This post is brought to you by the letter:

The twentieth symbol of the Amharic alphabet is called ÄYN and it sounds like the sound an open “a”. All the orders sound just as those of the sixteenth symbol.
Here is the table with the printed letter, handwritten letter and pronunciation, and just a few examples. The animations were made according to the instructions in the book Writing and Reading Amharic and the sounds are from the site Amharic Online. Phonetic symbols according to David Appleyard.

print	phonetics	how to write it and say it	examples
	a		(aräb) Arab
	u
	i
	a		(aläm) world, planet
	e
	ï		(ïräft) rest, vacation
	o

Finally, the complete sequence in alphabetical order :
 

Next week, the second letter Z.

AliciA

What do you want first? The good news or the less good news?
The good news, as you surely guessed from the title, is that we have the court date!The less good news is that it is for October 7th 
So we have to spend the rest of the summer and part of fall waiting for the travel day, that we suppose will come in November. At least we will be all together by Christmas, , yeah!!
It’s not that I’m complaining, it’s only that I’m a little anxious and days go by veeeeery slowly. Oh well, there’s not much ahead! We will probably meet in Ethiopia with some of the people that follow this blog.
I finished with my vaccines, I only have to take the capsules for the typhoid fever, but my doctor told me to wait until a few days before travel.
Next week is Miguel and Dylan’s turn for the shots so we can have everything ready for the journey, anyway these vaccines last many years.
For now I will keep blogging, taking care of my garden and maybe a short vacation…
OK, patience…

AliciA

Once again I’m coming back on the subject of names, because while I was looking for Ethiopian names on the Internet I found some news in a newspaper from Israel where it was reported that in certain schools of that country children from Ethiopian origin were forced to change their names to others that are more “adequate”, according to the teachers’ criteria.
I think that reflects a total ignorance from the teachers part; forcing those kids to give up their names is like asking them to give up their identity.
First names are very important in Ethiopian culture and there is the belief that if you change your name your personality will also change, as well as your luck.
Besides, children identify with their names as individuals, as part of a family and as part of a culture, especially when they emigrated from their native country.
A name can only be changed by the person who bears it since it’s a decision that will affect her for the rest of her life.
In Argentina it is very common for women to keep their maiden name after getting married; on the other hand in the US women tend to adopt their husband’s last name and many times they keep it even after a divorce.
While I was living in Argentina, I kept my maiden name even after I got married, but when we moved here I decided to take Miguel’s last name, just because for an American it is easier to say Alicia Grinberg than Alicia Crivicich (my maiden name) and I knew that if I had kept it I would have had to spell it every time, and fix a thousand errors in all kind of documents.
But I did it because I don’t give much importance to names, I feel that my identity goes beyond a word, but I’m an adult that thought about it and made a decision about MY name and how I want to be called.
Regarding the names of my Ethiopian children, at first we thought that we would give them new names and their birth names would become their middle names, but now after much consideration we have decided to do the reverse: we will keep their birth names, even when they don’t sound “American” and some people may find them difficult to pronounce. Over time if they want to change their Ethiopian names or want to be called by the middle names we will give them I’m OK with that, but it’s going to be their personal decision.
I want to keep that little connection with their culture even when it is only a name.
Since I was looking for Ethiopian names, their meanings and their writing in Amharic on the Internet, I decided to make a list with everything I found and to post it on my blog, so be on the look out, because when I finish it I will post it on the Amharic page.

AliciA

The Gelada(Theropithecus gelada), in Amharic (č’ïllada) also called Gelada Baboon is a primate that can only be found in the mountains of Ethiopia.
Ethiopians call it “lion baboon” for the characteristic mane that the males have that makes them look much bigger than the females. They are very intelligent animals that live in community, generally in groups of 400 or more, subdivided in smaller groups of a male, several females and their children.
They are basically vegetarians, feeding on grass, herbs and roots that grow in the mountains and rarely on insects. They are very peaceful animals that live along ridges and precipices edges to protect themselves from predators.
They form very complex societies and they communicate by gestures, facial expressions and sounds; you can differentiate 30 distinctive vocalizations, even having a “word” for human and another for dog. One of the features of their societies is that the females are the ones in charge. These primates can live up to 19 years in the wild and more than 30 in captivity.
Another common name for them is “bleeding heart baboon” because of the red spot they have in their chests in the shape of an hourglass. An Ethiopian tale explains this mark as God branding the Gelada in the chest for misbehaving.
Even when sometimes it is hunted by humans, the mayor threat for its survival is the climate change that has reduced its habitat by shrinking the grassland that provides its food.
More information:
Primates: The Gelada Baboon
Animal Diversity
“Kings of the Hill?” - National Geographic Article

AliciA

This post is brought to you by the letter:

The nineteenth symbol of the Amharic alphabet is called WÄWE and it sounds like the sound “w” in English.
Here is the table with the printed letter, handwritten letter and pronunciation, and a few examples. The animations were made according to the instructions in the book Writing and Reading Amharic and the sounds are from the site Amharic Online. Phonetic symbols according to David Appleyard.

print	phonetics	how to write it and say it	examples
	wä		(wätät) milk
	wu
	wi		(sämayawi) blue
	wa		(wašša) cave, cavern
	we		(norwey) Norway
	wï (just w at the end of a word)		(wïha) water (säw) man
	wo		(awo) yes

Finally, the complete sequence in alphabetical order :
 

Next week, the second letter A.

AliciA

I think I could write a book only with what people tells me about my adoption from Ethiopia. It’s true that usually the don’t mean bad, and many times is for ignorance or pure stupidity but I really don’t know how they come about those comments!
A couple of weeks ago a person asked my husband if “children from Ethiopia are healthy” because he knew of a friend who adopted kids from Vietnam and that “they gave them all sick”.
As if we people were some kind of merchandise and in this case had come defective! Yes, sure, we should ask for some kind of pedigree and a warranty, right? So in case they get sick we can return them and get our money back or at least an exchange…
Stupid things that people say!
And while we are at it, we could ask them of a certain height, that they should be perfectly symmetric, to sing in tune, without snot in their noses or dirt under their nails… Of course that if we ask that we should be perfect too so we don’t ruin the harmony.
Nobody wants children to get sick or to suffer, everybody wants them healthy and happy, but we are all imperfect and vulnerable and that is why we form families to take care of each other and help each other in difficult times.
And even very healthy people gets sick from the most terrible things; and nothing worse than seeing a son or a daughter sick.
I’ve always been a person of healthy habits and without serious health problems.
Obviously during my pregnancy I did everything possible for my child to grow healthy in my womb. From eating the most natural and healthy foods, to take my vitamins, to avoid exposing myself to any kind of risky situation for me or my child and to do all my medical controls. When I gave birth the only thing I cared about, as any other mother, was for my son to be healthy.
When Dylan was born from a natural birth and without problems, with the right weight and a perfect health I felt very grateful that everything went well.
My son stayed healthy and without problems until he was four years old, when I noticed that among other things he got colds very often, so I took him to see his pediatrician, who like most doctors the only thing they think is that we are some kind of hypochondriac parents that know nothing about the heath of our child. So for many weeks I kept taking him to see the doctor because I knew that something was not right, because my knowledge about my son told me that, something had changed; but of course I couldn’t I know more that the doctor, right? Because she knew him from seeing him like…maybe once a year, oh, well, sorry, maybe twice a year?
So one day in the morning when Dylan got up from bed, he was completely pale, as if all his blood run out of his body. It was then that I told myself that I wouldn’t leave the doctor’s office without her telling me what was wrong with my child, even if I had to torn down the walls of that place.
We were lucky enough that that day his regular pediatrician wasn’t in the office, so he was seen by another doctor that after my insistence, because she didn’t believe me either, run a blood test with the hope of getting me off her back.
Surprise, surprise… my son was almost without red blood cells…, and white cells,… and platelets.
That’s when we began our terrible experience to find out what was ailing him and to try to save his life; the life of a child who came with a “factory warranty”, healthy parents, natural birth, healthy baby. What happened, how he got sick, what he got sick of? Nobody was able to tell us, but we went through rough times, from doctor to doctor, from diagnosis to diagnosis, very close to a bone marrow transplant and seeing him deteriorate little by little.
Luckily the story has a happy ending. At the OHSU hospital (Oregon Health and Science University) we came across an extraordinary Israeli doctor that was working in the Oncology Department and to whom we will be always grateful. With a great intuition and a will to conquer the unknown, this doctor started to try things and medicines until my son recovered his health.
Almost all of us have heard a similar story, but few have lived it in their own flesh.
Maybe this is a very private story but I think it must be told because it shows us the fragility of life, that we should appreciate the moments we spend together and that we should love each other.
And that nobody has a warranty about anything, life is a gift that should be cherished and that I want my children to come as they come, I want them imperfect, as we all are..

AliciA

I was thinking that a way to practice how much we know of the Amharic script is to try to read some words. First you need to recognize the symbols with their pronunciation and for those who want a greater challenge, with the help of a dictionary look it up for the meaning.
After that comes the challenge of speaking the language, but that is something more complicated that I can’t do from this blog…

For this first challenge, I’m going to start showing words taken from signs or newspapers in Amharic so you can try to read them or al least recognize the symbols. I’m going to give you some clues and if people show interest I will make this challenge harder over time.

Here goes the first photo, with an easy word:
The picture is about a girl learning in a classroom. The question is: What is written in the upper part of the chalkboard?

Here is a close up so you can read it better:



Have you guessed? Need a clue?

See the first clue

First clue: The girl is learning the Amharic alphabet.

See the second clue

Second clue: The writing in printed letters is

Did you guess?

See the answer

Answer:
Transcription: Amarinya
Pronunciation:
Translation: Amarinya or that is to say… Amharic !

AliciA

It’s a boy!
After waiting for almost a month, today we got the second referral. It’s a beautiful 3 and a half years old boy and it’s hard to watch him and not to be able to pick him up in your arms.
Finally our family is complete and the only thing left now is… more waiting !!!
Yes, again. We have to wait for the court date that if we are lucky will come before August 6th that is the starting of the vacation period in Ethiopia.
And after that, we will have the long travel to Ethiopia and the shorter one home because we will already have our children with us.
We can start arranging the bedrooms and to organize our future life as a family of 5.
I can’t hardly wait!

AliciA

"What is the What: The Autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng" is a cross between a novel and a biography. Its origin is a series of interviews that during several years author Dave Eggers had with Valentino Achak Deng, one of the many "lost boys" of Sudan.
Valentino survived the massacre of his people in Marial Bai to walk hundred of kilometers and ask for refuge first in Ethiopia and later in Kenya, where he lived many years with thousands of other refugees like himself. He was later one of the fortunate few that was able to emigrate to the United States.
While the book is a novel, it is entirely based in real events, and it even feels more real than if it was the actual biography of Valentino.
Valentino speaks to us from the pages of the book and it is impossible not to feel moved by his story.
Not only were brutal the things he lived in Africa, but he also has to endure the indifference and ignorance of the people in his new American land.
The story is interesting, moving, and sometimes even funny and it also gives a background of the conflict that is happening in Sudan. It’s very well told and we really feel that we are hearing the voice of Valentino.
In addition to his own experiences, through him we learn of so many others that didn’t make it and whose stories also deserve to be told.
It is impossible not to feel connected with this tale and with this person.
It’s also incredible that these people were able to survive so much brutality and that the human being is capable of so much cruelty. Unfortunately history keeps repeating over and over again without an end in sight.
This book is also available in an unabridged audio book edition read by actor Dion Graham. There is also available a Spanish version titled "Que es el Que".
I wish these stories served as a wake up call so these senseless tragedies could end.
For more information and to know the real Valentino Achak Deng, this is his page:
http://www.valentinoachakdeng.org/

 
AliciA

This post is brought to you by the letter:

The eighteenth symbol of the Amharic alphabet is called H and it sounds like the sound "h" in English. Its pronunciation is also similar to that of the previous H of the Amharic language: ,,with the difference that the first order of this symbol uses the vowel "ä", that is to say the only way to make the combination "h"+"ä" is with the symbol .The printed and handwritten letters are similar. I’m only going to show a couple of examples.
Here is the table with the printed letter, handwritten letter and pronunciation, and a few examples. The animations were made according to the instructions in the book Writing and Reading Amharic and the sounds are from the site Amharic Online. Phonetic symbols according to David Appleyard.

print	phonetics	how to write it and say it	examples
	hä		(č’ohä) to scream
	hu
	hi
	ha
	he		(yïhe) this
	hï (just h at the end of a word)
	ho

Finally, the complete sequence in alphabetical order :
 

Next week, the letter W.

AliciA