A Coffee Ceremony

Yergamachew's mom was very excited for us to visit her home.  She had prepared the things needed to have a coffee ceremony for us.  We knew this was an honor and were excited to experience it.  (We also knew that we had taken her more coffee beans so she wasn't using all of hers without any for her family later.)

Miss Lisa, Aunt Heather and Uncle Shawn (that's his elbow and knee in the corner) were in the "guest of honor" seats while Yergamachew and his little sister, Salam, sat with them.  But Salam liked to sit with everyone so she kept walking around sitting in different places. 

Stephen, me, Mommy and Biruk were in the other "guest of honor" seats.  But we had a bench and can to sit on so we weren't on the floor. :)  I could see everything happening from where we sat.  It was really cool.

The coffee cups were covered with a pink knitted cloth.  The little white table had a small drawer where she kept a few of her supplies.

She washed the coffee beans first.

After the beans were washed, she took them outside to roast them.

Still roasting over the fire outside.

While his mom was roasting coffee beans, Yergamachew was watching Salam as she tried on her new bandana.  The girls really like bandanas in Korah.  We also gave his other sisters bandanas.  Salam wore a different one to summer camp every day for the rest of the week.  Kids share clothes in Korah.

She finally brought the coffee beans inside the house (one large room) to finish the roasting.  We were sitting very close and could smell them alot.

Once the beans were roasted, she started boiling the water over the coals.  She's getting ready to pour the coffee beans into the cup-looking thing she used to grind them.

Grinding the coffee beans while the water gets hot.  It took her three times to get them all ground.  I guess the holder was too small to do all at once.

Putting the ground coffee into the coffee pot. 

Pouring the hot water into the coffee pot.  See how hot the coals are?  They cook inside with these little coal burners.

Yes, that is a piece of paper she is using as a pot holder.  We could smell the coffee by now.

Washing the coffee cups while the coffee brews.  They were tiny but Uncle Shawn said that was okay because the coffee is strong!

This was the part I liked.  Popping popcorn!

Salam was wearing Uncle Shawn's sunglasses.  She's so cute!  And the popcorn was really good!  I think it had sugar on it.

His mom thanked us for coming (in Amaharic, of course) then she thanked Miss Lisa for being Yergamachew's sponsor. She said that their family was able to live in a nice home (this was a big "house" compared to most) and her son had an opportunity to make his life better since he could get an education.  Mommy was crying and so was Miss Lisa and probably some of the other adults.  Biruk told us in English what she was saying.  Then Miss Lisa said (in English, of course) that she was thankful to be part of his life and their family.  So Biruk told them in Amharic what she had said.  It was all really cool.

Uncle Shawn drinking the coffee.



Some of the neighbor kids came to join us along with Yergamachew's other sisters.  And Ms. Wynne was with us too so she enjoyed some coffee.  She and her husband are adopting two babies from Ethiopia so she stayed there until they can take their babies home.  She goes to visit them at the orphanage as often as she can so they'll know her when it's all finished.