Day 8 Friday
I woke at around 4:30 am to a crazy guy driving the streets around the guest house honking and yelling through his loud speaker…. something I didn’t understand.. I never in my life wanted to throw food at someone more than that at him. Meg’s dad said we should keep a bucket of water by the window just in case he decides to do it again. Then the chanting over the loudspeaker started. Thankfully the power went out at 5 and the chanting stopped. Sifan woke up at 6 am with big smiles. She had wet in the night so we took a bath and I was successful in teaching her to look up instead of down when rinsing her hair. I changed her underwear with much fussing. During the struggle I looked down and saw a giant pile of pooh……apparently when I changed her in the dark last night I didn’t realize that she had pooed and peed…..oy. She remembered her dress from yesterday and searched everywhere for it. Thankfully I remembered to hide it under the bed. But she refused to put on any of the clothes I brought and kept mumbling something in Oromo under breath (she does this when she is mad). I put all of her options out …about 4 outfits and she refused each one with a shrug of the shoulder and more mumbling. Then she started to try to leave the room in her underwear. I shut the door and she got loud angry. We waited in the room about an hour while she fussed then suddenly like a light switch she got up from her pouting and picked a shirt. Then let me pick some pants for her, shoes on, and held my hand out the door…all smiles again. We went down for a GREAT French toast breakfast.
Agitu’s sister is here and has been a great resource for me. She thinks that after talking to Sifan and seeing how big she is that she is likely close to 5. She speaks perfect Oromo she says. Our driver from New Flower says that Oromo is a hard language to learn. Sifan has been a huge source of amusement for Agitu’s sister, Sifan makes her laugh a lot. Sifan is so happy almost all of the time. She will say something in Oromo and throw her head back and laugh hysterically.
Sifan waited in the bathroom while I took a shower and got ready for her TB test appointment at 11am. The driver arrived at 10:15 with Nuni and Tamiru and we went to the clinic. We arrived 20 minutes early so Sifan took pictures of some of the other kids waiting for their TB tests. Tamiru and Sifan played little people cars and our name was called to go in for the TB test. Sifan started to whimper immediately when she saw the lab coat. We wrestled her for her arm and gave her the test shot and she cried and cried. Everyone tried to get her to stop but she would not until we got out to the car. They dropped us back off at the Guesthouse for lunch. After Berhane woke from her nap we headed to the Care Center so Berhane could say goodbye. Sifan started to cry as soon as she saw the gate and would scream if I tried to get out of the car. Korsa tried to tell her that she was going to stay with mommy and she shrugged at him. He said she didn’t believe him. So we stayed in the car while Meg and Berhane said goodbye. We shopped a bit on the way home and headed back to the guest house so Meg could pack. It was truly agonizing for me. I am so ready to come home and Torrey said that Wubitu was ready for me to come home. I bawled for 2 hours straight picturing the rest of my family at the airport the next day….I miss them so much. Torrey changed my ticket to flying out Tuesday yesterday so we didn’t lose our airfare and since the dr. here at BFAS said that we could get an appointment at the embassy on Monday or Tuesday. But as meg was finishing her packing they told me that the embassy said that they had to wait until Thursday since BFAS embassy dates are on Thursday. So Torrey has been working stateside with our Senator to get an appointment for Monday afternoon, after the TB results. Please pray that this all works out so we can be home by Wednesday. Meg left and I lost it….I was exhausted from the day and missed my family so much that I couldn’t handle it and burst into uncontrollable sobs. The girls at the guest house tried to calm me and started to tear up themselves. I tried to make myself feel better with a little American retail therapy. Sifan and I went shopping at the little shops near the guest house. Sifan would point to what she wanted and mommy would buy it (within reason of course). So she got a pink sweater (she loves pink) with little pearl hearts, a sucker, a big bunch of bananas for a dollar, and some tissues (called soft here in ethiopia). I felt a bit better. Luckily it gets dark her around 7 and there is not electricity or generator here at Notool so it forced us to go to bed and try to sleep off the sadness. I am so ready to come home. Please specifically pray that the US Embassy grants us an appointment on Monday and that Sifan passes her TB screening (the TB vaccine is given here in Ethiopia which gives a false positive….which then requires a chest x-ray)