Life on the farm (we mean compound)

We have gotten quite used to life here on the compound, but lately, it
has felt much more like a farm, or a petting zoo. This is no
tract-home, we have a big chunk of land that Tadesse, our
guard/gardener, has been working diligently to make into a botanical
oasis, complete with a coffee tree orchard, stone-lined, manicured
flower gardens, and vegetable gardens. We still get water delivered
bi-weekly on the back of a donkey-cart, but this is serious progress.
Back to the farm aspect, in addition to the two dogs who were already
here, we have gotten two adorable puppies, one brown and one white,
and we have named them ‘Bagel’ and ‘Cream Cheese,’ respectively. By
the way, they cost a whopping 5 Birr, combined, which is less than a
cup of coffee here. As cute as they are, we can’t really play with
them because they haven’t had any vaccinations, so we can’t risk
anything.

At 5:30am sharp, daily, the alpha-male rooster (named Bob, of the
Shishka-type) crows directly outside our door, at which time D usually
shouts an obscenity or two. The other rooster,‘The General’ (General
Tso) is quiet, because he knows he’s second-string. Tigiste and
Tadesse decided we should have more chickens, so the hens have been
busy sitting on their eggs for the past week, 2 more weeks to go (21
days) until we’ll have little chicks running around. Believe it or
not, all of the animals coexist very peacefully, unless of course, a
monkey comes running through the yard, in which case everyone gets
riled up…Speaking of monkeys, we see lots of baboons, just hanging out
alongside the road regularly. Their novelty has worn off, and was
replaced with the zeal for hippo sightings. There are a few hippos who
like to come out around 5pm in the marshes by the lake. The first time
we saw their little ears, then their enormous bodies, we went nuts!
They were only about 15 feet away, right off the road.

It has been particularly rainy in the past week, so we collect the
rain water with huge barrels positioned at the edge of the roof to
catch the spill-off. We don’t drink the water, clearly, but it’s used
for other things around the house, like washing dishes, washing
clothes, “plumbing,” etc. We didn’t know how much frogs like the
rain, until several of them surfaced in the past week. In fact, they
surfaced right into our rooms on several occasions. Luckily, Tadesse
had just taught me the word for ‘frog’ in Amharic, so he came quickly
to escort the little guys back out into the garden. Of course, we
don’t shriek for Tadesse to come running as often as we did in the
past. We have become quite desensitized to most things creepy and
crawly. One real test was the rhinoceros-looking beetle, about the
size of a mouse, that found its way into our room. The only time I had
seen anything like that before, it was behind glass, at the Museum of
Natural History. After that incident, we fashioned some make-shift
weather stripping, out of duct tape, for the bottom of our door, in
order to curb any further unauthorized entrances.

We’re still showering with a bucket and ladle, but we have started to
boil the water, which makes the process much more bearable.

More to come soon! We miss everyone incredibly, and think of you all the time.
I was able to post some pictures on my Facebook account, but here’s
the link just in case:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2086665&id=9802992&l=0c91bbf089