This past
weekend I got to see some PCVs (Peace Corps Volunteers). It was so great
getting to see some of the people I had gotten close to during training. But as
soon as I stepped back into my house I felt a rush of sadness. I was reminded
that I was alone. It is not as simple as it may seem to spend a couple days
with several people and then suddenly go back home to emptiness. Finding a
balance between the two is part of this whole experience. Because there were
moments over the weekend where I felt overwhelmed being around all the PCVs. I’ve
been by myself for 7 weeks now so to go from one extreme to the other is
challenging. If I stay alone too long I feel sad, but if I hang around other
PCVs for too long and am away from my home I don’t like that either.
As soon as
I arrived home I went to bed and slept for a couple hours because emotionally,
I wasn’t feeling great. I then received a text message from my neighbor
inviting me to a bunna (coffee) ceremony that afternoon. I wasn’t really
feeling up to it, but I need to make friends so even though I wasn’t in a state
of mind to go, I felt it was the right thing to do. I’m so glad I ended up
going. My neighbors are a Dutch couple that work for VSO at the hospital here
in Butajira. They have their 2 little children with them and they had invited
some other neighbors for the ceremony. So I got to meet some more people that
live on my street. As I was socializing with the group, that sadness that I had
felt after leaving my friends went away and I forgot that I had been upset in
the first place.
The
Ethiopian woman that was making the coffee for us told me that a woman on the
street behind ours had just had a baby. It is custom in Ethiopia that on the
fifth day of a baby’s birth, a ceremony for the woman be held. People from the
neighborhood come over to the mother’s house to visit her and her baby. Bunna
is offered to all the guests and a local food called gunfo. Ethiopians
describe gunfo to me as porridge. It tastes like raw dough and in the
middle there is butter that you dip the dough into. Women eat a lot of this after giving birth because it helps them regain their strength. I really don’t like it but
it is considered rude not to eat when food is offered to you, so I took little
tiny bites, hoping it was enough. We ate in the mother’s bedroom as she was
laying and resting on her bed with the baby. There were chairs set aside in her
bedroom for visitors. Every time I put my spoon back down, the mother would say,
“Helena, please, eat more.” So I had to take more little bites. I was there for
probably about 45 minutes and in that span of time people kept coming into the
bedroom to greet the mother and wish her well. Afterwards they would all gather
in the living room to eat, drink, and talk. It felt great to be a part of such
an important ceremony and something that is truly Ethiopian. I enjoyed seeing
people from the community that I knew and talking to them. It felt like I was
part of their celebration and more importantly that I was becoming part of this
community.
Whenever I
have bad days or I feel sad I find that my mood changes completely when I go
visit people. As time goes on I’m realizing that even though I may be far away
from my friends and family back home and my other PCV friends, I’m making
friends here, in my town. And even though my Amharic is not good and I am often
limited in what I can say, it doesn’t stop me from finding happiness with these
people.
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