When I step into this little slice of Heaven, all things America overwhelm my senses. My nose is greeted with the scent of chicken nuggets, TIDE laundry detergent, kitty litter, and freshly cut grass. My ears are bombarded with the raucous laughter of 5-year old couldn’t-be-more-different twins, Ella and Chloe, singing at the top of their lungs to Hannah Montana and the grumble from Uncle Bobblehead, their crazy cat, as he is half-dragged half-carried across the living room. My eyes are agog at all of the amenities...frig, freezer, microwave, television (x2), washer and dryer. I can’t get enough of the feel of a down comforter on 400 thread count sheets or the tactile joy of trucking across plush carpeted floor in my bare feet. Oh…and the farenji food (cashews, white-meat chicken, vanilla wafers, pretzels…) that bursts from every cupboard and countertop is a treat for my taste buds and a threat to my waistline.
It’s easy to get swept up in this “other” life. I baby-sit Ella and Chloe to give Richard and Liz a much needed/much deserved date night, get sucked into cable TV series such as MasterChef, attend dinner parties with ex-pats who represent all corners of the globe, and cruise around Addis insulated in a late model 4Runner with their driver Mulugeeta.
Occasionally I try to introduce a little of my world into their world. Recently, my friend Megan and I had the girls for the morning while Liz attended a conference. Liz dropped us off at Kaldi’s coffee shop and then we walked a ¼ mile (downhill) to an Ethiopian craft bazaar. While there we ran into some of my new ex-pat friends who asked how we had gotten there without Liz and the car. I responded with “by foot” and in turn they responded with “oh…how uncivilized!” When it came time to leave the craft fair, Chloe turned to me and said, “we’d better find a car because my feet felt funny walking.” These are the times that I just have to laugh and realize how different these two worlds are. I love them both and am glad that I can easily hop back and forth between the two.
Chloe and Ella recently celebrated their 5th birthday and I just happened to be in Addis in time to participate in the festivities.
Ella was just enthralled with my new rain boots and just had to try them on.
