Our Visiting Teenagers

We understand why Ryan was so passionate about Aschalo, Genet, and Yesalemush! These are great kids!

We picked up our visitors from the Gladney Center on Sunday evening. As one can imagine, they were wiped out from the long trip. They all took showers when we returned home and went to bed, sleeping until late into the next morning. On Monday we took them shopping for clothes, shoes, and swim suits and had a great time. Kali was a little stand off-ish with them at first, as we expected. She is still pretty shy around new people and it takes a while for her to warm up to someone new. Carson, on the other hand, had no problem warming up to them. The first thing he asked when he woke up Monday morning was "Are the girls up yet?"

On Tuesday, Rick and Landree took them to the Museum of Science in Fort Worth, the planetarium, and the IMAX theater. They really liked the IMAX. Tuesday evening saw a rousing game of Monopoly Jr. between Genet, Yesalemush and Carson (I was the bank). Aschalo watched and caught on to the game instantly, explaining it to the two girls in Amharic. Mind you, this was Monopoly JR., not regular Monopoly ... the game went on for two hours! Genet was the first to go bankrupt and be out of the game, and it appeared that Carson had the game well in hand. We eventually had to take him to his bath, and so Genet jumped in and took his place in the game. Only when Carson came in to tell the girls goodnight did the game finally come to an end. No winner ... it was a draw!

Aschalo is very good with his English. As with most people who learn a foreign language, he understands more English than he speaks, though he speaks quite well. I told them that July 4th was a holiday and Aschalo asked me what kind of holiday. I explained to him that it was a celebration of our independence from England and he understood right away. He is an extemely bright young man who loves to read and study. It would be a complete loss to this world if Aschalo was not able to continue with an education, either in Ethiopia or here in America. He wants to be a chemist later in life. Rick continues to speak to Aschalo in his normal Texas twang and at his normal cadence. I told him to speak slower, but Aschalo and Rick seem to be able to communicate quite nicely without me trying to mess things up. Maybe I am being too patronizing by trying to speak slower and use words that I think they will understand more?

Genet is always smiling! She too is very bright (she loves math and bought a book on calculus at the bookstore) and will try very hard to communicate in English without having to rely on her brother to translate. I often find Genet thumbing through her very worn Amharic/English dictionary. They are all on the smaller side in terms of physical stature, but Genet is such a skinny little thing that we had to shop for her in the little girls department. She is so cute in her swimsuit! She actually picked out a bikini, which threw me for a loop. I thought for sure that both girls would pick out more modest one piece suits. I asked her if she was sure on the bikini and she was ... until yesterday when it came time to put it on to go to the pool. She came out of the bedroom with a top on over it and told me "I don't like my bikini." I told her that it was ok for her to swim with her shirt over it if she was uncomfortable. I even asked Aschalo to explain this to her when we got to the pool. I am not sure what he actually said to her in Amharic, but she whipped off that shirt and had no problem after that swimming in her new bikini. They all had a great time in the pool.

Yesalemush is the artist of the family. She loves art and dancing and is very affectionate. She is the one who is always holding my hand and wanting to give us hugs and kisses. She is the youngest of their family. Yesalemush had the best time shopping, taking one thing after another off the rack. She is the youngest of the family and speaks the least amount of English, but she knows the word "me" very well. Maybe coming from that position of "last child"?? We all know that the youngest is always the most spoiled! When we were shopping, she would pick something out and say "me" over and over. We were all walking into a new store and she asked the question "me?". I laughed and said, "Me me me... it's all about Yesalemush". I turned around to see Aschalo doubled over in laughter and saying, "Yes, true!" But really, she is a very sweet girl. She always wants to help me in the house with the dishes, vacuuming, anything. She and Genet are always the first to jump up from the dinner table to start clearing the dishes. We keep trying to tell them that they are on vacation and don't have to do this. But they want to feel helpful, so we finally gave in and let them help. As long as they know that they are not here to work, I think we're ok.

We had a good time on the 4th, going to the town square for all of the festivities including our small town parade. I keep my Amharic phrase book handy all the time, as there are a few words that Aschalo does not understand, like "parade". It certainly wasn't the Tournament of Roses Parade (which I WILL attend one day!), but it was nice. We had intended to take them to the fireworks last night, but they were all three in bed asleep by 8:00 pm! Maybe they are still on Ethiopian time.

Our abnormally wet Texas summer may end up putting a damper on many of the activities we had planned for our new friends. On Friday we will attend the Ethiopian Day festivities at the ESFNA (Ethiopian Sports Federation of North America) Soccer Tournament in Garland, and then it is off to Rick's sister's lake house for the weekend. If the weather cooperates, we will all be enjoying boating activities and more swimming!