Tuesday and Wednesday

Yesterday I checked a major goal off of my checklist. I raced a group of Ethiopians! First of all, let me explain running in Addis Ababa. Simply to be a farranj attracts more attention than you know what to do with, but to do something unusual, such as running, (which is something you rarely see here) makes absolutely everybody stop what they are doing. Everyone stops to cheer for you, yelling things like "Michael Johnson", "Olympics", and of course, "You, you, you, you, you!" I have never been so encouraged to run in my entire life, nor have I ever felt so welcome anywhere. Imagine one hundred strangers vying for your attention, simply so that they can be the ones from whom you hear some random English word yelled... "Running!", "Good job!", "You want face wash?" and, my favorite, "Sweet Jeans!" A bunch of the younger Ethiopians followed us (I was running with Martha, an awesome friend I have made in the house) and it was very hard not to feel like Forest Gump with a trail of followers in my wake. Everyone here is so positive. Imagine how big of an idiot you would look like spontaneously asking Americans to race... here they are totally down with it. "Wanna race?" "OK". That simple, right? Wrong. It isn't that simple for me because when I race Ethiopians, I stack the odds in my favor. At a full sprint, I overtook a group of three Habeshas who were standing still. When I was ten yards ahead with 60 yards to go until the steps where I depart, I yelled "Na! We race!" (Come on. We race). As if they were waiting for a gunshot, the three Habeshas ripped across the sidewalk, overtaking me within thirty yards. By the time I had reached my finish line/the steps, they were 20 yards ahead, turning around to see if I was still within sight. I yelled "Ahun bet hidallo" (Now I go home). Before they were out of sight I yelled "Ante Olympic champions" as one of them broke the sound barrier.Here's a little side note about the people with whom I live: All the girls here are so classy and cool that I can't even complete this sentence. Seriously for five minutes I have been erasing various endings to "All the girls here are so classy and cool that...". I mean, I absolutely love these people, and I wish I could take them all, and Matt Finnerman, with me to Mary Washington and form the awesomest group of random ass friends in ever created. Classy and cool... I really believe in that combination as part of the recipe for awesomeness. They all have the self respect to form their own opinions and love themselves and others, while at the same time, they are able to forget all that stuff and be total laughing idiots, which is often equally rewarding. (Example: the idiotic dance which I will show anyone who asks.) End of tangent.Well, today I went to the markado, and got a little lost from my group because my taxi stopped for 20 minutes making me 20 minutes late. I talked to tons of people, who were all very kind and helpful, and I ended up following the trail of faranji by asking "Guadenochi sost wayum erat leyla farranji tamas assay enhe nacho. Markado ust nacho, niegargin yet alloukem". (My friends are 3 or 4 other foreigners the same as me. They are in the market, but where they are, I do not know.) Everyone pointed me in their direction, but meeting somewhere in the market is like meeting somewhere in Texas... it's big. I ended up calling Mastaol from a payphone, and waiting for him for 45 minutes. During this waiting period, I decided to do something I have been talking about doing for a few days: street teach. Across all of Addis Ababa the streets are lined with kids who are either jobless or shoeshining and selling trinkets, but definitely none of them are in school. So, I just asked one of them "Ante Inglisinya lemowk falligallo." (You want to learn English?) He said "No" to which I responded "Llemen aidellum? Inglisinya betam assfeligee no. Ante teroo sera falligallo?" (Why not? English is very important. Don't you want a good career?) At this point, one boy came up to me and asked "Binglisinya kit minalik" (How do you say ass in English?) I said "Ass". Ten kids laughed and walked over, and before a minute was over, I was absolutely surrounded by 40 to 50 kids, all learning "Hi... how are you". Rich people would walk up, asking me if I was being robbed by these street kids, to which I responded "Ai. Tamarioche nacho enha betam gobez nacho." (No, these are my students and they are very smart.) A bank manager walked out and asked me to leave because the crowd was bad for business, so I said to the kids that class was over, and I walked 50 yards away... and they all followed me. A woman came up to me, saying in Amharic, "If you are a teacher, take my child to school with you". I told her I would try to find a place, but I had no power to promise anything. Anyway, I had no idea that street teaching would be such a success. People want knowledge here so badly, but they are all forgotten by the intellligencia of the first world, only receiving the refuse of American and British textbooks. The crowd got even bigger at the new street location, and the police came to break it up, telling me not to do this in the Markado. I left at their request, but I am incredibly excited. Their thirst for knowledge was large enough to get the attention of the police. Street teaching is just beginning! Seriously... I feel so awesome about this. Do you know how valuable it is to learn English? REALLY VALUABLE! This is the best idea I have ever had!Gosh... I am leaving so much out. Seriously, if I didn't have so much to do each day, and I had time, I could write ten pages a day. Catch 22... because I can only have ten pages to write a day if my days remain busy. Who cares... I don't want anything to change. I live with great people. I have a very fulfilling job. Talk about fulfilling... Teodros, that really bright second grader, has been getting IMPOSSIBLE extra assignments from me after class and completing them flawlessly. His questions for tonight (among five others) were "What is the chemical equation for photosynthesis?" and "What is the theory of relativity, and who invented it?" He told me to ask him questions about space travel, so I am trying to get him thinking about quantum physics. His English is better than anyone else's in the whole school, and wouldn't it be crazy if the next Hawking were from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia? Seriously, this guy's brain is awesomer than a TI 83 Plus with every program on it (including Druglord and Space Invaders). I keep trying to add adjectives because his homework keeps getting better, but my encouraging vocabulary is already stretched, and I've only been here for nine days. Today I wrote on his paper, "Very good, Gold medal, Olympic Champion of Intelligence!" with an "AWESOME" sticker on top of it all. What else can I say? DABE LA JHONNY!