The Gimbie Chronicles

 Hey Everyone.  I am having an amazing time here.  I am meeting a long
 of awesome people.  The people here were saying that by the time the
 process of getting ready for Gimbie is complete all the “bad apples”
 are weeded out.  What is left is the adaptable, caring, tough,
 persistent, not lazy people.  I think it is true.  Vacationing here is
 a once in a great while thing.

 I have been talking to some of the locals too.  Some know English,
 which I hear helps out a lot when you are trying to go to college and
 get a good job.  I got into a conversation with two guys.  They asked
 me what I thought of Obama.  I told them I wasn’t that big of a fan of
 his.  I told them that about half of the country likes him and the
 other half doesn’t.  He is very popular here though.  In Addis I saw
 at least two Obama Cafes and in Gimbie there is one as well.  There is
 shirts that say “Yes we Can” in English and the Ethiopian languages
 with Obama’s face on there as well.  The guys liked what George Bush
 did with terrorism but not Gitmo.  People were also asking me about
 America, what it is like.  They asked me about air conditioning.  I
 told them that we usually like to keep our doors closed to keep the
 cold air in.  Over here they open doors a lot of ventilation but the
 hot air gets in.  It was hard to explain to people that Washington
 State and Washington DC weren’t the same place.  I am also learning
 how to say things differently.  I have always said “I go to college”
 but they always say “I am going to university.”  A little different.
 I am having the “Drugist”, Tsgaye, teach me Oromifa.  It is going well
 and even though I can’t really communicate that well with the locals I
 feel more connected to them because I can say quite a few words now.
 I want to put up a sign above the guys’ room that says “Nama Mana”,
 which means Man House or Man Room.  I was going to check to see if
 that was the correct way to say it though.  It might be “Mana Nama”.
 I will check. From what I gathered this language doesn’t have articles
 (the, a, an).  That would make things easier.

 The last few days have been really good.  I am being seen as an all
 purpose guy.  I took some pictures for an AHI presentation, I have
 almost set up the weather station (that is so exciting.  This might be
 the first time people have recorded the temperature, humidity, and
 rainfall in Gimbie ever), I took pictures of a guy that wants to send
 back to his family in America.  I joked that I was taking his senior
 pictures, right down my ally.  I have also been asked to teach English
 at a church/school and math in the nursing school in October and any
 amount of teaching I would be willing to do.  I am continuing to do
 Triage in the Out Patient Department.  The other day we got a ton of
 charts.  It was several hours of just vital signs.

 I just got back from going out with some other missionaries and a
 hospital Employee, named Henock.  He is a great guy.  He goes out to
 eat and such.  He knows the language so he orders for us in just a few
 seconds.  We ate Chiro with butter and Injeras (Dabo, *bread* for me).
 After we went to the juice bar (it is called Jimi Juice).  I had a
 Guava, Pineapple, Avocado drink.  They usually cost under 50 cents in
 American dollars.  On the way home the local kids did there thing.
 They said, “you, you, you” as usually.  We said “si, si, si” back to
 them (si is you in their language).  After you have been here for a
 while you just play along with it and have a good time.  I thing there
 is a mutual fascination between the foreigners and the Ethiopians,
 just shown in different ways.

 I have had three kids write me letters asking me for me to pay for
 their schooling.  I wish I could but there are a few reasons why I
 can’t.  If I gave to one there would be a flock of kids trying to get
 me to pay for them too.  Another reason is that if I gave to everyone
 that asked me then I would go broke within a few months.  Also
 everyone helps out in different ways.  I don’t think it is my purpose
 to give monetarily.  Although I am rich by Ethiopian standards, I am
 not rich.  I am here not to give money but to give myself, my skills,
 my passions, my talents, and my time to this hospital and the
 surrounding community.

 I have another story.  This one is really cute.  The Chief Operations
 Officer, Mark, has a three year old son, Jonah.  He is the smartest
 three year old that I have met.  He had this little computer, I don’t
 think it even worked but he was pretending to be on it.  I asked him
 if he had gotten any work done.  He said that he didn’t.  I asked him
 why not.  He responded, “I have been having a hard time with Adobe
 lately”.  The next day I was in the room and his mom asked him if he
 had gotten all the viruses off his computer.  He responded, “yeah, I
 got them all off”.  He said it in a way that mad him sound like he had
 really been working hard at getting the viruses off the computer.
 Very funny.  There are so many stories to tell here.  I have been
 keeping up a journal with all the stories.

 Keep sending me e-mails:
 jeremy.marinos@gmail.com

 I love hearing from all of you.  It makes me
 feel closer to home and it is interesting to see what everyone is
 doing.  Well thank you for reading my blog.  I hope you find it
 interesting.  Keep up the questions and the communication.