4.16.2010

New Ethiopian Friends!

Last Friday we had a wonderful evening full of new Ethiopian friends. Jon met a little Ethiopian boy named Samuel at the pre-school in the social agency where he works. He eventually met the mom and dad as well. They came here to the states a few years ago. They found out we adopted from Ethiopia and were excited to meet us. They asked us to come over for dinner. We were expecting it to be the three of us, and the three of them. But, we forgot they are ETHIOPIAN! All evening long more friends stopped by. It was such an enjoyable night.

On the drive there we were talking about how we really hope they don't make American food. As soon as we opened the door we knew it was Ethiopian food and BOY WAS IT GOOOOD!!!!! I had been craving it every since they invited us over. YUMMY!

The evening was so relaxed with much laughter and chit-chat. It made us long to be in Ethiopia even more! I truly have never met a more open and friendly group of people than Ethiopians.  All of our new friends spoke English, but there was a beautiful, constant interplay of English and Amharic all night and it made me wildly comfortable. Strange because I don't speak Amharic nor do I understand it. It just felt comforting. It felt right. Maybe it's due to the connection of our son. Maybe it's the way their accent makes the name Mekonen sound. Simply put. It's wonderful.

So, our new friends! (sorry the picture is not very clear).
From left to right: Genet, Me, Ayana, little Samuel, Abinet holding Mekonen, Helmeneh, Yashi, Berhanu, and Kinde

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

How FUN! I hope you keep that connection, what an awesome thing for Mekonen! How did he respond to them? I remember when we brought my little brother home from Korea, he would completely shut down whenever we had Korean people over. Of course, he was 4 when he came home, so the emotions and psychology of his experience was different.
-Elizabeth

Shonah said...

There is nothing like the soft sound of Amharic in your ear and the smell of frankensence as coffee is being made. We have a group of Ethiopian friends that we get together with and I feel so at home even though I can only understand a few words of Amharic. It feels like home when we are all together, at least for me it does. I am really glad that you are able to experience that as well, it is a real treasure!