On Monday, Flat Stanley arrived.  My cousin's granddaughter in 2nd grade, who lives in Oklahoma, sent him Nov. 26th and it took him 55 days to get to Ethiopia!! : /   When I taught school, my 2nd graders mailed Flat Stanley too, so I was excited to help her out.  (FLAT STANLEY is a children's book that 2nd graders LOVE! Stanley wakes up one morning and his bulletin board fell on him in the night and smashed him FLAT!!  The book tells of his adventures, including being folded up and mailed in an envelope!)

So we took Mikayla's Stanley around Debre Zeyit  Monday afternoon and got some pictures of him to send to her 2nd grade class.  We got the photos printed and mailed on Tuesday morning.  They said at our Post Office that he would get to Oklahoma "within a week"!? We'll see!  Here is Flat Stanley in Debre Zeyit....

Flat Stanley really liked the colorful flag of Ethiopia!
If you look closely, you'll see he is wearing a
pin we bought him with the Ethiopian flag on it! 

Flat Stanley arrived while I was teaching a keyboard lesson so
he sat and listened....

Flat Stanley LOVED our Debre Zeyit Branch Chapel !

He jumped up on top of the chalkboard in the PrimaryRoom
to see our Branch Primary kids up close.

He wanted to ride in a bajaj (a little "taxi" with
three wheels, that are ALL over Debre Zeyit),
but he settled on just meeting a driver and getting
a look inside of one.

We had to buy a loaf of yummy fresh bread at the bakery in
Grace Supermarket....

...and also bottled water, so he went with us.
He liked the cute girl who checked us out.
She is one of our friends at Grace.

We also stopped to get some veggies and fruit.
He like playing in the bins.

We saw a kid with an Ethiopian soccer jersey on
so he had his picture taken with him.

Then we saw a bunch of school kids in their school uniforms,
walking home from school, and he got a picture with them too!

We went to the bank and showed Stanley all the different
Ethiopian bills and coins.  (19 birr equals $1.00)  Here is about
167.90 birr which is only about $8.83.

These boys were driving this gari (horse cart) and Flat Stanley
wanted to ride on the horse instead of in the cart.  These carts
are ALL OVER our neighborhood and also go down the
main highway!!  Some of the drivers are pretty YOUNG!
Some STAND up to drive them!!

Flat Stanley was hungry on the way home, so a
friend shared his dinner with him ~ injera (the
thin pancake-like staple, made from the grain teff,
that they have at every meal) and vegetables
(clockwise: potatoes and carrots, a hot pepper,  rice,
green cabbage, beets and shiro in the middle).
They tear off a square of injera and use it instead
 of utensils to pick up their food.