A note from Habtamu

Hi Everyone,
My mom's been really busy learning how to take care of us-so I thought I'd write an entry telling you about my new life in America.

We arrived 1 month ago and here are some of the things I've noticed:
The lion we live with - likes to sleep in the corner or what ever room my mom is in. She's really soft to touch. One day a week she leaves with dad and comes home with her-mom says she goes to school. Her breath stinks and I'm the same height as her- she's a little taller-but otherwise we're getting along great, we even sometimes play together. It's still strange that these American's all seem to live with a lion- my new neighbors have one too. Mom calls that one a baby and she's bigger than our lion so-I guess Kako and I are lucky.

I have to pay a lot more attention to my teeth now- I am no longer the one that brushes them- mom and dad do- mostly dad (he's better at it) and we go see this guy once a week who likes to stick his fingers in my mouth and hurt me. I notice when he hurts me that daddy is home. In fact - everytime somebody they call a "doctor" hurts me- Daddy does this thing he calls "work from home". He's in the house someplace and comes out when mommy yells- "denis can you _____". He seems very attentive. If I'm not going to be hurt by one of these "doctors" daddy leaves in his "work" car and comes home to put us to bed.

Speaking of Bed- mom seems to disapear when it's bed time-she's home but not with us. She seems to. At night we sit in this big bowl of warm water- Kako and I - with some toys- and then we get into new clothes that are for sleeping in- and then we go read books and go to bed.

The other day- mom and dad filled the basement living space with a bunch of water - then used the towels we use after our baths- and a big noisy machine to clean it up- while they were playing in the water mommy fell down and now she's walking on these funny metal sticks and has something on her leg. She is no longer coming up stairs or down and we spend all of our time on the main floor of the house. The best part- I hear her asking on the phone for people to come over- and I love company and talking about a water heater.

We have done many things since being in America- we've been to friends and families homes. I'm surprised at how many showers are in America. I like it when mom drives the little car to our friends house because that car has better music. Dad's car's music is trash. It's this guy that talks a lot. They talk about other cars on the radio in mom's big car (traffic report she calls it)- but the the little car- that one plays my music-mostly in Amharic.

The food in America is borring. Mom keeps putting green things in front of me- not sure what they are- but they all taste bad. Sometimes she remembers to put berbere in our food-but mostly not. She'll learn. I have discovered a couple of wonderful things. Chicken nuggets shaped like Dinosours. Apparently these Dinosours lived here first and now we eat them for lunch. There's this orange pasta that's pretty good too. Our neighbor came over the other day and made them for us- but she put the green things in it too- not sure what's up with the green things.

I am starting school next week. I'm very excited to be doing this-although I don't know what "this" is.

Ohhh- one more thing and then I have to g0- kako is playing with one of my toys and I must stop her. people here are obsessed with poop. first mom collected kako's poop, then she started collecting mine. When we walk the dog she also collects Geneva's. Then the other day daddy came home and he is is collecting his poop. it's very strange indeed.

So my new family is funny and america is odd-with it's many bathrooms, poop fetish, and bland food but I'm safe, happy and although mom and dad are a little strange-they seem to love us very much.

Back to training my mom how to play- laugh...