PeterNorthrop

Happy holidays to everyone reading, I know its been a while since I updated, seems to be a reoccuring theme doesn't it? Everything here is going great, the second quarter is coming to a close and Ethiopian Christmas is quickly approaching(January 8th). With some of my classes I get the feeling like I am just a permanent substitute to the students. Not that I blame them, can you imagine a 3rd grade spanish class where the teacher only speaks in spanish?? In a way it is very good for the students as they have had to develop a good ear for listening to English, but still it can be frustrating at times. Their behavior is very poor some days, and since all I can do is yell at them in English(or use the few Amharic phrases ... read more

Happy Halloween everyone! I heard you got a bit of snow this past week, hopefully everyone has power. Weather forecast here in Addis: Sunny and 70 degrees for the next 10 days(I had to rub it in a little). I know its been a while since I updated but its been hectic the past few weeks. As for the title to this post...... The older boys have organized a football tournament on the small field we have and I was picked to play on one of the teams( we are 4-1 by the way, about to become the champions). However the first game they asked me to play striker or forward,whatever you want to call it. Late into the first game I took a shot that sailed over the goal and straight into a window at ... read more

Happy finding of the true cross(Meskel). Last Wednesday was the biggest holiday in Ethiopia, where people from all around go to Meskel Square in Addis Ababa to celebrate. If any of you would like to know more details about it check out this Wikipedia description http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meskel. I went into the city early with my new Swedish friend Georg to get ourselves a coffee pot and some machiattos from Tomoca( the most famous coffee place in the capital). On our way there we met 3 nice local guys around our age who were getting ready to celebrate Meskel and offered to show us how to get to Tomoca as well as help find us a coffee pot. It was nice to talk to some locals who were not looking to get money from us(or so we thought). ... read more

The year just became 2004 in Ethiopia. I have been wondering as well why that is, and Still trying to figure out how to get pictures on here, soon enough! Well last weekend I spent New Years Day at my new friend Ato Simon Mechale house. His wonderful family and he were incredibly welcoming, making me feel right at home. The meal that we had was incredible, Ethiopian food at its finest! I will explain more about it when I get those pictures up. As for more about the kids/orphanage, I found out that I will be teaching Comprehensive English grades 1-4! We will see how that works out with the language barrier, but I am really excited non the less. The children have been so welcoming, the girls more than the boys but I think ... read more

Ok so now that I am finally settled in and I have the day off I figured I would give a good update. Addis is like everyone has described to me, dirty, kind of smelly, but rich in history and culture. I should probably be edting these things to give it a little more structure bt its more fun to just type whatetever thought comes into my head, so you will have to bear with me. When I landed I had a bit of luggage trouble, had to wait around the airport for about 45 minutes until someone fiinally found my bag. It was very comforting though to see Simon with holding a sign with my name on it. The first coffee I had was in a nice outdoor setting under some palm trees overlooking the ... read more

Before I get into this whole blog thing I just wanted to again thank everyone who has supported me in my journey to get over to Ethiopia. This experience means a lot to me, and I'm so grateful I have such a strong support network back home and abroad(which will come soon). Back to my update though, just arrived into Heathrow and completed part one of my trip. Of course I put my Euroconveter in my checked bag so I can't use my labtop, just paid 3 pounds for a half hour of internet! Not too much else to report on, laid over in London for 11 hours, not really sure how I am going to kil the time without being lured into one of the airport money traps. I think its about 6:00 a.m. back ... read more