well hello there

Quick update: news in the past few weeks:

* Group three PCVs are receiving their invitations now. They'll arrive
in October. Exciting! At least two of us have acquaintances in the new
group (including another UW PCMI student!). If any of you Group Threes
are reading this, welcome! It's exciting, crazy, etc., but definitely
worth it.

* I finally, at long last, got my IRB approval from the Ethiopian
Public Health Association. Maybe I'll be able to finish my Master's
research, after all.

* Allergies in Ethiopia are bad news. I've been coughing and sniffling
like crazy. Ethiopians are worried about me. "This is beyond the
common cold," one of my coworkers told me. "It is rape." Confused, I
asked him what he meant. He told me the word in Amharic for _ripe_,
and then said that the cold had matured. Priceless.

* COS Conference in a little over three weeks. It's hard to believe
we're getting that close to the end. About four months from now, I'll
be on my way home. Scheming up some lovely travel for after finishing
here.

* Five-year-old birthday party on my compound last weekend. Dancing
five year-old Ethiopians are really cute.

* Rainy season has worked its magic. The countryside is gorgeous and
green, the cows are slightly less skeletal, mangos are abundant, and
every puddle is filled with frogs. Except for the mud, it would be
perfect. I do miss the summer in the NW, though. I'm getting excited
about moving back.

I'll be in Addis next week for a long meeting. Need to set up some
much-needed g-mail chat dates while I'm there. Will write again from
there.