Saturday, December 6, 2008

Quotes from Ruby & Question for Hope Friends

I have a question for my Hope friends who have already traveled to bring home their children. Do you know if there is a caregiver at Hope's orphanage named Hutalem (pronounced hu-tall-um with emphasis on the middle syllable)?

Ruby has very recently started talking about her life in Ethiopia. She mentions Hutalem in the context of being her birth mother, but at times I get the feeling she's someone at Hope. I'm hoping I can find out so that if it really is her birth mother's name I can write it down so she will never forget it.

Other things she's told us recently:

"One time big girls hitting me so my mommy hit them and they go away."

"One time I walking walking walking and find money buy banana and eat eat eat. No car walking by self not far away."

"Cold outside get warm by fire and then hurt (pointing to the burn scar on her forehead)."

"Elizabeth no bottle eat here (pointing at her breast indicating her mommy breast fed her)."

"Sih mesh mah no means what is your name."

And my favorite...after telling me about "sih mesh mah no" they broke out into song. I got them to sing the song again, and here it is. It starts with "sih mesh mah no" and I have no idea what the rest of it is about!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Move over Beyonce and Alicia keys...here com Ruby and Elizabeth!!!!

Anonymous said...

Do you know if they are singing in Amharic? Sara doesn't recognize it but she really enjoyed the performance! :-) I found out that the video I posted of Sara singing a while ago is Oromo.

Rebecca said...

Not sure but I think it's Amharic. Maybe something they learned at Hope, because I really don't think they speak much Amharic. I was able to look up the first sentence on the internet and it is Amharic for "What is your name." Who knows what it means!

The Wilkinson's said...

Checked with Ben, and yes Hutallem is a caregiver at Hope. And yes they are singing in Amharic.
Ben almost wouldn't confess to that because he thought I was gonna make him translate!! It was really cute!!