I share a compound with my landlords, their house helper and her son, and one young guy who is attending preparatory school in town. Each day, however, I discover yet another person who shares our compound. I was here for about 4 days when I noticed an elevated bed that stands just inside our gate. Turns out that we have nighttime "guard" who uses that space. Today (my 8th day in the compound), while doing laundry, I realized that I was being watched by yet another new face. I asked him if he was a friend of the young guy that has a room out front. His response was "no, I live here." Sure enough, he does, in another of the many cubbyholes that we seem to have a surplus of.
NEWSFLASH…WHILE TYPING THIS POST IN MY SALON BEYT A VERY LARGE TOAD (THE SIZE OF A BASEBALL) JUST HOPPED BY ME! WHERE HE CAME FROM, I DO NOT KNOW. BUT…HE MUST GO. DO I PICK HIM UP? ARE THERE POISONOUS TOADS IN ETHIOPIA? I THINK I SHALL SCOOT HIM TO THE DOOR JUST IN CASE.
NEWSFLASH UPDATE…TOAD WAS MOST UNCOOPERATIVE. I WENT TO SCOOT HIM AND HE LEPT. I WAS EVENTUALLY ABLE TO SCOOP HIM INTO A BAG. I OPENED THE DOOR TO LET HIM GO WHEN A VOICE SPEAKS TO ME OUT OF THE DARKNESS. I FREAK…SCREAM…FLING THE TOAD…AND THEN DISCOVER IT IS THE MAN IN THE ELEVATED BED. GOOD THING THAT I AT LEAST LEARNED OF HIS EXISTENCE OR THIS MAY HAVE BEEN TRAUMATIC!
Ok…back to my house. It is indeed fabulous and I feel spoiled. My landlords are nice, but it sure will be helpful when I can communicate with them. In the meantime, I try my best by using "2-year old" Amharic and pantomime. And if they still don't understand me, I shrug my shoulders and add yet another thing to the growing list of words, phrases, expressions that I need to learn from my language tutor.
