Primary & Spanish Tortillas

Today we took the children from the Village of Hope to church with us. They had been begging me to go, and I was happy to take them. The Branch President was sick today so Fitzum, his 17 year old son, conducted the meetings, blessed the sacrament, and gave one of the talks. He had a busy day so after sacrament meeting I asked him if he would like me to teach primary. He readily accepted.

Most of the kids can speak some English, but I used a translator so the kids could understand everything better. We had a really cool primary class. I had some pass-along cards with the Salt Lake Temple on them, so I taught them about temples. It was really cool, and the spirit was strong when we talked about the possibility of a temple being built in Ethiopia someday. I also taught them a few primary songs and had them teach me some songs that they knew. I need to brush up on the words to the primary songs. I stumbled through several of them.

After church I went back to Village of Hope with them and cooked Spanish tortillas (like a potato omelet cooked in olive oil) for them. Each of the older children has a turn to cook. The cooks for today were thrilled to have me there. They helped me cut up about 50 small potatoes and three onions. We spent almost two hours cooking on their little gas stove. The gas cylinder ran out so we had to change to the new one right in the middle of cooking.

There was no electricity, so it was dark inside the building and the water line broke, so we were out of water for about an hour while we were trying to cook. One of the young girls cracked open an egg and a partially developed chick fell out onto the table. I quickly flipped it out the door to the dog. I guess they don’t candle their eggs here in Ethiopia. (Candling is when you pass them over a bright light to sort out bad eggs.) The girl handled it really well.

They played games and had a good time with Wes and Chris. I have a lot of good pictures. I pulled out my laptop and showed them a lot of the pictures that I have taken. Fortunately I have a few of my family to show them. It was really fun to have the children crowded around me. The children are so well behaved and happy. It is a joy to be around them. It kind of helps me not miss my own children as much. I will be very glad to see my family next week.