The Story of the Lost and Found Sheep
on Tara's Ethiopian Adventure (Ethiopia), 27/Dec/2010 20:50, 34 days ago
No celebration in Ethiopia would be complete without a slaughtered sheep or goat! It went without saying then that we would have bbq tibs(fried meat)at my leaving party. Although I was leaving Ambo on the Saturday we held my leaving party on a Tuesday because a couple of my closest friends were going to be away for a workshop later in the week. Being well prepared they bought the sheep at the market on Saturday and then found a safe place to tie the sheep next to some of the other goats near the staff lounge. On Tuesday they went to pick up the sheep ready for slaughtering...but DISASTER...NO SHEEP! It seems that there was a bit of miscommunication at the staff lounge and the catering people had mistaken it for their's and it had already been cooked and served! Tuesday is not a market day they were in a bit of a jam...obtaining another sheep would be problematic. In the end Gizaw went knocking on houses, door to door, to see if anyone had a sheep they would be willing to sell. It was a race against the clock and when he did eventually find a sheep he needed to get it back to the house as quickly as possible. He didn't have time to find someone to carry it for him so he struggled back with the sheep kicking and bleeting the whole way. He didn't even have time to change his clothes for the party!The story of the 'lost ad found sheep' provided much entertainment during the evening but for me it was just one example of the amazing lengths my friends here were prepared to go to show they cared. The whole evening I was totally overwhelmed as gift after gift was presented to me, followed by the most generous speeches. It was all far more than I could ever deserve and made me really wish I wasn't leaving at all. Thankfully there was enough hilarious Ethiopian dancing to keep me from getting too sad and I managed to hold back the tears up until the last 20 minutes of the evening. By this point there were only about eight of us left and we were having a fantastic time dancing away to various Ethiopian songs. Someone had even produced a sound system from somewhere that had an attached microphone so they were able to do a bit of Kareoke! It was only as the music got a bit slower and more solemn (an Oromo War song in fact) that I had time to reflect on the amazing farewell they had prepared for me AND the amazing time I had had with them over the last year... and I started to cry. I thought I had got away with it as I was sat in a shadow, watching Gizaw and Cherinet beating their sticks on the ground and stomping around in a circle to slow methodical rythym, with a tear running down my cheek. However, it was obvious I hadn't when Dadi said 'No weeping Tara...now is not for weeping'.The evening didn't end sadly though...we had a few more laughs and then admired the stars as we made our way home. Someone pointed out their favourite constellation and it happened to be mine too...the best thing about it is that it is visible in England too! It was a pretty cheesy moment but it was still comforting to think that, as far away from them I would be, we could still be under the same stars. I eventually crawled into bed at around 11pm feeling very loved and very lucky.