Melkam Genna : Ethiopian Christmas

MELKAM GENNA or MERRY CHRISTMAS

In Ethiopia, Christmas is on January 7th because they follow the ancient Julian Calendar. 

We were privileged to spend the evening at Denver's Ethiopian Church in Celebration of Jesus' Birthday. Ezekiel loved teaching us new traditions and games & Ben and I really enjoyed the food, haha.

This game is called Kililibosh & is kind of like Jacks. 

Ezekiel had never talked about it before but was definitely familiar with it and was super excited to play!

From what I've learned, it helps teach the kids discipline, self control, and focus...as well as being a number computation game.

The rules are you do not have to drop any rocks from the start, but you begin to one by one, two by two, & on through ten rocks or more. There's something in there where it's supposed to be an odd number, as well.

I know...I {obviously} don't really get it either. But the kids did. Guess they're smarter than me. 

Can you see those crocodile tears on her cheeks?? Definitely did not want mom. 

The boys all wanted to wear their ties. Love.

Injera {enjera} and Wat, amongst some other YUMMY Ethiopian food!

Shhh...I had seconds.

Of course the boys headed quickly outside for a pick up game. Never mind it started snowing while they played. Obviously didn't deter any of them.

Can you see sweet little Anton in the red sweater? He got right in there with the big kids.

After tiring of soccer, Anton & Laith spent a ton of time with these kids playing this marble game.

The objective is you shoot the marbles down and try to knock out the other marbles that are lined up on the other side.  If you knock out certain marbles you get all the marbles in the group. 

YUM!

Ezekiel always tells us of making Injera with his mom so it was fun to finally see how it was made here! We had a little tutorial and though it seemed easy, some of the other adoptive moms said it's deceiving and is actually rather hard to make it turn out perfectly.

Isn't he handsome?

They served it in a way I'd never had before...whether in Ethiopia itself or Ethiopian restaurants. 

The ladies stirred a chili sauce together and drizzled it over the top of the steaming hot injera. 

I'm a wuss when it comes to spicy food {getting better though} and absolutely loved it.

Ben said it wasn't spicy. It was. 

I forgot to mention with the games that all the Sunday School classrooms were converted into game rooms {also a variation of chinese jumprope & duck, duck, goose}

This classroom was turned into a beauty salon! The ladies who own Ezekiel's new hair salon {Comfort Salon & Spa}, attend the church and set up shop, twisting, braiding, cornrowing {is that a word?} all their beautiful hair. The little girls were in heaven. 

Wish Imani's hair was just a tad bit longer. 

What a blessing to be part of this community. 

Can't wait to get to know these folks even better through the years.

...maybe it'll even get Ezekiel to speak Amharic again...

TERESA