Greetings!

Happy Independence Day!

Hope every one is having a wonderful holiday weekend! To celebrate today we are taking a day off in a bigger city outside of our training site. Enjoying avocado mango smoothies and internet access and Phillie cheese steaks. Tomorrow we’re grilling and making s’mores back in Dera. 

Training is going well. I’m slowly picking up on the language (Oromifa) and I’ve become comfortable living an Ethiopian lifestyle with my host family. My host family is wonderful, they cook delicious food and we watch Ethiopian Idol and laugh alot. Dera is a neat little town. Public transportation there is a horse-cart and donkeys; chickens, goats, and sheep wander the rocky streets freely. You can hear the hyenas howling from the hills behind the town at night. Rainy season has brought out all the cool insects. I’ve seen some huge beetles and grasshoppers and lots of other things.

Not too much is new here. I’m still very excited and happy to be here, ready to finish training and actually get to work.

I don’t have a lot of internet access and blogspot doesn’t work in Ethiopia so it might be a little while before any more updates.

I hope everyone is doing well! Sending my love!

Take care!

Laura

p.s. My mailing address for the next month is:

Laura Still- PCT

Peace Corps Ethiopia

P.O. Box 7788

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

East Africa