicures and such, and there were restaurants and other things on the other floors. Most of the girls went up to get their nails done, but Sarah and I stayed downstairs and got our hair trimmed. It was the most relaxing experience. On the way there I'd been wishing I could have a Swedish massage just on my head, and that's basically what I got. She spent about fifteen minutes shampooing (twice) and conditioning my hair. It was all warm and golden in the back of the salon, even though it was cold and wet outside, and there was gorgeous artwork all over the place. And even though the guy trimmed my bangs a tad shorter than I would have liked, he did a fantastic job straightening it; my hair has never been as clean or shiny or soft as it was last night. Never expected to have that experience in Africa.

What was weird, though, was that the bathrooms were just stalls inside the steam room. Not sure who came up with that idea.

Yesterday was Aaron's birthday, and when Priscilla, Matt and I went out to buy "editing snacks," in the afternoon, Matt got two huge party poppers and a hat that said "Happy Brithday." (There are a lot of comical typos around here. Peeper steak, anyone?) Some of the girls threw balloons and streamers around his room while he was out, then we came up behind him with the poppers and surprised him. There was a so much glitter everywhere, and afterwards we couldn't find a broom, so my roommates and I swept it up with our hands so the maids wouldn't hate us.

I woke up sick again this morning, but managed to go back to the orphanage again and then get some editing done here at the hotel before it really hit me. At the orphanage, we separated into teams and led different stations. My station led the kids in "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" and a few other easy songs, and afterwards we played in the yard 'til it was time to go. And I nearly had a whole scene edited before my stomach turned violently against me for no apparent reason: I pretty nearly felt like death for about an hour. Luckily one of my roommates didn't go sharing on campus with everyone else, so she went and got some medicine for me, and I mostly feel fine now. Just really tired.

Sadly, we only have four days left in Addis Ababa. On Sunday we're getting on a bus to spend the night in Zaway, and after that comes debriefing in Hawassa. Our project leader's wife, Lisa, told us yesterday, "You all have it so nice right now that you probably don't feel like you're in Africa. You are about to officially go to Africa." Apparently we're headed for the land of mosquito nets, hippos, and semi-occasional hot water. Time for the malaria pills!

Things I have been missing or craving, for understandable reasons or not: chicken strips, pinto beans, bathrooms with toilet paper, real cheese, Goldfish, vegetables, apples, and thoroughly clean clothes that have not been laundered with "washing powder with blue specks!" in the sink.

Too bad I never crave rice. That would have come in handy.