One of the advantages ...

... of having a boy and a girl is that, when you're in a hurry at bedtime (or any time, I suppose), they can both pee into the same toilet at the same time.

Giggles the great... skier, that is!

On the provincial Family Day (Feb 18) I took Giggles for a "Mommy Day" while Poppet stayed home with Laolao and Laoye. The activity of choice was ... skiing! I am NOT a skier, but I paid for an hour of private lessons. Then she was to practice on the bunny hill - but that wasn't exciting enough for speed demon Giggles, especially as she had to walk up to the top of the hill, so I paid for a second hour of lessons so she could go up the big hill with adult accompaniment (and get a few more skiing tips to boot).

Both of the instructors who worked with her said she was "a natural" and "very talented." In fact, the second instructor said in her many years of teaching, this was only the second time she'd had such a good student for a first-time skier.

They start the kids off snow-ploughing to keep from going too fast while they learn to keep their balance, but by the end of the second hour, Giggles was already doing a few turns with parallel skis, which means faster speed and harder to balance while turning. She said she fell down only a few times.

(Anybody out there interested in accompanying a 7-year-old on the hill for a day or two sometime?!?)

I think regular skiing lessons will be on the books for next winter.

More Ethiopia pix

These pictures are from a second, wide-angle camera for which I just had the film developed a couple of weeks ago (after the other films).

One of the buildings at the Transition House, with photo of children on the wall. (Poppet is one of the kids in the picture.)

Children at the orphanage in Adama.

Note that there are many older children here.

Bole road streetscape.

Lunch at the home of a Meserete Kristos Church pastor.

A volcanic lake near Debre Zayit.
We had to climb a ways to get to the top of the crater.

Giggles and Poppet at the playground of a restaurant
near the summit of Mount Entoto.

A disabled weaver. Our friend J took us to this workshop, where we purchased several lovely woolen rugs for a very good price. I bought a rug appx 1.5 x 2 metres for just $45.

The inside of an Ethiopian kitchen. This was an "institutional" kitchen, at the Meserete Kristos College, so larger than most, but similarly equipped.
(3 pictures)